Dreaming in Code

I just finished reading Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg, a book which follows an open source development project led by Mitch Kapor to create a Lotus Agenda style application for the modern computer. It’s a definite recommendation from me, with a good look at why software development projects often go wrong.

But that’s not the point of this post. The book follows the development of Chandler, and app written in Python to act as a free form multi-platform PIM tool. I’ve downloaded and played around with and apart from being very “beta” like it’s very nice. However, when reading the book, for almost every feature that the team was trying to work out how to produce I kept finding myself thinking “I know how to do that in Notes” or “I can already do that in Notes and Domino”. Yet another example, to my eyes at least, that we continue to under estimate exactly how powerful Notes and Domino are. Maybe distinctly unfashionable but very powerful. Have a read of the book and see what you think. Even if you don’t agree with me it’s a useful read for anyone who is involved in the computer industry or even just those who have to use a computer during their daily lives.