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Write plain text files

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Re: Write plain text files

#131

Post by eternityforest »

GitHub flavored markdown will be around indefinitely as will SQLite and HTML.

ODT probably will be too.

It sucks that storing files isn't really solved yet. Plain text needs some external means of sync. SyncThing is finally getting good again with new Android 11 features, but for a while it was limited to internal storage.

And there is, unfortunately, no SyncThing cloud providers(First person to extend SyncThing with messaging, make it embeddable in other apps, and make a cloud service will have basically a universal backend for FOSS apps and solve a lot of issues).

There also hasn't been good tools to actually work with the text files till recently, because android always seems to be 10 years behind desktop. You were pretty much stuck just using text editors, sans indexed search.

Plain text is wonderful, but the ecosystem to actually take notes with it is just now catching up.

Re: Write plain text files

#132

Post by sleightofmind »

Yep. Plain text. Offline first. I pretty much consider markdown a form of plain text, whether or not that point of view is orthodox.

The only two other doc tools I regularly use are

a) completely human-readable plain-text hierarchical notebook with almost no markup in its stored format,

b) an html notebook, whose file format is largely human-readable w/markup referencing images -- png and jpg.

a) is gjots2. File format close enough to plain text to be indistinguishable. I sometimes write entries in gjots2 in markdown. I mean, why not?

b) is Zim. Nuff said.

I've played with recutils, and it's nicely done. But I don't want to think that hard, or be that organized.

If I know I want to organize my text and massage it a bit more, I sometimes use an old text database program by Carlo Strozzi called nosql (no, not the nosql the web crowd thinks I'm referring to -- it predates that. It's relational, plain text, but not SQL, and it just uses standard nix utilities).

If I need version control for plain text, the now ancient RCS program is something I seem to be able to re-familiarize myself with much quicker than I can with git.

Now having said all that, if someone asks me to write/format a Christmas letter for them, well, out comes Libre Office Writer and it gets saved in docx. Why fight the universe?

Re: Write plain text files

#133

Post by rileyphone »

nextos wrote: post #30
elteto wrote: post #20

This is one of the main strengths of Obsidian, which I have been using lately and I’m extremely happy with: everything is just Markdown files in some folder on disk. Zero danger of lock in. You can have a disk hierarchy if you desire, or trust that search will find you what you are looking for. For me search works fairly well and if I need something extra I can just grep/sed/awk. Plus it has the features that a simpl…

I use org-mode the same way. I have a flat directory with many small files, inspired by Zettelkasten and by simple wikis. No server, no dependencies. This also works well for small organizations. Both GitHub and GitLab are able to render org files, with some minor limitations. Hence, a simple repository full of org files is already a wiki. Even local links just work, with zero dependencies. It's possible to transform…

There’s also org-roam, which introduces the bi-directional links that systems like Obsidian have. Just make sure you’re on v2.

This is truly the era of the memex.

Re: Write plain text files

#134

Post by deepGem »

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.

"Git for everything" is the first thought I had when I opened this article. I am trying to keep all my notes in Google docs and it's all good as long as you stick to their format. I can't edit text files in Google docs ! I mean, how absurd is this.

I feel like building a Google docs clone for simple text files. Just one feature - versioning (A Time machine like interface) and perhaps add collaborative editing later. I just want to write and store a text document without having to create multiple files. Automatic versioning of snapshots so I can go back in time and refer to any timestamp.

Re: Write plain text files

#136

Post by rattray »

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 faster now, I haven't been bothered by speed yet.

But yes, realtime collaboration is a critical feature for documents that can be used during meetings (and IMO ~no meetings should be held without documents).

The other critical feature is comments, which I assume Obsidian does not have support for (they would be very nontrivial to represent in markdown).

Re: Write plain text files

#137

Post by hammyhavoc »

wodenokoto wrote: post #117
elteto wrote: post #20

This is one of the main strengths of Obsidian, which I have been using lately and I’m extremely happy with: everything is just Markdown files in some folder on disk. Zero danger of lock in. You can have a disk hierarchy if you desire, or trust that search will find you what you are looking for. For me search works fairly well and if I need something extra I can just grep/sed/awk. Plus it has the features that a simpl…

I do wish they had a cheaper commercial tier that maybe didn’t offer priority support or something. $50/year puts you next to some good developer tools, that already do markdown pretty well, and I just don’t see the point of writing notes if they’re not also for work. I’m sure it’s worth it once you have 100s or 1000s of notes by i somehow feel like it’s a bit of a too big pill to swallow in the beginning.

You can use it free, mate. Just sync your markdown files via your favourite provider, or your own WebDAV, e.g. Nextcloud, or use a free sync plugin. There's even git plugins if you're a fellow nerd that wants version control.

Re: Write plain text files

#138

Post by hammyhavoc »

prashantsengar wrote: post #126
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.

Have you tried Athens Research? [0] It is open source and everything is stored locally but not in markdown files. You can self-host the desktop app to share notes. [0]: https://github.com/athensresearch/athens

I went to visit https://athensresearch.github.io/athens/ and got "Only browsers based on Chrome/Chromium are supported" on Firefox. Lol.

Re: Write plain text files

#139

Post by phreack »

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.

I once thought git for humans would be a great idea but never got around to speccing it out. Later on, a lawyer friend showed me the software they used 'for backup' (that they paid thousands per month for) and it turned out everything about it was just exactly like SVN. The terminology was different, the UX was laser focused to the intended users, but at the end of the day it was commits, syncs, merging, pretty much everything but branches, just laid out with domain specific language instead, professional office UI and simple UX.

So, uh, yeah I agree absolutely with you.

Re: Write plain text files

#140

Post by jsnell »

deepGem wrote: post #134
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.

"Git for everything" is the first thought I had when I opened this article. I am trying to keep all my notes in Google docs and it's all good as long as you stick to their format. I can't edit text files in Google docs ! I mean, how absurd is this. I feel like building a Google docs clone for simple text files. Just one feature - versioning (A Time machine like interface) and perhaps add collaborative editing later.…

Have a look at Etherpad.
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