AssignmentTracker X 2.0 Discussion
Status: Beta
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I'll be the first to say that AssignmentTracker X 1.0 is a good piece of software, however it has serious limitations due to it's original design. In case you haven't heard AssignmentTracker X 2.0 will be a Core Data Application ( http://colindw.blogspot.com/2005/07/assignmenttracker-x-20-with-core-data.html ) for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger only and 10.5 Leapord when it comes out, 1.x series will definitely receive major enhancements and fixes and both 1.x and 2.x series will be maintained.
So now that AssignmentTracker X is definitely at the point where it's not a toy hobby app it needs to be designed with many things in mind such as
* Class Days - Im used to classes being every day of the week virtually from my high school and IHCC where I learned programming, however many schools (including my new school this fall) don't have 1 class everyday of the week at the same time - ATX needs to account for custom schedules like having a class 1-3pm on m t and maybe 2-3 on th. In any case at the bear minimum it needs to account for what days a class is scheduled on
* Weights - I fell short of being able to get weighted grades in for 1.0 Final but 2.0 will be designed to calculate for Straight Point Based System or Weight Based System from the start in everything.
* Better filtering - One of the reasons I decided to make 2.0 a Core Data app is that you can store your data in an SQLite Database and the tools apple gives you to search for results in the form of a basic SQL Query
* Custom Lists - I had been thinking about storing custom lists and smart lists like in Tiger, but now Core Data makes this extremely possible - it shouldnt be hard to allow you to store custom lists of assignments so you can just drag an assignment onto a list to store it in the list like iTunes or have a smart list that basically keeps results based on a custom query like in iTunes and Mac OS X Tiger.
* New Interface - I have started to lean twoards a 3 pane type UI like in Delicious Library for a while - ATX 2.0 may even go brushed metal for the main window as well. It'll probably have a lists pane on the left with several lists already implemented like "All Assignments" "Todays Assignments" "This weeks Assignments",etc and then a serator and room for you to store as many custom and/or smart lists as you want.
* Mac OS X 10.4 SDK Benifets - Additionally thanks to the 10.4 SDK I'll be able to take advantage or NSTreeController ( Bindings for NSOutlineView ) and NSDatePicker ( Graphical Calendar and Good Date field selector ) to improve the UI and not have to account for odd behaviour or bugs in other peoples code.
* Class Events - I feel like I haven't given class events their due in that they can be used really well but they need a decent UI other than a table to display them so I'll be investigating developing a iCal like UI for displaying and editing Class events... which brings me to my next point
* iCal integration has been on my list for a while but up until Tiger came out the only options have been to write my own framework around libical ( a LOT of work ) or use NSAppleScript - so far only Applescript has given me decent results but I haven't really been able to create an event in AppleScript and tell iCal to add it to a pre-defined calendar - the 10.4 SDK gives you the opportunity to work with iCal and do this straight from Cocoa
* Rearranging - John brought up one good idea and thats putting the Course Info in the Preferences window - If you think about it and take away course info from My Classes your basically left with Events and that could be a tool all it's own - some things may be shuffled around to make more sense and help make things easier to find.
I've already been through 20+ some designs for AssignmentTracker X 2.0 and i'll probably go through many more before I even begin writting one line of code, 2.0 will be a brand new app that is not simply an evolution of past designs that happens to take advantage of new Mac OS X technologies, it will be a brand new app that may end up sharing very little from 1.0 and any past design in how things are done.
This is a good starting point for new ideas but im wanting to know what other people want as well. Tell me what you want in 2.0 and as long as you have a decent idea i'll consider it during the 2.0 design process which is ongoing right now.
Some time ago (half an year) I started using laptop at classes to record audio. It was a great improvement to my studies.
Some time after I substitute my notebook (paper and pen) to start typing it at the laptop. Another great improvement. It helped me a lot to keep data organized.
With this two main aspects in mind I started to think an application with at least this two facilities.
My design to this was something like a left panel on which it could be possible to use as a "directory", and inside this it would be possible to keep the text from the class, links to documents such as pdf, word documents, powerpoint presentations. Also to each of these classes there would be an audio file (mp3?).
Since I saw AssignmentTracker I thought the possibility to keep track of your grades, a must! But with one problem, as an example my grades are number, from one to ten. To pass you must have at least 6. Another colleges I know, ask you to have at least 7.
One improvement (more difficult, I think) would be to insert pictures at those texts typed at classes. So with a digital camera, people could take some pictures at classes from the chalkboard (some graphics, and stuff like that) and add it to their texts.
I know that today the project seems more to be only a software to control classes, but maybe this could be another approach. A notebook.
And finally, I saw a software which mainly has these facilities mentioned above: HogBay Notebook (http://www.hogbay.com/software/notebook/)
I'd like to participate on this project, if possible.
"Since I saw AssignmentTracker I thought the possibility to keep track of your grades, a must! But with one problem, as an example my grades are number, from one to ten. To pass you must have at least 6. Another colleges I know, ask you to have at least 7."
Im sorry I don't know what this system you have is, but at the moment the projects goals are to implement standard point based grading (50 / 100pts = 50%) or weight based grading where assignments may equal 70% of the grade for a class. I know many colleges have custom systems and the problem is if I worked on implementing all of them no work would get done on AssignmentTracker X. One possibility in the future is to allow plugins for grading styles but at the moment no such work has been done to make this possible.
As for managing class related files, I see that as a possiblility for 2.0 maybe, but on a limited scope. I myself use an app for keeping track of notes called MacJournal ( http://homepage.mac.com/dschimpf/ ) which does the job quite well, to get into trying to add these features into AssignmentTracker X would be beyond the scope of the project at the moment especially when there are already several apps that serve the same functionality out there. Adding a section for notes is not a bad idea, but Im not particularly for it at the moment.
As for participation at the moment the only things people can do are help write a Help page and artwork (icons) for the project. Until Sourceforge introduces Subversion service there isn't any easy way to me to allow other people to work on the source code (if thats what your talking about) at the moment. This month is generally busy for everyone, especially so since im moving and finally getting broadband at my apartment so I don't know what will happen but i'll takes your ideas into consideration.