10 ms·

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 th

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, Workflowy, Notion, 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 X-post from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15057002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15057002 10 months ago. Still using & loving it.

6ak74rfy 8y ago
I too am thinking of going this route so as to reduce dependencies on custom software for something as important as note taking. However, how do you handle images in such a system? For instance, I sometimes take pictures of a whiteboard discussion and paste them as is in One Note - how do I do the same with plaintext files?
- zachlatta 8y ago
  I have two folders: notes/ and uploads/. I've been uploading any attachments (images, PDFs, etc) to uploads/ with a timestamped name (ex. "2018-07-15_interesting_document.pdf") and linking them from the associated note. At first this was pretty annoying, but then I wrote a couple scripts to automate the upload + naming process. Now it's as simple as running the script and getting the Markdown reference copied to your clipboard (ex. "![Interesting Image](../uploads/2018-07-15_interesting_image.jpg)").
codeCatalyst 8y ago
> lain 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. That sounds a lot like zimwiki,except it uses a media wiki derived markup, but does have wysiwyg ui. http://zim-wiki.org/ http://zim-wiki.org/
y4mi 8y ago
I've been doing that for quite some time as well, but recentlish (<6 month ago) stumbled upon BoostNote [0] (electron based) and have to say that I think its pretty neat. Especially because I can (if it ever becomes unmaintained), export the data to my preferred format with a simple script, as everytthing is saved in plain json files. [0] https://github.com/BoostIO/Boostnote https://github.com/BoostIO/Boostnote
craftyguy 8y ago
Alternatively, you can use something which saves in a format that would be trivial to make a replacement for reading/writing it. One example is jrnl[1]. Each journal (collection of entries) is written in a flat text file. You can optionally encrypt it with AES. They even give you reference code on how you could decrypt it yourself[2]. If jrnl stops being a thing, I can probably re-implement all of its functionality in a day. Or someone else can. Its output is very simple. 1. http://jrnl.sh/overview.html http://jrnl.sh/overview.html 2. http://jrnl.sh/encryption.html#manual-decryption http://jrnl.sh/encryption.html#manual-decryption
- phirschybar 8y ago
  I used jrnl.sh for about a year. I was able to extend it to parse the output so I could do some analysis on what I had written (I was using it partially to track time spent on certain tasks). However, I came to find that write long-form on the command line is just awkward. Lately I have been using checkvist.com which has been working out great.
  - awake 8y ago
    In case you hadn't seen this jrnl has a config option for setting the default editor. http://jrnl.sh/recipes.html#external-editors http://jrnl.sh/recipes.html#external-editors
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    I always use jrnl with vim, and never compose on the commandline.
- extropic-engine 8y ago
  I actually wrote my own jrnl command as a shell one-liner: pushd $JRNL_DIR && git pull && echo "##### "(date) >> (date "+%Y-%m-%d.txt") && vim (date "+%Y-%m-%d.txt") && git add *.txt && git commit -m "jrnl "(date "+%Y-%m-%d.txt") && git push && popd
lewisinc 8y ago
Another useful tool I've been using for note-taking is `mdbook` which I think accomplishes the same thing - organizing markdown files into a book of sorts. Just thought I would throw the name out here in case anyone is looking for alternatives to research.
mszcz 8y ago
I went through a similar path. Tried everything and it all kinda sucked. Finally settled on using plain markdown files stored in a folder on Dropbox and edited by Sublime Text. I love the format, enjoy using Sublime for text-editing and never had a problem with syncing (as opposed to say OneNone or Evernote).
JesseAldridge 8y ago
I had the same sort of idea. I built this when Notational Velocity broke when upgrading to the latest macOS: https://github.com/JesseAldridge/toothbrush https://github.com/JesseAldridge/toothbrush It's a single python file for grepping a directory of text files as I type. I have a global keyboard shortcut cmd+J that gives focus to my terminal and I then launch the script by running `t`. Then I can just start typing to search a career's worth of notes. Would be cool if you could share your setup on GitHub.
- omnimus 8y ago
  There is FSNotes. brew cask install fsnotes https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes
- wool_gather 8y ago
  Notational Velocity broke? Any details? I'm continuing to use it happily on High Sierra.
  - JesseAldridge 8y ago
    Yeah High Sierra was what broke for me: https://github.com/scrod/nv/issues/365 https://github.com/scrod/nv/issues/365 Maybe it's working now?
    - wool_gather 8y ago
      Weird; I don't think I've updated NV in quite a while, and my disk is APFS. I have no idea what could be different. Anyways, thanks for the detail.
    - ddp 8y ago
      I switched to this: http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ Now, if I could just find something as brilliant for this Surface Book 2.
Dolores12 8y ago
What is wrong with org-mode? It is plain text file. I see no major differences compared to markdown.
- Walkman 8y ago
  There is a huge difference. It's proprietary, what I mean by that is you can't really edit it with anything else than Emacs. I used it with Spacemacs, and when an upgrade broke it, I left with no notes... Very frustrating experience, I immedieately abandoned it when it happened. Never used org-mode since then.
  - confounded 8y ago
    > It's proprietary, what I mean by that... That’s not what that means. I take your point in it being bound to Emacs however. Pandoc is an excellent tool for conversion though, and other editors are catching up quickly.
  - b3n 8y ago
    It's not proprietary, it's still just plain text, and can be edited with anything. Emacs adds a lot of nice features on top of it to manipulate that text, but it's still just text. See http://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/ http://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/.
    - Walkman 8y ago
      Yes, I have been fooled by the "oh it's just plain text" notion also and have regretted it. Did you try to actually open an org-mode file with anything else than Emacs? Did you try get any meaningful information out of it on a mobile phone or with an another editor? I did...
      - bpizzi 8y ago
        Take a look at Orgzly for interacting with org files on Android, and set up a dropbox shared folder between your devices, including your smartphone. Works well for me. As for extracting meaningful info with other editors, I would say it depends on how you structure your notes. For me it's just a very long bullet list with some tags here and there. So a plain text editor will only 'add' some star characters at the beginning of each lines, which appears quite readable to my eyes.
ozim 8y ago
I do the same and keep it in gitlab private repo. On my android phone I have GIT client because I mostly write my notes on the phone. I just don't feel like using some stupid apps for notes. I understand that someone not technical would like to use app for that.
roryisok 8y ago
Same here, I built a UWP app called flatnote. It's basically just a markdown editor with a directory tree. Everything is stored in Dropbox and I have a mobile app which does the same. I built it when OneNote had a week long outage on Windows Phone. I'll never go back. Storing everything in plain text files is wonderfully liberating. Any app can read them. There's zero lock in. I can build my own super client or just use notepad
wiradikusuma 8y ago
I was about to comment that the problem with DIY is it only works on desktop, because for mobile you need some sort of app to interface. But then I saw your screenshot. Nevermind.
yosito 8y ago
How are you using vim on iPhone? What terminal app is that?
- bronco21016 8y ago
  Looks like Blink. It’s pretty awesome. The layout is relatively simple for using special keys and it works great with a keyboard on larger iOS screens. The UI is also almost entirely text based for workflows once you have servers setup. That was always the most annoying thing about using Prompt and other SSH clients on iPad. Pecking around on the screen to get to a shell before you can start typing away. Blink supports Mosh as well.
zimbatm 8y ago
For vim users, vimwiki[1] is great. It combines the wiki with jounaling features and is easy to call up while editing any other files. Just make sure to change the default from wiki to markdown format. [1]: https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki
Boulth 8y ago
> 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. I strongly agree with this. Actually I'm surprised that creating one's own tools is not more widespread in our industry as I consider this a quite unique trait of our profession.
- nojvek 8y ago
  Yep a private repo in GitHub goes a loooong way. With git you can be offline, dump whatever comes at any time. Markup syntax is remarkable in its simplicity but how much you can get out of it. GitHub UI for on the move web committing is also pretty well done. For a lot of things in life, you want to have simple interface yet sophisticated functionality. It’s incredibly hard to achieve that balance and so many software products screw up that balance.
- reubenmorais 8y ago
  > I consider this a quite unique trait of our profession. (In case you really meant unique rather than special or valued). Machinists, woodworkers, and craftsmen in general all make their own tools when the situation calls for it.
  - dheera 8y ago
    You use the word "unique" in the strict database sense. That is also a unique trait of our profession. (and yes the above sentence was meant to be a logical moron)
- a3n 8y ago
  Making our own tools in software used to be more common. Although the difference between tool-making and yak shaving is itself a yak shaveable debate.
gbraad 8y ago
Still doing the same as many years ago; * a git repo (private on gitlab) * markdown editor (desktop, phone) * and several means of rendering (pandoc, gollum, etc) See: http://gbraad.nl/blog/task-management-and-personal-kanban-how-i-use-gitlab-issues.html http://gbraad.nl/blog/task-management-and-personal-kanban-ho... and http://gbraad.nl/blog/document-generation-using-markdown-and-pandoc.html http://gbraad.nl/blog/document-generation-using-markdown-and... I use a container image to generate my resume, my blog, knowledgebase and presentations. All from the same files and workflow...
ruduhudi 8y ago
Add nextcloud for sync. There's a nextcloud notes app on f-droid.
ljm 8y ago
I’ve always favored physical notebooks (there’s something about putting pen to paper that you just don’t get from a laptop and keyboard), but I’ve since played around with org-journal on emacs to track my programming work and the fact the buffer is only one shortcut away makes it really welcoming. I can put it in git, version it, and it’s plain text as you say so as long as I maintain some kind of structure I can code against it. Now if I added some stuff to automatically link to JIRA tickets or GitHub PRs, or even specific commits if I go to that level, that would be fantastic.
colecut 8y ago
I recently switched to simple markdown files as well. "I find myself more eager to write things down." I feel exactly the same. Something about the simplicity and lightweight approach makes it more inviting for writing. I use QOwnNotes to manage the notes, it's open source and available on osx/linux/windows, uses a sqlLite DB to add tagging and fast searching. https://www.qownnotes.org/ https://www.qownnotes.org/ I use nextcloud for syncing the notes to a server and across devices.
jackycute 8y ago
How about trying https://hackmd.io https://hackmd.io ? I started HackMD few years ago with similar reasons (but for hackpad), hope you enjoy and feel free to tell me more about your opinion!
kalendos 8y ago
I have a similar setup. Markdown files published in the open¹ using Hugo. That said, I'd love to have an easy way to add tagging and searching without having to create my Hugo template. ¹ https://davidgasquez.github.io/handbook/ https://davidgasquez.github.io/handbook/
MichaelTheGamer 8y ago
I have to agree with you... but in a...an _expanded_ sort of way. I use Epsilon and you can do anything except maybe make an Omelet. That comes out in the next version. lol. No, seriously: Epsilon is an either/or/both kind of app. It is happy letting you use Markdown, or _just_ as happy if you decide on CommonMark (which is like Github-flavored Markdown and Multi-Markdown combined, then made easier to use than either of those). It has FontAwesome Icons, Tags, Indexing, YAML, MathJax, and CSS. You can find it on G+ if you are curious but not sure if you are interested in a full commit just yet. I don't even work for or have any vested interest in Epsilon Notes. I just Love it that much. Yeah Markdown IS here to stay. It's crazy-easy to learn and even more so on the fun and useful side of things. Ciao, and Happy Coding! ~MJC
constpetrov 8y ago
Sorry, what is the editor on the screenshots? Or what the keyboard?

6ak74rfy 8y ago

I too am thinking of going this route so as to reduce dependencies on custom software for something as important as note taking. However, how do you handle images in such a system? For instance, I sometimes take pictures of a whiteboard discussion and paste them as is in One Note - how do I do the same with plaintext files?

zachlatta 8y ago
I have two folders: notes/ and uploads/. I've been uploading any attachments (images, PDFs, etc) to uploads/ with a timestamped name (ex. "2018-07-15_interesting_document.pdf") and linking them from the associated note. At first this was pretty annoying, but then I wrote a couple scripts to automate the upload + naming process. Now it's as simple as running the script and getting the Markdown reference copied to your clipboard (ex. "![Interesting Image](../uploads/2018-07-15_interesting_image.jpg)").

codeCatalyst 8y ago

> lain 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. That sounds a lot like zimwiki,except it uses a media wiki derived markup, but does have wysiwyg ui. http://zim-wiki.org/ http://zim-wiki.org/

y4mi 8y ago

I've been doing that for quite some time as well, but recentlish (<6 month ago) stumbled upon BoostNote [0] (electron based) and have to say that I think its pretty neat. Especially because I can (if it ever becomes unmaintained), export the data to my preferred format with a simple script, as everytthing is saved in plain json files. [0] https://github.com/BoostIO/Boostnote https://github.com/BoostIO/Boostnote

craftyguy 8y ago

Alternatively, you can use something which saves in a format that would be trivial to make a replacement for reading/writing it. One example is jrnl[1]. Each journal (collection of entries) is written in a flat text file. You can optionally encrypt it with AES. They even give you reference code on how you could decrypt it yourself[2]. If jrnl stops being a thing, I can probably re-implement all of its functionality in a day. Or someone else can. Its output is very simple. 1. http://jrnl.sh/overview.html http://jrnl.sh/overview.html 2. http://jrnl.sh/encryption.html#manual-decryption http://jrnl.sh/encryption.html#manual-decryption

phirschybar 8y ago
I used jrnl.sh for about a year. I was able to extend it to parse the output so I could do some analysis on what I had written (I was using it partially to track time spent on certain tasks). However, I came to find that write long-form on the command line is just awkward. Lately I have been using checkvist.com which has been working out great.
- awake 8y ago
  In case you hadn't seen this jrnl has a config option for setting the default editor. http://jrnl.sh/recipes.html#external-editors http://jrnl.sh/recipes.html#external-editors
- craftyguy 8y ago
  I always use jrnl with vim, and never compose on the commandline.
extropic-engine 8y ago
I actually wrote my own jrnl command as a shell one-liner: pushd $JRNL_DIR && git pull && echo "##### "(date) >> (date "+%Y-%m-%d.txt") && vim (date "+%Y-%m-%d.txt") && git add *.txt && git commit -m "jrnl "(date "+%Y-%m-%d.txt") && git push && popd

lewisinc 8y ago

Another useful tool I've been using for note-taking is `mdbook` which I think accomplishes the same thing - organizing markdown files into a book of sorts. Just thought I would throw the name out here in case anyone is looking for alternatives to research.

mszcz 8y ago

I went through a similar path. Tried everything and it all kinda sucked. Finally settled on using plain markdown files stored in a folder on Dropbox and edited by Sublime Text. I love the format, enjoy using Sublime for text-editing and never had a problem with syncing (as opposed to say OneNone or Evernote).

JesseAldridge 8y ago

I had the same sort of idea. I built this when Notational Velocity broke when upgrading to the latest macOS: https://github.com/JesseAldridge/toothbrush https://github.com/JesseAldridge/toothbrush It's a single python file for grepping a directory of text files as I type. I have a global keyboard shortcut cmd+J that gives focus to my terminal and I then launch the script by running `t`. Then I can just start typing to search a career's worth of notes. Would be cool if you could share your setup on GitHub.

omnimus 8y ago
There is FSNotes. brew cask install fsnotes https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes
wool_gather 8y ago
Notational Velocity broke? Any details? I'm continuing to use it happily on High Sierra.
- JesseAldridge 8y ago
  Yeah High Sierra was what broke for me: https://github.com/scrod/nv/issues/365 https://github.com/scrod/nv/issues/365 Maybe it's working now?
  - wool_gather 8y ago
    Weird; I don't think I've updated NV in quite a while, and my disk is APFS. I have no idea what could be different. Anyways, thanks for the detail.
  - ddp 8y ago
    I switched to this: http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ Now, if I could just find something as brilliant for this Surface Book 2.

Dolores12 8y ago

What is wrong with org-mode? It is plain text file. I see no major differences compared to markdown.

Walkman 8y ago
There is a huge difference. It's proprietary, what I mean by that is you can't really edit it with anything else than Emacs. I used it with Spacemacs, and when an upgrade broke it, I left with no notes... Very frustrating experience, I immedieately abandoned it when it happened. Never used org-mode since then.
- confounded 8y ago
  > It's proprietary, what I mean by that... That’s not what that means. I take your point in it being bound to Emacs however. Pandoc is an excellent tool for conversion though, and other editors are catching up quickly.
- b3n 8y ago
  It's not proprietary, it's still just plain text, and can be edited with anything. Emacs adds a lot of nice features on top of it to manipulate that text, but it's still just text. See http://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/ http://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/.
  - Walkman 8y ago
    Yes, I have been fooled by the "oh it's just plain text" notion also and have regretted it. Did you try to actually open an org-mode file with anything else than Emacs? Did you try get any meaningful information out of it on a mobile phone or with an another editor? I did...
    - bpizzi 8y ago
      Take a look at Orgzly for interacting with org files on Android, and set up a dropbox shared folder between your devices, including your smartphone. Works well for me. As for extracting meaningful info with other editors, I would say it depends on how you structure your notes. For me it's just a very long bullet list with some tags here and there. So a plain text editor will only 'add' some star characters at the beginning of each lines, which appears quite readable to my eyes.

ozim 8y ago

I do the same and keep it in gitlab private repo. On my android phone I have GIT client because I mostly write my notes on the phone. I just don't feel like using some stupid apps for notes. I understand that someone not technical would like to use app for that.

roryisok 8y ago

Same here, I built a UWP app called flatnote. It's basically just a markdown editor with a directory tree. Everything is stored in Dropbox and I have a mobile app which does the same. I built it when OneNote had a week long outage on Windows Phone. I'll never go back. Storing everything in plain text files is wonderfully liberating. Any app can read them. There's zero lock in. I can build my own super client or just use notepad

wiradikusuma 8y ago

I was about to comment that the problem with DIY is it only works on desktop, because for mobile you need some sort of app to interface. But then I saw your screenshot. Nevermind.

yosito 8y ago

How are you using vim on iPhone? What terminal app is that?

bronco21016 8y ago
Looks like Blink. It’s pretty awesome. The layout is relatively simple for using special keys and it works great with a keyboard on larger iOS screens. The UI is also almost entirely text based for workflows once you have servers setup. That was always the most annoying thing about using Prompt and other SSH clients on iPad. Pecking around on the screen to get to a shell before you can start typing away. Blink supports Mosh as well.

zimbatm 8y ago

For vim users, vimwiki[1] is great. It combines the wiki with jounaling features and is easy to call up while editing any other files. Just make sure to change the default from wiki to markdown format. [1]: https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki

Boulth 8y ago

> 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. I strongly agree with this. Actually I'm surprised that creating one's own tools is not more widespread in our industry as I consider this a quite unique trait of our profession.

nojvek 8y ago
Yep a private repo in GitHub goes a loooong way. With git you can be offline, dump whatever comes at any time. Markup syntax is remarkable in its simplicity but how much you can get out of it. GitHub UI for on the move web committing is also pretty well done. For a lot of things in life, you want to have simple interface yet sophisticated functionality. It’s incredibly hard to achieve that balance and so many software products screw up that balance.
reubenmorais 8y ago
> I consider this a quite unique trait of our profession. (In case you really meant unique rather than special or valued). Machinists, woodworkers, and craftsmen in general all make their own tools when the situation calls for it.
- dheera 8y ago
  You use the word "unique" in the strict database sense. That is also a unique trait of our profession. (and yes the above sentence was meant to be a logical moron)
a3n 8y ago
Making our own tools in software used to be more common. Although the difference between tool-making and yak shaving is itself a yak shaveable debate.

gbraad 8y ago

Still doing the same as many years ago; * a git repo (private on gitlab) * markdown editor (desktop, phone) * and several means of rendering (pandoc, gollum, etc) See: http://gbraad.nl/blog/task-management-and-personal-kanban-how-i-use-gitlab-issues.html http://gbraad.nl/blog/task-management-and-personal-kanban-ho... and http://gbraad.nl/blog/document-generation-using-markdown-and-pandoc.html http://gbraad.nl/blog/document-generation-using-markdown-and... I use a container image to generate my resume, my blog, knowledgebase and presentations. All from the same files and workflow...

ruduhudi 8y ago

Add nextcloud for sync. There's a nextcloud notes app on f-droid.

ljm 8y ago

I’ve always favored physical notebooks (there’s something about putting pen to paper that you just don’t get from a laptop and keyboard), but I’ve since played around with org-journal on emacs to track my programming work and the fact the buffer is only one shortcut away makes it really welcoming. I can put it in git, version it, and it’s plain text as you say so as long as I maintain some kind of structure I can code against it. Now if I added some stuff to automatically link to JIRA tickets or GitHub PRs, or even specific commits if I go to that level, that would be fantastic.

colecut 8y ago

I recently switched to simple markdown files as well. "I find myself more eager to write things down." I feel exactly the same. Something about the simplicity and lightweight approach makes it more inviting for writing. I use QOwnNotes to manage the notes, it's open source and available on osx/linux/windows, uses a sqlLite DB to add tagging and fast searching. https://www.qownnotes.org/ https://www.qownnotes.org/ I use nextcloud for syncing the notes to a server and across devices.

jackycute 8y ago

How about trying https://hackmd.io https://hackmd.io ? I started HackMD few years ago with similar reasons (but for hackpad), hope you enjoy and feel free to tell me more about your opinion!

kalendos 8y ago

I have a similar setup. Markdown files published in the open¹ using Hugo. That said, I'd love to have an easy way to add tagging and searching without having to create my Hugo template. ¹ https://davidgasquez.github.io/handbook/ https://davidgasquez.github.io/handbook/

MichaelTheGamer 8y ago

I have to agree with you... but in a...an _expanded_ sort of way. I use Epsilon and you can do anything except maybe make an Omelet. That comes out in the next version. lol. No, seriously: Epsilon is an either/or/both kind of app. It is happy letting you use Markdown, or _just_ as happy if you decide on CommonMark (which is like Github-flavored Markdown and Multi-Markdown combined, then made easier to use than either of those). It has FontAwesome Icons, Tags, Indexing, YAML, MathJax, and CSS. You can find it on G+ if you are curious but not sure if you are interested in a full commit just yet. I don't even work for or have any vested interest in Epsilon Notes. I just Love it that much. Yeah Markdown IS here to stay. It's crazy-easy to learn and even more so on the fun and useful side of things. Ciao, and Happy Coding! ~MJC

constpetrov 8y ago

Sorry, what is the editor on the screenshots? Or what the keyboard?