General Knowledge Base by Baltsoft

[StephenUK]

I was just playing around with "General Knowledge Base" by Baltsoft. It doesn't have the power of UR, but I do think it has a couple of ideas that UR might pick up on, such as:

- some interesting ways of viewing different screens, particularly their tabbed layout and full page layout.

- a useful approach to what they call bookmarks (and most programs would call categories or tabs). (And in passing I would say this is implemented even better in Macropool's Web Research).

Anything to keep UR ahead of the crowd!

[armsys]

StephenUK,
Thanks for sharing your discovery of a new product similar to UR. I'm surprised by the nearly similar user interface. In addition to the features mentioned by you, GKB supports ODBC Level 3. For ordinary users, UR offers a balanced set of features, functionalities and user-friendliness.
IMHO, UR can be significantly enhanced by adding:
1. Multiple calendars (for concurrent projects management);
2. More Layouts (currently only 6)
3. UDF (user-defined functions)
Just my 2 cents.
Armstrong

[StephenUK]

Armstrong - does ODBC Level 3 make any significant difference to the average user?

[janrif]

Originally posted by StephenUK
I was just playing around with "General Knowledge Base" by Baltsoft. It doesn't have the power of UR, [snip] Like what?

[StephenUK]

Janriff

Well, two things it lacks compared with UR which I would find it hard to live without (although I only had a brief look) are:

- hoisting, (which is brilliantly tied in to favorites in UR and in my opinion is UR's strongest composite feature)
- ability to sort individual documents other than alphabetically or by date order

But other things about it I quite like, and I think UR should consider it a major competitor well worth studying for good ideas.

Stephen

[armsys]

Originally posted by StephenUK
Armstrong - does ODBC Level 3 make any significant difference to the average user?
I would have a serious doubt that ordinary users care about ODBC in the context of UR. Just my 2 cents.
Armstrong

[janrif]

Certainly hoisting is more than a convenience dealing with an outliner; I'll take a look @ KB anyway.

I've also been looking @ SQLnotes which is in early development. At the moment the latter product is a one man operation (altho Zoot is too).

UR development seems a bit slow & deliberate to me but maybe I'm unfairly impatient but they do seem like a solid company.

Don't know about KB. Do you?

[StephenUK]

Janrif

I'm hoping that the lack of interim releases from UR reflects concentration on version 4.

I have great sympathy for software developers in a competitive and difficult market.

It's not easy to guess who will be the leader a year or two hence. It seems to me that big companies have no better a track record than small ones. I find it amazing that Microsoft has such a poor product in OneNote, for example. And why can't Lotus Notes produce a nice simple standalone product?

Still, it does seem that at long last free form databases are becoming rather more mainstream. The surprising thing is that it has taken so long.

I'll have a look at SQL Notes.

Stephen

[quant]

Originally posted by janrif
UR development seems a bit slow ...
How did you come to this conclusion? Because they haven't made a release in the last two months? UR is pretty mature product (it terms of what it can do), so adding new features becomes harder and thus slower and greater care has to be taken not to make it bloated with many useless features that only slow it down and make cumbersome to work with.

And you mention SQLnotes and that it is in early development, FYI, the developer is working on it for 4 years already!

UR is only slightly more that 3 years old, look where is it now, do you still think that it has slow development?

[janrif]

Taking phrases out of context is a questionable form of communication & I don't waste my time responding to such silliness.

[quant]

Originally posted by janrif
Taking phrases out of context is a questionable form of communication & I don't waste my time responding to such silliness.
Geeeeez, OK, ignore my previous post. Somehow I deduced from your previous post, after reading it in whole in its context, that you may think that the UR development might be a bit slow. I might be wrong, it was just my subjective feeling ... sorry ;-)

[armsys]

quant & janrif,
We all embrace and uphold the essence of democracy, especially the freedom of speech. Each strenuously advocates his own belief and view with utmost faith and sincerity. Both are neither questionable nor frivolous. Correct me if I err. To be honest, both speak for the voices inside other UR users' heart as well, including myself. And both are my respectable UR gurus. As such, given the indisputable fact both have solved innumerous UR issues with immense wisdom previously, without a doubt, I trust both will settle the different views with a pleasant ending. Just my 2 cents.
Armstrong