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Write plain text files

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Re: Write plain text files

#201

Post by jodrellblank »

falcolas wrote: post #45
jasode wrote: post #34

>If you rely on Word, Evernote or Notion, for example, then you can’t work unless you have Word, Evernote, or Notion. You are helpless without them. You are dependent. Although I deliberately avoid Evernote and Notion for those stated reasons, I'm fine with Microsoft Word. I've been using it for 20 years. It even opens my proprietary DOS WordPerfect ("*.wp") files from 1980s! Sometimes I need more flexible layout of…

HTML works quite well for images and text placement. Latex (and its derivatives) work even better. Word isn't bad, so long as you keep paying your subscription.

> "Word isn't bad, so long as you keep paying your subscription."

Web Word is free, like Google Docs is. (Meaning, it costs your credentials and data rather than your money).

https://www.techradar.com/uk/how-to/how-to-download-and-use-...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/free-office-on...

Re: Write plain text files

#202

Post by GoblinSlayer »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #179

But author is not writing plain text files. As he shows at the end he is clearly writing some mixture of HTML and some custom language that he uses to parse title, tags, and date. I do agree that unless absolutely needed you shouldn't tie yourself to proprietary formats, but unless you are writing simple notes you probably want more functionality out of your files than actual plain text file can provide at which poin…

I personally use literal plain text for note taking. Previously I used One Note and other stuff, but when I saw how I just store plain text there I grew suspicious that something isn't right and indeed couldn't find a reason why it can't be text files in my text editor. In addition to that my text editor already has best text rendering settings I spent time tuning, and text editing functionality I'm used to - that's the functionality I expect from note taking software.

I'm puzzled, how people use markdown? For what? Just to make text more formal?

Re: Write plain text files

#203

Post by approxim8ion »

civilized wrote: post #16
peterxpark wrote: post #2

I've tried a lot of different things over decades. And, after countless experimentation, I'm still at the same place... I store data all over the place. I have Evernote for long book notes and tracking financial data. I'm using notion right now as my base of notes for learning how to build a cabin (toggles and embedding videos is wonderful). I tried to really use roam and its off-shots for a while but could never rea…

Everyone was talking about Roam for a while, I wonder what happened.

The faithful are still on Roam. Others have moved to:

1. Obsidian: has bidirectional linking and knowledge graphs, is faster and better supported, but doesn't have the outlining structure that Roam is based on.

2. Logseq: basically an open source Roam with 90-95% feature parity and some cool stuff that is its own.

3. Foam/Dendron/Athens etc: Roam clones.

4. Notion/Evernote/something else entirely.

Re: Write plain text files

#204

Post by xenodium »

slmjkdbtl wrote: post #174

I've been using simplenote and kinda wanted to transition to plain text, the only thing stopping me is the mobile desktop sync workflow which simplenote handles really nicely. Does anyone have any good ideas?

For org and iPhone users, I authored https://plainorg.com

https://plainorg.com/#syncing-your-data

Re: Write plain text files

#205

Post by thrwawy283 »

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…

Hmm. Sometimes I step back and I look at the version history in modern Office documents and it does feel convenient. I like the CRDT editing a lot. It still feels too loose and prone to issues, but I recognize its value to the average person.

Most of what bothers me is trying to view, read-only a previous version. Usually I have several Word or Excel documents up on my screen, and it's easy to begin modifying a past version that then becomes the latest. It's not reflex to open a previous version and untoggle autosave. It bites me all the time.. In Office's pursuit to help people avoid losing data, I wind up overwriting what I need to preserve. A lot..

I have not seen manual version names in Word doc history. Maybe I'm sheltered :s

Re: Write plain text files

#206

Post by jodrellblank »

emptyparadise wrote: post #130

I disagree with the whole "NEED VISUALS OR GRAPHICS?" section. I do need visuals! I do need graphics! I'm not a typewriter, why must my flow be interrupted with me having to leave my document to open some JPEG file whenever I need to show something that isn't text? It's not like this is crazy difficult or requires proprietary apps either. Writing a modern browser may be an impossible feat but I'm certain that it woul…

It's 2022 and people like the blog author are all "who needs screenshots? who needs audio? who needs colours? who needs fonts or styles? who wants to see their handwriting strokes? who needs metadata? I use text because it's 1970!".

Hello? 4K video in my pocket, structured data streaming out of every system around me, all I'm supposed to want to capture is plain text? What a paucity of information, of detail, what an absense of dreaming, what a position taken purely from fear - never have nice things because you might lose them one day!

Re: Write plain text files

#207

Post by srazzaque »

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…

It's great, until it isnt. For small and simple documents (sub 20 pages), there's no better option.

In my experience it starts to creak on large documents with multiple editors. I did a project many years ago where the key deliverable was a large report, worked upon by 3-4 contributors over 12 weeks.

That last week was absolute madness. Document got corrupted, and we tried all sorts of things. We ended up importing the corrupt document into Google Docs, which, oddly enough, did a better job of working with a corrupt Word document than MS Word did.

Re: Write plain text files

#208

Post by appsoftware »

Agreed ownership of your notes is imperative. You do need some structure though. Try Logseq. I adopted Obsidian after Roam, but missed the low friction structure that Roam offered. But Roam was not secure and was proprietary. Logseq is the best of both worlds, is plain text based with minimal structure (markdown-ish) and is Git friendly. It's a work in progress, and needs a few files adding to .gitignore to minimise merge conflicts (pages-metadata.edn for one).

Re: Write plain text files

#209

Post by zokier »

> HTML, Markdown, JSON, LaTeX, and many other standard formats, are just plain text.

Is parsing json (correctly) really markedly simpler/easier than parsing something like cbor?

Re: Write plain text files

#210

Post by lufasz »

ParetoOptimal wrote: post #79
rattray wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love Obsidian, but I'm now beginning to move many of my documents to Notion for sharing with a team. I really wish Obsidian, or something like it, worked well for teams. Maybe it's on their roadmap, I'm not sure.

How is notion? I heard it was slow? Also, is real time collaboration a game changer or a gimmick? I used to think the former, but was questioning it recently. What would be lost with syncthing + obsidian for your team or maybe something that does autocommit like fossil for probable conflicts?

It's still painfully slow, and the WYSIWYG editing is very clunky.

The real time is not as real time as, say, Google Docs. There's a lot of lag.

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