Visual JavaBeans. Didn't someone do that already?

Code talks, man. Not screenshots.

By the way, why is it that "remember personal info" in your comments never does?

Sounds like it could be a cool product.

Re your example, though, is there actually a standard for representing flight info in RSS? Assuming that there is, it seems to me that someone, somewhere, has to do the hard work of defining how to parse that standard and making data elements available to those if statements. Who does that?

-rich

Richard,

You are right that some hard work has to happen somewhere outside of Teqlo. The hardwork of Housingmaps.com happened in Google maps and in craiglist. However, the housing maps application still adds mucho value.

However, it is not 100% clear to me where the majority of value exists.

I think spreadsheets are a good comparison. There is certainly a lot of "hard work" that goes into coding up a spreadsheet application. As a result, Micrsoft makes a large chunk of cash every year from Excel. However, the value of the revenue from Excel is most likely only a tiny fraction of the value of the information and analysis gained by end users who build complex spreadsheets.

Teqlo, with it's simple interface, has the opportunity to be similar, in that it is a tool box that can be used to make other applications.

- Rod

I guess I didn't quite ask my question right.

Hypothetical: DunkinDonuts.com publishes an RSS feed. You specify a zip code and a radius in the URL, and the feed tells you the current inventory (type, quantity and hours on the shelf) of every store within the given radius of the given zip. I want to give all my friends the ability to tap into that information via Teqlo. I figure that Joe will spend ten minutes putting together a Teqlo that sends a message to his phone telling him which of the 24 stores along his commuting route has the most fresh Bavarian Cremes in stock. And Jane wants to build a Teqlo that tells her where she can get Chocolate Frosteds that have been on the shelf for between 30 and 45 minutes so that the chocolate will be firm but the donut will still be fresh. I want to do the hard work that makes it possible for Joe and Jane's Teqlos to get the right feed and get the right information out of it. How do I do it? What tools do I use? Does Teqlo provide something for this, or do I write some Java, Perl, or what?

For Joe (in Mr Schwartz's scenario), the Assemble experience looks something like:

1. He drops the RSS feed teqlet onto a new teqlo called Dunkin' and points it at the Dunkin' Donut feed
2. He adds the Google Map teqlet
3. He adds the SMS teqlet
4. He adds the TickTock teqlet

He previews while assembling (like a blog really) to see the end result is going the way he wants.

He runs the teqlo one first time to enter the commute in the google map, point TickTock at the Commute event in his calendar and type in the preferred donut in the RSS filter box.

He hears the SMS come in each morning 5 minutes into his drive.

When he's put on a bit, Joe might Publish his teqlo and maybe even Invite some thin people to try it as part of their weight gain program...

Nathan's earlier points are right. All that Visual Javabeans stuff is great...remember OpenDoc?! But the secret sauce in teqlo is automatic sequencing, which makes it all come alive.

Jacoby

Either this is all magic, or I'm still missing how it is possible for Teqlo to make structured data (the inventory data in my example, or the flight info in the original post's example) available to Joe's application by pulling it out of an RSS feed. Something has to know how to parse it, somebody has to do the work to describe the structure and how to extract the Donut inventory data, and surely it isn't going to be end-user Joe.

Richard,

You are right about parsing, but there are many ways around that issue. Some are easy. Some involve hard work.

On your blog, you asked about the value of that "hard work".

I tried to answer by using Excel as an example. Coding up a spreadsheet application is not trivial. However, it is also not the hardest thing in the world. With Open Office, NumSum, ZohoSheet, and many others, one could argue that spreadsheet applications have virtually become a commodity.

The real value in spreadsheets is not in the application itself, but in what people can do with them.

The money Microsft gets from selling Excel is nothing compared to the value that all businesses get from the amazing spreadsheets they have built within Excel.

Rod