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Ask HN: What note taking app do you guys using as a developer?

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Ask HN: What note taking app do you guys using as a developer?

#1

Post by rahmansahinler1 »

As a developer building my own product, I take a lot of notes—code snippets, Linux commands, and general technical info. I've tried many apps, but none feel just right.

Here’s what I think a good note-taking app must have:

A note section where I can add text and images Easy organization with sections A quick search to find related notes A bonus would be the ability to retrieve answers from my notes.

Right now, I'm using MS OneNote, which works well for the first two. But as my notes grow, finding the right one becomes a challenge. Do you guys face the same issue? What methods or apps do you use?

Re: Ask HN: What note taking app do you guys using as a developer?

#2

Post by rjes »

I use obsidian with live-sync for journal taking and personal knowledge base

Have tried onenote, it works pretty well but it’s a lock-in solution and the search isn’t very good.

The really awesome thing with onenote is when you add a task and it shows up i outlook

Re: Ask HN: What note taking app do you guys using as a developer?

#3

Post by drweevil »

I have used deft on Emacs for years. It saves notes locally as text files (I use Markdown). I keep my notebook directory as a git repository, so that I can use my notes on any of my machines. Search and filtering is whole-text--no need to set tags. Not a problem until you have years of notes on a modest machine ;) That's as simple as it gets, and yet it has served me very well over the years. QOwnNotes is a non-Emacs solution that works in a very similar way, except that it does expect Markdown files and gives you HTML previews; in fact it can use my Deft directories unchanged.

Deft Mode: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/DeftMode QOwnNotes: https://www.qownnotes.org/

Re: Ask HN: What note taking app do you guys using as a developer?

#5

Post by rahmansahinler1 »

drweevil wrote: post #3

I have used deft on Emacs for years. It saves notes locally as text files (I use Markdown). I keep my notebook directory as a git repository, so that I can use my notes on any of my machines. Search and filtering is whole-text--no need to set tags. Not a problem until you have years of notes on a modest machine ;) That's as simple as it gets, and yet it has served me very well over the years. QOwnNotes is a non-Emacs…

I really like the idea that taking notes in markdown format and putting them into the github. In this way we can be independent from the device. But on the other hand it might be overkill for taking little notes. For example I took wsl2 installation steps for the team members I work with. It's just 10 lines of text. I need to commit and push my notes into my repository. On the other hand, I can make my notes public and everybody can visit them. It's surely is a plus. It was a great advice, thanks for sharing. I will try it out to see if it will be working for me

Re: Ask HN: What note taking app do you guys using as a developer?

#6

Post by rahmansahinler1 »

dysoco wrote: post #4

90% of the time I usually end up writing to myself in Slack For more long-formed note-taking I try to use Obsidian.

Yeah, I'm using whatsapp desktop for quick notes or links too. Later on I can reach them from my phone or I can take them within my PC. But on the other hand I want to structured notes to be accessible too. I will try Obsidian, it looks promising. Does it has any semantic note searching cababilities tho?

Re: Ask HN: What note taking app do you guys using as a developer?

#7

Post by rahmansahinler1 »

rjes wrote: post #2

I use obsidian with live-sync for journal taking and personal knowledge base Have tried onenote, it works pretty well but it’s a lock-in solution and the search isn’t very good. The really awesome thing with onenote is when you add a task and it shows up i outlook

I like the idea that "Personal Knowledge Base". I like the styling of MS one note on the other hand. I think perfect app would be combine of those two.

Re: Ask HN: What note taking app do you guys using as a developer?

#10

Post by seanwilson »

How about Vscode or whatever editor you use (which you're trusting already, and know all the shortcut keys for) editing Markdown files with descriptive names organized into folders that are backed up via Google Drive or Dropbox? What's the benefits of Obsidian over this? I've seen Obsidian lets you add link between files, but I find all I really need is separate files for different notes and todo lists, I'd rather limit my trust given to third parties, and I'm not that bothered about mobile support.
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