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Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
161–170 of 373 posts
Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
#162The Open Source solution which serves me well for years has been TiddyWiki (1). Supports Tags and various modes of output. Each page one file or all in one, very open so recursive changes can be applied on the shell in plain files. (1) https://tiddlywiki.com/
TiddlyWiki in many ways is the best predecessor to Obsidian, in that it follows many of the same priorities and tradeoffs.
I was a big user of TiddlyWiki but Obsidian has so many UI quality of life improvements, and the plugin ecosystem is evolving at such a rapid pace that I decided to jump ship.
I wrote a guide on my migration process: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/import-from-tiddlywiki-5-to-obsi...
Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
#163Quoted post unavailable.
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Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The app starts in under 3 seconds for me For me that would be a showstopper. 3 seconds to open my notes app? I would have already lost my train of thought. :wq
It takes me about 15 seconds to boot my computer. But do I need to start the computer each time I do something on it? No, I leave it on. Similarly goes for other things you use but takes "too long time" to open, leave the thing open and you just have to switch windows to access it. And if you think Obsidian is a note taking app, then yeah, it's not the right tool for you, continue using Vi/m. But once you grow out of…
I see your point, thanks.
Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
#165Quoted post unavailable.
> To represent lots of different information to humans in a concise view, you need a lot more than Markdown is capable of. [•••] > Better tools for composing documents already exist. Such as? Honest question, and a hope you don't mean MS Word or Google Doc.
Not the OP but I'm happy to defend WYSIWIG editors. Things like font size and bold and italics exist for a reason. Markdown tables are extremely clunky. Inline images (or pretty equations) are important for many types of writing. Bullet lists in markdown more than two levels deep get interpreted as code my most syntax highlighters.
Don't get me wrong, I love plain text and I do most of my writing in markdown, but WYSIWIG editors have their place. As do things like spreadsheets (for represent lots of info) and LaTeX (for docs).
Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
#166Quoted post unavailable.
> Software engineers like it because they can write it in a terminal window.
This is a misleading statement.
Software engineers like it because they can write it in a terminal window _and many, many other reasons_
> In fact, the whole programmer's fetish with writing everything with a plain terminal text editor needs to die.
While killing the text format might validate your ignorance, it would also kill the software industry's productivity.
Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
#167Quoted post unavailable.
There are a lot of tradeoffs to using non-plaintext formats beyond not being able to edit them on old-school green CRTs: - Have you ever tried using git on a docx file? The best you have is file history, but good luck trying to merge branches, create/apply patches, cherry-pick commits, rebase, or view line-by-line history. - You lose the interoperability of plaintext. Any editor can open a plaintext file, and consumi…
You are begging the question. Git works well with plaintext because it is a product of the 1970s thinking that OP is bemoaning. If we built tools to do Git-like things on rich text file formats, they’d work just as well. (And Track Changes does a subset of those things surprisingly well inside Word, fwiw)
And OP didn’t specify binary output. The output format could be anything we standardised on, just so long as it supports rich editing environments. That is, we shouldn’t have to write in the output format; the two can (and probably should) be disconnected.
Markdown is both a terrible output format and editing experience, especially when you get complicated. It’s the worst of both worlds.
Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
#168Quoted post unavailable.
Indeed. Programmers need to learn that Microsoft Word exists, and there are reasons why their nontechnical peers use it over Notepad.
Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To represent lots of different information to humans in a concise view, you need a lot more than Markdown is capable of. [•••] > Better tools for composing documents already exist. Such as? Honest question, and a hope you don't mean MS Word or Google Doc.
Not the OP but I'm happy to defend WYSIWIG editors. Things like font size and bold and italics exist for a reason. Markdown tables are extremely clunky. Inline images (or pretty equations) are important for many types of writing. Bullet lists in markdown more than two levels deep get interpreted as code my most syntax highlighters. Don't get me wrong, I love plain text and I do most of my writing in markdown, but WYS…
The general problem, of course, with WYSIWIG is distribution: what YOU see might not be what someone you send the document to sees. Do the people you're sharing the document with have the same application, the same version of that application, the same fonts installed? You can export to a presentation format like PDF (or HTML), but then they can't edit it as you did, and it's also likely that the translation will change "what you see".
Markdown is a least common denominator for sure, but that limitation also gives it a useful universality, which is what proponents value in this case.
Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files
#170I am looking to move from Notion, looking for an alternative. Here are few things I am looking for: 1. It is easy to back up or export my data 2. Great UI! May be its just me, I care about the UI a lot and if it is nice, I seem to be writing more 3. Support for templates, so that I can write daily journal/entries with predefined fields 4. Support for keyboard shortcuts (or mouse-less operations) so that I can link or…
If what you have in your notion is mostly ideas, concepts, and thoughts, then Obsidian is a great choice. It is not as great for storing facts, because of the lack of something resembling Notion's robust database system.
So I use both: Obsidian for ideas, beliefs, concepts, explanations, class notes, etc. Notion for Goals, freelance client project info, job hunt tracking, to watch/read lists, images and links for internet arguments, plans for video games, travel plans, technical solutions, exercise and practice routines.