The fact that Pimlical is now available for Android has me looking towards an Android tablet as an eventual replacement for my obsolete Palm OS device, which I stubbornly continue to use because of Datebk6 and Shadow Plan.

I would definitely purchase an Android version of Shadow Plan, and clearly so would everyone else here: unfortunately, that isn't enough people to guarantee a market. Nevertheless, I check back in here every few months just to see what's happening. I won't be giving up my Shadow Plan until I absolutely have to!

I've checked out some other outliners, and none of them is as full-featured and useful as Shadow Plan. I have exactly the same issue with Datebk6: it has many features that are simply unavailable in other calendar programs.

--- In shadow-discuss <at> yahoogroups.com, Jeff Mitchell <skeezix <at> ...> wrote:
>
>
> That is the rub; it is not a small undertaking -- its easy to come
> up with 'yet another' simple app (which is what the "App Store" models
> encourage), but to actually make a pretty good application with fancer
> features and all the 'cloud sync' and all that -- its quite a bit of work.
> ie: IT is easy to come into such markets and knock off the bottom feeders,
> but to take top position is a whole other matter.
>
> I am currently not able to adopt such an extra load (I'm maxxed
> out with current projects), but it is something I revisit every couple of
> months.
>
> jeff
>
> On Thu, 3 Feb 2011, Doug Reeder wrote:
>
> # Unfortunately, programming for Android is an entirely different environment than Palm OS. The language is different (Java vs. C), the OS frameworks are different (Palm OS "databases" vs. files), and the coding idioms are different. Jeff would be starting nearly from scratch. It would take months, and we're talking tens of thousands of dollars of programmer time, here.
> #
> # On Feb 3, 2011, at 9:17 AM, Knut wrote:
> #
> # > Jeff, do you have an educated guess on how much time you would need to get an android version of ShadowPlan out the door? And how much would that be moneywise? IE what kind of funding would you need to have in place to consider "Shadowplan NG (android edition)"?
> #
> # Doug Reeder
> # reeder.29 <at> ...
> # http://reeder29.livejournal.com/
> # https://twitter.com/reeder29
> #
> # https://twitter.com/hominidsoftware
> # http://outlinetracker.com
> #
> #
> #
> #
> #
> #
> #
> #
> #
> #
> # ------------------------------------
> #
> # Yahoo! Groups Links
> #
> #
> #
>
> --
> If everyone would put barbecue sauce on their food, there would be no war.
>

With the Pandora now actually shipping, is a Linux version of Shadow Plan a faint possibility? Heck, I'd go for that!

--- In shadow-discuss <at> yahoogroups.com, Jeff Mitchell <skeezix <at> ...> wrote:
>
>
> The pain! It burns!
>
> I dunno man; iphone is doing well, but the general feeling is that
> Android will slowly overtake it .. the trick is Apple has a lot of
> momentum. If Apple can keep it up, they could well 'win', but if they
> falter just a touch, Android will steam over it. Apple are right-PITA's,
> but they do make some pretty good stuff and I'm carrying an iphone 3GS
> these days. I really realyl like the Nokia N900 in a lot of ways, but I
> don't envision its where things are going. Android has some to like, and
> some to dislike (a lot on both counts really), but it might be where
> things are heading. (One of the reasons is because carrier can still build
> their own distributions, and they like that, so they want ot push Android;
> thats actually a very bad thing for developers and users.. the samr
> problem plagued Palm .. remember how Tapwave and Handspring and Palm and
> AlphaSmart and Sony all had slightly different and incompatible extensions
> to the common base, it made development absolute hell? Android isn't
> there, but it _could_ go there..)
>
> So I dunno, I can't really recommend, or say where I'm preferring.
>
> I'll restate what a lot of us say -- mobile dev has only gotten
> worse, and only nastier, over the years ;)
>
> This is partially why I'm working with some guys on an all new
> device, but its not really for most people .. but its going to be fun for
> people like me :) - see http://www.open-pandora.org/
>
> I really like my iphone from a user perspective; from a dev
> perspective I'm half a fan an half full of rage (Apple are bastards.)
>
> I'm not really a fan of Android right now, but I might start
> watching it more seriously.
>
> WebOS is currently not doing super well in statistics (but since
> when did I ever care ;); so far, I've stonewalled it since 1) it was late
> to Canada so I couldn't evne get one till long after most people, 2) it's
> so far been purely a javascript+css scene, which is a very hard sell to us
> serious app devs and us performance minded devs, and 3) they've not been
> really reaching out to devs as much sa they used to; ack for old Palm we
> used to get a lot of help, but now its a whole new Palm. Still, they've
> finally started mentioning official native code support, so real apps and
> performance apps start becoming interesting again. So we'll see how the
> devices go.
>
> In a way, Palm OS was good because it was so ugly and hard to do
> real work for, that only us hardcore folks would do it, and the big guys
> like IBM and EA and so on stayed out; now mobiles are big news, and the
> big guys are in. In a way, the harder slightly niche-platform is a good
> poaching ground for people like me -- so in a way webOS might be a good
> place -- takes skill, has a decent size but not large enough market to
> bring in me fighting head to head with big guys.
>
> But thats down the road .. 'right now' it feels like Android is a
> better targe tin some ways (but also has a very small market.) iphone is
> king right now. But in another year we'll have a better idea .. many many
> Android phones are coming out (and good ones, not like the initial few),
> and webOS is getting more serious. (just like iphone did.. iphone first
> year stunk, if you recall, for developers.)
>
> So in 6mo or a year I'll have a better idea of things are
> _actually_ shaling out a little..
>
> .. but for now, I can't recommend; I'm as confused as the rest of
> you :)
>
> jeff
>
> I won't go RIM; in its current and past state, its a nightmare.
> That could change, but its not changing anytime soon ;)