CSCI E-180
Project 1
Philipp Hanes
hanes@fas.harvard.edu

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
===================

This project is a web-based To-Do list manager.  the user interface
concentrates on in-place editing, and drag-and-drop idiom.  It doesn't
currently support keyboard navigation at all (the only keyboard use is for
editing To-Do items).  The code consists of:

1) a minimal Perl back-end, which allows persisting of lists, and generates
   an initial HTML page.

2) a fair amount of JavaScript that runs in the browser, allowing
   manipulation of both the content and view of the To-Do list.

The basic concept (in terms of goal, though certainly not in terms of user
interaction) is based on the Konfabulator (Yahoo Widget Engine) widget at
http://hometown.aol.com/kwpapke/Todo%20Widget.html

It is loosely based on the ideas presented through Stephen Covey's "Seven
Habits", categorizing tasks by axes of importance and urgency, and also
associate each task with a role you play in you life.

The ability to mark a task "done", but keep it around, also provides a
record of what was achieved, which can simplify acocunting for one's time
(every wondered what you did all week?  or had a superior ask you and you
draw a blank, even though you know you got a lot done?)

Basic usable involves creating new To-Do tasks by dragging a role into the
importance/urgency grid, and then typing a description of the task in the
textarea that it presented.  The roles are color-coded, so it is easy to
see what role a task is associated with at a glance.

Existing entries can be edited by clicking on them, moved to a different
location by dragging them, and dragged to the trash can to be deleted.
There are also shortcuts that appear when the mouse pointer is over an
entry that allow both deletion and moving to the "Done" column with a
single click.
There is a single-level undo capability, allowing you to back out of a
deletion or move (but not edits).

Saving all changes is only available when changes were made, at which point
there is also the option to revert to the last saved state.

Columns, rows and roles are minimizable, to get a more focused view of
certain subsets of tasks, but there is always a tiny representation of each
item, and holding the mouse over it will bring up a tooltip containing the
task description.

You can also toggle between showing full task descriptions, or just showing
the first part of each, to allow more tasks to be scanned at one time.
There are shortcuts to completely display everything or completely collapse
everything, allowing very selective viewing of a vast overview.

Saving entries simultaneously saves the display state (what is
expanded/collapsed).