capture Bento customers?

[radii0]

It’s just a matter of priorities and at the moment we’re heading full steam towards the first beta that will get into the hands of our beta tester

2009?

[cgrunenberg]

[radii0]

Cool!

[ndouglas]

@eboehnisch

The problem with custom metadata is a bit complex

nods

I honestly wasn’t expecting that the solution would be that robust. I was thinking it’d be more-or-less hacked in, and that I’d have to restrain my bizarre desire to create and destroy dtBases on a semi-hourly basis.

That’s great, though. I really appreciate the thought and effort that you guys are putting into it.

[sjk]

@CatOne

It’s not that hard, with tags and notes, to use Spotlight comments to pass stuff back and forth.

I strongly disagree with trivialization of issues using Spotlight comments for storing/exchanging files tags.

I agree with Jim @ Ironic Software that it’s a hack (and can’t be eliminated soon enough):

5. Just a reminder: Spotlight Comments were not made as a Tagging environment!
We realize that this is a commonly used method of “tagging” files and one that seems universally useful but it is, quite honestly, a hack. Also, from a programming standpoint, writing to the Spotlight Comments is not as easy as people may think and the practice of using them for tagging has plenty of problems. If you search these forums you’ll find plenty of information on these pitfalls.

And Tom Andersen @ Ironic Software recently said:

There are some serious problems with the way the Finder deals with comments and how it interacts with Spotlight, etc.

I’m well aware people have differing experiences and opinions about this, but I think DEVONtechnologies would be wise to heed the warnings and avoid Spotlight Comments usage for tagging.

[sjk]

@Dave_Emme

I’m a refugee from DEVONthink Pro (starting with DEVONthink in 2003), who toyed with EagleFiler for a year, and recently returned to DTPro.

Thanks for your detailed and informative post about your EF experience and some of the limitations/pitfalls! Deserves a longer response, but I’ll just stick to few simple points:

(1) You must be running OSX 10.5 to define the Smart Folders.

That “must create/edit on 10.5, but usable on 10.4” point in the release notes caught my attention as peculiar.

And the search issues you mentioned seem obscure.

I’m on 10.4.11.

Me, too, but intending to upgrade to 10.5.x (for better and worse ) as soon as time permits. I thought DT 2.0 will require Leopard, which was a primary reason for doing that upgrade, but now I’ll have to double-check it.

The developers of both EagleFiler and DEVONthink each have visions of how their “ideal” product should work. I personally find that my vision of an “ideal” product corresponds more closely with the DEVON vision. YMMV.

That was my impression when I first tried EagleFiler and another reason for not giving it more serious consideration. It’s hard to quantify, but I mostly prefer how DTP feels and behaves (quirks and all) compared to other apps, how it integrates with my system environment, and its generally stable predictability. Some other apps seem too fragile and harder to trust, like they’ll eventually collapse or become intolerably slow. DTP’s still safe for and with me.

[sjk]

@eboehnisch

Custom metadata will come, likely not in 2.0 but in 2.x.

I’m hoping Smart Groups will have access to a rich amount of existing metadata in documents, e.g. creation/modification dates.

[jwiegley]

@eboehnisch

Custom metadata is on the list for 2.x, but in its current incarnation with the file system there is a huge drawback: Open a document externally, say, in TextEdit. Save it. All metadata is gone. This has nothing to do with DEVONthink but with the application that does not ‘carry over’ the metadata when saving the edited file. So, we’re thinking about a workaround.

This happens with xattrs on HFS+ as well?

John

[sjk]

I’ve briefly heard of xattr problems on Leopard but don’t have specific details or personal experience (yet) to back it.

[cgrunenberg]

@sjk

I’m hoping Smart Groups will have access to a rich amount of existing metadata in documents, e.g. creation/modification dates.

They will.