Let user configure priority scale
Somewhere in preferences, the user should be able to customize the priority scale -- by specifying the highest point, the lowest point, and the direction of the priority scale. This matters when it it comes to sorting or using the priority-changing buttons, among other things. (Personally, I was surprised by the default scale. Like many people in political organizing or electoral politics or even sales, I'm used to a simple 1-5 scale. Others prefer a 1-3 scale. (But "-1" thru 7 scale is just bizarre, I think. And that's what my default scale appears to be. Or so it seems. When I clicked the "maximize priority" command for an item, the priority went from 2 to 6. But then I could increase it to 7 with another command?!!)
See my comment below.
I think that adjusting to the infinite/relative scale of TC is a shift of mindset from the way other programs work, but in the end TC’s system is better. To be clear: you can already use whatever scale you like. You can limit yourself to any range and/or use category tags.
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AdminAaron Wolf (Admin, Task Coach) commented
I think you're misunderstanding how Task Coach uses numbers. Whereas other programs use categories, TC is different. TC uses infinitely large numbers, no range limit at all. "0" is neutral and you can go negative or positive any amount from there. This is flexible so you can sort priorities relatively, as in "this is higher than that" without worrying about category.
If you want to restrict yourself to certain numbers, you are free to do so, or you can use category tags to mark high or low priority.
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Priority is simply a number. Higher numbers are higher priority. Negative numbers are allowed. When you maximize the priority, Task Coach simply makes sure the number is higher than any existing priority. Same for minimizing. That's how you got the -1 probably. I agree it may make sense to allow the user to set maximum and minimum priorities in the preferences.