Mind mapping software, was Re: Is KDE 4 Stable?

[Giles Orr]

On 6 December 2011 15:24, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 06, 2011 at 02:57:44PM -0500, Giles Orr wrote:
>> I understand your discomfort with Java-based software, but have for
>> several years been using FreeMind very happily despite it being
>> Java-based.  I think it's the only Java-based software I use at home
>> (not so at work, where we use Eclipse).  I've found FreeMind to be the
>> most flexible of the several mind-mapping softwares I've tried, and
>> two other reasons I settled on it were A) entirely cross-platform
>> (behaves identically under Windows and Linux), and B) it stores its
>> files in a non-proprietary format ... XML.  And my respect for it was
>> sealed when I fired up Thinking Space (mind-mapping software for
>> Android, also highly recommended) and found that it uses the same file
>> format and opens FreeMind files flawlessly.
>
> XML is no cure for proprietary formats.  Sure you can see some of the
> structure of the file, but that doesn't mean you have a clue what the
> contents mean.

Yes, it's possible - even likely - that people will create XML formats
that aren't useful in any other application.  But it's still
structured and readable.  And in the very worst instance (Freemind is
abandoned, can no longer be compiled on future versions of Linux, and
no other application can read their ".mm" files), the data can still
be readily examined with less, or parsed and converted with a Bash
script because it's a mark-up language - it's TEXT.  I understand your
argument, but I consider this a significant advantage over proprietary
binary formats.

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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