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I've given up on using any sort of branded app for notetaking. At best it's open source and the maintainers will lose interest in a few years. When you write t

I've given up on using any sort of branded app for notetaking. At best it's open source and the maintainers will lose interest in a few years. When you write things down, you're investing in your future. It's silly to use software that isn't making that same investment. After trying Evernote, wikis, org-mode, and essentially everything else I could find, I gave up and tried building my own system for notes. Plain timestamped markdown files linked together. Edited with vim and a few bash scripts, rendered with a custom deployment of Gollum. All in a git repo. It's... wonderful. Surprisingly easy. Fast. If there's a feature I wish it had, I can write a quick bash script to implement it. If Gollum stops being maintained, I can use whatever the next best markdown renderer is. Markdown isn't going away anytime soon. It's liberating to be in control. I find myself more eager to write things down. I'm surprised more people don't do the same. Edit: here's what my system looks like https://imgur.com/a/nGplj https://imgur.com/a/nGplj

rolandog 9y ago
I've been window shopping for something similar to Tomboy notes. This seems like a nice compromise. Thanks for sharing.
endlessvoid94 9y ago
How do you create/edit notes on mobile?
- zachlatta 9y ago
  Apologies for the poor Imgur formatting, but like this: https://imgur.com/a/nGplj https://imgur.com/a/nGplj I use a Mosh client for iOS called Blink to connect to a tmux session on my personal server. I do the same thing to edit on desktop, just from a larger screen.
bitexploder 9y ago
Org mode in a git repo. Easy enough. Don't need a fussy rendering step. Generate a PDF or HTML from org. Regardless of how you do it -- plain text will endure and using git makes it really simple. Markdown can never "go away" and neither can org files. They are inherently readable with cat and the naked eye. If I can't legibly read it with cat / less it will eventually leave me disappointed in some way.
- zachlatta 9y ago
  org-mode's format sucks, is only partially supported outside of Emacs, and is on its way out. org-mode is only any good if you're using the full power of it (tasks, agenda, etc), which is buying into a system that's soon going away.
  - dasyatidprime 9y ago
    How do you mean “on its way out”? Do you just mean that people searching for new organizational software nowadays are decreasingly likely to choose it?
    - zachlatta 9y ago
      Yes and for a piece of software that heavily relies on its ecosystem, you want the ecosystem to be vibrant in 10 years from now.
      - unhammer 9y ago
        I've been using pretty much the same features from org-mode now that I used when I first started using it at least 11 years ago (actually, probably using even fewer features now, in the beginning I would export things, but these days I rarely see the need). All my notes still work, and are still plain text, and still don't rely on any "ecosystem", just Emacs and git.
      - s_kilk 9y ago
        Emacs and org-mode will still be here (along with the armoured cockroaches) long after we're all gone. In fact, I have more faith in the longevity of emacs than I do of Android or iOS, or Evernote/OneNote for that matter.
        tripzilch 9y ago
        well, without any extra information, the expected future lifetime of a thing is proportional (equal, actually) to its lifetime so far. therefore, yes, it's perfectly sensible to expect Emacs to last longer :)
nlawalker 9y ago
I tried to do this, but I missed a lot of the convenient features and flexibility of OneNote too much and made my way back to it. OneNote is proprietary, with a proprietary file format, but at least it's "self hosted" (your notes live in concrete files you control, not in a service), and it's got a lot of nice features that make it a joy to use.
- jxramos 9y ago
  I've been curious about entering into OneNote. I liked the brief experience I had using the Android app. I've been using Google Keep, but I hit a tag limit (50 tags max) that really soured my taste for it since I write about so many different subjects I'd like arbitrary tagging. I need to learn more about the organizing structure OneNote permits.
  - dade_ 9y ago
    I like OneNote and have used it for many years, but I have started running into "this section is corrupted" since I tried using the android app. The iOS app is very good, but the android app is buggy, slow, sometimes won't load pages and other times won't start. So I stopped using it, and guess what? No more corrupted pages for over a month. Be aware that the files are also proprietary and I only know of manual ways to migrate away. I am still looking for another option.
    - scabbertron 9y ago
      > Be aware that the files are also proprietary Actually the file format specification for OneNote [MS-ONE] is open: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd924743(v=office.12).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd924743(v=office.1...
      - dade_ 9y ago
        Thank you. Are you aware of any program that exists or is under development that can import the file format or access the data stored in a notebook? I have never found one and did assume the spec was closed.
lowleveldesign 9y ago
I have also used markdown files in git for quite some time. When I was running Windows 7, I added my notes folder to the Document library and was able to search my notes from the start menu - that was really great. But then Windows search got broken in Windows 8+ and I started looking for alternatives. I played with OneNote for a while, but missed VIM key bindings, markdown and easy online access to my notes (OneNote online editor is quite heavy). About two months ago I switched to a private Wordpress and till now I am really happy: full-text search works like a charm, I can tag my notes, use markdown (even with Latex expressions) and for cheat sheets (or field notes) I use pages.
sasvari 9y ago
did you have a look at vimwiki [0]? it has a diary function with plain timestamped markdown files. [0] https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki
eugeneionesco 9y ago
I'm curious what you don't like about Evernote, I personally love it.
kovek 9y ago
What terminal are you using on iOS?
zmmz 9y ago
For those who want a very similar setup but don't mind the risk of a vim-plugin going unmaintained, I can highly recommend vimwiki. Its a very simple markdown based wiki all within vim. A few features that I find particularly good: - a 'diary' function that allows you to make a page per day. Vimwiki then produces an index page of all diary entries. - you can go to your wiki anytime from within vim with a command ( <leader>ww ) - vimwiki can generate html files from yout wiki files - the coolest thing in my opinon: since the whole thing is just markdown, I actually just use vimwiki as my personal website hosted on github pages. You just have to add some Jekyll related files and github can process everything else as is. A small note on obselescence: I actually don't even know if vimwiki is in active development anymore. Haven't bothered updating it in maybe 4 years and it works fine. So maybe its fine to not roll your own.
- skierscott 9y ago
  +1 for vimwiki, though I mostly use it for the diary shortcut (<leader>w<leader>w). I also use it in conjunction with gollum, which works nicely (gives search, live editing, etc).
- dyates 9y ago
  +1 for vimwiki. I use it for everything, from taking notes and todo lists to writing blogposts. The wiki format just works so well with my brain. My favourite features are nested syntax (highlighting for codeblocks in any language vim has highlighting for) >since the whole thing is just markdown I was going to write a complaint about how vimwiki uses its own markup language instead of Markdown, but I looked in the help file to be sure and now I you can set it to use Markdown or even Mediawiki instead (vimwiki-option-syntax). I like it even more now!
binaryanomaly 9y ago
I ended up with dropbox paper for now. It has quite a few useful capabilities, markdown syntax, ... and of course dropbox integration. On PCs you use the quite good web client and for iOS there's apps. Of all the options I found it the best for now even though it is still a compromise.
hearwa 9y ago
Is that android? If so what keyboard is that?
- hk__2 9y ago
  It appears like iOS to me.
harrygeez 9y ago
I like your effort and all but honestly the last thing I want to do on a phone is to use a command line on it. It's just not cut out for the job
- skierscott 9y ago
  Command line isn't really necessary. I have a similar setup (gollum wiki on Dropbox) and I only need a text editor to edit files, and there's tons of mobile text editors that hook up with Dropbox.
kayoone 9y ago
I use Onenote a lot for handwritten notes and also web clipping, and even for typing its fine and has been around long enough that i don't really worry about it going anywhere. Since it's included in the Office365 subscription and on all major platforms, i prefer it to Evernote. It isn't perfect, but for a complex tool like this it is immensely useful.
onthetrain 9y ago
Sounds like vimwiki.
mynegation 9y ago
Same here and for mobile access I use "Notebooks" [1] iOS app via WebDAV sync. [1] https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/notebooks-all-your-documents-files-and-tasks/id780438662?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/notebooks-all-your-documents...
JankyTurtle 9y ago
Any chance you have a blog post referencing more of this? I have gone the way of markdown + git + vim a few years ago but your model seems a bit more hierarchical and organized.

rolandog 9y ago

I've been window shopping for something similar to Tomboy notes. This seems like a nice compromise. Thanks for sharing.

endlessvoid94 9y ago

How do you create/edit notes on mobile?

zachlatta 9y ago
Apologies for the poor Imgur formatting, but like this: https://imgur.com/a/nGplj https://imgur.com/a/nGplj I use a Mosh client for iOS called Blink to connect to a tmux session on my personal server. I do the same thing to edit on desktop, just from a larger screen.

bitexploder 9y ago

Org mode in a git repo. Easy enough. Don't need a fussy rendering step. Generate a PDF or HTML from org. Regardless of how you do it -- plain text will endure and using git makes it really simple. Markdown can never "go away" and neither can org files. They are inherently readable with cat and the naked eye. If I can't legibly read it with cat / less it will eventually leave me disappointed in some way.

zachlatta 9y ago
org-mode's format sucks, is only partially supported outside of Emacs, and is on its way out. org-mode is only any good if you're using the full power of it (tasks, agenda, etc), which is buying into a system that's soon going away.
- dasyatidprime 9y ago
  How do you mean “on its way out”? Do you just mean that people searching for new organizational software nowadays are decreasingly likely to choose it?
  - zachlatta 9y ago
    Yes and for a piece of software that heavily relies on its ecosystem, you want the ecosystem to be vibrant in 10 years from now.
    - unhammer 9y ago
      I've been using pretty much the same features from org-mode now that I used when I first started using it at least 11 years ago (actually, probably using even fewer features now, in the beginning I would export things, but these days I rarely see the need). All my notes still work, and are still plain text, and still don't rely on any "ecosystem", just Emacs and git.
    - s_kilk 9y ago
      Emacs and org-mode will still be here (along with the armoured cockroaches) long after we're all gone. In fact, I have more faith in the longevity of emacs than I do of Android or iOS, or Evernote/OneNote for that matter.
      - tripzilch 9y ago
        well, without any extra information, the expected future lifetime of a thing is proportional (equal, actually) to its lifetime so far. therefore, yes, it's perfectly sensible to expect Emacs to last longer :)

nlawalker 9y ago

I tried to do this, but I missed a lot of the convenient features and flexibility of OneNote too much and made my way back to it. OneNote is proprietary, with a proprietary file format, but at least it's "self hosted" (your notes live in concrete files you control, not in a service), and it's got a lot of nice features that make it a joy to use.

jxramos 9y ago
I've been curious about entering into OneNote. I liked the brief experience I had using the Android app. I've been using Google Keep, but I hit a tag limit (50 tags max) that really soured my taste for it since I write about so many different subjects I'd like arbitrary tagging. I need to learn more about the organizing structure OneNote permits.
- dade_ 9y ago
  I like OneNote and have used it for many years, but I have started running into "this section is corrupted" since I tried using the android app. The iOS app is very good, but the android app is buggy, slow, sometimes won't load pages and other times won't start. So I stopped using it, and guess what? No more corrupted pages for over a month. Be aware that the files are also proprietary and I only know of manual ways to migrate away. I am still looking for another option.
  - scabbertron 9y ago
    > Be aware that the files are also proprietary Actually the file format specification for OneNote [MS-ONE] is open: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd924743(v=office.12).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd924743(v=office.1...
    - dade_ 9y ago
      Thank you. Are you aware of any program that exists or is under development that can import the file format or access the data stored in a notebook? I have never found one and did assume the spec was closed.

lowleveldesign 9y ago

I have also used markdown files in git for quite some time. When I was running Windows 7, I added my notes folder to the Document library and was able to search my notes from the start menu - that was really great. But then Windows search got broken in Windows 8+ and I started looking for alternatives. I played with OneNote for a while, but missed VIM key bindings, markdown and easy online access to my notes (OneNote online editor is quite heavy). About two months ago I switched to a private Wordpress and till now I am really happy: full-text search works like a charm, I can tag my notes, use markdown (even with Latex expressions) and for cheat sheets (or field notes) I use pages.

sasvari 9y ago

did you have a look at vimwiki [0]? it has a diary function with plain timestamped markdown files. [0] https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki

eugeneionesco 9y ago

I'm curious what you don't like about Evernote, I personally love it.

kovek 9y ago

What terminal are you using on iOS?

zmmz 9y ago

For those who want a very similar setup but don't mind the risk of a vim-plugin going unmaintained, I can highly recommend vimwiki. Its a very simple markdown based wiki all within vim. A few features that I find particularly good: - a 'diary' function that allows you to make a page per day. Vimwiki then produces an index page of all diary entries. - you can go to your wiki anytime from within vim with a command ( <leader>ww ) - vimwiki can generate html files from yout wiki files - the coolest thing in my opinon: since the whole thing is just markdown, I actually just use vimwiki as my personal website hosted on github pages. You just have to add some Jekyll related files and github can process everything else as is. A small note on obselescence: I actually don't even know if vimwiki is in active development anymore. Haven't bothered updating it in maybe 4 years and it works fine. So maybe its fine to not roll your own.

skierscott 9y ago
+1 for vimwiki, though I mostly use it for the diary shortcut (<leader>w<leader>w). I also use it in conjunction with gollum, which works nicely (gives search, live editing, etc).
dyates 9y ago
+1 for vimwiki. I use it for everything, from taking notes and todo lists to writing blogposts. The wiki format just works so well with my brain. My favourite features are nested syntax (highlighting for codeblocks in any language vim has highlighting for) >since the whole thing is just markdown I was going to write a complaint about how vimwiki uses its own markup language instead of Markdown, but I looked in the help file to be sure and now I you can set it to use Markdown or even Mediawiki instead (vimwiki-option-syntax). I like it even more now!

binaryanomaly 9y ago

I ended up with dropbox paper for now. It has quite a few useful capabilities, markdown syntax, ... and of course dropbox integration. On PCs you use the quite good web client and for iOS there's apps. Of all the options I found it the best for now even though it is still a compromise.

hearwa 9y ago

Is that android? If so what keyboard is that?

hk__2 9y ago
It appears like iOS to me.

harrygeez 9y ago

I like your effort and all but honestly the last thing I want to do on a phone is to use a command line on it. It's just not cut out for the job

skierscott 9y ago
Command line isn't really necessary. I have a similar setup (gollum wiki on Dropbox) and I only need a text editor to edit files, and there's tons of mobile text editors that hook up with Dropbox.

kayoone 9y ago

I use Onenote a lot for handwritten notes and also web clipping, and even for typing its fine and has been around long enough that i don't really worry about it going anywhere. Since it's included in the Office365 subscription and on all major platforms, i prefer it to Evernote. It isn't perfect, but for a complex tool like this it is immensely useful.

onthetrain 9y ago

Sounds like vimwiki.

mynegation 9y ago

Same here and for mobile access I use "Notebooks" [1] iOS app via WebDAV sync. [1] https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/notebooks-all-your-documents-files-and-tasks/id780438662?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/notebooks-all-your-documents...

JankyTurtle 9y ago

Any chance you have a blog post referencing more of this? I have gone the way of markdown + git + vim a few years ago but your model seems a bit more hierarchical and organized.