[msmith6869]

This thread and the numerous requests it contains for this feature have been ongoing since Nov 2007. Surely after over 2 years this has made it into the rotation for a release. If not, I would love to hear why. This is not an extremely hard feature to add. Most GTD clients have this feature.

[whpalmer4]

It may not be a hard feature to add (though as you are not an Omni developer, and have no access to the source code, that's just speculation on your part) but it does require work, testing, and documentation, and the time and resources spent doing those things aren't available for doing something else which may have gotten more requests, or that Omni's management thinks will produce a superior product which leads to more revenue and happier customers. It does require coordinated changes to both the desktop and iPhone applications, and might also require a file format change, both of which are complications not necessarily encountered by many other feature requests.

[msmith6869]

You are correct that I am not an Omni developer. But judging from the number of posts on this thread common sense would tell you that this feature has received numerous requests over the 2+ years it has been open. Surely it has received enough requests to make it into a release at some point. Of course it would taking testing, documentation, etc. All new features do. However, it seems based on nothing more than the fact that this feature exists in almost every similar product regardless of cost (some being less than $20) that this common feature should be available in one of the more expensive products in the GTD-based task management arena.

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by msmith6869

Surely it has received enough requests to make it into a release at some point.

Your confidence is refreshing in our skeptical age. On the other hand, since the feature isn't in the any of the released versions of the software, I'm not clear on what your confidence is based. There are thousands (tens of thousands?) of threads on the OF forums. One thread that you happen to agree with wouldn't seem to provide overwhelming evidence of anything.

Use Help → Send Feedback to submit feature request to get them entered in the development database. (See this sticky thread at the top of the forum for details.) Me-too posts don't count. I would also like to see more control of repeating actions, and have submitted my feedback.

I cringe when people claim to know what's easy in software. Developing quality software is hard; anyone who claims otherwise is ignorant or selling something.

Cheers,

Curt

[msmith6869]

You have a good point, there are thousands of posts and tens of thousands of requests I am sure. But here is the truth of the matter. Both Things and My Life Organized have rich repeating options. Both cost roughly half of OF. If you are going to charge one of the highest license costs in the industry for a product you better well make sure you have the functionality of the cheaper products. That is a competitive issue not a software issue. As a formers software engineer (mainly testing) I know very well what it takes to get a piece of functionality into a release. Alot of work! That being said if we knew our competitors had functionality we did not and there were requests for it (even if it was not the most requested item) we put that at or near the top of our list of needed items. I am not sure how many releases there have been since this thread opened. However, I am sure the list of new and improved functionality in OF since that time is staggering. Are you telling me that every piece of new or improved functionality since then has been more highly requested than rich repeating?

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by msmith6869

Are you telling me that every piece of new or improved functionality since then has been more highly requested than rich repeating?

Yes.

More specifically, since you know a bit about how software is developed, you recognize that sometimes a third tier feature is added at the same time a top tier feature is added, simply because the developers have that part of the system "on the operating table".

Skimming through the release notes, here's what's been added for top tier features:

• Improved Styles
• Sync-compatibility with updated iPhone versions
• Snow Leopard support
• Redesigned Perspectives with support for syncing Perspectives to iPhone
• Improved attachment support to reduce sync times
• Redesigned repeat inspector
• Bug fixes
• Auto-complete for projects and action groups
• Various UI improvements
• Archiving to keep databases small and sync speed fast
• Faster creation of new contexts and projects
• Synchronization between multiple Macs
• An iPhone version of OF
• Parsing of tasks from message in Mail

It's a spurious argument to compare OF to competing applications on the basis of a single "missing" feature. That would only make sense if the competition had all of the features that OF had. Instead, each program is at a different point in the feature and cost space. Customers can choose the product that comes closest to their needs, and (in the case of OF) use Help → Send Feedback to cast their vote for the missing features. I assume you've taken the time to do so for enhanced repeat options.

Cheers,

Curt

[whpalmer4]

You're making an assumption here which is unwarranted; namely, that a higher price tag means a superset of the functionality of all applications with a lower price tag is a necessity. That's simply not true. What you do have to deliver is a package which provides functionality sufficient to persuade customers to buy it. Look how many iPods Apple sold without an FM tuner at a higher price. That functionality can be features that the other products don't have, or features that the other products don't implement as well, or even things like superior customer support.

Number of requests is only one factor in how Omni decides what to implement next. It's an important one, but doesn't override all else. For example, there are frequent requests for OmniFocus to have a calendar view or to make iCal appointments instead of iCal tasks, but the OmniFocus team feels that is not the correct thing to do, and are on record saying so. But they also pay attention to the experiences reported by their customers, and change the product where they think they can improve on something they've done before. There are a number of changes which have been made relatively recently to make life easier for those trying to use the product from a non-GTD viewpoint.

[msmith6869]

I have indeed added my two cents via feedback and hope that everyone else who posted here did as well. I agree with Curt and whpalmer and understand that not all GTD software packages have identical functionality. There is no question that OF is the premier GTD software package for the Mac OS. I fully intend on purchasing two licenses plus iphone in the next week. My hope is that rich repeating will be added very soon.

It would seem to me that someone who is operating the to-do portion of their life base on David Allen's principles would desperately need this functionality. I have nearly as many items on my list that repeat on a schedule of the 1st Thursday of every month or 4th day of the month than I do that repeat every 2 weeks or 17 days. If OF is meant to allow us to operate based on a GTD-centric work flow then the omission of rich repeating from even the initial release severely hampers ones ability to truly follow the principles from the book.

[msmith6869]

One other thing to note. Even though there are thousands of posts on this forum asking for countless features, other than sticky posts this thread is the 16th most commented post in this entire forum. I think we can all agree that this fact says something about importance and popularity of this feature set.

[whpalmer4]

I just make a note in the notes field for the (very small) number of such actions that I have describing the repeat -- fourth Wednesday of the month, every other blue moon, etc. Then when I complete the first action, I adjust the newly created one accordingly.