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Show HN: Gingko, a tree-document editor

gingkoapp.com

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Re: Show HN: Gingko, a tree-document editor

#31

Post by adriano_f »

mgualt wrote: post #27

I'm certainly drawn to the idea and am inclined positively towards it. I'm even willing to overlook the ridiculous hubris of "This new medium will be the way most text is read and written in the future." However, there are many confusing things to me as a person who arrived at the site through HN. Since one of the developers is promoting the "app" here, it might be useful to hear from him on these points: 1. Is this…

The hubris of the statement is not lost on me, but what should a founder be but delusional and optimistic :)

1. It's both a viewer and a word processor. It relies on Markdown (and LaTeX through extensions). We export to Md, but will be adding more import/export options in the future. We hope to create a publication standard for it.

2. The structure of the document is an "outline of index cards". Each card can have one or more children. Source content (in markdown) is edited by toggling edit mode on that card.

3. Yes, we are extracting parts of this as open-source. The rest remains proprietary (for now, at least).

> I apologize if any of the above seems harsh

No need to apologize. Thoughtful criticism is what we need.

Thanks!

Re: Show HN: Gingko, a tree-document editor

#32

Post by adriano_f »

fspeech wrote: post #22

Ontology/taxonomy/classification are seriously difficult things. If not semantic web would have ruled the world by now. Structural hierarchies (chapter/section etc) may be easy to get for everyone but a navigation side panel would work too. If you build a semantic hierarchy, new users may not know how to find things; yet repeat users may be frustrated by having to go through the layers to access the items they are lo…

True, hierarchy is not a panacea. But I argue that it's better for new comers to have context & overview, and hierarchy helps with that.

Re: Show HN: Gingko, a tree-document editor

#33

Post by Sprint »

adamwong246 wrote: post #13
Sprint wrote: post #8

Dear authors, my screen has hundreds of pixels vertically, I would like to be able to read more than 15 lines at once. The font size is insanely huge. It made me close the tab.

Just how tall is your screen? Also, http://www.wikihow.com/Zoom-With-a-Web-Browser

~550px on ~15cm I'd guess. With a sane text size as on HN for example I get about 30 lines of text on it.

Browser sadly zoom the whole page nowadays, not just the text. So that is not a good solution.

Re: Show HN: Gingko, a tree-document editor

#34

Post by Kiro »

I really like this. My nested lists in Evernote always get out of hand as soon as a node needs more than one line.

I've tried WorkFlowy but I didn't like the presentation. I prefer cards and in Gingko's case you get the added benefit of having a great overview.

Re: Show HN: Gingko, a tree-document editor

#35

Post by adriano_f »

Kiro wrote: post #34

I really like this. My nested lists in Evernote always get out of hand as soon as a node needs more than one line. I've tried WorkFlowy but I didn't like the presentation. I prefer cards and in Gingko's case you get the added benefit of having a great overview.

Thanks Kiro!

I should have used "Evernote + Workflowy" in the title, since that seems to be what people immediately understand about Gingko.

Get in touch if you ever have any thoughts or questions.

Re: Show HN: Gingko, a tree-document editor

#37

Post by adriano_f »

alextingle wrote: post #36

For what platforms is it available? (There's no way I'm going to the trouble of signing up, only to be told "uh oh, not on your platform".)

Works on all modern browsers. Soon, will work on mobile as well.

I've even been testing it on my Kindle this morning, and was surprised to see it (almost) works there too!

Re: Show HN: Gingko, a tree-document editor

#38

Post by nik61 »

One of the virtues of Evernote is that you are not stuck in a hierarchy if you don't want to be. I find Clay Shirky's well-known criticisms of pervasive hierarchies to be quite persuasive. I'm looking for something that doesn't paint me into an hierarchical corner. Evernote is certainly a step in the right direction, and the IHMC concept mapping software can work very well too.

Re: Show HN: Gingko, a tree-document editor

#40

Post by adriano_f »

anigbrowl wrote: post #29
adriano_f wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Screenwriting was one of the initial inspirations for the UI, because screenplays are naturally hierarchical (logline > Acts > Sequences > Scenes > Beats).

Questionable. I work in the film trade, and while people may consider a logline or a one-sheet, when some reads a script they sit down and read it start to finish, like a book. It's going to play in linear form on the screen, so it has to be read that way as well. What authors usually do is is knock out a freeform treatment where the story is described in prose, which is then broken down into scenes. It is helpful to…

It's great to have a film insider's take on this.

The screenplay examples do only go up to the "scene card" level, but we plan to have more columns so you could add the script there as well. That way you could go start-to-finish, or have overviews as well.

> I do think this would very useful for film students doing analysis.

Interesting, thanks.

A question: would this be useful for pitching a film? Say if there were concept art sections, character descriptions, and additional notes, as well as the script itself (from logline down to linear form) ??

> BTW I also feel that if you offer people the opportunity to try it, you should let them try it

Again, sorry about this. It's what we've got, and we're trying to make the best of it.

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