The Point
That's sort of what it boils down to, isn't it? I mean, it's all very well having a .sourceforge.net address, a cool black web-site, and more hardware (again, because of SF) than the US used to get a man to the moon, and this is all undoubtedly very cool.
But why?
Logically, it's because I'm disorganised. That's kinda what it all boils down to. I need a Personal Organisation System. Because I'm a geek, I think it should be client/server based. Because I'm a web-apps designer, I think it should have a web-front end, and because I support the class-based system of systems design, I think it should have a fully documented client/server dialogue system behind it. And because it doesn't - as far as I know - exist, I intend to create it.
Clearly, I am a moron.
First, however, I have to have some clear idea of what I want. whilst being proficient enough in PHP and MySQL to be able to fairly easily write a web-based organisation system and a database back end to power it, I have a dream, That my poor little appointments someday live in a system where they can be accessed by *whatever* client I'm using. Be it my text-based linux console, a full KDE/Gnome/Enlightenment X Session, Windows 98se, or my little Palm 105m.
Clearly, I am a visionary.
Or a fool.
This is how I intend to do it:
First, I'm going to sit down with a printout of my diary, contact list, todo list and such and go though the proper process of Normalisation (The academic process of turning a set of data into a database. Very useful) then I shall write a definition of the database, and work out how I - as a programmer - would want to get data out of it. For example, it might have a sample session like this:
Nomicd 0.00000001alpha
(na@sacrifice, compiled 2002-05-08)
NAP: 0.0001
Hello cat@blue.colour.onlyforward.net, What manner of creature are you?
Access> CLIENT
100: Aha, A client, Clients we understand.
Friend or foe?
Username: cat
Password: foolishwritings
101: Access Accepted.
Whaddyawant?
Command> apppointments year 2000
401: Request misunderstood. I have no idea what the hell you're on about.
Command> appointments year 2000
200: Request failed, None found.
Command> appointments year 2001
220: Request suceeded, results follow, "." on a line by itself marks end.
R:2/4535652dfa243
"42", "2001-01-26", "NONE", "Aquarion\'s Birthday", "Birthdays", "Must buy presants", "P-01"
"45", "2001-12-25", "14:00->16:00", "Christmas Dinner", "Family", "", "P-01,P-15,P-65,P-152,P-121"
.
Command>Exit
Goodnight.
(CONNECTION TERMINATED)
(Most of the above is fairly logical, Confirm access, request appointments (with status codes) and return information. The "P-01" type numbers are lists of related topics. P-01 (Person ID 1) in the first one could be a link to the contact information for whoever's birthday it is. This is all set in nothing as solid as slightly soggy Plasticine, so panic not)
Having got the bare bones of a standard in place, I publish it and try to get people involved in discussing it, then I rewrite the standard based on these opinions. I then write a basic server in perl or tcl or something to handle it, and start recruiting people to write clients, and work out how to make servers be able to exchange information. Then we rewrite the standard based on what really happens in the real world, and then we make it solid.
This inherently multi user idea will then gain a toehold in major corporations, Exchange, Outlook and all major e-mail clients will support it (as a place to store contacts), and the next version of KDE PIM will be built around it, The daemon will be written into all major operating systems (including some geek who will make a server that runs on a ZX Spectrum), and soon every person in the world will be connected to NomicNet, the world's online appointments diary. One day, a security flaw will be found in MSNomic (Not the most popular version of the daemon, but the one with the biggest install base after it was bundled with Windows XTC) which will give a cracker write permissions on all Nomic databases and trusted mirrors, the resulting breakdown in the entire worlds appointments will leave the door open for when my army of hyperintellegent robotic trolls come out from under the bridges they have been hiding and trip-trap, trip-trap over the entire world and turn it into my own personal empire. The Aquarionic Empire will last for a hundred thousand years, until a civilisation called The Culture wipe out our entire race over what Iain M. Banks said about them in his books.
Um. Forget that last bit.