Hi, Charles:  Yes, I invested in TaskPaper because it's nice, and it has iPad/Mac synch (via Dropbox, eventually).  I also see what you mean, that TaskPaper's flexibility isn't going to allow it to translate well.  Using OmniOutliner as a translator is probably the best solution.

beru:  Right now, I have about a dozen major Tinderbox documents for different projects--working with everything in one was just straining my brain.  So the tag-agents method, although very elegant, isn't going to work for me.  We can all agree, though, that one of the big advantages of Tinderbox is that it supports tagging, and hierarchy, and maps, and probably every other invented way of displaying one's notes.

Hi, Charles--sorry for the delay (work intruded) and thanks for the kind offer!  This explosion of "productivity" apps and applications is making visible how very different are the physical methods people have for keeping track of stuff, and thus likely the cognitive approaches as well.  Anyhow, my brain likes hierarchy/embedment, but I've never personally been able to use more than the loosest tagging system.  Tags for me just add a  meta-level of stress, as I begin to worry about forgetting the tags I've used.  If you get curious, though, you might see if there were takers over at the TaskPaper forum.

As an update on "Tinderbox emulators" for the iPad, the new ThinkBook app has a primitive agent functionality.  It exports text files which probably could be massaged into Tinderbox, although I don't think I'll be using it enough to bother.  Did make me lonely for a real Tinderbox App, though!

Hmmm--a test of upload into iThoughts does produce a few nodes with child notes, but most of the hierarchy seems to get lost, at least for one test document.  

"Primitive agent"="finder":  a note that will collect what are essentially aliases of other notes of specified types/locations/tags.  Hey, at least it's something!

Anyhow, as I said I doubt if I'll be using it.  On the iPad, I've settled into TaskPaper + PlainText/Notational Velocity + occasionally an outliner (waiting for TinderPad, of course).  But shouldn't we be careful about 'unintuitive' judgments?  Any app that actually asks us users to interact with a touch screen is likely to be novel and thus 'unintuitive,' and it's nice to see developers at least trying!

Omnigroup has posted a description and screenshots of the (soon, one hopes) forthcoming OmniOutliner for iPad (here).   With OPML in/output, columns for elements (attributes), etc., this might be a worthy companion to TBX.

If using v5.9.0+ you should also find that tick-box OO checked state now imports to $Checked (from the OPML '_status' attribute).

That weird inShort app now exports Tinderbox-readable OPML.  Since the app allows recursive maps (boxes within boxes), links of a sort, and an outline view, I suppose it really is inching towards being a Tinderbox analog for the iPad.

But mostly it makes me lonely for echt iPad TBX.