Writing down what I do in Obsidian • Hacker News Board

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#211

Post by alwillis » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 7:20 PM UTC

The_Colonel wrote: post #63

d33d33 wrote: post #59

i found my love in Trilium what has everything i need and if needed, i can still change the code by myself (AGPL) + files are stored as markdown documents (so i am still able to get into my notes, even if the repo would disappear). see https://github.com/zadam/trilium TLDR; - future proof file format (markdown) - possible as local standalone + sync to simple cloud storage (like gdrive/dropbox/...) - gantt charting -…

Some corrections: > - future proof file format (markdown) Trilium has Markdown-like editing experience, but it stores the notes in HTML. Which is IMHO more future-proof than Markdown. > - possible as local standalone + sync to simple cloud storage (like gdrive/dropbox/...) Trilium stores data in an SQLite database, and sync tools like gdrive/dropbox don't know how to sync it and usually corrupt the database. To sync…

…but it stores the notes in HTML. Which is IMHO more future-proof than Markdown.

No—Markdown is just plaintext, which by definition is the most future-proof format that exists.

HTML is a structured markup language that has multiple versions and tags that come and go. And it’s dependent on a user agent (such as a browser or voice assistant) to render it into something a human can view or listen to.

And while Markdown can be rendered, it’s not required to be human readable.

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#212

Post by eddof13 » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 7:33 PM UTC

I use obsidian because apple notes lost all my notes amazingly when syncing between two computers and my phone- and my hope is that the markdown file method that obsidian uses in iCloud will be more resilient.

That said I'd rather have something that versions my notes files

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#213

Post by krimpenrik » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 7:38 PM UTC

laputan_machine wrote: post #33

Does anyone have any experience with Joplin[0] as an alternative? I'm looking into using SyncThing + Joplin to create a sort of 'networked personal brain'. I was originally looking at Obsidian, but the arguments on why they chose not to go FOSS are pretty weak[2] imo, so I'm looking at using Joplin instead. [0] https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ [1] https://syncthing.net/ [2] https://obsidian.rocks/why-isnt-obsidia…

I used Joplin for some years, really stable and worked well. I used nextcloud with webdev to sync.

Switched over to obsidian couple months ago and am in love, such a great piece of software.

I love the excalidraw integration, game changer

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#214

Post by darreld » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 7:51 PM UTC

I'd love to try something like this but my problem is that I routinely use 3 different computers throughout the day(Windows, Mac and Linux. Could this be used with git to keep things sync'd?

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#215

Post by rchaud » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 7:54 PM UTC

prithsr wrote: post #177

I know this thread seems to be Obsidian specific, but wanted to share: I've been writing down every detail of my day since January 2021 on Diarly. I pay $15 a year to have it sync across iCloud devices. I have two "journals" - one for personal, and one for work. From thoughts, to encounters during the day, to what food I ate, I write everything. It has dramatically improved my day-to-day. I've had trouble remembering…

Diarly seems like a nice tool, and very affordable.

Unfortunately it's Mac/iOS only. I have a Mac but zero interest in using iOS.

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#216

Post by mikhailt » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 8:02 PM UTC

darreld wrote: post #214

I'd love to try something like this but my problem is that I routinely use 3 different computers throughout the day(Windows, Mac and Linux. Could this be used with git to keep things sync'd?

Same here, I need something that's encrypted and cross-platform. Plus a decent price for cloud sync with storage a separate fee if possible.

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#217

Post by NickBusey » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 8:27 PM UTC

Much of what the author does manually can be automated even further. For example, the whole "Working with Embeds" section could be replaced with a DataView query.

I use DataView extensively to great effect. For example, every "Project" note uses the same template, which includes a #Project tag and a Status:: value containing a red, yellow, or green square emoji.

Then a simple query like:

```dataview TABLE Status FROM #Projects SORT file.mtime ASC ```

Gives you a very nice looking, automatically sorted and up to date Project status table.

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#218

Post by krimpenrik » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 8:47 PM UTC

Mandelmus wrote: post #143

beezlewax wrote: post #130

How do you guys handle images in Obsidian? I can't zoom or see detail on large screen shots for example. Pretty new to the application so maybe I'm missing something

I have yet to find a way to use Obsidian with images (sketches, diagrams) as easily as I would like. If there was a way to combine Obsidian's keyboard-based note-taking features (including LaTeX equations) with graphics and diagrams drawn in an app like GoodNotes 5 for iPad, that would be fantastic.

Like mentioned, the excalidraw plugin is a game changer

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#219

Post by zeruch » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 10:14 PM UTC

laputan_machine wrote: post #33

Does anyone have any experience with Joplin[0] as an alternative? I'm looking into using SyncThing + Joplin to create a sort of 'networked personal brain'. I was originally looking at Obsidian, but the arguments on why they chose not to go FOSS are pretty weak[2] imo, so I'm looking at using Joplin instead. [0] https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ [1] https://syncthing.net/ [2] https://obsidian.rocks/why-isnt-obsidia…

I used Joplin for about a year, then switched to Obsidian. Joplin is/was good (and on mobile was nice and responsive) but Obsidian just (so far) has been a better overall fit.

Re: Writing down what I do in Obsidian

#220

Post by The_Colonel » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 10:53 PM UTC

alwillis wrote: post #211

The_Colonel wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some corrections: > - future proof file format (markdown) Trilium has Markdown-like editing experience, but it stores the notes in HTML. Which is IMHO more future-proof than Markdown. > - possible as local standalone + sync to simple cloud storage (like gdrive/dropbox/...) Trilium stores data in an SQLite database, and sync tools like gdrive/dropbox don't know how to sync it and usually corrupt the database. To sync…

…but it stores the notes in HTML. Which is IMHO more future-proof than Markdown. No—Markdown is just plaintext, which by definition is the most future-proof format that exists. HTML is a structured markup language that has multiple versions and tags that come and go. And it’s dependent on a user agent (such as a browser or voice assistant) to render it into something a human can view or listen to. And while Markdown…

> No—Markdown is just plaintext, which by definition is the most future-proof format that exists.

HTML is human-readable as well. I'm not sure if it's really a dealbreaker if you have to read text instead of em.

Markdown's big problem is standardization. It does have a standard, but it doesn't seem widely implemented, and it's notably poor - not even basic features such as tables are standardized. That's kind of a big deal for being future-proof. Worse, Markdown documents do not even record the Markdown flavor they are using.

You might say that it doesn't matter as it's still sort of readable even if you can't understand exact formatting detail. But again, so is HTML.

In my view, the future-proofness which actually matters is the tool support - and you have a much higher chance that in 30 years tools will correctly support HTML than Markdown.