Hunting The Muse

So, I was thinking

So, I was thinking of doing more work on my todo list application. I was listening to NPR today and someone referred to a way of thinking that I hadn't really thought about since Freshman logic class, and that was the whole thing about sufficient and necessary conditions. It's possible for something to be a necessary condition before something else can occur, but that doesn't mean it can be sufficient - there might be other prerequisites. It's also possible for something to be a sufficient condition before something else can occur, but not a necessary condition - for instance, if something else entirely would also suffice as the prerequisite.

My todo list application is pretty cool. But it doesn't allow for that latter case.

Have I described my todo list application? It's basically a todo list that has dependencies. For instance, I need to launch my new company name. But, before I can do that, I need to get business cards, and a new website. And before doing that, I need to decide on a new domain name.

Now, I don't want all those things on my todo list, because why bother even thinking about that later stuff? It would make the todo list just seem overwhelming. I can't even do some of that later stuff. There are dependencies.

So I wrote it to allow me to specify these dependencies, and then what happens is that on the root level of the list, it only shows the todo items that I am enabled to do.

So, once I decide on my new domain name (which I've done, incidentally), I check it off, and then the two items it enables appear in its place. It is pretty nifty and makes my todo list seem easier.

However, the thing I don't have implemented it this. In order to get my new domain name started, I have to *either* send clients to my graphic designer friend (in which case she will do my site for free), *or* tell her I'll pay her. Either is sufficient, neither are necessary by themselves. If either are completed, the other should also automatically be completed. That would be nifty.

Finally, I want to add categories (even multiple categories per item), and a priority indication. Maybe even a due date indication. Then it would be super cool.

This is all web-based. After that's all done, maybe I'll even learn how to make it an actual OS X application or something. Posted by Curt at October 28, 2002 09:38 PM