Notices

Task Coach is an extremely powerful task management application that currently runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS and iPhone. I'd really like to see it ported to Maemo, and I think doing so would give Maemo a more powerful task manager than any of those currently available.

I've submitted a feature request to their team for them to consider porting Task Coach to Maemo. If you'd like to see it ported, you can vote here:

http://uservoice.com/a/nnwBW

You can give it up to 3 votes.

On the other hand, if someone here would like to take up a porting effort, I'd be happy to help. Task Coach is Python Based.

Bump: Anyone else interested in voting?

thanx
i just downloaded the windows version and i already really like it. i'm voting now. only 7 votes left. people hurry!

Once I had whished that TaskCoach is a available on the N900. But then I realized that the app is one of those which is not suitable for mobile use in its current form.
TaskCoach has a special version for the iPhone which lacks some features and looks different but uses the same data. This would be the way to go for Maemo/Meego.

Plus: Making TC available is not a matter of porting TC itself but of porting wxpython to Maemo and hildonize it.

Googling for a time tracker, i stumbled in the same app.
Silly question: since we have QT (and QT will be Nokia future), why should we go wx?
/me think best thing will be to convince developer to change toolkit and go QT - it will probably mean a killer app for every Nokia (future) phone to be sold through OVI (urgh!) store... They already sell their app for iPhone, and we already saw a GPL'd prog on sale trough OVI (Stellarium, which I bought becaue it's a great app)

Ofels, I beg to differ. I've seen the screenshots of the iPhone version, and I'm not terribly impressed. I hate to see applications "dumbed down" for Maemo; however, that's what seems to happen when apps. are "hildonized" and made "finger friendly." That is, it seems a waste to use a powerful OS, as compared to other handhelds/phones, while providing the same minimally featured apps.

I suppose I may well be in the minority here, but I would rather see as many features as possible.

@burmashave
while I agree that as many features as possible is a good thing, it is true that 'power is nothing without control (R)'

@jurop: That's true. As I said, I may be alone in my opinion.

As an example of what I'm talking about, I currently use Sylpheed-Claws for my email. The packaged Maemo email app. would never fit my needs, and were it the only email app. for Maemo, I would not own an N900. The Sylpheed-Claws version for Maemo is -- as near as I can tell -- roughly as powerful as its desktop companion. If you haven't used Sylpheed-Claws, it is one of the most feature rich email clients for *nix. Nevertheless, I have an easy time using it on my N900, although I use a stylus.

As far as a task manager goes, I think many of the current apps. out there have sacrificed functionality for ease of "finger" use. I'd rather not see another task manager app. with just a few more features than what is currently available.

Coming from the Palm world, I've used applications, such as Bonsai, Project@Hand, MyBible, and Datebk6, that are as feature rich as what Task Coach offers, and I've found them easy to use. On the other hand,I am loathe to criticize open source efforts; however, I would say that I have been sorely disappointed with the simplicity of some apps. developed for for the Maemo platform.

For me Claws is one of those examples which describe the problem of the Maemo platform and the N900 in particular. Advertised as a tablet it is able to operate like a desktop PC however its form factor is more of the phone type.
If you use it as a PC then you need the stylus to eg. navigate through small size drop down menus or use keyboard shortcuts. If you use it like a (i)phone you definitely don´t want that. In this case the app is either clever laid out to provide a quick touchscreen navigation or functionality is reduced and adapted.
This is my problem with Claws for example- the functionaliy I use mobile is a rather limited subset of what Claws provides and the layout (though it can be adapted) is imho not very suitable for such a small screen. Sure I have some whishes which the built-in mail client should provide, encryption and signing is one of them.
However it is sufficient to quickly check mail from several imap accounts and respond/forward those.

Regarding TaskCoach: I used it a lot lately. And I found out that the power of the app can only be applied on larger screen layouts. Take the various views you can have, the category window, timeline, etc. Most people will have their personal task layouts combined from several views on one display which you can not bring to a mobile device without rendering it unusable. Imho.
Therefore I support the approach the iPhone app was going. A different standalone application compatible with the XML file format which focuses on the primary purpose of the app- providing a glance about tasks, editing them, synchronize them. All in a layout which considers usability issues on mobile devices.
Because this is the use case I believe most people will apply mobile: A quick glance what is to do today, tomorrow, next week, what is open, what is completed and adapt the progress, then write it back to the master.
Keep it small, simple but powerful.

totally agree with ofels + the ability to record efforts. And coding such an app in QT would make it available on other platforms and future-proof, too. Shall we make another application on uservoice website TC related or is it enough to cast our vote as suggested but pointing the developers towards QT?