First things I wanna put straight:

• I sometimes have issues keeping track of what I’m supposed to do, when to do it and in which order.
• Sometimes I heard about GTD on twitter or in blogposts, but when I tried to read into it I thought that I don’t really feel like learning another complicated system for stuff that I can solve with small slips of paper.
• I always wanted to use my iPhone for ToDo-lists, as I use it for everything else in organisation: contacts, calendar … so why not todo-lists?
• I feel that I can be doing things faster if I used some kind of organised approach to my todo-listings, therefore I just thought: why not try out another fancy internet-solution? And synch it with an iPhone-app, so I always have my lists at hand?

Thats exactly what I’ve done. After all, these apps and internet solutions build on the same GTD-principles, and therefore learning GTD seems to be important for programmers of those tools, but not for the end user like me. But of course the solution to my problem wasn’t only to download some software, as you’ll have to think about what software solutions you use and for which set of tasks this works. After all, many things like appointments fall into the realm of calendars; and many “small tasks” should not be set on a todo-list at all, as those tasks are too small (”check todo list”; checking this item is superflous) or too large (”be happy”; falls into the realm of so called goals). Then some software has limitations about what you can do with your todo list (like outlook). So everything need to be planned a bit, so you get a solution you can use.t

And this is the main issue. Usability. I need a system that can remind me what I have to do for the day and that doesn’t take loads of time to configure. So far I can’t make a clear statement, but I see some issues and problems here and there - while other parts of my solution seem to work perfectly. I’ll tell you in my next post if the solution I try is usable or if its utter nonsense to try to use online & mobile applications to get yourself remebered and organised.

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If the question is, what JavaScript-Framework you should use, finding an answer is usually all about finding out what you already use and what seems to be the feature-richest, fastest and best supported frameworks. If you already use a Framework, just take that one if you’re not only using it for some easy simple stuff like a popup or something. Otherwise, think about what you’ll need the JS-library to do and consult the web. What I have done:

Some Quotes:

“You can save a tremendous amount of time and effort by using the browser-independent framework that JQuery has spent untold man-hours testing, debugging, and proving in the field. While there’s nothing wrong with writing JavaScript, why not speed your development time by writing to the library instead? As I’ve always said, don’t reinvent the wheel, unless you plan on learning more about wheels.” - Jeff Atwood

“A JavaScript framework may not make you a better programmer, but it will make you more efficient. That alone should be reason enough to choose a JavaScript framework, or library if you prefer. Unless you decide to build your own, there are plenty of options available to developers. However, choosing the right framework can be tricky, and weeding through a mess of opinionated fanboys (myself included) is intimidating.” - Brian Reindel

Features-comparison:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_JavaScript_frameworks

(pretty much tells us that Dojo and jQuery rule)

Speed-comparison:

http://www.domassistant.com/slickspeed/

My test resulted in: jQuery fastest, Dojo was close … Protoype and Moo were pretty slow (used Firefox 3.5)

Research and advise:

http://www.dannydouglass.com/post/2008/04/Comparing-Popular-JavaScript-Frameworks.aspx

Conclusion

Think for yourself. I’d always recommend jQuery, as every single developer that has ever used it has fallen in love with it, and it just always ranks best - everywhere. You got all features, high speed, short syntax, small filesize, very good documentation, unnumerable amounts of plugins, tutorials - and a low learning curve. If you can’t trust EVERYONE ELSE, you’ve got to have good reasons to.

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This Firefox-Plugin is great: Tiny Menu. If you use your bookmarks in the bookmark-bar (you can put folders there too!) and have a mouse-gestures plugin installed, what do you need the menu for anymore? Very nice, very minimalistic. More place for the webpages!

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