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Show HN: MDAnki – convert Markdown to Anki cards

179 points by rudnek 7y ago

echelon 7y ago
This is neat! I did a similar thing to manage my Japanese vocabulary. I encoded it in TOML and compiled it to Anki decks. [1] There is a lot of room for utilities like this. Managing decks in the Anki interface and persisting them as zipped sqlite is a headache. [1] http://github.com/echelon/nihongo http://github.com/echelon/nihongo (It's a bit of a mess, sorry.)
- eindiran 7y ago
  I did something similar, but to handle orgmode files: https://github.com/eindiran/orgmode-to-anki https://github.com/eindiran/orgmode-to-anki
  - alanbernstein 7y ago
    Ooh, neat. How is image support?
r-zip 7y ago
This is very nice. I recently tried creating a bunch of Anki flash cards for theorems in real analysis, but found it too tedious. Is there any support (current or planned) for converting latex fragments?
- rudnek 7y ago
  Yes, LaTeX on my Redmine board.
knubie 7y ago
If this interests you I built an entire SRS app around this idea: https://mochi.cards/ https://mochi.cards/
- fudged71 7y ago
  How long has this been around? Surprised I haven't seen it before! Fantastic work. I would love if I could use this with Roam Research somehow
  - knubie 7y ago
    Thanks! I launched it on hacker news about 8 months ago.
  - tptacek 7y ago
    Seconded. This looks really nicely done.
- ellw 7y ago
  wow that looks great!
- troydavis 7y ago
  I just signed up as a paying customer about 3 hours before this HN thread. Mochi has been fantastic so far - it has most (all?) of the power of Anki, but a much more thoughtful UI. Although Mochi imported my Anki decks seamlessly, I prefer Mochi’s native Markdown support. Thanks for making it!
  - dot1x 7y ago
    It has no addons. Also, its algorithm seem very... crude.
- iudqnolq 7y ago
  Do you have any plans for a mobile app?
  - troydavis 7y ago
    (not OP, just a new paying customer) FWIW, the mobile-optimized version of Mochi’s Web site is excellent on both phones and tablets.
ausjke 7y ago
great stuff, was looking for something similar for a long while, time to try it again.
thrownaway954 7y ago
maybe i'm just a jerk, but it bothers me when someone posts a project and doesn't link to an example of give a full description. i have no idea what anki cards are so i googled it and it's a pretty cool little open source flash card program. most people aren't going to do the research so it's best to have an explanation what all the components are. you don't have to be overly verbose, just a one liner explanation is fine most of the time.
- deckar01 7y ago
  Technical writing is a skill. Little things like linking related topics requires foresight into the range of knowledge your audience could have. It is easy to assume everyone shares the same knowledge you do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge
  - alanbernstein 7y ago
    This is absolutely true, but you can seldom go wrong assuming that proper nouns (like Anki) should be accompanied by links.
  - thrownaway954 7y ago
    which is why i always follow the "assume nothing" rule. when writing something, assume you have to explain everything. again though, it doesn't have to be verbose, just a one liner is more than enough.
  - dguo 7y ago
    Thank you so much for adding that Wikipedia link. For years (no exaggeration), I've been trying to remember the term for the problem of forgetting what it was like to not know something. I was never able to come up with the right search query. And now I'm going to add it to my queue for making Anki cards.
- rudnek 7y ago
  I'll add the Introduction section to the Readme page soon. Thanks!
tunesmith 7y ago
I basically ruined myself for Anki. I started like gangbusters, and also created some really cool jazz music theory decks for myself that have lilypond notation snippets and sound samples of various chord qualities and advanced jazz modes. And this is on top of other subjects like ML, scala, logarithms, etc. And then... I hit this mathematical limit where I just couldn't keep up. You can't add 20 new cards a day for any length of time without the review cycle getting overwhelming. I'm not sure it's even physically possible to Anki full recall of everything learned in a college course - each class would need to be much longer than a term to keep up with the review. One solution is to just keep plugging away, reviewing what you can and hoping the things you answer correctly will relieve the pressure as they come up less frequently. But since you're late on many card, recall sucks and I never really made much headway. I also have a really hard time retiring cards. It's like deciding to cross things off your TODO list that you'll never do, you always want to keep it on thinking you might do it someday. Same with a not very relevant piece of info, it's right in front of you, it still feels like it might be useful to know...
- s_m_t 7y ago
  Why were you adding 20 new cards a day? IMO its better to adjust your new card rate based on your retention rate. Your ideal retention rate probably depends on how you react to the "stress" of missing cards. Personally it would majorly stress me out if my retention rate was below 80%, I ideally liked to keep it around 90-95% because for me this was where it went from feeling like work to actually being fun and exciting. I might go for a couple of days without adding anything, do a couple days adding 5, add 10, 15, 20, or even 30 depending on the circumstances.
  - elliotec 7y ago
    20 new cards per day to review is the default. You can add as many or as few as you want but if you didn't change the default it will put 20 in your review queue daily.
    - s_m_t 7y ago
      Ah yeah, I'd typically create cards "just in time", so to speak, because I found that my retention would drop significantly without the context of what I was learning fresh in my mind.
jlelonm 7y ago
Oooh, neat! Reminds me of this addon: LaTeX Note Importer: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1199027445 https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1199027445 I'm almost sold on downloading this, but I have a question. Let's say I create notes.md with 2 cards: ## hey hi ## hello howdy But, then I modify card #2: ## hello modified howdy modified and recreate the deck. Does the 2nd card that has now been modified get treated as a whole new card? (In other words, if I've been using card 2 to study, do I have to start all over?) If this is NOT the case, I am absolutely sold.
- rudnek 7y ago
  MDAnki produces a file with a deck for importing to Anki. Every new import will generate new cards. I don't know anything if it's possible to make updating cards during the import. I'll try to investigate it. Thanks for this note!
  - kfoley 7y ago
    This would change a lot of the current design but one option is to use AnkiConnect[0], it provides a network interface for interacting with Anki and creating/updating cards. There's a somewhat similar project[1] that lets you use Org mode to make cards. It uses Emacs so there may not be too much you can apply but could be useful to take a look at. [0] https://github.com/FooSoft/anki-connect https://github.com/FooSoft/anki-connect [1] https://github.com/louietan/anki-editor https://github.com/louietan/anki-editor
laurieg 7y ago
I've spent many years using Anki and I have thousands of cards. I love it but I notice a few very common failure modes: 1. Putting far too many cards in a deck. 2. Putting in information that you want to learn rather than information you have already learned. 3. Using large pre-made decks (which is really just 1 and 2 together). If you're planning on using Anki longterm (such as for language learning) then keep the number of new cards low. Something in the range of 3-5 a day is totally fine. You should put things into Anki after you have learnt them. In general I suggest putting in information at the end of a study session when you feel like you know it so well you couldn't possibly forget it. Cards should feel a bit too easy when you create them. By the time you come to review you will have forgotten a little and the difficulty will be perfect.
zikani_03 7y ago
Thanks for this! Going to be useful - I am still getting used to Anki and the process of adding Cards sometimes seems like drudgery.
musically_ut 7y ago
Shameless self-plug: I created [anki-slides-import](https://github.com/musically-ut/anki-slides-import https://github.com/musically-ut/anki-slides-import) to convert slides into Anki decks. The program requires notes (written in Markdown, with one section for each slide) along with the pdf slides and it produces a deck which can be practised in Anki. It may prove to be useful for someone here.

179 points by rudnek 7y ago

This is neat! I did a similar thing to manage my Japanese vocabulary. I encoded it in TOML and compiled it to Anki decks. [1] There is a lot of room for utilities like this. Managing decks in the Anki interface and persisting them as zipped sqlite is a headache. [1] http://github.com/echelon/nihongo http://github.com/echelon/nihongo (It's a bit of a mess, sorry.)

eindiran 7y ago
I did something similar, but to handle orgmode files: https://github.com/eindiran/orgmode-to-anki https://github.com/eindiran/orgmode-to-anki
- alanbernstein 7y ago
  Ooh, neat. How is image support?

r-zip 7y ago

This is very nice. I recently tried creating a bunch of Anki flash cards for theorems in real analysis, but found it too tedious. Is there any support (current or planned) for converting latex fragments?

rudnek 7y ago
Yes, LaTeX on my Redmine board.

knubie 7y ago

If this interests you I built an entire SRS app around this idea: https://mochi.cards/ https://mochi.cards/

fudged71 7y ago
How long has this been around? Surprised I haven't seen it before! Fantastic work. I would love if I could use this with Roam Research somehow
- knubie 7y ago
  Thanks! I launched it on hacker news about 8 months ago.
- tptacek 7y ago
  Seconded. This looks really nicely done.
ellw 7y ago
wow that looks great!
troydavis 7y ago
I just signed up as a paying customer about 3 hours before this HN thread. Mochi has been fantastic so far - it has most (all?) of the power of Anki, but a much more thoughtful UI. Although Mochi imported my Anki decks seamlessly, I prefer Mochi’s native Markdown support. Thanks for making it!
- dot1x 7y ago
  It has no addons. Also, its algorithm seem very... crude.
iudqnolq 7y ago
Do you have any plans for a mobile app?
- troydavis 7y ago
  (not OP, just a new paying customer) FWIW, the mobile-optimized version of Mochi’s Web site is excellent on both phones and tablets.

ausjke 7y ago

great stuff, was looking for something similar for a long while, time to try it again.

thrownaway954 7y ago

maybe i'm just a jerk, but it bothers me when someone posts a project and doesn't link to an example of give a full description. i have no idea what anki cards are so i googled it and it's a pretty cool little open source flash card program. most people aren't going to do the research so it's best to have an explanation what all the components are. you don't have to be overly verbose, just a one liner explanation is fine most of the time.

deckar01 7y ago
Technical writing is a skill. Little things like linking related topics requires foresight into the range of knowledge your audience could have. It is easy to assume everyone shares the same knowledge you do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge
- alanbernstein 7y ago
  This is absolutely true, but you can seldom go wrong assuming that proper nouns (like Anki) should be accompanied by links.
- thrownaway954 7y ago
  which is why i always follow the "assume nothing" rule. when writing something, assume you have to explain everything. again though, it doesn't have to be verbose, just a one liner is more than enough.
- dguo 7y ago
  Thank you so much for adding that Wikipedia link. For years (no exaggeration), I've been trying to remember the term for the problem of forgetting what it was like to not know something. I was never able to come up with the right search query. And now I'm going to add it to my queue for making Anki cards.
rudnek 7y ago
I'll add the Introduction section to the Readme page soon. Thanks!

tunesmith 7y ago

I basically ruined myself for Anki. I started like gangbusters, and also created some really cool jazz music theory decks for myself that have lilypond notation snippets and sound samples of various chord qualities and advanced jazz modes. And this is on top of other subjects like ML, scala, logarithms, etc. And then... I hit this mathematical limit where I just couldn't keep up. You can't add 20 new cards a day for any length of time without the review cycle getting overwhelming. I'm not sure it's even physically possible to Anki full recall of everything learned in a college course - each class would need to be much longer than a term to keep up with the review. One solution is to just keep plugging away, reviewing what you can and hoping the things you answer correctly will relieve the pressure as they come up less frequently. But since you're late on many card, recall sucks and I never really made much headway. I also have a really hard time retiring cards. It's like deciding to cross things off your TODO list that you'll never do, you always want to keep it on thinking you might do it someday. Same with a not very relevant piece of info, it's right in front of you, it still feels like it might be useful to know...

s_m_t 7y ago
Why were you adding 20 new cards a day? IMO its better to adjust your new card rate based on your retention rate. Your ideal retention rate probably depends on how you react to the "stress" of missing cards. Personally it would majorly stress me out if my retention rate was below 80%, I ideally liked to keep it around 90-95% because for me this was where it went from feeling like work to actually being fun and exciting. I might go for a couple of days without adding anything, do a couple days adding 5, add 10, 15, 20, or even 30 depending on the circumstances.
- elliotec 7y ago
  20 new cards per day to review is the default. You can add as many or as few as you want but if you didn't change the default it will put 20 in your review queue daily.
  - s_m_t 7y ago
    Ah yeah, I'd typically create cards "just in time", so to speak, because I found that my retention would drop significantly without the context of what I was learning fresh in my mind.

jlelonm 7y ago

Oooh, neat! Reminds me of this addon: LaTeX Note Importer: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1199027445 https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1199027445 I'm almost sold on downloading this, but I have a question. Let's say I create notes.md with 2 cards: ## hey hi ## hello howdy But, then I modify card #2: ## hello modified howdy modified and recreate the deck. Does the 2nd card that has now been modified get treated as a whole new card? (In other words, if I've been using card 2 to study, do I have to start all over?) If this is NOT the case, I am absolutely sold.

rudnek 7y ago
MDAnki produces a file with a deck for importing to Anki. Every new import will generate new cards. I don't know anything if it's possible to make updating cards during the import. I'll try to investigate it. Thanks for this note!
- kfoley 7y ago
  This would change a lot of the current design but one option is to use AnkiConnect[0], it provides a network interface for interacting with Anki and creating/updating cards. There's a somewhat similar project[1] that lets you use Org mode to make cards. It uses Emacs so there may not be too much you can apply but could be useful to take a look at. [0] https://github.com/FooSoft/anki-connect https://github.com/FooSoft/anki-connect [1] https://github.com/louietan/anki-editor https://github.com/louietan/anki-editor

laurieg 7y ago

I've spent many years using Anki and I have thousands of cards. I love it but I notice a few very common failure modes: 1. Putting far too many cards in a deck. 2. Putting in information that you want to learn rather than information you have already learned. 3. Using large pre-made decks (which is really just 1 and 2 together). If you're planning on using Anki longterm (such as for language learning) then keep the number of new cards low. Something in the range of 3-5 a day is totally fine. You should put things into Anki after you have learnt them. In general I suggest putting in information at the end of a study session when you feel like you know it so well you couldn't possibly forget it. Cards should feel a bit too easy when you create them. By the time you come to review you will have forgotten a little and the difficulty will be perfect.

zikani_03 7y ago

Thanks for this! Going to be useful - I am still getting used to Anki and the process of adding Cards sometimes seems like drudgery.

musically_ut 7y ago

Shameless self-plug: I created [anki-slides-import](https://github.com/musically-ut/anki-slides-import https://github.com/musically-ut/anki-slides-import) to convert slides into Anki decks. The program requires notes (written in Markdown, with one section for each slide) along with the pdf slides and it produces a deck which can be practised in Anki. It may prove to be useful for someone here.