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Write plain text files

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Re: Write plain text files

#391

Post by Madeindjs »

jerrygoyal wrote: post #272
xenodium wrote: post #211

Plain text adoption often implies markdown for a richer experience, but we also have the wonderful https://orgmode.org markup. There is no shortage of markdown-based tools on all platforms. Our org markup options, on the other hand, are very few outside of Emacs. Org markup itself is super versatile and can power lots of use-cases. I built two org-powered apps for iOS myself: https://plainorg.com https://flathabits.c…

> There is no shortage of markdown-based tools on all platforms Could someone name one decent md editor for Android?

[Markor](https://github.com/gsantner/markor), free, open source and available on F-Droid.

Re: Write plain text files

#392

Post by usrbinbash »

pubby wrote: post #218
usrbinbash wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that there's no such thing as "plain text" Please show me a computing device that cannot deal with ASCII. And UTF-8 has, by now, reached a level of ubiquity that encompasses almost everything in IT as well.

There's still EBCDIC systems being used.

I'll just quote my own answer from elsewhere in this thread:

    Even if such a device needs to be used, decoding ascii is a trivial lookup operation, 
    not remotely comparable to decoding some arcane binary format, or a convoluted XML-
    derived format such as they are used in WYSIWYG editor formats.

Re: Write plain text files

#393

Post by 0xad »

zkldi wrote: post #292
0xad wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Open up a word document (.docx) in hex editor (head -80 foo.docx | xxd) and you'll see it's not a plain file on a binary level. Now do the same with any python, php, html, and js files and you'll see that they're plain files. That's the difference that Derek is talking about.

If I piped that .docx file into bas64, would it then be a "plain file"? It's ascii plaintext chars. I don't think your argument holds any water.

I think it does.

By transforming file Foo.docx into file Bar.b64 you get a plain-text file (Bar.b64) but Foo.docx still isn't plain-text. That's actually how email attachments work (transforming any file into b64 plain-text file), so I think your counter-argument is pointless.

Re: Write plain text files

#394

Post by 0xad »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #270
0xad wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Open up a word document (.docx) in hex editor (head -80 foo.docx | xxd) and you'll see it's not a plain file on a binary level. Now do the same with any python, php, html, and js files and you'll see that they're plain files. That's the difference that Derek is talking about.

That makes the article extremely silly, actually almost pointless. If you don't see difference between plain text files and text files then that's pretty much it for this conversation. EDIT: just to hammer this point home; if you gave me a task to write a report in plain text and I delivered a .txt file with some custom markup language, would you consider the task to be completed satisfactorily? I wouldn't. You can a…

If you don't see the difference between proprietatory format like docx and you argue that just because I add double-asterisk with a word in-between then suddenly it's not plain-text file (since it's markdown markup at this point) then yeah, this conversation is over.

Re: Write plain text files

#395

Post by niutech »

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.

As for "git for everything", try SparkleShare or LogicalDOC CE.

Re: Write plain text files

#396

Post by Epiphany21 »

I like plain text for the simplicity. It's easier to find my thoughts and focus on writing when the editor is as simple as a rock, otherwise I'll spend hours fiddling with the settings. Typically I use GNU Nano for its lack of features.

Re: Write plain text files

#397

Post by thefunnyman »

ben174 wrote: post #279
phreack wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I tried to git my resume once upon a time. It's still something I'd love to finish doing, it just makes sense to have a git repository as a timeline of your life: https://github.com/ben174/bugben

I do the same by having my resume in latex which I’ve checked in to git. Been meaning to write a GH action to generate the pdf artifact automatically.

Re: Write plain text files

#398

Post by coffeeling »

approxim8ion wrote: post #203
civilized wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone was talking about Roam for a while, I wonder what happened.

The faithful are still on Roam. Others have moved to: 1. Obsidian: has bidirectional linking and knowledge graphs, is faster and better supported, but doesn't have the outlining structure that Roam is based on. 2. Logseq: basically an open source Roam with 90-95% feature parity and some cool stuff that is its own. 3. Foam/Dendron/Athens etc: Roam clones. 4. Notion/Evernote/something else entirely.

I don't think Dendron is a Roam clone. All notetaking apps of the new generation have certain similarities, but Dendron has a pretty different philosophy for how you should organize your notes.

Roam's about the block within an outline, interlinking and transclusion.

Dendron's core schtick is making traditional hierarchies easier to work with.

Like, with Roam a feelings of power scenario would be queries getting you subtrees from disparate outlines from which you pick out relevant trains of thought to synthesize your own writing, or just an outliner's ease in manipulating your text.

With Dendron it's more like, "oh, I've been thinking about this all wrong" and restructuring your notes so your new hierarchies reflect your new understanding.

Re: Write plain text files

#399

Post by coffeeling »

slmjkdbtl wrote: post #174

I've been using simplenote and kinda wanted to transition to plain text, the only thing stopping me is the mobile desktop sync workflow which simplenote handles really nicely. Does anyone have any good ideas?

Obsidian.md stores your notes in normal folders and plaintext files on disc, all attachments as standalone normal files. The company offers a mobile app and an end to end encrypted sync service (paid).

The basic app is simple, but has a good extensions API which means people can and have gone nuts with it.

Re: Write plain text files

#400

Post by coffeeling »

posharma wrote: post #37

I'm a fan of text files. But many times you just want to capture the image and store it. For e.g. a bills/receipts. Secondly, the article doesn't talk about syncing - may be onedrive/dropbox? what are some good solutions here? Third, how do you do this (writing/editing notes) on a mobile phone?

Check out Obsidian.md

Proper notetaking app, can show images inline (but stores the note and image as a plaintext file and a normal image file, the text file just has a line for what image to show like:

/Notebook/Attachments/Bill.png

/Notebook/Notes/Bill.md

Bill.md contents:

Went to restaurant and got this for the trouble:

![[Bill.png]]

They have a full features mobile app and sell an end to end encrypted sync service for the app. It's as good as it gets, IMO.

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