Is this going to see the light of day any time soon. I really like devonThink and own pro office 2 I’ve moved to snow leopard and the exact scan has become very flakey, the bulk email import fails most of the time and just hangs.
I would have to use 2 or 3 other apps to get the function I do out of devon think. But without sync (yes I own devonsync and it works sometimes and sort of) again without sync I think i’ll be moving to the 2- 3 apps.
Please let me know there is some life and movement in the company it seems to have stagnated.
You must be kidding?! I can’t remember Dtech’s software development ever being anything close to what I’d consider stagnant and they’re actively participating on the forum.
I realize you are a god on the forums, sjk, but your opinion is not so weighty that when someone else says something your response should be “you must be kidding.”
I personally was specifically checking the forums today for just what the previous poster was looking for – some signs of life on the next beta, or on syncing. I know the pres. has taken over iPhone app dev. and it feels very much like tags (the next beta from what I understand) are running behind, and there has been no info posted on the status of syncing.
I have personally moved to using Evernote to store short-term things that I need synced, and am transferring them to DT on one machine when I have time. Not ideal, but workable.
I am sure everyone is working very hard on syncing, tags, etc. but it does feel to me like communication has been a little lower recently.
I wouldn’t mind if Dtech changed that God status (simply an indicator of +100 post count) to something more benign since it seems to provoke some people into turning it against me.
My “You must be kidding?!” remark to snuffop was merely a surprise that anyone could make an apparently general comment about Dtech seeming to have stagnated when there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary if one chooses to notice or look for it. No ill intentions behind it.
Christian recently responded to questioning about when the next beta will be released:
Has Dtech previously made any explicit, official statements indicating what/when certain syncing-related changes will be released? I honestly don’t know; I’m not keeping track of anything except beta expiration dates.
People have different mindsets based on their expectations about product changes/releases. If someone has evidence of Dtech specifically promising something but not delivering and/or communicating reasons for it then maybe contacting them privately would be a more fruitful way of handling it. When comments are posted publicly they’re open to public feedback and alternative opinions.
Maybe Dtech’s communication about topics that personally interest someone is lower than they’d like but that doesn’t imply it’s been lower in general. Dtech has been satisfyingly responsive to many issues I’ve brought up and I notice them responding to things I’m not directly interested in. Not all of my concerns are addressed but it might be selfish to think they deserve that much attention.
Eric’s work on the iPhone app is relatively recent in startup and did not affect in any way the rate of work on DEVONthink 2 apps, which is done by Christian and Annard.
The next public beta (8) was released to the beta test group a while back and they are currently using build 3.
Public beta 8 introduces tagging and has a number of other enhancements. It will likely be posted within a week or so.
Stagnant? No.
As to MobileMe synching, that’s under development but will not be released before the developers are satisfied that appropriate use of it will not pose data integrity problems. That’s not a trivial issue. I will repeat the admonition not to try MobileMe synchronization of a DEVONthink database, meanwhile. There are a number of other options for dealing with management of a database on two computers that have been discussed on this forum.
I really don’t know, but I am sure if they need a lawyer to represent them they will get in touch with you.
Bill – thanks for the helpful indications about the status of the beta, and the behind the scenes stuff.
I think one of the problems people have with the structure of the site (myself included) is that it is very difficult to quickly find the information about the beta status, sync dev. status, etc. without reading most of the forums. Right now I am keeping an eye on the pres. blog, and stopping by the forums to see when the next beta might be out, and missed this info since it was in a response on the forum.
Perhaps dev. related progress could be made a sticky or a separate blog so that people know where to look quickly for progress updates, even if they are soft targets (i.e. no promises, etc.)
As for the syncing stuff, my understanding is this is one of the hardest things to accomplish in software development. None of the current solutions for DT work very well on a daily basis for those of us who consistently use two computers (desktop/laptop, etc.). I realize this is not an issue for some people. I currently have 3 working databases, one of which gets synced between the machines, but its a pain to do it all manually.
I can’t tell you how great it is to have all my synced (recent) notes on both machines and my iPhone using Evernote. I don’t like their implementation much for everything else though, and would really love DT to take this space over on the Mac. I am honestly not sure if this is the way DT should go though since it is such a rock solid research tool as is, and syncing will take valuable dev time.
As you say Bill, I am sure if they do choose to go in this direction that it will be implemented well.
BTW: One trick for avoiding modifying a copy of a database in such a way that it becomes difficult to update the master copy on another computer is to do the new stuff in a new database.
Scenario: You usually work on your database on your desktop Mac. You are going on travel for several days, and load up your laptop with copies of your databases so that you have access to that information.
During the trip you make notes and add new content. Perhaps you have a daily journal, and you create new entries for it.
You could, of course, use the History tool to identify all the contents that were added after the date/time you started working on the laptop. Those items could then be exported and imported into the database copy on the desktop Mac when you return.
Or you can do what I often do. Simply create one or more new databases for the work you do on the trip. Now you don’'t need to remember dates and times. It is a simple matter to update the master copies of your databases by export/import of the trip data.
I know there is a lot of interest in using MobileMe or DropBox ‘cloud’ synchronization of a database between two computers. I wish I could get excited about that, but for my circumstances that’s not very feasible. The only downside to living in my log cabin in the woods and hills of Brown County, Indiana is that I have to use a satellite broadband connection to the Internet. Nominally, I have download speed of 1.5 Mb/s and upload speed of 256 Kb/s. I wish that were true (it’s not, in practice), and that latency didn’t test out at 1450 milliseconds on a clear day. Worse, modestly bad weather either locally or at the ISP’s satellite upload station knocks out the connection. The upshot is that I can’t depend on a ‘cloud’ intermediary to synchronize my databases. Brute force copying of databases is much more reliable.
I envy those of you who have fast and reliable broadband service. But I’m still glad that I live here.
This is what I do as well. Originally, it was because my laptop was a much less capable machine, and would grind to a halt if forced to deal with my complete database. But I’ve found that it minimizes the sync problem very effectively, and as a side effect protects the files I’m not working on from any possible corruption.
Even as technology makes it more and more feasible to have everything with me everywhere, I’m finding that being a bit more selective about what I carry around saves lots of time and effort down the line.
