[HN Gopher] Show HN: ThinkType - Write Down Your Thoughts
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Show HN: ThinkType - Write Down Your Thoughts
Author : amadeuspagel
Score : 36 points
Date : 2022-01-09 15:11 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thinktype.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (thinktype.app)
| smilekzs wrote:
| I use an existing product for this exact purpose: Google Keep.
|
| ($insert_your_favorite_hate_for_google_products_here /s)
| desireco42 wrote:
| Look it is not perfect now, but this is really good area to work
| on and innovate. Don't be discouraged by people comments, try to
| find group that will like this.
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| Thanks. I'm not discouraged, I did get some positive comments,
| and anyway I mainly work on it for myself.
| The_rationalist wrote:
| This is a great idea
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| Thanks.
| bobiny wrote:
| I'm looking for a quick notepad, so that time between having an
| idea and writing it down is minimal, like using a camera on a
| smartphone. App is a must, because I have a phone nearby most of
| the time. In terms of UI, I don't want to select note, name it, I
| just want to open it and write like in a paper notebook. Digital
| is better because you can write in one hand in public transport.
| Ideally this app is just blank space and cursor is automatically
| placed one line after previous note -- so I don't have to tap
| screen and double enter to skip a line.
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| > App is a must, because I have a phone nearby most of the
| time.
|
| Thinktype is a progressive web app, you can use it much like a
| native app, it works offline.
|
| > In terms of UI, I don't want to select note, name it, I just
| want to open it and write like in a paper notebook.
|
| Thinktype works just like that. You open the app and start
| writing.
| bobiny wrote:
| I tried Thinktype on my iPhone -- added a shortcut to
| homescreen. 1) I need to tap screen to start writing 2) I
| need to save what I wrote -- can autosave happen in a browser
| app? 2*) Save button moved off screen to the right 3) I think
| new text should be at the bottom like in chat apps, but maybe
| it's just my taste 4) I presume it wouldn't work offline?
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| > I need to tap screen to start writing
|
| I think the issue here is that, though the cursor is in the
| searchfield, the keyboard doesn't appear? I have no idea
| how to handle this. Even if you could make the keyboard
| appear automatically, it's also not obvious that you would
| want to, because you might just want to read your notes.
| (And then how to make it disappear?)
|
| > I need to save what I wrote -- can autosave happen in a
| browser app?
|
| I've thought about that. Some issues:
|
| - In thinktype, you write and search using the same field.
| So autosave would also save every search.
|
| - The notes id is the time that you saved it. Not sure how
| I would handle that with autosave.
|
| > Save button moved off screen to the right
|
| Wow, that sucks. Can't replicate that, no idea what might
| cause that. Can you post a screenshot? Is the issue that
| the entire thing is too wide? Is it possible that you
| zoomed in by mistake?
|
| > I think new text should be at the bottom like in chat
| apps, but maybe it's just my taste
|
| I've thought about that. In my view, that makes sense at
| best for one line texts. If you have longer texts, and you
| want to read through all of them, then you have to keep
| moving back and forth. Scroll through a note to read it,
| scroll up again to find the previous note, and so on.
|
| > I presume it wouldn't work offline?
|
| It does work offline. Notes are stored locally using
| IndexedDB, and the code is stored locally using the cache
| interface of the service worker API.
| bobiny wrote:
| > It does work offline
|
| That's very nice.
|
| > In thinktype, you write and search using the same field
|
| For my use I wouldn't care about search much. Most of
| what I write is one-time information like a phone number
| or some shopping list. Sometimes it's a thought that I
| just want out there but it has no value beyond that
| moment. And if an idea can be used in some of my projects
| or become a seed for one, I'd want to catalogue it using
| a structured app like Evernote or Standard Notes or any
| other.
|
| > Can you post a screenshot? Just sent you in an email
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| > For my use I wouldn't care about search much. Most of
| what I write is one-time information like a phone number
| or some shopping list. Sometimes it's a thought that I
| just want out there but it has no value beyond that
| moment. And if an idea can be used in some of my projects
| or become a seed for one, I'd want to catalogue it using
| a structured app like Evernote or Standard Notes or any
| other.
|
| I think there are lot of advantages of using one app for
| all notes, and that's part of why I made thinktype. It
| means you don't have to ask yourself where to write
| something down and where you did write something down.
|
| > Just sent you in an email
|
| Thanks. So it does look like the entire thing is too
| wide. I have no idea how to fix this, or even replicate
| it, sorry.
| bobiny wrote:
| >I think there are lot of advantages of using one app for
| all notes, and that's part of why I made thinktype. It
| means you don't have to ask yourself where to write
| something down and where you did write something down.
|
| That's the idea behind most note-taking apps like iOS
| notes or Bear or Google Keep. You can use tags, ad
| images, lists and so on and so on.
|
| But I dig that there are no folders or separate notes in
| your app, just one roll.
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| There are seperate notes, but no folders. You don't need
| or want folders if search is so easily accessible. Typing
| "foobar" to see all your notes on "foobar" is faster then
| clicking on your "foobar" folder.
| leobg wrote:
| I use Drafts app for this. It's in my dock. Tap icon. Type
| text. Swipe and select where it should go: Evernote? Idea
| journal? Dynalist? Email? Clipboard? You name it.
| widea wrote:
| Sure, trust my thoughts to the web...
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| Your thoughts are stored locally.
| [deleted]
| pacifika wrote:
| Interesting but I have thoughts away from my main work machine,
| does this allow sharing between mobile and desktop?
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| No, not yet.
| newaccount2021 wrote:
| fattybob wrote:
| Quite a few things out there that can manage that, I'm currently
| using FSNotes on iOS, but for years I used simplenote /
| notational velocity - as easy as it gets for data entry
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| Thinktype works a lot like notational velocity (write and
| search at the same time), but it's actually even easier because
| it doesn't have titles. You can write the entire note from the
| searchfield. (I'm comparing it to a web app inspired by
| notational velocity here[1], never used the original because I
| don't have a mac.)
|
| [1]: https://notational.co/
| beingflo wrote:
| Love the simplicity, does it store the notes in local storage?
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| Thanks. The notes are stored locally with IndexedDB.
| ravenstine wrote:
| Out of curiosity, how does it handle the storage limits
| imposed by browsers? I've had a lot of ideas for browser apps
| that use things like localStorage but got demotivated by the
| low storage limits. It's fine if ThinkType doesn't address
| it, but if it does I'd like to know how.
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| It doesn't use the localStorage, it uses IndexedDB. (It's a
| bit confusing since IndexedDB also stores data locally.)
| The storage limits for IndexedDB are far greater[1]. I've
| used it for a long time and I have thousands of notes,
| never had any problems.
|
| [1]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
| US/docs/Web/API/IndexedDB_A...
| antux wrote:
| Here's a hot take that most people here won't agree with but the
| query commands for sorting is hard to use because it forces me to
| remember them. If I forget, I have to reread the paragraph which
| slows me down.
|
| This is bad UX because it's increasing my cognitive load to use
| the interface instead of reducing it. It's much better to offer
| toggle buttons for sorting.
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| I thought about that and actually had toggle buttons before.
| But there are some advantages to the "syntax" UI:
|
| - You can use the keyboard. Couldn't you use keyboard
| shortcuts? Not that easy in the browser, because most shortcuts
| are already taken, and though you can override them, that also
| confuses people.
|
| - You always see in the searchfield what search mode you're in.
| The buttons would have to be in the sidebar, which isn't always
| visible, depending on how wide the window is. And even if it's
| visible, you still have to look there, whereas you're already
| looking at the searchfield.
|
| And it's not that hard to remember, it's kind of mnemonic:
| Exclamation mark to sort by priority, because you use an
| exclamation mark at the end of a sentence to mark it as
| important. Star to sort by changes, because when you change a
| file in a terminal text editor, you see a star next to the
| name. I should probably explain this in the app.
|
| ThinkType also has a kind of help UI. If you hit F1, you see
| the keyboard shortcuts in the sidebar. (Only works if the
| sidebar is visible.) Should also explain the query syntax
| there.
| smilekzs wrote:
| > I should search my todo app and my notes app.
|
| > What magic character did I have to type again?
|
| > I should press F1 to figure out.
|
| > What was the thought again?
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| You don't have to type any magic characters to search. You
| only have to type magic characters if you want your results
| sorted differently.
| mwattsun wrote:
| Suggested feature: export as a plain text file like
| https://www.editpad.org
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(page generated 2022-01-09 23:02 UTC)