Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> A formal spec also doesn't help much for apps to use this format. There is not a huge need for portability between to do apps...

To add some counterpoint to this, I try a lot of apps. Partially because I'm always looking for the one that's better than what I use now - looking for the thing that fits me the best - but also because I just like trying things.

Portability means a greater chance that I'll fully dive in and use an app to its potential vs. some light use.

There have been a few times that I've found a new app/solution that was clearly better than what I was currently using, and this was both exciting and frustrating. Frustrating because it meant I'd either have to leave my history behind, or spend a ton of time trying to port it over somehow.

I realize I'm part of a niche group of people, but I feel like a spec like this was meant for a pretty niche group of people.

I for one do not agree that this is unnecessary, but I do acknowledge that it's probably not necessary for a lot of people.




> I feel like a spec like this was meant for a pretty niche group of people.

That’s spot on actually.


Portability and human readability in a normal text editor are huge plusses for me.

I mostly use paper notebooks, but when I need to keep track of todos over a long period of time for a specific thing, I like to have a text file located with that thing. With all of these cloud-based tools we now use, everything’s refactored to be organized based on tool, then project instead of project, then tool. I for one am starting to rethink this. Changing of tools or people, or simply passage of time inevitably loses information, or knowledge of where information was stored.

I could see myself using this format for simple tracking in a git repo where I don’t want to use GitHub or another similar tool. One use case would be getting things done in a JIRA/middle-management heavy organization.

Having the spec is then nice because anyone could use their preferred tool if they want to and one could easily check for open todos in a bunch of folders/repos.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: