Todo. - The To-Do web-app for overworked hackers | Hacker News Reader

Todo. - The To-Do web-app for overworked hackers

todo.cryto.net

25 pointsjoepie9116 comments

it kind of boggles my mind that it wouldn't be driven by some kind of javascript MVC framework, instead using old-fashioned complete page loads to operate.

It's not like a todo list isnt the prototypical example[1] of these frameworks.

[1] http://todomvc.com/

Don't let it bother you.

Maybe the OP built it for himself, and didn't need or want to use js.

I like it. A great little app. One that can only get better (perhaps with a sprinkling of ajax and js templating?)

I don't see why it's necessary.

I will never, ever, understand why I would like to delegate something so trivial and marginal to a distant server, for example:

Todo: change password from XXX to ZZZ.

I can imagine only procrastination as a valid reason to do so, because you can state that your todo-list isn't available to you, and its not your fault.

Feel free to clone the repository and set it up on your own machine :)

That would nullify the only acceptable reason to use it in the first place, I think I'll stay with vi ~/TODO :)

I'm trying to see how managing a todo list on a server would ever be an issue. Sensitive information like that would never be stored in a todo list.

It's a hidden argument, but ymmv.

The "I want to do something else!" button does nothing for me. I have many "MUST" todos and only 1 "WANT" while trying this button. The button just brings me to the same single "WANT" I have.

I should probably have been more clear about that. When you indicate that you want to do something else, it will only pick from your "WANT" items - so if you only have one, it will keep coming up with the same item.

This is actually intentional; I've noticed that I got tempted to move aside a fun project to get more 'work' stuff done. The idea of only giving you a "MUST" after finishing the current "WANT" is that you'll have to take a break from work, before you can start with it again.

Another reason for doing this is that it would be quite unfair to give you a 'work' item when you don't feel like the 'play' suggestion it's making and just want to relax with something else - it would defeat the point of the 'play' part, and would make you afraid of clicking "something else", because it might come up with a 'work' item. It's all part of the "balance between work and play" thing :)

I'll change around the sidebar text in a few minutes, to clarify on this.

EDIT: I've updated the sidebar.

Ah, alright. Thanks for the response.

I like the premise and the simplicity, well done. But what if the app picks a MUST task that isn't actionable at a given time?

There should be a button that lets you pause a particular task from being selected next. I think it would jive with the minimal approach

It's theoretically possible to 'skip' a MUST task by marking it done and then manually re-adding it to the list. Because that's a (comparative) hassle, it introduces a psychological barrier that will keep most people from doing it to 'cheat' (the equivalent of channel surfing), and will make them only skip a MUST item when absolutely necessary.

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