Agendus v9 Beta

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xsugarxnspicex

New member
There has been discussions about the various advantages of Agendus versus Datebk5 and the upgrade policies of each.

I've attached a couple of screen shots for the pending v9 of Agendus.

The first is a matrix view of the todo list. You still have the ability to simply assign priorities to a "task" but now you have the ability to assign a format developed by Stephen Covey of the 4 Quandrant's of items.
 
Here is a screen capture of the todo list in a hiearchy mode. Notice the top 3 items on my list. Item 2 has been subordinated to 1 and 3 has been subordinated to 2.

This feature is causing some issues because of this nesting feature. The issue is one more of "completed" todo's that are nested below or subordinated showing up all the time even though you've got preferences set to show "only completed" items.

But this is still in beta.
 
Ok so that everyone is clear this is not directed at any individual but I do want to be clear on my feelings about the differences between the two main programs Agendus versus Datebk 5.

First Datebk5
1. I am a registered user.
2. It is a very powerful and useful calendaring program. It does show you the todo's and the contacts but in a cramped format, IMHO.
3. It hasn't been "upgraded" in over 2 years. It has been updated to handle the new devices that have been released but it has not undergone any major changes or enhancements in the last 2 years - and I think that if you look at that statement honestly everyone would agree.
4. The icon issue of assigning @ to aid in the encoding of assigned icons does cause conflicts with Agendus. I have also gotten other error codes to programs such as Super Names etc that I have traced back to this issue. Personally, I think it's a major flaw in a program......why? Because Agendus's method of assigning icon's does not conflict, to my knowledge, with any known program.

Agendus
1. I am a registered user
2. Features that Agendus has that Datebk5 doesn't have and doesn't appear to be considering within the current release:
- Makespot or the ability to color the days as once sees fit without assigning a category.
- contact history (datebk5 does have contact linking but this stores up in the note field which takes resources.
- mail tied in within the application
- todo list features as previously posted in this thread with screen shots.
- simpler interface that more closely resembles the original Palm applications
- the ability to enter a "new" item at anytime. Datebk5 forces the device to the day screen before you can add anything new.
- photo incorporation into all 3 major databases, contacts, tasks, calendar
- Agendus also added "memos" into it view ability which datebk5 has had for some time
-multiple icon set's
- I could go on but this next statement will be the real "tell".

I, like other's, was getting fed up with Agendus policy of asking for more money with "upgrades" every 6 months to the tune of $9.95.

Last week, while beta testing, I took all of the Agendus files off the T3 (except icons) and proceeded to kiss it good bye. I used Datebk5 exclusively for that week period. At the end of the week, Monday night, I went back to Agendus. I spent approximately 3 hours clearing out the @ out of the system.

Datebk5 will never be installed back on any of my devices as long as Agendus lives and for this one reason:

If you want to add a new "calendar" event in datebk5 the number of taps to get to "entering" the information is double that of Agendus. And if you aren't on the day that you want the item to "fall" on, then you've got to remember to manually change the date etc. You have to go to the "day" view in order to enter.

I can tap on a day in Agendus in almost any view and hold that tap and then option for a new meeting, call or todo that will automatically be set to that day when I've entered the text string.

OK, so to close this rant - if datebk5 would have progressed with "upgrades" to their program instead of updates to handle new equipment I may be singing a different tune. But Agendus has and is adding features and datebk5 hasn't. If your a datebk5 user and you recently purchased a T5 or Treo650 then you have nothing to worry about your getting your getting the updates for free, but you haven't really gotten a new program have you?

If your an Agendus user and you bought a T5 or a Treo650 then your going to have to fork over some bucks........there is nothing that states that you have to buy version 9 if your happy with 8 or 7 or 6 or 5 on your current platform.

If you want to lay blame with someone then lay it on PalmOne and Palmsource because their code changes are causing the software developers to modify their programs. We've all been "forced" into paying for software upgrades....just look at Win 3.1, 95, 98 2000, ME and XP but with each upgrade their were distinct enhancements and improvements.

The reason that Datebk5 doesn't require upgrades $ is because it hasn't been upgraded. It is still the same basic functionality as before and that's not the case with Agendus.

I'm never going through 3 hours of taking out @ again because I don't want to support Gorilla's in Georgia anyway.....they belong in Africa.
 
That's not a rant.

It is the single most cohesive argument I've ever seen comparing these two products - and personally I HOPE it was directed toward me, because they're all the SAME EXACT differences I saw and there's the quandry I'm in. Right down to the gorillas. I was going to mail TODAY the payment for Datebk5, and after the weekend DELETE agendus, keeping the icons, and DO THE SAME EXACT THING!!

My personal debate within myself was whether to ABANDON Agendus and "put up" with DB5 in the hopes of stability and hopefully "similar" looks. I'm into "visual quickness," so I can get an idea of what I'm doing when the T3's on the car seat. CRAMPED is accurate -- and no good. I was thinking yesterday afternoon about posting screen shots to ask if ANYONE can do this with Datebk5 - and then yours popped up this morning!!

I tried Datebk5 THREE TIMES before and also went through the "@@@" purging -- and I didn't have the patience you did to give Datebk5 the grace period you did -- it's huge pain. Ended up with a corrupted calendar DB (due to remnants from SOMETHING) and remember you offering me advice on it.

I agree with EVERY SINGLE POINT YOU MADE above, and the comparison regarding "meeting creation" taps was illuminating to say the least. More like frightening. I remember during previous "trials" thinking "man, you've got to spend an AGE making sure everything's ticked off correctly;" I seldom have to pick an icon using Vivid Agenda or templates, for example.

I've read an awful lot on this forum and others about DB5 vs Agendus - you being a contributor among others -- but the one above should be framed in every PalmOS owner's office and made a sticky on this forum. It's brilliant, frankly.

A while back I tried, in simple blunt ANGER, several other calendar/datebook apps while frosted at Iambic's crappy 8.00/01/02/03/04/05 "Oh we got it sorta right in 8.06 but it'll cost ya" attitude, and the result of trying to switch was a NIGHTMARE. I paid the upgrade to V8 PRO and it's working fine for me. Now of course, 2 months later . . . it's the $9.95 thing and judging from their beta page nothing is remotely "final" yet. That's the only part where we "differ;" V9 is too close to V8 which was never really fixed, and the upgrade fee is a sticking point despite wanting some V9 features. If it comes down to it I guess we can all be bigshots for a $10 bill ONCE; it's the fact that it's "$39 + 10 +10 +10 never ending" that irritates people, me included. If they update and "improve" something, they should make sure it works. some of you might enjoy reading this link:

http://support.iambic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11765

But talk about getting to the meat of it . . . you certainly did and I appreciate it very much. It's helped me "decide," and spared me yet another "@@@" nightmare had I not been able to deal with Datebk5.
 
So Moose, I might have lost you in the "rant" or explanation but is Agendus 9 out yet? Hrm. It's it less buggy than v8 was when it first came out?

-Seth
 
Krosenstein:

Hope this gives you a laugh - it did me:

I at first read your post COMPLETELY the wrong way . . . sounded like you were a staunch defender of Datebk5 ("what is the @@@ problem . . . ! ! !"); then I figured out what you meant and laughed for 10 minutes!

Guess you mean "what is the problem pertaining to @@@?"

Ok , serious now. I've gotten control of myself. Temporarily.

The @@@'s are notations Datebk5 makes in the NOTES section of to do/caldendar entries to "track things," much as Agendus uses
"icon/an432" to track icon placement. These "@@@'s" get in the "@@@ way" of other applications and can really @@@ up your calendar/tasks databases or cause conflicts with other apps. They should be eliminated if you delete Datebk5 - but then you can never really FIND them all unless you use something like FindHack.

As Mooseman said, 3 hours "cleaning time." Went through same myself - other apps do even MORE intrusive stuff and things can get messy indeed.



CyclingHermes:

I wouldn't even LOAD Version 9 BETA right now, as builds 463, 465 and NOW 466 as of yesterday ALL had problems. A lot of them have been fixed (imagine that) in 466, but some people on the forum over there are complaining the reg code won't even hold - others are saying there's a fatal alert next morning upon turning the Palm on, giving a fatal alert/data chunk" or something. Apparently it had to do with rollover to-do's and has been addressed in #466 - but you're right -- it's like the early Version 8 (now 8.06 and very stable for me, but some have problems).

I'd wait til not only final release, but probably 9.03 at least because as you inferred, it's "just like V8 and will take a while."
 
I have purchased both Agendus and Datebk5. I agree that the screen in Datebk5 is cramped and lacks some of the advanced features Agendus offers.

However, what Datebk5 lacks in features is made up for in compatability and stability, even on the T5 and the Treo 650. If the interface in Datebk5 was made more graphical and less cluttered like Agendus, while not changing any of the current database functions, which could make the program become unstable, then I think it would be a winning program.

In some ways, I think the reason why we have not seen very many major releases of Datebk5 is that Pimlico is taking the "If it's not broken, don't fix it" approach. Datebk5 has been very stable and Pimlico has been very cautious about making major changes to the program. If only Iambic were more cautious about making dramatic changes to Agendus.

If Agendus was more stable, I think more people would be willing to use it. I , like many others, prefer to use Agendus. However, if certain essential things such as having an alarm go off doesn't work, then it renders the program useless, regardless of how many bells and whistles there are. I hope that version 9 will be stable.
 
Agendus 9 beta build 467 has been posted in the beta forum. I've downloaded the program and have just installed it. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Refinements / Fixes:

- Addressed crash on alarm notification, affecting mainly Treo 650 users
- Private records now not shown in contact history if security set
- Addressed crash when going to details dialog on a contact that had 7 or more lines of data in one phone field
- Addressed issue with To do template details not saved
- wallpaper was partially visible in month expanded view when wallpaper turned off
- choose template dialog now properly supports Sony SIP
- Treo 650 now photo taken from camera can be set as wallpaper
- Treo 650 now "Photos(treo)" not shown in photo picker if "Photos(palm)" support is available since it's unneeded
- Pressing FIND button in Power Search dialog when no search string has been entered now does not dismiss the dialog, so it's more obvious that no search can be done without a string.
- Hierarchy buttons now always visible in hierarchy view even when no to do is selected
- Empty rows below to dos with contacts in matrix view now corrected



PS. Make sure you uninstall the previous version and run HotSync before installing this version. If you don't, you will get registration code errors.


Yea!!! No registration nag screens in this release!
 
It's the little things that get me happy regarding this new version --

1. pressing and hiliting a button no longer brings it up in BLACK but rather the preferred color (drove me nuts)

2. The free time block/analyzer seems interesting & handy

3. I'm VERY INTERESTED in the use of Tinychart to show pie charts of time blocks - I bought TinySheet a long time ago and am wondering if that's required or if they got TinyChart to work with Agendus PRO

4. Photo management seems better, although I'll be wary - right now I don't use it at all (would if it worked and without tying up a ton of memory just to LINK photos).

Yep - think they've got another $9.95 from me although I'm going to "request" an upgrade via email - I downloaded the beta but in all honesty DIDN'T LOAD IT because:

1. I use Agendus often, daily, and don't need the "test hassles."

2. They're using an installer - what's THAT about? Why need an INSTALLER for the PC when it's a beta that won't last beyond the final version anyway? Just put the darn .prc in a zip and be done with it; besides anyone BETA testing should know what files should go on the handheld and I don't like being surprised by half a dozen other files being slammed on their "like Iambic Mail) without my consent. Maybe that's where "TinyChart" shows up. Lord knows there are enough extra "iambic" files created ANYWAY let alone another half dozen from an installer.

I suppose if you load it all and don't have the reg issues, and find something - you qualify for a free upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have the time nor desire -- but I now think V9 could well be rather "sleek and wonderful," I'm just curious how much more than the 950k vor Version 8 the final V9 will be. I also DO NOT want to uninstall V8 and all the "settings" . . . like EIGHT saved prefs listings including the one causing the licensing nags -- as well as templates, colors and other settings. There may be more with Version 9 since they've added stuff.

That's about an hour's work for me and I'd rather do it when it's at least a final version. If you load a new version of Agendus and absolutely go through ALL of the settings at first "sitdown," by the way, all the 8 saved prefs listings end up together in order. Otherwise they're spread out all over the place in Saved prefs. I know it doesn't matter . . . I'm just that anal.

Dwinget: According to your handheld or file manager, how big a footprint is Version 9? Would love to know, just for "edification."
 
The Agendus Pro size is now at 1,402k There are also some other files such as Agendus Btn 1 and Agendus Btn2 that are 2k each. This excludes the Agendus Mail files. Tiny Chart is 87k.

In some ways, I wish Tiny Chart was not required. I have Documents To Go Premium and that already has charting.

At 4,402k, Agendus is almost as big as Beyond Contacts, which is not using the built-in databases.

The installation was different than I have seen for any other Palm application. The download was a PRC file. I installed the PRC file via HotSync. After the syncing was finished, Agendus launched a setup wizard on the handheld. It did go through and checked for duplicate files and then prompted if I wanted to replace the existing files. It asked about each individual file.

One minor gripe I have with this release is that the Today screen does not let you hide the weather forcast or the quote of the day. This cuts down the number of appointments and To dos that can be displayed.
 
Well I posted this thread and then left for the holiday and now back:

CH: As PTL points out version 9 is still in beta. It's stable on a T3 but there are still some minor bugs but the target release date is around Dec 10th.....at the latest based upon the temp registration and my knowledge.

Dwinget:

True but you can't use DTG for the charting function in the todo view. Tiny Chart is not necessary and also is not a standalone program in this case. It's there strictly to interface with the aforementioned to do chart feature.....which is nice but a bit much, IMHO.





I'm able to under the options or tools setting to turn this feature (s) off so if you can't then I'd suggest a "dump" and reload. As you pointed out they are recommending a complete clean install (icon's excepted) of the beta or an over install of v9 over v8 but during the beta a full dump is required.

The installation process is complex and based upon some PM's with staff it's preferred because of the T5 and the 650 NVFS memory. During installation, your given the options of replacing one file, or replace all, or cancel. You don't want to chose "replace all" unless you use the default icon set....otherwise if you use a personal icon set you choose "cancel" when prompted that it will overwrite and your icon set remains intact.

It's a bit different then previous installations but actually more resembles a "windows" installation and also gets all of the files installed.

PTL and krosenstein: To add to the @ issue....I did something during the DB5 clean out that I'd never done before.....I used the search function to find all occurrences of @ in the T3. I was only concerned with those instances where DB5 had installed them.

To be more specific on the icon issue here is a sample: @@@@@135|23@@@@@
This shows up in the note field for a to do, appointment or call when an Icon is assigned to that entry. You can easily then delete the note and you've cleared the issue for that entry.

What is bizarre.....I had 5 searches for @ that returned nothing except a "blank" note. However, the note was truly blank. There was nothing on the screen yet how did the search find it? I deleted all but one note and kept it to experiment. Deleted DB5 installed beta9 of Agendus and proceeded to "blow" it up as I had been successfully doing in the past.......and I would force a reset each time I tapped on that entry in Agendus.

Re-did the search and found the "blank @" and deleted it and no more soft resets.

I'm no programmer and do not know why this "blank @" causes failures in Agendus other than it probably conflicts with Agendus's icon encoding.

Since there are truly few programs that use icons, I suspect that many of the software engineers know of all the conflicts.

One more thing:

I must admit that DB5 is more stable then Agendus. It always has been. However, it very well should be and I go back to one of my original statements: It's only be updated and not upgraded. If you want a progressively changing and keeping up with demands or requests from the "user's" then go with Agendus.

If you want a staunchly "old man" program that has changed in two years.....then by all means go with DB5. All you have to do is monitor the Datebk5 Yahoo site and see that his (CESD) people are screaming for more functionality to realize the CESD is more concerned about funding his Gorillas then developing "new" functions. That's not necessarily bad but it is something that everyone needs to understand, IMHO.
 
One of the rules of the beta test is that I can't post the url outside of the Iambic site. This is for obvious reasons of keeping current with the beta releases and when eventually the beta is closed.

Anyone can access the beta but clicking on the www.iambic.com then going into the "support" area and then the discussion forums, then the Agendus Forum. The beta and it's corresponding download and instructions are located there.

Of course the beta is "free" to all who want to try and will agree to their standard NDA etc. The current "trial" allows for usage through Dec. 10th.

It could be extended but I doubt it as the current build is very stable and knowing Iambic they'll get it finalized before that date.
 
My T3 is now starting to get fatal errors again when the alarm goes off. This morning when the alarm sounded, I did not press the OK button and then the T3 went back into standby. When I later turned the power on, I pressed my voice record button, which has been configured to launch Applications. The fatal error occured after I pressed the voice record button. I love the interface of the Agendus program. I just wish it was stable.

I think I'm going to try configuring Datebk5 to handle the alarms instead of Agendus.

Regarding the Today screen in Agendus, I think Iambic has removed the options for disabling quotes and the weather forecast from this beta release.
 
dwinget,

I think if you have both programs installed then you might be up for conflicts.

I have rechecked my setup and can disable anything and everything in the Agenda view. Also, I had an alarm set today at 8:00AM (task alarm) and Agendus handled it without incident.

Do you use Crash Pro? During the beta when I've had crashes it will record the event and then I can upload the results to Iambic.

Crash Pro comes in all different languages and I've found it very useful.
 
YEP! Happened to me. I would under NO CIRCUMSTANCES EVER have Datebk5 and Agendus running at the same time or your "notes fields" will look like the Dead Sea Scrolls with all the "code."

If you have something calendared for 2 months from now, and then delete it - sometimes a search will find these "code entries" and sometimes not -- bear in mind YOU DELETED IT. I used FindHack to find all traces of anything "strange" once I knew what the notations looked like (some different apps put DIFFERENT weird code in there, and I searched for that, too). A good tip for all out hthere: if you purchase FindHack 4.0.6, assign one "search category" for AGENDUS, CALENDAR AND TASKS ONLY - really speeds up looking for info in Agendus and/or "corruption fodder" in the notes fields, as MooseMan can attest. I have a separate one for "contacts," and a 3rd for "full search," which covers the 9 apps I command it to search -- it skips all the rest. No one needs to search "HotSync" or "clock," for example.

That's where the calendar corruption was in my case - a to-do, deleted, that still triggered the "@@@'s" somewhere. Couldn't find it and deleted the entire calendar DB and reloaded the information "clean." I'm never doing that again!!

It is indeed weird.

With the complicated install and a 1.4MB footprint for a calendar, I'll probably STICK WITH 8.06. I can't see 1.4MB as "worth it" for a calendar app. Version 8.06 has been stable and I whined about that being a 950k footprint. To grow by 50% with or without TinyChart is just getting silly, IMHO.


I'm VERY glad I upgraded to 8.06 PRO, however - so my opinion might change when I actually see what V9 will do. It'll have to be pretty fantastic to warrant an additional 500k of memory, flash or RAM.
 
Datebk5 also adds a set of brackets [ ] to a contact when linking them which causes some issues although not resets. It prevents Agendus from opening a contact when the brackets are in place on the contact detail within an appointment.
 
Yes. Bonsai's "Back2Bonsai" does the same bracket thing with a Bonsai link, which is why I copy and paste it into the NOTES section of an Agendus-created repeating to do; then I get the repeating to do with the Bonsai link.

The workaround for the Bonsai link for Agendus IS IN FACT TO place it in notes, but it doesn't work correctly unless you create a NEW AGENDUS to-do and then paste the link from the Bonsai crated to do IN THAT AAgendus one. If you stick with the Bonsai-crated to-do, it will revert to "NO date" on hotsync.

Yikes. Fortunately I don't need this often, but can see from my limited use that the brackets cause a big pain!
 
I just noticed that a new beta of Agendus 9 has been posted today.

Refinements / Fixes:

- Show Due Date now enabled by default in to do view (fresh install required to see this new default pref)
- licensing error message issue avoid for scenario when installing multiple v9 beta versions with demo code over v8 activated version
- completed to dos in the hierarchy now only shown if uncompleted lower level to dos related to this to do are uncompleted
- crash when going to week list view with particular combination of the number of records and low memory conditions existed, memory constraints tweaked to avoid this
- corrected transparency on alarm icon in views when row was highlighted
- crash when using power search with string and a icon in build 467
- crash when creating icon and there are 0 icons in that database
- private to dos were shown in matrix mode of to do view when security set to mask
- free time finder listed available time slots when constraints were impossible
- Treo 650/Tungsten T5: dpad center press and hold in to do view now opens tap and hold menu
- Sony UX: display error with SIP when show graffiti area while editing was disabled and SIP down and new memo created
- tap and hold options on memo for beam, send and delete are now enabled


I uninstalled version 9 and reinstalled version 8.06. I also had to raise the stack value for the Java plugin. Somehow, the number decreased after I tweaked it last time. No more crashes.
 
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