Chandler 0.1 Released

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Posted by ryuzaki0 on Monday April 21, 2003 @09:29PM from the oh-dot-oh-dot dept.

kolchak writes "Very promising news is Chandler 0.1 (the Open Source PIM) has finally been released. 'While we are still very early in the design and implementation process, we intend for this 0.1 release to make us a more fully open project. We have made the release available for download, opened up our bug tracking database, and opened our source code repository.'" This is Mitch Kapor's attempt to offer an alternative to Microsoft Outlook, especially to small (under 100-person) organizations, last mentioned in December.

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any other similar OSS projects? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-04-21 21:35 · Score: 1, Informative

I find it awkward that there are no previous attempts at open-source PIM. aren't there?
1. Re:any other similar OSS projects? by bahamat · 2003-04-22 00:27 · Score: 4, Informative
  You apparently haven't looked.
  
  evolution
  
  gnome-pim
  
  korganizer
  
  ical (the application not the file format)
  
  plan
  
  mozilla (with calendar plugin)
  
  tons of still useful command line tools used back in the day before graphical displays
  
  IMHO, programs that use the new ical format for storing calendar data are the most useful. I can parse ical files easily with perl (or heck, even bash and egrep) and do all sorts of fun things with the data. There's even a php script that parses ical files for display on your website. Add webdav to your server and you've got a free calendar server for you and your closest friends.
  
  (Sorry for the shameless ical plug).
"alternative to outlook" by JohnFluxx · 2003-04-21 21:36 · Score: 4, Informative

Please note that this is not a straight replacement, or something that is like outlook (that is what kroupware etc is aiming for) but they are aiming more to change things to make it better.

Btw, did anyone find any screenshots? :)
Re:I had to ask by REBloomfield · 2003-04-21 21:38 · Score: 4, Informative

Personal Information Manager
Nothing to see by seizer · 2003-04-21 21:39 · Score: 4, Informative

Nothing to see here, move on, move on.

I just got the XP build, and I can't really see how it bloated to 13mb already. I'll have assume that there's a really large API behind the scenes, because the interface is little more than a MyFirstCalendarApp.vb

Oh and 10 seconds saw me crashing it too, just like the other poster.

Still, it's 0.1, so I'm not grumbling yet.
1. Re:Nothing to see by vrt3 · 2003-04-21 21:49 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I suspect a large part of that 13mb is the Python runtime that's included in the download. I didn't try it, but I suppose you can get the Python sources without the runtime if you already have Python installed, and the download should be much less that way.
  
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2. Re:Nothing to see by vrt3 · 2003-04-21 23:37 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  It's not only the python runtime, but also the wxWindows library and other 3d-party libraries. Also see this response to a similar question on comp.lang.python.
  
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Yes, it works on Windows by vrt3 · 2003-04-21 21:47 · Score: 4, Informative

There are binaries available on the site; the link says they are for Windows XP, but I tried them succesfully on Windows 2000. Mac OSX is also supported.
Not coincidentally, the list of supported platforms is the same as wxWindows, since Chandler is written in Python and uses the wxPython GUI toolkit, which is a Python binding to wxWindows.

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What about support for mobile gadgets? by MacroRex · 2003-04-21 21:53 · Score: 4, Informative

A quick peek at their site did not reveal any information about support for various mobile devices. For me, at least, it's crucial that my calendar app can be easily synchronized with whatever mobile gizmo I happen to be using as a calendar. While Outlook is the only viable alternative (for good or bad, I'm not a Lotus user), this thing gets only a "thumbs up" from me.
1. Re:What about support for mobile gadgets? by eye69 · 2003-04-21 22:38 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  From the FAQ:
  
  "Can I access Chandler through the Web or PDA?
  We are not committed to develop a Web interface or PDA conduit for the Canoga release. However, these are exactly the kind of features that we expect third-party developers to develop."
  
  They supply the framework, and the community can then easily add functionality. A modular approach is mostly always nice.
Re:Does it run on FreeBSD? by sneakybilly · 2003-04-21 22:03 · Score: 3, Informative

It uses python dude. Python runs on FreeBSD.
Screenshots HERE-- by Lord+Prox · 2003-04-21 22:27 · Score: 5, Informative

I made a few screenshots. If anyone would mind mirroring them please. My little server is made from trashcan pickings (only the primo stuff :) ) and a crappy 128Kb pipe. It'll get crushed pronto...
1. Re:Screenshots HERE-- by Ly0n · 2003-04-21 23:11 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  mirrored
  
  njoy (long live university pipes)
  
  btw, it looks kinda..well..dull
2. Re:Screenshots HERE-- by hkon · 2003-04-22 00:12 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  And also at http://folk.uio.no/hakon/chandler
  
  (yes, university pipes are nice :-)
Re:Does it run on FreeBSD? by pldms · 2003-04-21 22:29 · Score: 2, Informative

I believe it's using python and wxWindows for the front end, so I assume it will work fine.

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Re:I tested the "windows version" by seizer · 2003-04-21 22:30 · Score: 3, Informative

You can sort of click-drag on the weekly calendar, to add an appointment. It's not totally non-interactive :-)
Re:Why reinvent the wheel? Evolution already exist by JanneM · 2003-04-21 22:59 · Score: 2, Informative

I love Evolution. It is the best thing to have happened to my mail reading in years. I currently run the 1.3.2 prerelease, and I enjoy it immensely despite a number of bugs and other issues.

That said, Evolution is not an answer. Evo is a client. The server side is almost totally lacking. Chandler provides this in the form of a Peer-to-Peer style server/client architecture. What could (and, I believe, should) be done is to write an extension/plugin for Evolution to access the Chandler server functionality. That way you can use Evo as part of a Chandler setup, or use Chandlers own frontend whichever one you want/like. /Janne

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Re:exchange by blibbleblobble · 2003-04-21 23:28 · Score: 2, Informative

It is not the outlook client that is of most interest, it is replacing exchange as backend that we should replace first...

Kolab server already does this [replacing exchange servers]. It works with either Outlook clients, or KMail clients.
Re:Lotus Agenda - Now THAT was a PIM! by pix · 2003-04-21 23:43 · Score: 2, Informative

I thought that was the point behind Chandler. Mitch Kapoor was the guy behind Agenda and is the guy behind this... If you read his articles on the subject then I would hope that we will some Agenda-like functionality.

Of course, we're only on 0.1, so what we get here is hardly representative of what might come.
Similar project by aliWiz · 2003-04-21 23:57 · Score: 4, Informative

I have found another similar project based on Java and using a decentralized (p2p) architecture http://www.dynamicobjects.com/
Re:But Exchange is still better than anything else by Anonymous Coward · 2003-04-22 00:27 · Score: 1, Informative

Outlook Web Access is HTML on konqueror, but an ActiveX executable on IE. That may be what causes the differences.
SW: A better free alternative by MarkSwanson · 2003-04-22 00:31 · Score: 2, Informative

http://www.ScheduleWorld.com/ :-)

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Dearth means "lack of" by frenchgates · 2003-04-22 01:05 · Score: 2, Informative

I think the word you were looking for is "plethora." The opposite of dearth.

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Re:Why only Win XP not 2000 or 98 by Digitech · 2003-04-22 02:54 · Score: 2, Informative

It runs fine on Win98se for me. It seems remarkably stable for a 0.1 release. Sure, the features are not complete yet, but given some time, this could be better than Evolution. If the clients communicate regardless of what platform they are running on, this could be a great help to small, mixed platform offices. Some of us haven't been able to convice our bosses to switch everyone over to Linux yet.