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Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

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Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#111

Post by gorgoiler »

dvt wrote: post #9

Hacker News loves their note taking apps. I've seen at least a dozen apps this year that have solved the exact same problem in just about the exact same ways. Am I the only one that still uses pen and paper? To me, there's a certain je ne sais quoi about closing my laptop and putting my phone away , grabbing a pen and my notebook, and brainstorming without technology.

I feel like you are enthusing about a Damascus steel paring knife to an audience that runs a commercial kitchen.

You’re not wrong, it’s just that note management apps are vegetable chopping machines, and we’re desperately in search of a Robot Coupe.

Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#112

Post by _vufv »

maxioatic wrote: post #4

I was curious what was different about this than Roam/Obsidian/ect. and checked the FAQ: > Dendron is a highly opinionated note taking tool that focuses on hierarchal note taking. It provides the freedom of Roam’s every note exists everywhere philosophy while layering on top flexible hierarchies to keep track of it all. [0] Not sure how I feel about that approach. However, it does look pretty polished and I'll likely…

It seems that the core features of Dendron correspond most closely to Obsidian's, to the point that I thought it's an Obsidian skin, but Obsidian is closed source while Dendron isn't. Roam is a Web app whose unit of data is a text block - Obsidian's and Dendron's unit of data is a file Markdown file.

Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#113

Post by iterating »

evo_9 wrote: post #70

I have tried a number of note taking apps including Bear and Notable; I recently switched to MS OneNote because it's cross-platform from OSX to PC, making it easier for me to consolidate all my notes in once desktop app. It's likely an unpopular choice given it's from 'Big-Co, Inc', etc, but it's hard to beat. My favorite feature that sold me is the ability to tab and instantly create an inline table (with each subse…

When it comes to ease in creating notes, image support, and pen support, Onenote is king. What Onenote falls short on is ease in retrieving notes. It lacks previews, thumbnails, indexes, table of contents, nested tags, or customizable sidepanels. You cant "flip" though your existing notes while keeping the current note or side panel in view.

This is where Dendron shines. Dendron's navigator side panel is clean of clutter and easy to navigate, even when you have hundreds of notes. You can also navigate your notebook by open TODOs, nested tags, saved (regex or non rgex) search filters, or by graph view.

Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#114

Post by [deleted] »

rovr138 wrote: post #97
probotect0r wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I employ a simple version of the bullet journaling method. I maintain an index at the beginning of the book where I add topics and the page numbers that I have information about it on. Still not ctrl-f speed of course, but I am not flipping through my notebook trying to find the right page. For your situation, I'll probably right down the job reference on the page of the day, and then add a `Job References` entry in…

How much space have you found is good for an index?

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#115

Post by PeterStuer »

_huayra_ wrote: post #106

It's frustrating but completely understandable that the author chose to do this in VScode. The value of having a highly-customizable editor that is extensible in a well-known language is great. I really hope a true VSCode competitor will emerge in the future that is truly open source and not controlled by a company that does not have its users best interests in mind; all this Linux-friendly stuff Microsoft is doing l…

Would the MIT license on vscode not protect you from the scenario you entertain?

Don't get me wrong. VS Code is most certainly a loss leader for the Microsoft ecosystem. This businessmodel for gaining developer mindshare is not new. It was pioneered by the free software ecosystem, but has been the defacto standard for some time now.

Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#116

Post by stevekemp »

cmgxyz wrote: post #72
dvt wrote: post #9

Hacker News loves their note taking apps. I've seen at least a dozen apps this year that have solved the exact same problem in just about the exact same ways. Am I the only one that still uses pen and paper? To me, there's a certain je ne sais quoi about closing my laptop and putting my phone away , grabbing a pen and my notebook, and brainstorming without technology.

When I went back to school to get my CS degree, I developed a pretty strict habit of only taking my lecture notes by hand, usually by printing out the lecture slides in advance and then annotating them with a bright turquoise fountain pen ink. Nowadays, for work, I use Org mode. Apart from the convenience of always having it to hand in my editor, being able to insert hyperlinks in my notes to specific lines in our so…

I'm the same, a lot of personal projects have notes on paper.

But I've been keeping a daily work-journal for the past few years, and that has been very handy. I have one org-mode file for each company I've worked in, and each day I insert a new block with headings that make sense "Meetings", "Stories/Tickets/Projects", "Problems", etc.

I make notes of commands, recipes, and tag things literally so get an integrated tag-cloud and this is exceptionally useful when I want to lookup how I did something a few months ago, or more!

Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#117

Post by zby »

I used to have a PersonalWiki (https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://zby.aster.net.pl/kwiki/*) running off my desktop in my living room, but it was too cumbersome to keep my own server especially when I was working abroad. I switched it off, and then my backup drive failed - I have only what was saved in the Archive. Then I had a blog on Blogspot - but Google neglected it and I started to have problems with logging into the blog editor (even though I used gmail constantly) - it still is there: http://brudnopis.blogspot.com/ but I probably cannot access the editor. Then I started a blog at Medium: https://medium.com/@zby It kind of works - but I hate the fact that to be a fully supported author I have to put my blog behind their paywall. I understand the need for a business model - but this one does not work for people like me, who write because they have something to say and not because they try to make money directly from their writing. And I am afraid it is those amateurs who write the best blogs - now the core of Medium writers seem to be some aspiring professional writers who just compile "10 things that ..." or try to build a "story" out of any mediocre thought.

I also started a paper notepad with Zettelkasten method - I have some notes there, but I haven't established an effective habit for it. I'll see how that develops - but I still want to publish my thoughts.

I wish I stayed with my PersonalWiki - I feel a need to constantly add and modify the articles even after publishing them. But the ideal would be something that works like: https://www.gwern.net/About - now I understand the need for a LongSite (https://www.gwern.net/About#long-site).

There are many contenders presented in this discussion here, with lists of features, what is lacking from these analyses is the business models that would give me a feeling of security for my potential LongSite.

Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#118

Post by jmnicolas »

dvt wrote: post #9

Hacker News loves their note taking apps. I've seen at least a dozen apps this year that have solved the exact same problem in just about the exact same ways. Am I the only one that still uses pen and paper? To me, there's a certain je ne sais quoi about closing my laptop and putting my phone away , grabbing a pen and my notebook, and brainstorming without technology.

> brainstorming without technology

I think there are 2 different use cases:

- note taking as building a knowledge base (ex: 'how to add a route permanently in CentOS') where pen & paper is clearly inferior (not searchable, not available everywhere once it becomes bigger than a notebook)

- brainstorming and here I would argue that the first step is just thinking before writing anything.

Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#119

Post by richardw »

dvt wrote: post #9

Hacker News loves their note taking apps. I've seen at least a dozen apps this year that have solved the exact same problem in just about the exact same ways. Am I the only one that still uses pen and paper? To me, there's a certain je ne sais quoi about closing my laptop and putting my phone away , grabbing a pen and my notebook, and brainstorming without technology.

Note apps and todo list apps. There are a million ways of thinking about personal information and no chance that we’ve explored the full space (UX, focus, features, integrations) yet.

- I made one around 2007. Perfect for a niche, but there are infinitely many niches.

Re: Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought

#120

Post by tug0fwar »

_huayra_ wrote: post #106

It's frustrating but completely understandable that the author chose to do this in VScode. The value of having a highly-customizable editor that is extensible in a well-known language is great. I really hope a true VSCode competitor will emerge in the future that is truly open source and not controlled by a company that does not have its users best interests in mind; all this Linux-friendly stuff Microsoft is doing l…

Maybe you should give VSCodium[1] a try?

[1] https://github.com/VSCodium/

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