[Design] Mylar and task-centered filtering

[JP]

Hi,

I've recently started to use the Eclipse plugin Mylar, and it's 
philosophy has stricken me as very useful for any PIM that's worth it's 
salt. Sorry if you have already considered this design idea. But I've 
seen just a reference to Mylar in your website, and that, only for the 
interface that Mylar provides to Bugzilla and other bugs repositories. 
That's IMHO the least important feature or the plugin. So I'll elaborate 
a bit in case you hadn't considered it.

Mylar can be considered a task-filter. That is, it filters the 
information you see depending on the task you are working on. The 
task-filtering idea can be applied to PIMs. Suppose you have to mail an 
spreadsheet every month to your tax consultant. So the first month you 
create a task called "Mail spreadsheet to tax consultant". Then, you 
click on that task so your PIM knows that you are going to work on that 
task. Then you go to your file browser and open the spreadsheet, modify 
it and mail it. The interesting thing is that the PIM takes note of 
which file you have opened, and to which contact you sent it. And next 
month, when you click again on the "Mail spreadsheet to tax consultant" 
task, /your file browser will show just your spreadsheet file, and your 
contacts list just your tax consultant./ Avoiding you the chore of 
searching for both.

Of course this example is trivial, but think about tasks that reference 
many people and many mails, some different folders, etc. It'd be a 
blessing if, when we decide to work on that task, only the relevant 
mails are shown, and only the interested parties, and the affected 
folders.You have to see Mylar at work to appreciate it. Of course Mylar 
is focused on development tasks, but I for one would certainly buy 
something that allowed me to do that on my files/mails/contacts. I'd 
fight to buy it if it could also filter my corporate data access (that 
is, for that task I accessed the order num. 122334, and also the payment 
history of customer 3223, so if I want to access them again, they are 
just a click away from me).

As said, I don't know if you are already on that track of thought. I 
followed the discussions at the beginning of the design phase, but have 
been disconnected for very long. So I apologize for any redundant 
thought :o)

Good vibes.

Julen Parra.