- Lotus Agenda
Infobox_Software
name = Lotus Agenda
caption =
developer =Lotus Software
latest_release_version = 2.0b
latest_release_date =1992
operating_system =DOS
genre =Agenda
license =Freeware
website = [http://www2.support.lotus.com/ftp/pub/desktop/Agenda/dos/2.0/misc/ www.lotus.com]Agenda is a
DOS -basedpersonal information manager , designed byMitch Kapor ,Ed Belove andJerry Kaplan , and marketed byLotus Software .Lotus Agenda is a "free-form" information manager: the information need not be structured at all before it is entered into the database. A phrase such as "See Wendy on Tuesday 3pm" can be entered as is without any pre-processing.
Its distinguishing feature was the ability to allow users to input data before the creation of database tables, giving the program immense flexibility to accommodate the myriad pieces of information a person may need to keep track of.
The program was an attempt to create a "spreadsheet" for words. The computing industry was at first quite taken by its audacious goal and the power it brought to users as they were given a tool that allowed them to structure "real life" information in any way they wished.
Its flexibility proved to be its Achilles heel. New users confronted with so much flexibility were often overpowered by the steep learning curve required to use the program. Attempts to overcome this through packaging pre-built databases with the program were insufficient to lift sales to adequate levels. In the end only several hundred thousand copies were sold.
The program reached version 2.0b. Instead of
porting Agenda to Windows, Lotus stopped development on this program and introduced a new PIM,Lotus Organizer , that uses the paper-based organizer metaphor, in its place.The Program
The following jargon is used to describe Agenda's concepts:
An "Item" is a piece of free-form text
A "Category" is a way of organizing information and was the original smart folder concept used by Microsoft Outlook 2003 and by the Spotlight utility in
Mac OS X v10.4 . Items can be automatically or manually assigned (linked) to one or more Categories.Categories can be organized hierarchically and viewed as a tree network. "Parent" categories could inherit assignments from "child" categories.
The information could be presented in "views": in effect spreadsheet-like grids with items forming the rows and categories forming the columns.
Once an item is entered, the program can interpret the text to assign it to various categories. In every database a "When" category is included automatically so that if a date is embedded within the text, it is interpreted and an assignment is made. For example, the item "See Wendy on Tuesday 3pm" is automatically assigned to the following Tuesday at 3pm. If a category "Wendy" had also been created then an assignment could also have been made as well.
This gives the user a quick ability to find every item that has an association to Wendy.
The program can be used for:
* Time management
* Project management
* Research and information sifting
* General purpose database
* Accounting
* Problem solving
* Legal practice management
* Managing legal litigation casesTechnical Description
Agenda has some novel technical features. Most notably, database views support item addition and modification, which means that Agenda must infer item attributes from the view. For example, if a view contains the category "Home," and the user creates an item "paint bathroom" in this view, then Agenda attaches the "Home" attribute to the item. In some cases, assignment cannot be exactly determined and Agenda uses a set of heuristics to make reasonable assignment choices.
Agenda's designers described these core concepts in a 1990 CACM paper citation
author = Kaplan, S. J.; Kapor, M. D.; Belove, E. J.; Landsman, R. A.; Drake, T. R.
year = 1990
title = Agenda: a personal information manager
journal = CACM
volume = 33
issue = 7] , and patented some of its internal data structures US patent|5115504] .Current Status
The program has been released as freeware. It can be downloaded from the links below.
Lotus Agenda can still be used on Windows 3.x/9x/ME/2000/XP computers and there are still many active users around the world (see the Pimlist email list on Yahoo groups).
It suffers from:
* Only handling textual information
* A lack of file compatibility with office applications and information from the Internet means that information must be transferred manually between them.
* The program cannot print directly to USB printers.On August 7th, 2006, Wired carried a report that Lotus Agenda was being redeveloped as a
FOSS application, named Chandler. As of August 2006, Chandler was available as an alpha release for Windows, Linux and Macintosh. There was a 0.7 Preview release of Chandler in September 2007. As of July 2008, Chandler 0.7.7 is available on Windows, Linux and Macintosh and in the browser through Chandler Hub.A
FOSS application named Beeswax is currently in development that was inspired by Lotus Agenda, and allows similar functionality. http://waxandwane.org/beeswax/beeswax.htmlee also
*
List of personal information managers
*Chandler (PIM) External links
* [http://www2.support.lotus.com/ftp/pub/desktop/Agenda/dos/2.0/misc/ Lotus Software has made Agenda 2.0 (the last version before development ended) available for free downloading, but without support or documentation.]
* http://guterman.com/guterman_clips/guterman_clips_Agenda/guterman_clips_agenda.html
* http://home.neo.rr.com/pim/article1.htm
* http://agenda.bobnewell.net A good site for downloading a pre-installed version and learning about how to use the program
* http://wired.com/news/technology/0,71501-0.html?tw=wn_index_1 Report on the new FOSS version of Agenda, named Chandler.References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
