What I want from ProtoLib
This are the kind of questions that I want to answer using ProtoLib, and a small real life example for each:
1 - Do I have any book about unit testing?
I have lots of books that I haven't read yet, specially in digital format, and as part of my training I choose a field and study about it between three and six weeks. A list of what I have around is a good starting point to make a schedule, and usually I spent an evening preparing that list. Also, sometimes my friends ask for something to read, and it could be easier for them to start wandering around instead of resting in my memory.
2 - Do I have any book writen by Isaac Asimov?
Sometimes I read a book or article and if I like it, I start looking for other works from the same author. This happens frecuently with the articles which I read in the Internet, but also with books (my last chase is for Neal Stephenson books).
3 - Do I have any good book about Science Fiction?
I heard this kind of question each time that I start talking about books, probably because I go very enthusiastic in many topics, very fast, and this seems to be contagious at least while I am around (later people wonder why in the world do they have a book about ants in their hands, o other fields equally funny).
4 - Is 'Writing secure code' a heavy book or can I have it in my pocket for my que waiting moments?
This came when I am preparing my study list because I usually have something to read with me at all times, just in case to been stuck somewhere with nothing to do.
5 - Where is my copy of 'Inside C#'?
This is an issue with my paper library, and a big problem with the digital books.
6 - Which books are lent?
Just to keep track of them, even than sometimes they get lost in time and space.
The biggest issue with this kind of questions are about how to capture the data of each book, which was the main reason to which I haven't made a program in Delphi ten years ago, because I prefer to spent my time reading instead of completing boxes in an window. I started thinking again about this project when Amazon opened their web services, which allows you to retrieve books data from their servers. That way I will be able to answer other questions:
7 - Is there any book like 'Lord of the Rings'?
Amazon have a list of 'similar products' for most of their inventory and it's a good way to know about books that I liked.
8 - What is people saying about 'C# in a nutshell'?
There are two kinds of reviews, one editorial and other made by the customers of Amazon. Even than I am not very confident in reviews made by people that I don't know, they are a starting point to decide if it could be worth to invest some time looking a book.
9 - How much is costing 'The soul of a new machine'?
They have a list price and also other offers, mainly used books. This is also a good way to know how much money I have spent in paper.
10 - Which books are in my shopping list?
I take some time regularly to go to the books shops and browse the shelves, but usually I wait for a while before buying, to have time to think if I will read that book or not (my budget in money and space for books is very limited), and sometimes I forget many books until the next time that I go to the shop. Having them in a 'wish list' might be a solution for that.
At the same time, I have some usability ideas about ProtoLib:
- For data entering
1 - I want to write a ISBN number, a title or an author's name, and receive a list of books to pick the right one to have it's full data retrieved.
2 - I want to be able to classify a book under many categories. For example, 'C# in a nutshell' could be classified as a book on programming, .NET, Windows, Web and maybe other fields.
3 - I want to drag a file from a CD and being asked for something to identify it (say, the ISBN), and ProtoLib must remember where is that file, and also to recognize it if I have another copy somewhere else.
- For presentation:
1 - I want a tree view of my library having each title inside each category assigned to it. Many books will appear several times in the tree, because sometimes I want a quick view of all the info that I have for a field, and it's easy for me to navigate a tree presentation and arrive to broad conclusions in a short time.
2 - I want an international application, because my library is in Spanish and English, and the same happens with my friends.
3 - I also want to know that 'TCP-IP Illustrated' is the same book as 'TCP-IP Ilustrado'.
4 - I want a list of my books, filtered by any criteria available for them. The data will be more or less the same than in the tree, but faster to group and sort.
5 - I want to have the option to run ProtoLib without install anything, just calling an application in Windows. I want this to be able to keep a list in a USB disk and to read in a cybercafe if I am on the road without my own computer.
On an structural point of view, I want to be able to extend ProtoLib to other kind of products (Amazon have a broad field of things offered in their website), and also to have different interfaces. I will start with a Windows application, but probably I will want it in my PDA a week after I have one, and a web front end could be good to interchange books with my friends, and having web services around could tie the Windows version with my friends libraries.
Next time I will review the programs that I found that are more or less in the same league than ProtoLib.
1 - Do I have any book about unit testing?
I have lots of books that I haven't read yet, specially in digital format, and as part of my training I choose a field and study about it between three and six weeks. A list of what I have around is a good starting point to make a schedule, and usually I spent an evening preparing that list. Also, sometimes my friends ask for something to read, and it could be easier for them to start wandering around instead of resting in my memory.
2 - Do I have any book writen by Isaac Asimov?
Sometimes I read a book or article and if I like it, I start looking for other works from the same author. This happens frecuently with the articles which I read in the Internet, but also with books (my last chase is for Neal Stephenson books).
3 - Do I have any good book about Science Fiction?
I heard this kind of question each time that I start talking about books, probably because I go very enthusiastic in many topics, very fast, and this seems to be contagious at least while I am around (later people wonder why in the world do they have a book about ants in their hands, o other fields equally funny).
4 - Is 'Writing secure code' a heavy book or can I have it in my pocket for my que waiting moments?
This came when I am preparing my study list because I usually have something to read with me at all times, just in case to been stuck somewhere with nothing to do.
5 - Where is my copy of 'Inside C#'?
This is an issue with my paper library, and a big problem with the digital books.
6 - Which books are lent?
Just to keep track of them, even than sometimes they get lost in time and space.
The biggest issue with this kind of questions are about how to capture the data of each book, which was the main reason to which I haven't made a program in Delphi ten years ago, because I prefer to spent my time reading instead of completing boxes in an window. I started thinking again about this project when Amazon opened their web services, which allows you to retrieve books data from their servers. That way I will be able to answer other questions:
7 - Is there any book like 'Lord of the Rings'?
Amazon have a list of 'similar products' for most of their inventory and it's a good way to know about books that I liked.
8 - What is people saying about 'C# in a nutshell'?
There are two kinds of reviews, one editorial and other made by the customers of Amazon. Even than I am not very confident in reviews made by people that I don't know, they are a starting point to decide if it could be worth to invest some time looking a book.
9 - How much is costing 'The soul of a new machine'?
They have a list price and also other offers, mainly used books. This is also a good way to know how much money I have spent in paper.
10 - Which books are in my shopping list?
I take some time regularly to go to the books shops and browse the shelves, but usually I wait for a while before buying, to have time to think if I will read that book or not (my budget in money and space for books is very limited), and sometimes I forget many books until the next time that I go to the shop. Having them in a 'wish list' might be a solution for that.
At the same time, I have some usability ideas about ProtoLib:
- For data entering
1 - I want to write a ISBN number, a title or an author's name, and receive a list of books to pick the right one to have it's full data retrieved.
2 - I want to be able to classify a book under many categories. For example, 'C# in a nutshell' could be classified as a book on programming, .NET, Windows, Web and maybe other fields.
3 - I want to drag a file from a CD and being asked for something to identify it (say, the ISBN), and ProtoLib must remember where is that file, and also to recognize it if I have another copy somewhere else.
- For presentation:
1 - I want a tree view of my library having each title inside each category assigned to it. Many books will appear several times in the tree, because sometimes I want a quick view of all the info that I have for a field, and it's easy for me to navigate a tree presentation and arrive to broad conclusions in a short time.
2 - I want an international application, because my library is in Spanish and English, and the same happens with my friends.
3 - I also want to know that 'TCP-IP Illustrated' is the same book as 'TCP-IP Ilustrado'.
4 - I want a list of my books, filtered by any criteria available for them. The data will be more or less the same than in the tree, but faster to group and sort.
5 - I want to have the option to run ProtoLib without install anything, just calling an application in Windows. I want this to be able to keep a list in a USB disk and to read in a cybercafe if I am on the road without my own computer.
On an structural point of view, I want to be able to extend ProtoLib to other kind of products (Amazon have a broad field of things offered in their website), and also to have different interfaces. I will start with a Windows application, but probably I will want it in my PDA a week after I have one, and a web front end could be good to interchange books with my friends, and having web services around could tie the Windows version with my friends libraries.
Next time I will review the programs that I found that are more or less in the same league than ProtoLib.
posted by Eduardo Shanahan at
6:46 p.m.
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