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Revert
April 14th, 2006, 10:45 PM
Recently teachers have been assigning a ton of research papers, and I'm finding myself more and more wanting some form of "Brainstorming" type program. Since I tend to have trouble coming up with programming projects anyways, I thought I'd try making what I need.

To get an idea of what I'm talking about, this (http://www.matchware.net/en/products/openmind/education/Outlining%20documents.htm) is an example of some proprietary software. What I desire's much more modest, though; basically something like the class manipulation aspect of BlueJ. (http://www.bluej.org/about/what.html)

I'm aiming for something like a blank, white page that I can add notes with main ideas to. I want these notes to hold more specific data, but keep it hidden when I'm manipulating/dragging them around on the canvas (something like right click brings up a small text editor type window where you can edit specific information). I'd also like to be able to manipulate lines/arrows showing how the notes are connected. Being able to insert pictures or export the outline structure to an image or word document would be a plus, but that's more something I'd add later and not a primary goal.

Since I'm most familiar with it and need easy cross-platform compatibility, I'm going to be using Java for the project.

What I'm trying to get are any general design suggestions or specific Java classes that I should look into. It will be, by far, the largest program I've attempted, and a huge learning experience. I'm attempting to map out my major class structure and how they interact right now, so any advice there or even with how I should go about designing the program (ie. development process) would be greatly appreciated.

Also, any Linux-compatible example programs would be nice to see. So far I've had no luck finding similar software.

Thanks for any help.

orlox
April 14th, 2006, 10:54 PM
kdissert, a search for sinaptyc shows this app. Never used it, but the description seems to fit what you're looking for...

stuporglue
April 14th, 2006, 10:59 PM
Haven't used it, but this might be what you're looking for: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Also TomBoy, a wik style stickies program for your desktop is cool, but much lighter.

LoathRevolver
April 14th, 2006, 11:08 PM
FreeMind might be cool...

Revert
April 14th, 2006, 11:28 PM
FreeMind looks to be pretty much what I want. I'll probably use it, although I still plan to try to make a simple version.

Thanks everyone. :)

fng
April 15th, 2006, 01:12 AM
I really like "TheBrain" (http://www.thebrain.com). But it's windows only and closed source :(
I have never tried it with wine orso.

dotdot
April 23rd, 2006, 06:41 PM
while you're at it check out vym. (http://www.insilmaril.de/vym/)

the market leader is mindmanager by mindjet (http://www.mindjet.com) - this is however win only.
They've been asked for a linux port many times - to no avail (http://www.mindjet.com/uk/knowledge_base/questions/1/Alternate-Platform-Support).


..cheers

cro.smiley
April 24th, 2006, 01:55 PM
FreeMind looks to be pretty much what I want. I'll probably use it, although I still plan to try to make a simple version.

Thanks everyone. :)

I'm using FreeMind and I'm pretty satisfied.