OPML

I’ve been messing with Dave Winer’s OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) tool. It’s fun. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and it doesn’t get any simpler than this. Here’s my OPML blog. Here’s the OPML home page.

In the old DOS days, I loved ThinkTank and Ready, both of which were simple outline applications. Outliners make it so easy to reorganize text, collapse headings to see the structure, and expand to see every nitpickin’ detail. I kept my to-do list in Ready. I wrote a book in ThinkTank. Both of these were produced by Dave’s Living Software company, which he eventually sold to Symantec. Here’s Dave’s history of outliners.

I’m not very far into this, but I love being able to edit a weblog in real time. Learning OPML reminds me of learning HTML with View Source. We don’t need to stinking manuals. Trial and error. And OPML’s simple enough that often it’s trial and success.