[HN Gopher] A structured note-taking app for personal use
___________________________________________________________________
A structured note-taking app for personal use
Author : 0xyz
Score : 197 points
Date : 2023-12-22 04:36 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| gnatolf wrote:
| This looks robust and the example project works fine.
|
| I am low-key into these type of apps. Similar enough to Google
| Keep, with more privacy and (potentially, didn't really check)
| E2E encryption.
|
| Sharing and cooperating notes with others is a must-have, but
| it's unclear if there are any plans.
| eternityforest wrote:
| I'm super into these apps too, but I have had less interest
| since trying keep.
|
| Nobody else really comes close, at least not in the FOSS space,
| but hopefully one of these days someone will!
| 0xyz wrote:
| Of course, the development of the sharing feature is in
| planning
| Yodel0914 wrote:
| This looks pretty nice.
|
| In the same space, personally, I'm a huge fan of Joplin. Apps for
| every platform I care about, and the ability to self-host the
| server component (which is what I do). I has some really nice
| features, like import/export of directories of markdown files,
| and sharing notebooks with other users.
| Ringz wrote:
| Since Joplin's developer decided to put all Markdown files into
| a database and thus give up all the advantages of a flat file
| system, I have uninstalled Joplin. In my view, the last
| discussion in Joplin's forum on this topic further discredited
| the developer.
| burnished wrote:
| That seems an odd take given the content of the discussion:
| https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/why-im-leaving-joplin-
| for-... Especially since it looks like a solution via plugin
| was identified?
|
| Thanks for bringing it up though, I went for spicy programmer
| drama but instead found a somewhat interesting and incredibly
| polite disagreement. I am curious about what happened that
| they have such a solid opinion about acceptable use of file
| metadata.
| MezzoDelCammin wrote:
| Thanks for bringing this one up. It's almost strange to see
| a civilized discussion about something that clearly
| polarizes a lot of people in the thread. Makes me wonder
| exactly what kind of social dynamic results in a bunch of
| people actually talking through their differences, instead
| of the these days usual trench warfare...
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| _> incredibly polite disagreement_
|
| Not sure I agree. Here's one comment by the developer
| (laurent):
|
| _" Ok, there's so much wrong in what you write about that
| it's hard to know where to start. I guess it would help if
| you had a clue about what you're talking about."_
|
| https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/why-im-leaving-joplin-
| for-...
| wiseowise wrote:
| Ouch.
| laurent123456 wrote:
| I'm not proud of that answer but to be fair there are
| also more balanced views in this thread. It's also an old
| thread and some of what's in there is no longer relevant.
| For example someone recently created a prototype of the
| app that saves the notes to disk, and although we can't
| merge his work as it is, we plan to investigate and see
| whether it can be somehow integrated.
|
| It's one of these features that, all things being equal,
| we'd rather have than not have, but it's obviously not
| trivial to add it when the app wasn't originally designed
| for it.
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| I completely understand. It wasn't my intention to blow
| this out of proportion. It's a single expression of
| frustration that every developer can relate to.
| burnished wrote:
| Sure - but it is a departure in tone and sandwiched by
| more normal and productive comments (from that dev). It
| isnt ideal but it is also a pretty normal and minor human
| mistake (growing frustrated and then short to be
| specific).
|
| And the previous comments were claiming that this
| project's data was 'proprietary' and not 'open' and the
| situation was inexcusable, basically because they assumed
| a database was this big scary thing (as opposed to an
| open book). That is a frustrating experience, and yeah
| maybe indicates that the person telling you how to write
| software doesn't know what they are talking about (for
| the folks following along at home, those frivolous cries
| of foul play were distracting from the real need they had
| for plain text over a database, someone else describes it
| quite succinctly a little later)
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| Sure, it's no big deal and it's completely
| understandable. I just wouldn't characterise it as
| "incredibly polite".
|
| I think file system vs database storage is very much
| about trade-offs. Unfortunately the debate descends too
| quickly into who is right and who is wrong.
|
| It's always difficult for developers to talk to users who
| often really don't know what they are talking about. I
| know that very well.
|
| The only thing you can do as a developer (if you have
| time and patience) is to translate what users say into
| the closest thing that does make sense in terms of trade-
| offs.
|
| But nobody is always patient.
| darkwater wrote:
| I applause Laurent's answer. I'm so tired of self-
| entitled users that don't contribute anything and have no
| skin in the game and just complain "this should be done
| as I say because I'm smart". Yes, obviously sometimes
| maintainer can get something bad and a better solution is
| easily available, but as app complexity goes up, it's
| unfair (to not say naive or a worse word) for users
| assume that developers are clueless and hadn't thought
| about the problem space before taking the design
| decision.
| tovej wrote:
| Well, if what you need is a flat file system, the json-as-
| database approach that penx is taking isn't really an
| improvement.
|
| I'm interested in what advantages you have lost. Joplin
| allows you to export your entire notebook as a directory of
| markdown files (with front matter), and from a performance,
| reliability, and replication perspective, a database seems
| like a much better choice.
| Ringz wrote:
| I won a lot and didn't lose anything. Obsidian plus a few
| plugins beats Joplin on every level. And I can edit all
| notes without redundancy by exporting from a Joplin
| database with nvim, iA Writer, find, grep, cat and millions
| of other tools.
| PurpleRamen wrote:
| > Obsidian plus a few plugins beats Joplin on every
| level.
|
| Not really. Obsidian has its shares of problems too, and
| most of them originate from using Markdown. Markdown is a
| freeform text-format, and works very well for writing
| text, but it really sucks for data and structured
| content. Most plugins and features in that area are very
| brittle and overspecialized, working only well enough in
| their specific use case. And gosh, Obsidian has really a
| huge amount of plugins for data-handling. At some point,
| it was so bad that there were multiple competing task-
| plugins which broke each other just because they had
| different formatting for dates.
| rubslopes wrote:
| > And gosh, Obsidian has really a huge amount of plugins
| for data-handling. At some point, it was so bad that
| there were multiple competing task-plugins which broke
| each other just because they had different formatting for
| dates.
|
| Depends on how you see it. I think it's great that they
| have a free market of open-sourced plug-ins that you can
| donate to. I'm actually impressed of how rarely they
| break each other.
| Ringz wrote:
| Agree! See my next comment.
| Ringz wrote:
| > Not really. Obsidian has its shares of problems too,
| and most of them originate from using Markdown.
|
| Aha. Which problems do you mean?
|
| > Markdown is a freeform text-format, and works very well
| for writing text, but it really sucks for data and
| structured content.
|
| Joplin is using md to. And if Joplin does a good job on
| "data" and "structured content" (whatever you mean by
| that) by separating that in their DB, it's a big NO for
| me since it's a closed silo.
|
| This: https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview
| works so wonderful for me, and it never breaks anything
| in my simple md files.
|
| > Most plugins and features in that area are very brittle
| and overspecialized, working only well enough in their
| specific use case.
|
| Aha. I don't think so. Which authority says that? And
| even if It's like that, my markdown files would survive
| everything, since they are a) in git.
| https://github.com/denolehov/obsidian-git and b) easy to
| fix since it's a text file. Gosh!
|
| > And gosh, Obsidian has really a huge amount of plugins
| for data-handling.
|
| And gosh, this is a good thing!
|
| > At some point, it was so bad that there were multiple
| competing task-plugins which broke each other just
| because they had different formatting for dates.
|
| Installing multiple task plugins shows that something is
| "broke" on the user side. It's not the fault of Markdown
| or Obsidian.
|
| Just have a look on: https://github.com/ivan-
| lednev/obsidian-day-planner but you dont need a fancy
| task plugin like this, if you know your way around
| https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview or
| https://github.com/obsidian-tasks-group/obsidian-tasks
|
| Since the Ecosystem around Obsidian and pure Markdown,
| most of the time I stay in my browser
| https://github.com/deathau/markdownload and nvim
| https://github.com/epwalsh/obsidian.nvim
| PurpleRamen wrote:
| > Joplin is using md to.
|
| The way it's handled can make the difference in control.
|
| > by separating that in their DB, it's a big NO for me
| since it's a closed silo.
|
| Joplin is using a popular open database with a healthy
| community and good tooling. It's as open as markdown.
| Maybe not for you, when you lack the knowledge, but
| markdown is similar closed for anyone not understanding
| filesystems and editors.
|
| > This: https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview
| works so wonderful for me
|
| Good for you, but that is very low level in terms of
| data-handling. Dataview is really just an elaborated
| search, there is no good level of interaction. Datacore,
| the next project of the Dataview is supposed to bring
| this, but it's not even usable yet AFAIK. Coincidental,
| the Obsidian-devs are also working on that front, but
| nothing is finished yet.
|
| > https://github.com/denolehov/obsidian-git and b) easy
| to fix since it's a text file. Gosh!
|
| That's useless when the app itself is not working. And
| even worse if you are not realizing the errors early.
|
| > Aha. I don't think so. Which authority says that?
|
| My own experience. I've tested enough plugins over the
| years to know their dark corners.
|
| > And even if It's like that, my markdown files would
| survive everything
|
| The thing is, technically you are not even having proper
| markdown, but a fork with some extensions of Obsidian. So
| some features of your parts might break when switching
| away from Obsidian. And the reason for all this is also
| because markdown is lacking definitions for what
| obsidian-people are doing with it. Coincidentally, this
| seems also one of the reasons why Joplin is using a
| database.
|
| > And gosh, this is a good thing!
|
| Not if they all suck.
|
| > Installing multiple task plugins shows that something
| is "broke" on the user side.
|
| Sure, because the plugins are lacking features, its the
| users fault... Maybe some users have just very different
| levels of requirements from you.
| eviks wrote:
| The linked discussion also lists some huge limitations of the
| flat markdown file system, how did he discredit himself?
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| I loved the TinaCMS blog post on how they still use flat
| files as their source of truth, but have a level.js
| database that powers a bunch of their functionality.
| https://tina.io/blog/Tina-CMS--Leveljs/
|
| You can blow up the db & regenerate it very quickly. All
| the data is still flat files. But the advanced functions
| harvest & are derived from the source of truth. Seems like
| a perfect compromise.
|
| I haven't done it yet but I have a git-auto-cimmit project
| I intend to use with logseq, that'll help me better keep a
| record of changes over time. That ability to have a flat
| file source of truth feels hugely hugely empowering to me,
| and I have a hard time imagining having anything else.
| midtake wrote:
| The issue for me is that I don't want to run another web service
| just to take personal notes. I'll likely keep using Obsidian
| until I can find something else that is self-managed and "flat".
| 0xyz wrote:
| Currently, you can install it as a PWA app. when the web
| version is stable, I will develop a desktop app.
| atoav wrote:
| In which format are the notes stored? Many of us have been
| bitten by vendor lock in before, so we prefer our notes tobe
| in simple human readable formats that can also be read in 30
| years when your app (more likely than not) doesn't exist
| anymore.
| uxp8u61q wrote:
| If you expect that your notes will still be valuable in 30
| years, then you should probably migrate them to something
| other than a quick note taking app. If everything I wrote
| into onenote before eg last year disappeared right now, I
| wouldn't lose much sleep.
| atoav wrote:
| Why would I do that? I use only apps that use text files
| anyways. I am pretty confident I will be able to open
| them in 30 years.
| Sakos wrote:
| I even have files from 20+ years ago that I can open just
| fine, including notes.
|
| If you use something proprietary, then yeah, it might be
| difficult. But that doesn't stop us from asking whether
| something we're interested in using now uses data formats
| that would be easily readable in 20-30 years.
| atoav wrote:
| Exactly my point, then.
| Sakos wrote:
| I agree with you, I'm largely confused by the one who
| replied to you before.
| uxp8u61q wrote:
| My point is that I sincerely doubt that these notes will
| have any usefulness in 30 years.
| atoav wrote:
| Depends on which notes you take. I still have academic
| notes from 15 years ago that are useful.
| uxp8u61q wrote:
| I'm an academic. Any kind of note that I didn't migrate
| to a durable support from more than a year ago is
| basically gone.
| filchermcurr wrote:
| Situational, I suppose. I still have an active project
| that's not quite 30 years old (it's mid-20's) that I
| reference old notes for all the time.
|
| Actually... I reference a lot of notes from at least 20
| years ago. There is a lot that doesn't change, you
| forget, and is an instantaneous search away. I don't
| foresee this changing in the interim 10 years.
| FalconSensei wrote:
| If you are making notes about your life, memories, etc,
| you might want to revisit them years in the future, and
| not tomorrow
| eviks wrote:
| It's not a human readable format outside of simplistically
| formatted text, but even then the vendor locking is solved
| via exporting to that simplistic format so that you can
| easily do that when the app dies and you need to move to
| another one, no need for every app to suffer the
| limitations by choosing that as its internal data format
| adhamsalama wrote:
| Try SiYuan Note.
|
| It's a free and open source local-first of Notion+ Obsidian.
|
| https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan
| replygirl wrote:
| i wouldn't call completely broken on mobile a beta
| happytiger wrote:
| Yea it's pretty broke.
| 0xyz wrote:
| Sorry, It's not stable yet,but I am working on it
| cjbprime wrote:
| FWIW I need a Kanban board view from a note-taking app, am using
| extensions which add one to Obsidian and vscode.
| 0xyz wrote:
| I am working on the Kanban view now
| nivertech wrote:
| What are your typical workflow when you use Kanban extension in
| Obsidian vs the one in VSCode?
|
| Do you use the former to manager personal tasks, while the
| latter for coding tasks?
| cjbprime wrote:
| It's actually just that I'm in the process of moving from
| Obsidian to vscode in general. (Lack of a mobile version of
| vscode is a problem though!)
| nivertech wrote:
| Before finally settling on Obsidian I tried Foam extension
| for VSCode.
|
| I thought Foam would be great, b/c I already wrote lots of
| Markdown in VSCode, but Obsidian was much better for me.
| rubymamis wrote:
| I'm working on a new block editor that will have Kanban board
| supprt within your note[1].
|
| I already made a Kanban board for my previous note-taking app
| but it's in a different view[2][3].
|
| [1] https://www.get-plume.com/
|
| [2] https://rubymamistvalove.com/notes/kanban.mp4
|
| [3] https://www.get-notes.com/
| tovej wrote:
| Joplin's kanban plugin is quite nice:
|
| https://github.com/joplin/plugin-kanban
| saint11 wrote:
| This has definitely caught my attention. The fact that it's a web
| app that allows me to self-host it makes this a strong contender
| against Obsidian. Looks great too!
| astound473 wrote:
| This looks really similar to Logseq, are the notable differences?
| simonbw wrote:
| For me it seems like the _Previous Day_ and _Next Day_ buttons
| have an off-by-one error. _Next day_ keeps me on the same day and
| _Previous Day_ takes me back _2_ days.
| dathos wrote:
| It's even worse for me, already the first load is full of UI
| errors.
|
| - The splash screen asking me to install as PWA or to go to the
| web app is not hiding the app. Overlapping the text and
| confusing me - The buttons for the days don't work - The
| calendar selector is not working either
| nesarkvechnep wrote:
| Welcome to Node! This is one of the least buggy "apps".
| zero0529 wrote:
| Does it keep my folder structure and files as plain md? This is
| the biggest reason I still use obsidian. There is no vendor
| locking.
| vunderba wrote:
| Nice going. I've gone through quite the list of note taking tools
| from a bunch of unorganized text files, to Microsoft OneNote, to
| Evernote before it became a total pile of molten garbage, Logseq,
| and finally settled on Obsidian.
|
| There's a healthy ecosystem of plug-ins, searching is highly
| performant, all of my files are just structured in folders as
| markdown files so there's zero vendor lock-in, has a very good
| mobile app, and I use git for easy sync / versioning.
|
| The only downside is that it's not open source.
| szszrk wrote:
| What you disliked about Logseq? Are you good at self-organizing
| (were you before)?
|
| While the initial experience is super confusing and I barely
| knew what that tool is supposed to do, later on it turned out
| to be the first tool that helped me keep some structure in my
| notes.
|
| I love note taking but I'm horrible at it, chaotic and
| inconsistent. Daily notes plus the way logseq easily links
| articles gave me some decent notes. I even left those to my
| colleagues when I switched jobs and even plain markdown files
| were useful for them.
| bayindirh wrote:
| Logseq is "Everything plus the kitchen sink" when compared to
| Obsidian out of the box.
|
| For me, I already have a daily planning and project
| management tool, and it's called Pagico. What I needed is a
| note taking application. Simple, down to earth, knowledge
| base. A successor to Zim wiki, I may say.
|
| That thing is Obsidian. I tried to resist to moving it for so
| long because it's closed source, but it creates value and
| extracts structure and knowledge from your Markdown files,
| locally and super-fast, without bogging you down.
|
| Also, logseq's webpage is very ambiguous. Tons of promises,
| no screenshots, you enter the live demo, it looks like a
| simple web page.
|
| In short, Logseq feels too big, feels too hard to start with,
| and demands too much at the first impression. If failed to
| get me, and I failed to get it.
| arbitrandomuser wrote:
| I hate it that all their explanations are videos and not
| articles I can read
| Al-Khwarizmi wrote:
| In which way does Obsidian "create value and extract
| structure and knowledge from your Markdown files"?
|
| I tried it a few months ago because of all the hype, and
| from a quick try I didn't see anything useful that my
| current choice (Joplin) didn't have, but from what you are
| saying, maybe I didn't try for long enough?
|
| I like Joplin, one of its strong points being that it's
| open source, but I'd be willing to switch if an alternative
| really adds value.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I like Obsidian on the Desktop and not much on the phone
| where I like iA Writer. As I manage the files and synced,
| I can use anything to access the files. I can use iA
| Writer on the Mobile and still access my files, while I
| edit that on Obsidian on the Desktop. Sometimes, I just
| open the whole folder in Sublime Text and start editing
| it or use Draw/Excalidraw to work on something. Obsidian
| being the primary but I'm not limited.
|
| My reasoning is to approach contents as data-first with
| tools on the top. Obsidian happens to be one such
| brilliant tool for now.
| bayindirh wrote:
| iA writer is a great tool for focused writing. I use it
| for authoring my blog posts, and it's "filler detection"
| does wonders.
| bayindirh wrote:
| > In which way does Obsidian "create value and extract
| structure and knowledge from your Markdown files"?
|
| It's search is extremely fast, plus with a bit of
| metadata, you can pack tons of information into a
| standard markdown file.
|
| Moreover, when you start to add more and more knowledge,
| you start to connect notes to each other, which creates a
| Zettelkasten-like connected notes web. I write gigantic
| notes generally, but even they have connections, and
| again the searching for linking is so instant, you can
| write at the speed of thought.
|
| I have a simple tree note organization scheme, and
| Obsidian can handle it extremely well, plus files are
| open on the filesystem. I can unleash another tool on top
| of that file tree, if I want to edit or analyze them.
|
| I still use Evernote for some personal notes, and Joplin
| is just the same thing, and its limitations on file/note
| organization is very limiting for my needs.
|
| Lastly, Obsidian vaults are completely isolated from each
| other, so the vault which I manage my small digital
| garden is completely isolated from my work vault. They
| are on different places, sycned differently, can have
| different plugins, etc. This is a very nice feature.
|
| TL;DR: Obsidian is a pure "knowledge/documentation"
| management tool and allows for creation at the speed of
| thought. It's unobtrusive and Markdown metadata is
| extremely powerful. Also leveraging internote-connections
| supercharges Obsidian.
| deafpolygon wrote:
| > Zettelkasten-like connected notes web
|
| ZK isn't a notes web or anything like that. Just because
| it can replicate some of the ZK 'methodology' doesn't
| mean it's Zettelkasten-like.
|
| It's a wiki-like connected notes application.
| bayindirh wrote:
| I have neither said it replicates ZK nor I use it as a ZK
| tool. It's wiki-like, yes, and ZK is not a simple "web of
| notes". However Obsidian's management of notes and links
| make it more advanced than a simple Wiki-Like
| application.
|
| It's less linear than a Zim Wiki like desktop wiki, but
| more linear than a "cloud of floating notes" approach of
| TiddlyWiki.
| utybo wrote:
| Logseq is great, but I definitely agree that everything
| around it (docs, website, ...) is terrible. They really
| need to rework their marketing pitch and give proper docs.
| Right now you have docs scattered across 3 websites, and
| the only useful one is made in Logseq itself, which isn't a
| good system for scaling documentation.
| kirso wrote:
| The sad part is that the tool is really underrated.
|
| You don't need to even think where to put notes.
|
| All that overwhelm that all the folks are speaking about,
| just start writing in your daily page, when you look back
| -> you have a clear link.
|
| It actually kills ambiguity without having folders and
| having too much un-needed structure (obviously use-case
| varies).
|
| Logseq doesn't need plugins because a lot of it is
| already in-built (tasks, block-references, in-built
| queries).
|
| It reminds me of the discussion when people praise
| Next.js for all the packages, and ecosystem but its not a
| feature, there is a reason people building these.
| bayindirh wrote:
| I think an application's usefulness depends on how much
| you align with its design and mindset it brings to the
| table.
|
| For some people, stuffing pages into a notebook (a-la
| Evernote/Joplin) is fine. I use Evernote, and it's fine
| for most things.
|
| However when things start to get crowded, this model
| breaks down. I also don't like shoving things into an
| application and meta-sort it with tags and whatnot. I
| like structured work, because I can put clutter aside in
| the structure and focus on what I'm working on.
|
| Also, having the files as plain Markdown files is a plus
| for me, even if it doesn't have the block references. As
| I already said, I need Obsidian for document and knowhow
| management, and glorified text files are _what I exactly
| want_.
| sciurus wrote:
| > In short, Logseq feels too big, feels too hard to start
| with, and demands too much at the first impression. If
| failed to get me, and I failed to get it.
|
| This is interesting, because it wasn't my experience at
| all. I migrated from Roam to Logseq after I realized I
| didn't use enough of the fancier features to justify the
| price. Basically I open Logseq, take notes in my daily
| journal, and tag blocks so that I can easily pull them up
| by topic/person/etc later. That's all it took for me to get
| started, and also as far as I've felt the need to go. For
| better or worse I have no idea what other "kitchen sink"
| features it has.
| bayindirh wrote:
| I think, because the reason is what we want from our
| tools is different. I already use a much sophisticated
| tool for my tasks, and project planning (Pagico), and
| what I want is a bona fide desktop wiki which I want to
| store my technical research and howto docs (and share
| them in my digital garden).
|
| This is what Obsidian is. If I wanted something to
| organize my tasks and other things, I'd take a much
| different route.
|
| What I'm aiming to get is akin to these: [0] & [1]
|
| [0]: https://nick-black.com/dankwiki/index.php/Hack_on
|
| [1]: https://notes.joschua.io/
| Sander3Utile wrote:
| Hey I follow that first guy on Goodreads. Good taste in
| book he has.
| codethief wrote:
| > What you disliked about Logseq?
|
| For me it was the fact that it's a pure outliner and I
| couldn't write free-form text. Everything had to be list.
| Roark66 wrote:
| >Evernote
|
| I _still_ have some notes in Evernote. Imagine my surprise when
| I logged in after maybe a year of not using it and now search
| in text notes is not working unless "you upgrade". WTF?
|
| The only good feature of everyone now is that it's easy to
| export ones notes (I hope that still works).
|
| (about Obsidian) >The only downside is that it's not open
| source
|
| Indeed, but a saving grace is that it can just store in a bunch
| of text files you can use any editor with. Some editors
| (neovim/emacs I think) have plugins to read/write obsidian's
| notes properly.
| viddo wrote:
| FWIW, I exported all my Evernote notebooks just recently from
| my old free account. Used
| https://github.com/akosbalasko/yarle to convert them to
| Markdown. It also has support for various PKB formats, like
| Obsidian. Hope that helps!
| rubslopes wrote:
| It got worse: 3 weeks ago Evernote announced that their free
| version will be limited to 50 notes
|
| https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23981683/evernote-
| limit-...
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| Wow! This is me. I'm not worried about the open-source part
| because, as you mentioned, we own the files and their
| organization. I will just walk out and still have everything I
| need with me.
|
| I'm kinda pretty well organized. If you wake me up in the
| middle of my slumber, I can tell you where I have kept
| something with a series of steps to make it easy for you to
| find. Even if not precise at times, I will have a way via a
| general direction. So, this works for something like Obsidian
| and will only work for things I know how the underlying things
| are organized.
|
| This is also why I lost Logseg - it was too smart for me and my
| ways.
| gexla wrote:
| Same, and it took some months before the plugin ecosystem got
| to the point where I found it useful. I don't think I would go
| through that with another note taking app. And it would be
| difficult for another app to create such a big ecosystem.
| Vingdoloras wrote:
| How does Obsidian's text editing experience compare to VSCode?
| I'm using VSC for everything at the moment, which includes a
| workspace roughly structured into GTD categories via
| subfolders, filled with markdown documents. The only thing that
| keeps me curious about Obsidian is the note linking/network
| visualization and features related to that. But I'm so used to
| having dev tool levels of text editing available in VSC that I
| can't bring myself to try switching Obsidian.
| jddj wrote:
| Same here, but other side of the chasm.
|
| I use logseq for note keeping but I just want the text
| editing experience of vs code.
|
| I'm not sure why they all roll their own editor. Can't it be
| a plugin?
| creesch wrote:
| Fyi, if you are ever looking for a fun project you might be
| able to implement this. The vscode editor source is
| available as a library https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-
| editor/
| ParetoOptimal wrote:
| Seeing vscode users want their knowledge base in their
| editor makes me think of the parallel to emacs users.
| creesch wrote:
| I think you might be confusing the two different meanings
| of editor here.
|
| 1. Editor as in a complete program that is VScode and
| everything it entails.
|
| 2. Editor as in the actual text editing experience with
| syntax highlighting, code completion, etc.
|
| You are likely thinking about the first type. Where the
| person you respond to is talking about the second one.
| The experience of editing markdown in VScode is a very
| pleasant one so I can see why people would want that
| editing experience in other markdown based note apps.
| mratsim wrote:
| I tried Dendron, and I preferred to have a fully separate
| editor.
|
| This way I context switch completely away from code.
|
| Also it annoying to swap workspaces and keep the up.
| jddj wrote:
| Thanks for this, I'll give it a go.
|
| I can see how having the environment be at least
| cosmetically different might help though. I feel like
| there must be a good enough solution to that, I'll have a
| poke around
| PurpleRamen wrote:
| > I'm not sure why they all roll their own editor. Can't it
| be a plugin?
|
| There are multiple reason, like editors having too much of
| their own baggage, or not being meant to be used as a
| foundation for a mature app. But I guess mainly it's a
| matter of licensing, and building your own editing-
| experience.
|
| VS Code is for plaintext, while obsidian has deep rich-
| text-handling. It's probably not that easy to combine both
| flawless and still supporting all the plaintext-editing.
| jmhammond wrote:
| In Logseq, you can open the current note in the default
| system editor - I do this for long form note taking (in my
| case in emacs) but everything is back in the Logseq graph
| for connection and search and all its syncing goodies.
| tuffff wrote:
| There is a Vim plugin for Obsidian, so for me the editing is
| pretty similar. And I guess it's a good indicator that a
| plugin for your taste may also exist.
|
| For actual coffee editing, there is also
| https://github.com/sunxvming/obsidian-vscode-editor
| NicuCalcea wrote:
| You should have a look at Foam:
| https://github.com/foambubble/foam
| 2shortplanks wrote:
| That's actually one of the main reasons I like Obsidian -
| that I can easily use vscode with it. Obsidian's backend is
| just markdown files on the file system which you're free to
| edit with another editor at the same time as you have
| Obsidian open (it'll notice file system changes and update
| any open documents near instantly). I even have a plugin
| setup that when I hit a keyboard shortcut it executes the
| necessary vscode command line tool to open whatever I'm
| viewing in obsidian in vscode.
| adhamsalama wrote:
| Try SiYuan Note. It's free and open source local-first mix of
| Notion and Obsidian.
|
| https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan
| canoebuilder wrote:
| Are you(or anybody) using the Obsidian iOS mobile app with git
| for sync/versioning? Is that possible?
| aiisjustanif wrote:
| Weird that people find Obsidian before Joplin
| DeathArrow wrote:
| Is there a free, cross platform note taking app (mobile, PC, Mac)
| that allows you to save on cloud and sync?
| bobmaxup wrote:
| Joplin
| anticrymactic wrote:
| Obsidian + Syncthing
| poulpy123 wrote:
| I found syncthing lost severals of my changes . I settled on
| the live sync plugin and for the moment it works nicely
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| How did Syncthing lost your changes? Are you talking about
| versions or the sync? I'm gradually transitioning to
| Syncthing for a lot of stuffs and I want to be prepared.
| poulpy123 wrote:
| I lost changes that I made on one device. To be fair it
| was probably a mistake on my side, but I didn't notice
| how it happened so I prefered look elsewhere for a sync
| solution for obsidian.
| remram wrote:
| Thanks for the pointer!
|
| https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync: self-hostable
| sync via CouchDB, MIT license, supports the visual conflict
| resolver and end-to-end encryption.
| poulpy123 wrote:
| I'm using a free hosting by IBM, the set up is decribed
| in the plug in github, so it was easy
| RockstarSprain wrote:
| Simplenote.
| codingpanga wrote:
| This is nice. But, how this is different from Joplin?
|
| Any comparison?
| baq wrote:
| I've been using Dendron on vscode with some success:
| https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dendron....
| bachmeier wrote:
| Dendron development stopped about a year ago:
| https://github.com/dendronhq/dendron/discussions/3890#discus...
| baq wrote:
| Oh.
|
| Well, at least it isn't cloud software.
| tarcon wrote:
| Don't put any real data in the hosted demo. The database
| credentials are leaked in the .env file.
| mdaniel wrote:
| I especially enjoyed the header saying ".env is .gitignored"
| https://github.com/penxio/penx/blob/main/.env#L1
| sphars wrote:
| Apparently that's for development, the deployed production
| version is using a separate database:
| https://github.com/penxio/penx/issues/20#issuecomment-186770...
| account-5 wrote:
| Unless I'm missing something obviously, quite likely, I can't see
| how the notes are structured. Screenshots would be nice.
|
| Why would I use this over sonething like zim-wiki? Admittedly
| there is no mobile client but in a pinch I use markor for that.
| vrnvu wrote:
| If you visit the website, there is a demo: https://www.penx.io/
| swah wrote:
| Looks good, but cmd+a test failed ;)
| Der_Einzige wrote:
| The best note taking app ever made by far is called verbatim and
| was built originally for the competitive debate community. It's
| so good that people who watched me use it in college were jealous
| at the power it enables within Microsoft word for structured
| notes.
|
| https://paperlessdebate.com/verbatim/
| remram wrote:
| Why do you think so?
|
| Does it sync between devices? Does it work on mobile at all?
| kseistrup wrote:
| It seems to be for Windows and Mac only, right?
| replwoacause wrote:
| Honestly difficult to tell what it even does
| isodev wrote:
| Say I'm already using Obsidian, what would be some cool features
| it can add to my workflow?
|
| Side note: "Privacy first" but then "Login with Google" :)
| tovej wrote:
| It seems like this tool is creating a hierarchical document
| database, it reminds me of XML, but it's json! (or serializes to
| json at the very least)
|
| I don't know what to make of this. I do like the fact that it's a
| tree, and you can sort of create a document-like hierarchy. The
| issue with enforced hierarchies is that you now have to find a
| spot in this arbitrary tree structure for every note you take.
|
| It's also a little jarring that list items are treated in the
| same way that two articles would be. I'm not sure I like that.
| Lists are a useful readability tool, but articles and chapters
| are semantic partitioning concepts. I get a little bit of a weird
| feeling when this is the only representation of the note set
| that's available. And it feels like cross-referenced notes might
| be difficult to represent.
|
| I do like the representation from a minimap perspective, and it's
| making me think that maybe the best solution is to use this tree-
| view as a UI model rather than a canonical representation.
| linhns wrote:
| Looks cool. My suggestion would be to change your color from
| purple as it seems ripped off from Obsidian.
| smusamashah wrote:
| This looks very similar to Logseq. I would go as far as calling
| it a clone because the main page looks almost exactly the same.
| Logseq has matured a lot over the years, what is PenX doing
| better than Logseq? From the demo it feels like it's still behind
| Logseq a lot.
| manyty wrote:
| +1 and curious, too
|
| I would go further than that also. It directly mirrors
| https://anytype.io/ but without the desktop or mobile clients
| to actually store the workspace on your device.
| hellectronic wrote:
| For me it is important to have effective note taking and
| management. I tried a lot of note taking apps myself and I am not
| satisfied with the ones I tried. Even unsuccessful planed and
| tried to write one myself : ) I used zim-wiki[1] in the past and
| at the moment I am using Obsidian[2], that is working good for
| me.
|
| I like the way you use to take notes. I know it from Workflowy
| [3].
|
| Everyone has some personal approach and use cases for taking
| notes. From taking only notes for a grocery list to a full-
| fledged personal wiki system. And it is important to figure out
| what PND (pain/need/desire) your application should really
| satisfy.
|
| [1] https://zim-wiki.org
|
| [2] https://obsidian.md
|
| [3] https://workflowy.com
| jbverschoor wrote:
| For me it's obsidian and noteplan.
| redleader55 wrote:
| I wonder what's the use for this "https://explorer-
| api.walletconnect.com/w3m/v1/getAssetImage/..." which fails to
| load on my Firefox.
| southernplaces7 wrote:
| The fundamental question for me is about privacy. Good, well-
| created note-taking apps abound these days, but few really
| promise and deliver solid privacy that even their creators cant
| breach. One need not be taking notes on "howz to makez bombez
| 101" to value nobody being able to snoop their notes at will.
| codemusings wrote:
| Nothing fishy at all about wanting to connect to
| _walletconnect.com_
| berkes wrote:
| I usually don't like the hate on everything cryptocurrency or
| web3. But I cannot see nor understand why it would be needed
| here.
|
| IPFS maybe?
| gtirloni wrote:
| Tangential question: I see you chose the AGPL license.
| Coincidentally, I was reading more about it yesterday and it
| seems like a good choice for software that can be hosted. Could
| you share your decision process on what or any insights you might
| have?
| vdo1138 wrote:
| Nice but, does a note taking app with 3 contributors need a
| Discord?
| CrypticShift wrote:
| This is what I call an outliner-database hybrid. FYI, many note-
| taking apps are going in this direction.
|
| - Tana.inc (closed alpha) introduced the concept of supertags
| [1], equivalent to what this app calls meta tags
|
| - Remnote.com also added editable tables [2] to its outlines not
| long ago (only in the paid version).
|
| - Logseq.com is planning such an addition soon.
|
| It is a powerful combo because it combines two very primary ways
| of interacting with data: the tree (outliner) mode and the grid
| (table/DB) mode.
|
| So for me, this could be an alternative to logseq as OSS/local.
| It seems promising, I hope it will continue to grow.
|
| [1] https://tana.inc/docs/supertags [2]
| https://help.remnote.com/en/articles/8118336-tables
| swah wrote:
| Capacities too. But I feel like Notion is easier to maintain in
| the end and has the databases with linked records and you can
| do lots of stuff with that... not sure why Notion gets so much
| hate.
| CrypticShift wrote:
| Yeah, they both have DBs, and you can kind of outline inside
| pages. The difference is that, technically, in a "real
| outliner", each "node" (or line) is (by default) a different
| entry in the database, whereas in page-based apps
| (Capacities/Notion), it is the whole page.
|
| Capacities is partially going in this direction. Notion, less
| so, but it is simple and advanced (linked records...) and
| hence a favorite of mine too.
| albert_e wrote:
| Is there a similar tool that allows pasting of images and
| uploading of files --- that I can self host on say AWS and use S3
| for storage and hosting?
| bradley13 wrote:
| I look at these apps occasionally, and I've even tried a few of
| them. In the end, I find them to just be overkill. Give me a
| simple text editor, and I put the text files where the
| information belongs.
|
| Using fancy apps, where you can do formatting, place links, etc?
| I spend too much time futzing with all that stuff and less time
| actually getting stuff done.
| Aicy wrote:
| I spent lots of time with notion and obsidian and this is what
| I came to as well.
|
| What I do now is have markdown files, and use the OS folder
| system for organising. I then use OneDrive for syncing - this
| works perfectly fine between MacOS and Windows, and for both I
| use Visual Studio Code for editing. For android I use an app
| called FolderSync to sync and TMarkor for editing.
|
| Has been working perfectly for over a year now.
| mejutoco wrote:
| Obsidian also uses markdown files, so you could have stayed
| with it and backup the folders normally, if you do not want
| to pay for the syncing.
| stack_underflow wrote:
| Just curious, any reason you're using TMarkor instead of
| Markor? (https://github.com/gsantner/markor/ , https://play.g
| oogle.com/store/apps/details?id=net.gsantner.m...)
|
| Only asking since this was also the editor I ended up
| settling on in Android, but it seems like TMarkor is just a
| repackaging of Markor without any references to its forked(?)
| source.
|
| My requirement was that the editor had to be open source so
| that I could audit the repo and compile the APK from source,
| as well as potentially fork it for personal modifications if
| needed.
| purplecats wrote:
| taskpaper is my go to for this
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