Tinderbox impressions

Nik (apparently) - 10:22am Mar 28, 2005 PST
via email

After reading the "Tinderbox Gets Smarter" bit in TidBITS the other
day, I downloaded Tinderbox's demo (for the umpteenth time) and played
around with it.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08022>

I keep TRYING Tinderbox, but as of yet I've been unwilling to commit
the not-inconsiderable $165 to buy the program. It's very appealing in
a down-and-dirty-scripting/programming way, just like HyperCard is (and
FileMaker as well, now that I think on it). And, just like those
programs, it's a bit of a bear to learn, and it's also proprietary and
rather difficult to migrate to/from without great effort.

My main use of Tinderbox would be as a note taking tool and a task
management program. The latter is well covered by a variety of
templates on the Tinderbox file exchange site. The former is an obvious
application of Tinderbox, but it seems in my toying with the demo that
it's rather more difficult to make notes with TB than with a normal
outliner or a program like NoteBook/NoteTaker. (If nothing else, it
takes two dialog boxes to create an outline entry with some long text
in it!)

So the payoff has to be in the intelligence, the linking, and the
variety of ways in which Tinderbox can be programmed and scripted to
make life easier.

What I'd love to hear is the impressions of any TidBITS readers who have
spent some time with Tinderbox as to whether this does pay off in the long
term, or whether Tinderbox just collects dust after an initial flurry of
interest. Particularly given the huge array of idea management tools
that have cropped up (NoteBook/Taker, DEVONThink, Hog Bay Notebook,
Curio, Z-Write, OmniOutliner, StickyBrain, Tao... and the list goes
on...), dropping $165 on just one seems a bit excessive unless it's
really the bee's knees.


[Please note that I don't want to see comparisons to other programs here. This thread is only for discussion of Tinderbox itself; otherwise it will devolve into "I don't use Tinderbox, but I like X" posts. -Adam]


The other thing I'd like to know is whether you keep using Tinderbox
for more and more things (weblogging, perhaps, or other purposes I've
never thought about) and what those might be. Certainly investing in a
swiss army knife is quite different than buying a one trick pony.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts,

Nik