Re: [Planner] My first impressions of Planner 0.11 (MrProject)

[Richard Hult <richard imendio com>]

fre 2004-01-23 klockan 10.47 skrev lincoln phipps openmutual net:

Hi,

> 1) Defining links through using the click-drag is handy
>     but I'm also very used to selecting (ctrl-click) two tasks
>     and then clicking a "Link" button. You have the Unlink
>     button but not Link. The main issue is click-dragging
>     over many pages or dates: if you zoom out to see the whole
>     project then the task bar isn't big enough in the gantt
>     chart to click this (it just re-sizes the task).
> 
> 2) Adding resources to tasks takes a long time. If a whole pile
>     of tasks could by selected (ctrl-click) and then right-mouse
>     or a suitable menu option had "Set Resource..." This will
>     also be very important with task levelling.

Could you please file these as bug reports/feature requests at

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=planner

(a separate bug for each issue)

Both these should be pretty easy to implement, by the way.

> 3) MPX file format import AND export. Microsoft Project 98
>     was the last MS project to have this as an export. See
> http://www.microsoft.com/office/project/prk/2000/Five/67ct_2.htm
> 
>    Many other apps rely on this MPX format and may not all have
>    migrated to MPP or MPD. May be nice to help people interoperate
>    with Planner easily. MPX is not an XML but its a fairly nice
>    easy to read ASCII and should be easy to pre-process into the
>    Planner/MrProject schema. The MPXJ project (LGPL) has a lot
>    more of this, though it is Java. See, http://www.tapsterrock.com/mpxj/

This would be a perfect project for someone to help out with. It would
be pretty easy since it's a pretty much standalone project. Any takers?
I can help you get started.

> 4) Unable to easily view resource usage by day. Even when
>     you have a levelling capability, when you run this in
>     MS Project it could sometimes completely screw up your
>     project shoving tasks out by years as it tried to resolve
>     resource use and constraints.  Thus many people manually
>     level projects. You use a view that has the Resources on the
>     left and Dates on the top with usage (0->100 for OK
>     and then >100 for not OK e.g. font in RED) in the intersect.
>     Thus if levelling isn't trusted or not the expected
>     algorithm then viewing what resources get used by date is
>     a manual compromise.

Xavier, the resource usage view you're working on can show this, right?

> 5) Resource Initials - these are a handy extra field because
>     names can clutter up gantt charts (especially when a couple of
>     people are doing one task). If a user has initials defined then
>     use this else use the resource name is the basic algorithm
>     which I think MS Project uses.
> 
> 6) Task completion: Incrementing in 1% at a time is too low !.
>     The tumbler needs to increment in +/- 10% at a time but
>     the field could be manually set to an exact percentage. MOst
>     people say a task is say 50% or nearly (i.e. 90% complete).
>      A joke:
>     90% of a project takes 90% of the time. The remaining 10% takes
>     the other half.
>     Either way, no one refers to 51% complete unless for fun.

Both good points, please file bugs.

> 7) The program name of 'Planner' seems dangerously generic
>     and I feel that it would end up being contested somewhere for
>     its name. Maybe something like 'Gantto' and then pun its name
>     by using a cat (gatto in Italian) with a gantt chart for
>     stripes as a logo but IANAA (I Am Not An Artist). Plus it has
>     a 'g' in the name for GNOME and gantto.com/net/org currently
>     free I think (probably find its a swear word in some language !)
> 	ps: also the file name is was *.mrproject but can we
> 	use 3 char thus change to say *.gpo as I think thats free.

We can always tack something on before or after Planner if necessary.
There's a bug report about the file extension, although personally I
would prefer .planner.

> 8) and finally - though by asking this question I'm probably
>     showing my ignorance - how do I start to add code to Planner ?
>     I'm starting back into programming work (and just restarted
>     my degree in CS) so I can CVS the whole lot and can easily
>     browse the source but has anyone tried using Anjuta and Glade
>     with this project ? or is it all hand-coded C and I'm just
>     spoiled from working with the likes of Eclipse and VC ?

We use glade for all UI parts. I personally use emacs but I'm sure you
can use any editor to write the code.

> 9) Other things:
> 	Baselines: These are essential for any CMM metrics to
> 		show how actuals deviate from estimates. I use
> 		these a lot.
> 	Pert charts: never used them much but others do a lot.
> 	Sub projects: yes I do like these for big stuff but not
> 		when there was milestone constraints from within
> 		one sub-project and another. I do find it handy
> 		when doing e.g. software deployments that are
> 		global and thus sub-project each geographic region
> 		so you can have a global overview of progress
> 		by region. I'm thinking task that is a file/hyperlink
> 		to another Planner file and to parse that file
> 		and pick out ANY other task. I suspect that Planner
> 		could do this quite well given the nice XML structure
> 		to its own files.
> 	Shared resources (and shared calendars across projects:
> 		Tried this when we were doing CMM assessment and
> 		found it useful but back then using MS Project 98
> 		and so it wasn't very friendly.
> 	Collaboration: This would be real handy. If a structured
> 		email message could be sent and replied to and have
>                  the Planner pick out the answers in the mails and
> 		update itself. Really what things like listservers
> 		do with the registration and reply logic.	
> 	Split tasks: handy for when you just want to make a task
> 		drag on in background as  a low priority. Thus
> 		when you show the gantt to someone you can still
> 		say you're doing it but other tasks take priority.
> 		and can only spend a little time now and then on it ;)

Good stuff but after 1.0, in my opinion. We need to get a stable useful
simple application out soon :)

/Richard

-- 
Richard Hult                    richard imendio com
Imendio                         http://www.imendio.com