- It is a resource hog (both memory- and processor-wise); no wonder since it is an application built on an application (Mylyn) built on an application (Eclipse) and relying on an externally loaded virtual environment (Java). The overhead for what it does is overwhelming.

Similar to an application like Microsoft Outlook, Tasktop is doing a fair amount behind the scenes for you. But our end goal is that you never have to wait more than 200 milliseconds for the UI to open up anything you need that we have stored or cached locally (that’s the threshold at which response time feels instant). To that effect, we have made several tradeoffs for using more memory to keep information availalbe. For the fall release of Tasktop we will be doing some optimizations of that, so it would be great if you and others could let us know your own expectations of memory usage, since we can use that as input for tuning these tradeoffs.

Interestingly the overhead of building on Eclipse and Mylyn is not much of a problem. This is because Eclipse uses the OSGi modularity technology, which means only the parts of the user interface that you use are loaded into memory. But note that we have Internet Explorer running within the Tasktop process, which you would normally see running as a separate process. It can dominate the memory footprint.

Regarding Java, yes, there is some overhead. But many modern applications written for Windows have a similar overhead because they also run in a virtual machine (the .NET CLR). This overhead can more visible in the Windows Task Manager for Java applications, but the benefits and robustness are the same for Java and in general worth the memory consumed. In addition, the choice to use Java means that we will soon be able to respond to the high demand for Tasktop on Mac and Linux.

Most importantly, if you ever see Tasktop using your entire CPU for any noticeable CPU for any amount of time, please file that as a bug. We generally resolve any performance bottlenecks of that sort very quickly, but need users’ feedback (e.g., to find out that they’ve linked in several hundred thousand files). If you’re curious about what background operations Tasktop is running that might be using CPU, use the Home toolbar drop-down and select Window -> Show View -> Other… -> General -> Progress

- It is as yet too focused to software developers to be able to support other knowledge workers, e.g. lawyers, engineers, or consultants (like myself). The majority of external programs that can usefully interface to Tasktop are related to software development. What the rest of us can do from within the browser is still rather limited.

Yes, developers have been our initial target and this is still the case. However, we have had increasing demand and feedback from non-developers, and more than half of our downloads are now Tasktop for Windows. We have been incorporating all of this feedback into some major simplification and streamlining of the tool, which you can expect to see released in a major update sometime in the next 1/2 year.

- I find the browser itself slow and buggy for a significant number of websites. It would be useful to have the option for new tabs to open in the background, as in IE7, so that one can get on with their work while pages load. In addition, a default browser automatically opens local .html files as well, but opening these in Tasktop is rather cumbersome.

Assuming that you’re on Windows, there should be absolutely no difference in speed or quality of site rendering, since Tasktop is embedding IE. That said, we have heard reports of IE being slow enough on some people’s machines that this alone was a reason for them use Firefox. If you’re experiencing that, I suggest updating to the IE8 beta (I’m using that and it’s very snappy) or waiting for our upcoming integration with Firefox. Regarding opening HTML files and opening tabs in the background, it would be great if you could file a bug for this. I’ve found myself wanting it as well and they’re both straightforwad to implement.

- Google maintains the advantage for nomadic workers as it provides access to its information from anywhere. Tasktop provides the ability to maintain some task information on a portable USB drive, but this does not seem to include browsing history, so much of the context is lost.

Yup, we don’t yet have a great solution for multiple computers. We’ve had a fair amount of demand on that and are working on it.

- I am unconvinced that getting rid of the forward button was indeed a choice rather than a necessity. The backwards button behaves rather oddly and –stranger still– does not always do what the keyboard shortcut Alt-LeftArrow does.

You’re not the only one, and for the next major release we will consider putting back some kind of forward button, freeing up space for that by only showing the stop button when needed. Regarding the occasional mismatch between the keyboard shortcut and button, that’s currently our most major browser limitation which has to do with some trickiness in IE’s history. We plan on addressing it that in the next major release.

There’s more, but my aim is not to bring down what you have written on Tasktop’s philosophy, rather to note that there’s a long way to go before it can be considered a viable alternative on the browsing front, among others. … I have personally been publicly supportive of Tasktop in related forum discussions (see http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/657 ) but I am afraid that it remains focused on a very limited niche to “bring the benefits of Mylyn and Eclipse to activities outside of programming”.

Yes, this is no small task that we have undertaken But what’s very encouraging is that we first released this technology less than seven months ago, have collected an amazing amount of user feedback since then, and demonstrated that even with some rough edges people are finding focused browsing and task switching a very significant benefit. Over the next few months, we will iron out the rough edges in addition to releasing the Firefox extension for focused browsing. What I’m most excited about is that Shawn Minto, our browser guru, and I will be taking a pass at the degree-of-interest model and browsing UI for the next major release of Tasktop. We haven’t touched that since they early internal prototypes, and there’s a lot that we have learned about how to put the most relevant pages and web apps at your fingertips when you switch tasks. If you’re interested in being an early adopter of that consider getting on our early access program: https://tasktop.com/support/faq/#earlyAccessBuilds

- It is a resource hog (both memory- and processor-wise); no wonder since it is an application built on an application (Mylyn) built on an application (Eclipse) and relying on an externally loaded virtual environment (Java). The overhead for what it does is overwhelming.

- It is as yet too focused to software developers to be able to support other knowledge workers, e.g. lawyers, engineers, or consultants (like myself). The majority of external programs that can usefully interface to Tasktop are related to software development. What the rest of us can do from within the browser is still rather limited.

- I find the browser itself slow and buggy for a significant number of websites. It would be useful to have the option for new tabs to open in the background, as in IE7, so that one can get on with their work while pages load. In addition, a default browser automatically opens local .html files as well, but opening these in Tasktop is rather cumbersome.

- Google maintains the advantage for nomadic workers as it provides access to its information from anywhere. Tasktop provides the ability to maintain some task information on a portable USB drive, but this does not seem to include browsing history, so much of the context is lost.

- I am unconvinced that getting rid of the forward button was indeed a choice rather than a necessity. The backwards button behaves rather oddly and –stranger still– does not always do what the keyboard shortcut Alt-LeftArrow does.

There’s more, but my aim is not to bring down what you have written on Tasktop’s philosophy, rather to note that there’s a long way to go before it can be considered a viable alternative on the browsing front, among others. Interestingly, much of what was mentioned as innovative even by Google, such as placing the address box under the tabs, was already available in Opera which is lightning fast compared to Tasktop.

I have personally been publicly supportive of Tasktop in related forum discussions (see http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/657 ) but I am afraid that it remains focused on a very limited niche to “bring the benefits of Mylyn and Eclipse to activities outside of programming”.

Alexander

Best Regards,
Edwin Yip
Mind Mapping is as Effortless as Typing
http://www.InnovationGear.com