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Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers

edna.arslexis.io

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Re: Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers

#81

Post by jxy »

kjksf wrote: post #72
jxy wrote: post #38

This is slick. Are there plans for rendering LaTeX equations and/or diagrams/flowcharts, such as mathjax and/or mermaid.js?

It's a possibility but I'm not using those myself so I don't have good intuition on what is a good UI for that. A relatively simple thing would be to add "preview block" which e.g. for mermaid blocks would add a panel with rendered diagram. A much more complicated solution would be to add codemirror view which renders diagram when cursor is outside the markup and switches to editing when inside markup. But that's sig…

For equations and flowcharts, I would argue that the rendering is more important than the textual "code", so a "preview block" with rendered output would be very useful already.

A much better UI would be something like what you described, such as

- https://github.com/benrbray/prosemirror-math?tab=readme-ov-f...

- https://support.typora.io/Math/#inline-math

Re: Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers

#83

Post by wonger_ »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #77
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #74

This is really cool, I think I'll end up using this instead of a random VSCode window. Multiple blocks and especially the math ones are really nice for this use case. FYI in every browser I use on Mac, command + L highlights the current page URL, so that shortcut to change language/block type doesn't work for me. Not a huge deal because you can change it from that bar at the bottom or the command palette, but figured…

That is probably the most useful shortcut that I haven't been using. I have been up the creek since my workplace implemented and actually-effective browser extension plugin and I lost my precious Vim Vixen.

Ctrl/Cmd + L is very useful. It also works in Windows File Explorer, Spotify Desktop, and presumably many other apps.

Re: Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers

#84

Post by mcintyre1994 »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #77
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #74

This is really cool, I think I'll end up using this instead of a random VSCode window. Multiple blocks and especially the math ones are really nice for this use case. FYI in every browser I use on Mac, command + L highlights the current page URL, so that shortcut to change language/block type doesn't work for me. Not a huge deal because you can change it from that bar at the bottom or the command palette, but figured…

That is probably the most useful shortcut that I haven't been using. I have been up the creek since my workplace implemented and actually-effective browser extension plugin and I lost my precious Vim Vixen.

It’s a really useful one. Arc also has cmd + shift + c to copy the current URL, which I very much miss everywhere else now!

Re: Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers

#85

Post by royaltjames »

mk12345 wrote: post #73
Arjuna144 wrote: post #56

Now there are three "newish" Markdown / PWA / Note apps that I am aware of: - Silverbullet.md ( https://silverbullet.md ) - Eidos ( https://eidos.space/ ) - and this ofc ( https://edna.arslexis.io/ ) Is someone aware of more of these? I am liking all of them and they seem to have different perspectives, goals and philosophies. Sadly none of them have a quick capture experience on android that I am satisfied with...

I created https://floatynotes.app a while ago, which might fit your list :). It provides virtual sticky notes, using the new Document Picture-in-Picture API.

hey this is awesome, thanks for sharing!

Re: Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers

#86

Post by liquid_bluing »

I am a prolific note-taker, and I use vim. Many of these features and more are supported in vim with the vim-markdown plugin, which has support for markdown syntax highlighting and syntax highlighting in code blocks, and a hierarchical table of contents using the location list, which is my favorite feature. I have scripts and functions that implement some other features. The one important thing that vim necessarily lacks that is very useful for note-taking is the ability to render images and mathematical equations, which is why I still sometimes use Word.

This is a neat piece of software, but it would seem to me that the tools available on the command line - Unix or PowerShell - cover just about all the use cases, and importantly, are customizable, lightweight, and interoperable. For instance, I have scripts that use fzf and/or ripgrep to quickly search my notes directories and open notes for editing.

This is just me - it's definitely possible that I'm missing out on a better way of doing things, but I can't easily see the value, for a developer at least. Maybe folks just aren't that familiar with what can be done with common tools that already exist? Maybe it's because the CLI can be a pain to learn? I guess that's what a GUI note-taking app is for...

BTW, I'm not trying to be negative, just sharing my possibly idiosyncratic perspective.

Re: Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers

#87

Post by Vegenoid »

viccis wrote: post #7

I will check this (and Heynote) out. I have long wanted to get into something like Obsidian, but have always had trouble finding a good example of a workflow in the development world that makes good use of their features. Almost all example workflows I've seen are from people whose job it is to work on and evangelize note taking tools, and it's mostly things like organizing their notes on how to take notes. Seemed li…

I had the same experience as you, and held off on getting into note taking with Obsidian for quite a while. Eventually someone said to me "Don't worry about workflow at all, just start taking notes with no flow or organization. You will develop a flow that works for you as you use it more." That's what I did, and it was very true. I don't think my flow matches any popular workflow, I just started taking notes and it naturally developed.

If you have something you want to write down to be able to reference in the future, create a note and put that in it. The next time you want to write something down, you can either put it in the note you already created, or you can make another note if that sounds nicer. Up to you. You'll find out what works.

You can do basically what you're doing right now, which is opening a random file and putting it in there, except now instead of your files being spread across your system they're all in one place, and if you want to start doing fancier stuff with them in the future you can. I use a small percentage of Obsidian's features, and they don't get in my way if I'm not using them.

Re: Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers

#90

Post by filcuk »

kjksf wrote: post #57
filcuk wrote: post #53

This looks really good. Have you come across SilverBullet? Similar concept. https://silverbullet.md/ SB can be hosted on Docker, which has the benefit of being able to access your data from any device. Do you have any such plans for Edna?

Regarding accessing from any device: at least for desktop you can store notes on disk, in a folder managed by DropBox or OneDrive or Google Drive ( https://edna.arslexis.io/help-win#storing-notes-on-disk ). You can then access the note on every computer where you replicate that folder. This doesn't cover accessing from mobile or computers you don't own but it's just a different kind of a problem of auth. Edna is actu…

Thanks for the detailed answers, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this.
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