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Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#201

Post by roryisok »

zachlatta wrote: post #53

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 f…

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

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#202

Post by kungtotte »

iamcreasy wrote: post #160
Dolores12 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that i am using inefficient software boggles my mind. My laptop SSD is 128gb. Unpacked version of this software would be 100MB+ installation. It will also take a lot of my RAM during usage. So for a "truly minimal markdown editor" i get such a monster in my system. Lets take another monster, Visual Studio Code. Its installation is 72mb, but i get so much more installing it including markdown editor.

You are taking a very narrow look at these software.

Why not be conscious about these things? I have a lot more than 128GB on my system, but I still don't want to install dozens of 100+MB apps to solve just one problem each. Eventually you will run out of disk space with that approach.

Why install a single-purpose Markdown editor when you already have VSCode installed that is an excellent Markdown editor plus a lightweight IDE for nearly every language ever?

One tool, one job is fine for things that actually stick to the Unix principle and keep it lightweight and minimal. Single-purpose apps should be aiming at the 10MB mark, not 100MB. At 100MB+, you can probably find a multipurpose app to do the same job just as well if not better.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#203

Post by swebs »

Dolores12 wrote: post #136
fizwhiz wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you memory conscious because you're downloading this to some embedded device? Serious question.

The idea that i am using inefficient software boggles my mind. My laptop SSD is 128gb. Unpacked version of this software would be 100MB+ installation. It will also take a lot of my RAM during usage. So for a "truly minimal markdown editor" i get such a monster in my system. Lets take another monster, Visual Studio Code. Its installation is 72mb, but i get so much more installing it including markdown editor.

>The idea that i am using inefficient software boggles my mind.

Then why are you using Windows (dozens of Gb) and not Ubuntu (<5 Gb) or Debian (<1 Gb)?

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#204

Post by swebs »

raverbashing wrote: post #149
zie wrote: post #21

plain text files and your favorite editor, whatever that is. things that should be encrypted are either gpg encrytped or put in my password manager. Bonus if you format your plain text with markdown or asciidoc or whatever your fav. plain text markup language is. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. Put it in a VCS for super double bonus points :) me personally: Vim, asciidoc and in a fossil repo.

It works, but it doesn't sync to mobile devices

You could save them to a directory that NextCloud is watching.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#205

Post by benoliver999 »

rasengan0 wrote: post #152

VimWiki, old version https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki/releases mobile: termux + vim windows: cygwin vim chromeOS: crouton vim Tried evil with OrgMode and deft but always come back to VimWiki TiddlyWiki if only non-mobile

Yeah I use vimwiki too, it has a nice diary mode as well as working as a classic wiki.

I have it convert all to HTML into syncthing folder, so I can access it read-only on mobile.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#206

Post by benoliver999 »

stevewillows wrote: post #138

I've tried a lot of applications for notes, and I always end up back in a plaintext editor like Atom. This is for common, work-related notes, etc. For everything else, its all about pen and paper. For me, one reason I used Evernote for the longest time was so I could load my notes on my Pebble. This worked, but not consistently. Next best thing? Pen and paper.

Yeah I've been trying out just pen and paper this year and it's been great. Stole some ideas from http://bulletjournal.com

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#208

Post by monch1962 »

I use a combination of iThoughtsX and Evernote.

I find myself in a lot of situations where information isn't coming to me in a particularly organised fashion - interviews, presentations with several presenters, being on the receiving end of braindumps, etc. For those situations, I really need a mindmap app to be able to reorganise information with minimal effort into a structure that makes sense to me. It's a not-cheap, Apple-only app, but it can output into a variety of formats if I want to consume it on some other platform.

It also works well as a presentation tool if I don't know the audience's knowledge level. Rather than be tied into e.g a sequence of slides, using a mindmap tool I can skip over stuff the audience already knows, while still having the content there (just not visible) if I need to drill down deeply. I can go from receiving an unstructured braindump to presenting that same info in an organised fashion within a few minutes

I used to use Freemind and Freeplane, but the lack of an iOS option was a killer.

For most other situations, I find Evernote is great

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#209

Post by andrem »

convivialdingo wrote: post #101

I’m paper and pen - so recently was introduced to Goodnotes on iPad with a pencil. I found a used eBay iPad and can rapidly take notes, draw diagrams and flowcharts. Full search with online recognition, too. Honestly it’s pretty good. I am much more productive than on paper. On laptop or desktop I stick with vim and copy to Word if required. I use Inkscape for diagrams.

Second the notion of goodnotes and the pen. The one feature that really is quite significant is being able to move hand written text around using the lasso tool.

So you write something, circle it and move it to the right spot.

If your brain works in chaotic ways at times it is such a cool feature to just write/dump everything and then order it later.

Also excellent for drawing diagrams and mockups and all kinds of other flows that require expansion or significant change later on.

Using the pen/ipad combo feels quite natural to write so this has been my solution for a while and has stuck more than any solution I have tried over the past 20 years aside from regular pen/paper.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#210

Post by jopsen »

skorbenko wrote: post #163

I’ve given up on absolutely everything; As of now, I just keep .txt files in my Dropbox, accessed via any app on the market.

Me too, but I'm still missing a good markdown editor on Android, since Draft went out of action..

It would also be nice with a good editor that was somewhat Dropbox aware, so I had fewer edit conflicts between my laptop and phone..

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