This is what we chose to use after surveying what is by far most deployed in the wild:
Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
31–40 of 128 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
#32So for something like this I would go Mobile first and I would use this new open source technology from Google called Flutter, you can avoid JavaScript all together and go with Dart, even if you’ve never used it it’s incredily easy to learn. In my opinion is far superior technology to react native. You could get out a cross platform app with some of the basic things you describe in a few weeks. I would use AWS Lambda…
I indirectly contribute to Flutter (via one of their dependencies), but I would still say to make a web app first, so you can always access your app from a desktop.
Nice, thanks for contributing it’s the most promising cross platform app development I’ve seen so far.
I think it’s fine for us to disagree on Mobile vs Web. But I think depends on what his goals are, in my opinion these days Desktop isn’t the main use for apps like this. He could always add that kind of support later.
Re: Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
#33If you want people to keep their notes in it, it's going to have to advertise stability and longevity. Ruthlessly cut dependencies/requirements and avoid using features that may change under you as time goes on. Use a simple data-store built with common tech (json, sqlite, straight text files, etc) so people can get to their data even if your code disappears off the face of the Earth one day. For the frontend, then,…
You sound like you're describing https://standardnotes.org/ ! (Not linked, just a happy paying user)
Off topic, but it's humorous to me that the "Web" logo is simply the Chromium logo.
Re: Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
#34What features and improvements currently lacking in keep are key deliverables for you?
Off the top of my head:
* card sort by creation date, last edit, title text, maybe card color? * private/public/sharable options per card * something other than raw text display (markdown?) * a better page load strategy for slower connections
Nice to have: * card width/height options, maybe via CSS like Muuri * archives to selected categories
Re: Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
#35What would I use? Standard tech stack: React+Apollo+Redux+GraphQL (with Typescript). React Native for mobile. On the backend, Postgres DB at first, upgrade to CockroachDB or something when needing scale. Choice of language for application server to translate GraphQL queries to and from SQL queries is the only thing I would be unsure about - either Python or Typescript probably.
But this is because I'm very familiar with these frameworks. Productivity using them is really high once you've learned them well. But the learning curve to learn these technologies might be more than the amount of work that goes into making a Google Keep clone with a more approachable framework...
Re: Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
#36You could take a look at what I'm building with Polar:
It's basically note taking but integrated with the reading flow. You basically keep all your books and notes in one place and you can annotate and highlight directly within Polar.
It's basically a "personal knowledge repository" with all your books and web content integrated along with highlighting.
Re: Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
#37It seems to me that the frontend is pretty simple and most stacks will be fine. I would worry more about how the data is stored, backed up and other backend parts. My expectation is that most work will be done on the backend side. Another consideration that’s independent from your frontend stack is how the user interacts with the UI. I guess that’s called UX these days. Making the right or wrong choices there will ha…
Agreed & thanks. That's why I started with a text file of UX gotta-haves and like-to-haves before touching any code. Appreciate it.
Re: Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
#38The one that you're most productive in.
That's Rails. Which I love - but I have my doubts.
If you're goal is to get the app done and published rather than learning a new tech then go with your default stack. I've never worked with Rails but it seems like a totally valid choice for the product. You can always bolt on a more modern frontend later if you need it.
Re: Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
#39You could take a look at what I'm building with Polar: https://getpolarized.io/ It's basically note taking but integrated with the reading flow. You basically keep all your books and notes in one place and you can annotate and highlight directly within Polar. It's basically a "personal knowledge repository" with all your books and web content integrated along with highlighting.
Google Keep serves a different purpose. Although I guess you could use them for the same thing (kind of), the card-based functionality is Google Keep’s main selling point, which your application does not seem to include. Although I like what you’re doing, I think it’s too different and too specific to reading and note-taking to be a Google Keep replacement.
Re: Ask HN: What tech stack would you use to build an open-source Google Keep clone?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I indirectly contribute to Flutter (via one of their dependencies), but I would still say to make a web app first, so you can always access your app from a desktop.
Nice, thanks for contributing it’s the most promising cross platform app development I’ve seen so far. I think it’s fine for us to disagree on Mobile vs Web. But I think depends on what his goals are, in my opinion these days Desktop isn’t the main use for apps like this. He could always add that kind of support later.
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