ANN: Global freeware laptop diary tool in REV

[Kresten Bjerg]

Invitation to try using  and collaborate on  an ”elaboratable” diary program  and set of glyph-fonts:
Phenomenalog 16.3.9.

As difficult as it is to explain and convince about the empowerment afforded by cross-platform REV, 
what we need may be a demonstration-case fit to appeal to basic human existential needs across 
regions and cultures and languages, outside (and inside) of professional circles

With laptops by the millions reaching all cultures and age groups ( MIT $100- laptop  to Africa 
putting this process in the right perspective) , the freeware inroad can be seen as a strategically
 ( and ideologically ) sound  way of promoting the interest & demands for all which Rev (and Linux) stands for.

We are now making public a  beta-version of a new rev stack aggregate, PHENOMENALOG ,
 - a (quite complicated) new kind of tool, for all types of non-professional users 
to develop their own  very private electronic diary, fitting it to their personal idiosyncracies and relevances.

 It is freeware, and  meant to be improved and optimized, immediately and on further time horizons,
 through the feedbacks from prospective users, and, in the first phase,  * of course *:
primarily  the REV-community as represented in this site.
 .
 We have now established a basic site for the program:  www.phenomenalog.dk , where Its  functions are explained ,
where standalones - with necessary folders and fonts, manual etc - (for Windows, MacFAT, MaxOSX and Linux ) 
 can be downloaded, where  the ”Phenomenalog Manual”, and the glyphfont libraries can be inspected 
without installing the fonts ,  where a Forum for reporting, suggesting and discussing has been opened. and where 
credits are given (not least to the help we have received  from  Mark Schonewille (Economy-X-talk.com) 
Sarah Reichelt and her DateTime.rev collection, Richmond Mathewson for his Paint widgets, Eric Chatonet, 
Klaus Major, Mark Talluto and others.)

The theoretical rationale is explained in the paper: "The global future of the electronic diary"  - to be found at
 www.psy.ku.dk/bjerg 

It is the preliminary result of more than a decades work (mostly in Hypercard) to develop a new kind of tool 
in qualitative psychological research in empirical phenomenology,
 based upon  the (automatically timestamped) use of ( yet only) app., 450 pictograms (as characters in fonts)
 and the use of user-language text-entries.
  
We will be grateful, if revolutionaries will have a look / give it a try, and perhaps produce some feedback
 relevant to the future of this  ambitious enterprise * having mercy upon  the  weaknesses in the scripting. 
and the pictograms.
Especially wellcome will be offers to make translations to other languages than english. 
and specific suggestions for new  pictograms/glyphs to be included in the next version of the 12 glyph-fonts.

( Has anybody cared to think of right to left textfields and buttons fit for arabic?)


For those who want to deal with its basic full revolution-version
it can be found at rev user site under the name ”Kresten”
 (Cautiously in rev 2.6.1, not in  the not-backwards-compatible 2.7.1) 

 (But the glyph fonts must be downloaded from the phenomenalog site, with one of the standalones)  

There is a max-edition, where all options are made visible, 
and a minimal-edition, demonstrating a simpler beginners preferences.
*but it is exactly the same  program

All kinds of feedback  (to the forum at www.phenomenalog.dk, to skya at webspeed.dk or to Kresten.bjerg at psy.ku.dk )
 will be appreciated and considered for further versioning.


There is one category of evident reaction, once you meet the machinery: 
that its construction with a 3x3 screens  size of the daycard-stack is akward,
and ought to be re-engineered as 9 seperate stacks or a data-base!

 YES. We know it. And maybe some time in the future somebody will try to do it. 

But we (Steen Andersen and myself) are not capable of doing it ourselves. 
The way we * very unprofessionally - have been developping the scripting over a period of 10 years 
has made it highly intransparent and overly complicated.  
So, please disregard that option, - which is also a plea to be overbearing with the slownesses you will encounter .
 Some may be reduced by script-improvements , some made less frequent by setting the preferences 
for automatic saving to larger intervals.
 Its optimal functionality is obtained  by running it continuously, day and night, 
using the hide button  to minimize it to dock most of the time, 
- and create buttons on the daycard-background for the applications you most use
 and the folders or files, you mostly are dealing with.