7 ms·

Another vote for .txt files. Easy to source-control and merge, easy to find stuff. I can't help but think that someone, somewhere has a bloated XML-based API

by kabdib 15y ago

Another vote for .txt files. Easy to source-control and merge, easy to find stuff. I can't help but think that someone, somewhere has a bloated XML-based API for doing this, probably requiring a server running a couple hundred megabytes worth of Java-based back-end. I'm old fashioned. I don't anticipate a vanilla text file going out of fashion any time in the next hundred years or so.

mitjak 15y ago
Another vote. Easily editable, searchable via Spotlight or similar solutions; easy to present in a formatted way especially if you keep notes in Markdown; easy to edit on the go with something like PlainText (http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/plaintext http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/plaintext); and, of course, easy to have available anywhere with Dropbox.
cmelbye 15y ago
Sounds like Confluence (http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/ http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/). I wish it required a server running only a couple hundred megabytes of RAM.
- kabdib 15y ago
  Oh, dear God. I broke out in "enterprisey hives" just looking at that.
  - eru 15y ago
    It's evil.
caustic 15y ago
TiddlyWiki is a single self-contained, self-modifying HTML file that does not require any server whatsoever. Installing it is as simple as downloading initial template file to your disk. Being text file, it is searchable, mergeable, etc. Copy it on a USB stick, put it in a dropbox folder and you got your backups. But don't get fooled by the apparent simplicity, it is a full blown wiki, with themes and plugins, if you want them.
- AndrewDucker 15y ago
  What happens if I have it open on two PCs at once, through the wonder of Dropbox? Does it cope?
  - caustic 15y ago
    > Does it cope? Probably not.
  - JabavuAdams 15y ago
    No. I often have this problem just with two instances open accidentally. I.e. left one minimized, forgot then opened it again.
    - naner 15y ago
      If you're using Chrome then keep it in a pinned tab. (Right click on tab, "Pin Tab")
      - Fargren 15y ago
        Or Firefox. Firefox will also send you to the open tab if you try to go to an URL you already went to, instead of opening a second instance of the same page.
  - mynegation 15y ago
    Last write wins. Although tiddlywiki does detect the situation when file was changed on disk, there is not much you can do at this point. Before tiddlywiki I used to use pmwiki on a server and it has the ability to merge changes (via diff3). I miss that dearly in tiddlywiki.
- gbog 15y ago
  Ok, it is a text file, a web page, but why so complex an interface? I feel it is very weird to have the content of paragraphs inserted just below the TOC in http://www.tiddlywiki.com/ http://www.tiddlywiki.com/ (I am guessing this page showcases TiddlyWiki, right?) Simple anchor links should work much better, and would not break the back button.
agentultra 15y ago
Another vote for .org files. http://orgmode.org/ http://orgmode.org/ Of course not being an emacs user may make editing org mode files a little difficult. However, any system will do as long as its consistent. If not org-mode; txt2tags, markdown, etc can also serve in a pinch. I think plain text is the de-facto universal format. There's also no restriction on presentation and interface. Your choice of tools are pretty wide open with plain text.
- josephkern 15y ago
  Orgmode also has an amazing extension babel, which allows Literate Programming (or just inserting code snippets). Using the #+BEGIN_SRC <mode-name> tag will also allow you to edit any code snippet in its own major mode.
  - Estragon 15y ago
    Not working for me. What version of org-mode?
    - TeMPOraL 15y ago
      #+begin_src lisp (defun botsbuildbots () (botsbuildbots)) #+end_src Try moving your point to (defun... and pressing << C-c ' >>. It should work with org-mode bundled in Emacs 23; if not, you can get the newest version from http://orgmode.org http://orgmode.org. With org-babel enabled, you can actually run this code, or use it in literate-programming style to write programs.
      - pietrofmaggi 15y ago
        One think that you can do in the latest orgmode, is to write code snippets in the org documents, extract the code, compile it (if needed, like for C code), run it, and insert the result back into the org document. This is really nice for writing code example.
- cksk 15y ago
  org-mode alone makes it worth dropping any other text editor in favor of Emacs. It's that good. It's that impressive. Really.
Legion 15y ago
One of the reasons I like Dokuwiki and use it for my team is the fact that it stores everything in .txt files. You get to use wiki formatting and the features that wikis give you that text files don't (linking between related pages, etc), but it's still just a script writing to .txt files in a human-readable format. No lock-in and no database to worry about configuring or recovering from a crash.
- greenyoda 15y ago
  I'm using MoinMoin, which I also like because it stores its data in text files. MoinMoin has a "personal wiki" configuration that requires hardly any configuration and runs its own built-in web server. It also has a full-blown wiki with user IDs, access control lists, etc. that you can run under Apache or other web servers. I'm using it at work to store some documentation for my work group. (http://moinmo.in http://moinmo.in)
cphang 15y ago
+1 http://www.craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt http://www.craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt is a good read, why plain text is still the favorite among geeks.
bprater 15y ago
I'm doing .txt files, too -- but lately, I've been doing them via Dropbox and the Google Chrome add-on called "SourceKit". I now have a permanent tab in any of my PC's browsers that allow me to quickly open and edit these files.
- boyter 15y ago
  I was doing the same thing, but moved over to this https://github.com/boyter/BATF https://github.com/boyter/BATF (note I wrote it) Mostly because I want to be able to access it from anywhere and have revisions accessible without requiring git/mercurial/svn etc... I have been using it for a year or so now and still use it every day. I still think its the most useful 40 lines of code I have ever written.
nickzoic 15y ago
I use ReStructuredText mostly. Files start out as plain text and slowly grow more markup as they progress. Easy enough to read in plain text ... then can be thrown through rst2pdf to hand over to clients as "the documentation". Not pretty, but compared to the nightmare of keeping .odt docs up to date across branches and merges ...

by kabdib 15y ago

mitjak 15y ago

Another vote. Easily editable, searchable via Spotlight or similar solutions; easy to present in a formatted way especially if you keep notes in Markdown; easy to edit on the go with something like PlainText (http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/plaintext http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/plaintext); and, of course, easy to have available anywhere with Dropbox.

cmelbye 15y ago

Sounds like Confluence (http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/ http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/). I wish it required a server running only a couple hundred megabytes of RAM.

kabdib 15y ago
Oh, dear God. I broke out in "enterprisey hives" just looking at that.
- eru 15y ago
  It's evil.

caustic 15y ago

TiddlyWiki is a single self-contained, self-modifying HTML file that does not require any server whatsoever. Installing it is as simple as downloading initial template file to your disk. Being text file, it is searchable, mergeable, etc. Copy it on a USB stick, put it in a dropbox folder and you got your backups. But don't get fooled by the apparent simplicity, it is a full blown wiki, with themes and plugins, if you want them.

AndrewDucker 15y ago
What happens if I have it open on two PCs at once, through the wonder of Dropbox? Does it cope?
- caustic 15y ago
  > Does it cope? Probably not.
- JabavuAdams 15y ago
  No. I often have this problem just with two instances open accidentally. I.e. left one minimized, forgot then opened it again.
  - naner 15y ago
    If you're using Chrome then keep it in a pinned tab. (Right click on tab, "Pin Tab")
    - Fargren 15y ago
      Or Firefox. Firefox will also send you to the open tab if you try to go to an URL you already went to, instead of opening a second instance of the same page.
- mynegation 15y ago
  Last write wins. Although tiddlywiki does detect the situation when file was changed on disk, there is not much you can do at this point. Before tiddlywiki I used to use pmwiki on a server and it has the ability to merge changes (via diff3). I miss that dearly in tiddlywiki.
gbog 15y ago
Ok, it is a text file, a web page, but why so complex an interface? I feel it is very weird to have the content of paragraphs inserted just below the TOC in http://www.tiddlywiki.com/ http://www.tiddlywiki.com/ (I am guessing this page showcases TiddlyWiki, right?) Simple anchor links should work much better, and would not break the back button.

agentultra 15y ago

Another vote for .org files. http://orgmode.org/ http://orgmode.org/ Of course not being an emacs user may make editing org mode files a little difficult. However, any system will do as long as its consistent. If not org-mode; txt2tags, markdown, etc can also serve in a pinch. I think plain text is the de-facto universal format. There's also no restriction on presentation and interface. Your choice of tools are pretty wide open with plain text.

josephkern 15y ago
Orgmode also has an amazing extension babel, which allows Literate Programming (or just inserting code snippets). Using the #+BEGIN_SRC <mode-name> tag will also allow you to edit any code snippet in its own major mode.
- Estragon 15y ago
  Not working for me. What version of org-mode?
  - TeMPOraL 15y ago
    #+begin_src lisp (defun botsbuildbots () (botsbuildbots)) #+end_src Try moving your point to (defun... and pressing << C-c ' >>. It should work with org-mode bundled in Emacs 23; if not, you can get the newest version from http://orgmode.org http://orgmode.org. With org-babel enabled, you can actually run this code, or use it in literate-programming style to write programs.
    - pietrofmaggi 15y ago
      One think that you can do in the latest orgmode, is to write code snippets in the org documents, extract the code, compile it (if needed, like for C code), run it, and insert the result back into the org document. This is really nice for writing code example.
cksk 15y ago
org-mode alone makes it worth dropping any other text editor in favor of Emacs. It's that good. It's that impressive. Really.

Legion 15y ago

One of the reasons I like Dokuwiki and use it for my team is the fact that it stores everything in .txt files. You get to use wiki formatting and the features that wikis give you that text files don't (linking between related pages, etc), but it's still just a script writing to .txt files in a human-readable format. No lock-in and no database to worry about configuring or recovering from a crash.

greenyoda 15y ago
I'm using MoinMoin, which I also like because it stores its data in text files. MoinMoin has a "personal wiki" configuration that requires hardly any configuration and runs its own built-in web server. It also has a full-blown wiki with user IDs, access control lists, etc. that you can run under Apache or other web servers. I'm using it at work to store some documentation for my work group. (http://moinmo.in http://moinmo.in)

cphang 15y ago

+1 http://www.craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt http://www.craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt is a good read, why plain text is still the favorite among geeks.

bprater 15y ago

I'm doing .txt files, too -- but lately, I've been doing them via Dropbox and the Google Chrome add-on called "SourceKit". I now have a permanent tab in any of my PC's browsers that allow me to quickly open and edit these files.

boyter 15y ago
I was doing the same thing, but moved over to this https://github.com/boyter/BATF https://github.com/boyter/BATF (note I wrote it) Mostly because I want to be able to access it from anywhere and have revisions accessible without requiring git/mercurial/svn etc... I have been using it for a year or so now and still use it every day. I still think its the most useful 40 lines of code I have ever written.

nickzoic 15y ago

I use ReStructuredText mostly. Files start out as plain text and slowly grow more markup as they progress. Easy enough to read in plain text ... then can be thrown through rst2pdf to hand over to clients as "the documentation". Not pretty, but compared to the nightmare of keeping .odt docs up to date across branches and merges ...