Notices

This is a plea to programmers for a very simple program. QuickDex was an ultra-simple free-form database for early Macintoshes (I'm talking pre-System 7, 1MB RAM) that would be PERFECT for a Maemo tablet.

It had ONLY TWO FIELDS: a field where you typed text (which was automatically saved) and a field where you typed a character string for searching. The idea was (like Microsoft's Cardfile, which was not nearly as useful as QuickDex) that you had a "stack" of cards in a single file. The only really necessary commands are New Card, Delete Card, Find Forward and Find Backward. Clicking Find just jumps to and highlights the next occurrence of the character string in the saved text field. The view just changes to the next card that has that character string. If the Find field is left blank, then searching just pulls up each card in order. You can enter any random piece of knowledge, contacts' addresses, lists of bookmarks, lists of ToDos or movies you want to see, anything. It's a poor man's PIM.

Here is a screenshot of the current Windows version of QuickDex:



This newer, Windows version is more complicated than necessary. (Also, aesthetically, it would be nicer if the cards had rounded corners; and if the shape matched the Tablet's landscape screen format.)

I have tried all the existing programs that are similar to QuickDex. None offer the perfect simplicity and utility. And QuickDex ought to be easier to program.

Quicknote is the closest, but its Search function doesn't work, it doesn't have word-wrap, and the extra pane of hierarchical first lines is just unnecessary. MaemoPad+ doesn't seem to support search and it's more complicated than necessary. Notes doesn't act as a database, and allows only one "card" at time. Notecase is also unnecessarily complicated and doesn't offer a database search function across all its information either.

After an initial release, there could be advances like text formatting (font size, etc.) and the ability to open more than one file from within the program (so then you add commands for New File and Delete File). But what's essential is a place to store (and find) any and all information and take it on the road in the N800 or N810. Even early QuickDex had some bells and whistles, like a phone dialer. Later incarnations (like iData) added the capability to embed images. But None Of That Is Necessary. Just a simple place to throw in text info would be an AWESOME addition to the Nokia Tablets!

The utility of something like QuickDex is hard to overstate. These days I don't use it since I'm on Windows and I'm one of those inveterate users of EccoPro. But for Tablet use -- in terms of format, simplicity, memory footprint, utility -- I can't imagine a more useful, fo-far-non-existent program for the NIT.

Here's a little review of QuickDex from 1992. As the author points out, it uses only 20k and is lightning fast. http://tinyurl.com/3a5m8r

Interesting. Does this pre-date Hypercard?


I have often thought that something like Hypercard would a good fit for the tablet.

Tomboy Notes anyone?

Have you tried Gene Cash's Info On Tap?

http://home.cfl.rr.com/genecash/nokia/index.html

It's the third app listed on the linked page. Not a perfect match with what you're looking for, but it might be closer than the examples you tried. It offers some more complicated options, but they are inconspicuous if you don't use them, and it appears to do most of what you want.

+1

- it would be one of the most amazing apps for an IT!

- especially considering that many IT users weren't even born yet when HyperCard first appeared...

:-)

Interesting. Looks useful. Does anyone have a copy of an original old m68k Mac version of this? There used to be a quite good mac emulator for Linux etc. some years back, I'm sure there's still something out there. Just to have a look at how this quickdex works..

i think quicknote (http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/quicknote/) could be very easily used and improved for this.

http://internettablettalk.com/forums...86&postcount=9

For you Linux users (programmers especially!) who have a Windows machine at your disposal, here is a link to the freeware Windows version of QuickDex: http://tinyurl.com/2cyt3s [Edit: As of March 4, 2008, that file is not there. But I do have the Mac file in post #23.]

Note that the whole download is only 121kb, and that even includes the help file, sounds, etc.

HyperCard was originally released in 1987, and it shipped with the Macs. I believe it preceded QuickDex, which I first bought in 1989 or 1990.

HyperCard was an interesting way to assemble a lot of related information, but it wasn't so good for randomly generated information and it was a pain to use compared to QuickDex.

If you load QuickDex, note that you can jump to the next character string from the Find box just by hitting Return on the keyboard. On the Tablet, of course, you would want an icon to click. I used to keep in it things like DOS commands I might forget, directions, recipes, the number you punch for hiding Caller ID or cancelling Call Waiting ... really, it's great to have such a fast, simple receptacle for all the random things you know and forget! (OK, I'm probably older than most of the people on this forum, but, hey, given time you'll be moving toward senility, too!)

And, yes, I have a 68k Mac version of QuickDex. It may take a bit for me to find it and get it into a PC so I can email it or post it somewhere. If that would be helpful, let me know here and I'll start digging.

If Khertan confirms that MiniVMac works well on a Tablet then maybe you can have a little portable Mac running QuickDex.

I would like to have one running HyperCard.