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Write plain text files

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Re: Write plain text files

#161

Post by testermelon »

IceWreck wrote: post #152
yarky wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually surprised : last time I used Git Bash on Windows it did work quite well with .docx files. Then I switched jobs to avoid touching .docx files ... The best alternative I've found to generate .docx output is R markdown, which uses pandoc under the hood and let's you program the whole document the way LaTeX would.

Isnt docx binary ? So git is storing a new version of the file every commit. That way too much storage space youre wasting.

I've heard somewhere that docx is actually gzipped xml. But I never really confirmed that myself. But it's binary once gzipped, so your point still stands.

Re: Write plain text files

#162

Post by dmje »

awill wrote: post #93
sylens wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why I switched to Obsidian after trying a few others like Bear, Notion, and Craft. Let me see the files on disk! Don't abstract it away or hide it from me.

It's just unfortunate that the proprietary apps have IMHO much nicer UI/UX. Why can't we have both! On Mac I use Ulysses. I get the benefits described here while still having a fast, native app with excellent UX. I have Mac for work, and Linux for personal and an Android phone. That means Ulysses on Mac, ThiefMD on Linux, and Markor on Android, all synced with syncthings. Native apps on different OSes is the best sol…

The look of Obsidian put me off too but after I got into it I realised the whole theme is totally css-able. It's really easy to make it your own.

I do agree though, they do themselves no favours with that ugly black / purple website. They need a much better, much prettier default.

All that aside, I'm delighted with my switch to Obsidian. Just an amazing tool, and total reassurance that it's just markdown with all the benefits that brings. So glad to be rid of Evernote...!

Re: Write plain text files

#163

Post by copperx »

pipeline_peak wrote: post #123

I just use Google Docs, I can access it on any consumer computer and I’m pretty sure there’s an offline mode.

I agree. Google Docs is mediocre at WYSIWYG and interoperability, but boy does it solve long term storage. I don't have to worry about paying for Dropbox or having local files that I can't search quickly unless I am on a Mac with Spotlight or have full indexing on Windows or the Linux equivalent. I don't have to worry about the folder structure and the files can't vanish with an SSD failure.

And, unlike text files, it's easy to insert images and tables in a Doc file.

Re: Write plain text files

#164

Post by sgjohnson »

nuker wrote: post #153
imgabe wrote: post #35

Another advantage to plain text files: source control. You can check your writing into git and get a history of all your edits. It’s something programmers take for granted, but it would be amazing if this got more widely adopted outside of tech. The number of files with names like “Report Final Final draft v3.docx” is truly staggering. “Git for everything“ would be a multi-billion dollar startup easily.

But can you use git for the .docx files?

You can, but .docx is binary (it's .zip, and the Word document itself is OpenXML)

So you won't have a neat revision history, unless you implement something in the pipelines to also convert .docx to something human readable, because .docx and OpenXML isn't.

Re: Write plain text files

#165

Post by xerox13ster »

D13Fd wrote: post #154
imgabe wrote: post #35

Another advantage to plain text files: source control. You can check your writing into git and get a history of all your edits. It’s something programmers take for granted, but it would be amazing if this got more widely adopted outside of tech. The number of files with names like “Report Final Final draft v3.docx” is truly staggering. “Git for everything“ would be a multi-billion dollar startup easily.

Honestly I think modern Sharepoint/OneDrive based .docx files have already leapfrogged git for the average user. In an office environment, modern MS Word gives you a really nice version history, with automatic or manual/named versions, plus multi-user simultaneous editing, with a slick and fast UI. It’s even cross platform - I send a coworker a link to a document, and they can open it and work on Word for Windows whi…

That's not plain text and not easily parse-able with mutli document search

Re: Write plain text files

#166

Post by sgjohnson »

loudmax wrote: post #68
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Git for everything“ would be a multi-billion dollar startup easily. AIUI, git is already prepared to be that, it just needs diff programs that can handle whatever format. I mean, other than git's interface being its own impediment to non-technical users.

"Report Final Final draft v3.docx" is in a proprietary format format controlled by a single company. The spec may be open in some sense, but it's far from a level playing field.

> is in a proprietary format format controlled by a single company.

It's not proprietary by definition. A nightmare to implement? Yes.

But definitely not proprietary.

Re: Write plain text files

#167

Post by RBouschery »

Not quite plain text files, but... I've used them all - Notion, Roam, [insert any hyped app of the past 10 years here] - but then in the end, when a random thought pops up that I want to write down I always land back in Apple Notes..

Re: Write plain text files

#168

Post by tashbarg »

IceWreck wrote: post #152
yarky wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually surprised : last time I used Git Bash on Windows it did work quite well with .docx files. Then I switched jobs to avoid touching .docx files ... The best alternative I've found to generate .docx output is R markdown, which uses pandoc under the hood and let's you program the whole document the way LaTeX would.

Isnt docx binary ? So git is storing a new version of the file every commit. That way too much storage space youre wasting.

Git stores a new file anyways. It’s only for packs, that delta compression is applied. And delta compression handles binary files.

Re: Write plain text files

#169

Post by copperx »

thrwawy283 wrote: post #151
imgabe wrote: post #35

Another advantage to plain text files: source control. You can check your writing into git and get a history of all your edits. It’s something programmers take for granted, but it would be amazing if this got more widely adopted outside of tech. The number of files with names like “Report Final Final draft v3.docx” is truly staggering. “Git for everything“ would be a multi-billion dollar startup easily.

Okay. Agree entirely. I love some of the collaborative nature of Microsoft Teams and CRDT editing Word/Excel, but I'm usually pretty remote. Text over a tenuous WAN connection is ideal. I work at a government agency and I was /just today/ getting them to review and approve Git and VS Code for our staff use - and pandoc. A couple years ago we never would have gotten open-source software approved. I wish I knew of an e…

I love pandoc and git and writing text files, but oh my, unless the users in your organization are tech savvy, your scenario sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Re: Write plain text files

#170

Post by copperx »

IceWreck wrote: post #152
yarky wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually surprised : last time I used Git Bash on Windows it did work quite well with .docx files. Then I switched jobs to avoid touching .docx files ... The best alternative I've found to generate .docx output is R markdown, which uses pandoc under the hood and let's you program the whole document the way LaTeX would.

Isnt docx binary ? So git is storing a new version of the file every commit. That way too much storage space youre wasting.

Doesn't git do binary deltas?
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