🚀 go-pugleaf

	I would like to see an XML standard created for adding additional 
data fields within the Notes fields of the basic four apps. This way 
applications could extend the features of the basic four apps without 
having to create their own external databases or, worse, ignoring the 
standard app's database altogether. For instance, DateBk5 adds linking 
and extra features to the calendar and todo apps by adding some text to 
the note field. DateBk5 is smart enough to ignore this text when deciding 
whether to display a note icon. If this is the only text in the note then 
no icon is displayed. However, other apps don't know about this extra 
data and just display a note icon anyway. I am just starting to use 
ShadowPlan and it also adds text to the notes field of the basic four 
apps. Pretty soon I am going to have some kind of text in the notes field 
of almost every item I have stored in my basic four apps. The note icon 
will be worthless to me. I will have to just click on it to see if there 
is some human readable information there.

	Now, if there were an XML standard and all of this extra data were 
tagged using XML, then it might be possible to write a hack that would 
cause apps to ignore text within XML tags when deciding whether to 
display the note icon. They could also hide all the XML data when the 
user is adding their own notes rather than just hiding their own 
proprietary data like DateBk5 does now.

	But that is just the beginning. Now applications could use each 
other's data and add even more features. Conduits could be created to 
sync the XML data within the Palm's notes fields to the appropriate 
fields (or custom fields) in Microsoft Outlook. Add-In's could then be 
created to extend the functionality of MS Outlook using this new data. 
For instance, links created in DateBk5 from an appointment to a list of 
address book entries could be turned into an attendee's list in Outlook. 
The ShadowPlan desktop app could link to items within Outlook and 
synchronize those links back to the Palm version or vice-versa. You would 
have to be careful to avoid XML bloat by limiting the size of the tags or 
the notes fields would quickly be filled up.

	You could even use XML data to create outlines within the notes 
fields of the Basic Four apps without even having to go to a separate app 
like ShadowPlan. Not that outliners like ShadowPlan would be obsolete but 
it would be handy to have a subset of it's functionality directly within 
the note of a basic four item.

	The ideal situation would be if Palm jumps on the bandwagon and 
creates a special field just for this extra XML data. An interim step 
would be if they would just cause the Basic Four apps to not display XML 
data as standard note text and allow unlimited note field sizes.


Now, I'm not a programmer (yet) nor am I an expert in XML. So I wouldn't 
be able to really spearhead this endeavor but I sure would like to use 
the apps that could be developed using this approach. I am just writing 
this to get the ball bouncing around in peoples heads.