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Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#272

I've tried several different, SimpleNote, KeepNote, EverNote... and so on. I have come to a conclusion, that using the default iOS note app is enough for me. Using paper notes while @lectures and rewriting them sometimes to Notes. I'm also using another method of note taking, which I prefer more, but which is not always accessible on the go. I stumbled upon a script here and modified it a little. (changed vim to nano…

This remind me of this microblogging for hackers script: https://github.com/buckket/twtxt/blob/master/README.rst

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#273
I have an Alfred workflow that lets me copy any text, press CMD + Shift + X, and emails me the snippet. I then have a simple app that connects to my email account (Gmail) and lets me add tags (labels) to notes. This allows me to take notes quickly (I'll just write something in Sublime) and easily review/categorise them later. This has been really wonderful and I am constantly tweaking the workflow to suit me. It's also really simple and only relies on Alfred (which is a great tool anyway).

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#276
post #252

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…

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

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.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#278
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/ .

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...

All the time. I'm curious as to what problems you were having?

Obviously you won't be able to execute code blocks, reformat tables, follow links, fold sections etc.. but everything is just a search away..

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#279

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…

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 i…

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.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#280
post #63

Workflowy is great for quick, structured, hierarchical note taking. It is basically a text only bulleted list of lists. Navigable by keyboard or mouse and syncs to whatever phone / desktop etc you have. Too expensive by half, and I don't think it is client side encrypted which is a deal breaker for anything sensitive. I really enjoy the simplicity though, great for checklists, writing papers, and all those little rar…

That used to be me. Can I suggest you check out Dynalist? It's actually maintained and updated (unlike Workflowy at this point), with more useful features. I've been finding the colouring, headers and bookmarks very useful.

https://dynalist.io/

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