Show HN: I built my own second brain software tool

https://joeldare.com/i-built-my-own-second-brain-software-tool.html

by codazoda • 5 years ago

41 20 5 years ago

_virtu2• 5 years ago

Always recommend an exocortex! I can't live without taking notes on the daily. Slightly related but I also built a light plugin that works with vscode. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vscode-n....

My biggest gripe with pretty much everything (Roam, Dendron, etc) is that nothing is plaintext. I love the lack of lockin when everything is based upon plaintext. Furthermore you can use whatever editor you like.

anon1094• 5 years ago

Have you tried Obsidian? https://obsidian.md/

tedmiston• 5 years ago

I use Obsidian for that exact reason of the notebook being "just" a collection of raw markdown files and owning my own data as well.

I'm pretty happy with it so far.

I still use Sublime to edit the files quickly and when I don't need features provided by Obsidian plugins.

A minor gripe is that the iCloud sync is really really bad. Perhaps that's more on Apple than Obsidian, but frequently editing of the same files across multiple devices is a pain point today. To their credit, they have acknowledged this and now offer their own first-party sync service, but I think $96/year to sync a folder of Markdown files from my laptop to my phone is excessive.

flarg• 5 years ago

Zim desktop wiki is worth a look

trevyn• 5 years ago

I’m curious: what is your opinion on markdown? Or is that included in plain text?

_virtu2• 5 years ago

Yes, I would consider that plaintext. I went from LaTeX to markdown. Can't go back.

skinnymuch• 5 years ago

There’s quite a few plain text apps. I am hovering between four right now. Markdown format but still plain text. Obsidian would be the most known of these. Then also Noteplan 3, Keep It, and Devonthink

reidjs• 5 years ago

I like foam as well, it’s markdown, open source

https://github.com/foambubble/foam

Though admittedly I rarely use backlinking.

lijogdfljk• 5 years ago

Question; So i'm also designing a "second brain" for myself/foss, and i've often had the debate of how much i should go with plaintext.

On one hand it is nice for basic tools like grep, custom editors, easy backup, etc. However "lockin" is something i keep pausing on.. because for any advanced features you include, say spaced repetition over items in the document, becomes a unique DSL for your application most likely. Yea, it could be made from "just markdown" or w/e, but the functionality still only works in that one app.

Eg i used some other Space Rep tool which advertised using just markdown, cool! But i can't port it anywhere, so yay it's plain text but the functionality still need to be refactored to work with other tools.

This problem becomes more apparent when you add more complex features. Each unique/novel feature creates unique DSL to store state in "plaintext", which to me starts feeling like it destroys the core premise of plaintext.

Thoughts on this issue?

dmje2• 5 years ago

Interesting. I use Dokuwiki but with a couple of MD extensions, so it stores and I write in MD. Works well.

codazoda3• 5 years ago

I loved Dokuwiki for a time and it suited me well. These days I have a few specific pains with it though.

* Even though it’s just plain text files, I’ve been unable to move it to another server (you can’t just copy the folder because of its indexing system). There’s more to it.

* It’s somewhat difficult to update and requires frequent security updates

* It’s design, and all the available templates I’ve found look pretty old

* It’s native format is not MD

splitbrain3• 5 years ago

Even though it’s just plain text files, I’ve been unable to move it to another server (you can’t just copy the folder because of its indexing system). There’s more to it.

Not true. Being portable from server to server (even across different file and operating systems) is one of DokuWiki's main goals. All you may have to do is clear the cache. See https://www.dokuwiki.org/faq:servermove

It’s somewhat difficult to update and requires frequent security updates

DokuWiki releases come out like every 1 to 2 years. Security hotfixes are rare but always easy to apply (usually you just replace one or two files). Upgrading is more or less a couple of clicks when using the upgrade plugin: https://www.dokuwiki.org/plugin:upgrade

It’s design, and all the available templates I’ve found look pretty old

I guess that's up to personal preference. Personally I'm still happy with the default template but people seem to like the bootstrap3 and argon templates

It’s native format is not MD

True. There are plugins that add MD support, but I agree, native DokuWiki syntax is much better supported. If you're familiar with Markdown, it won't be hard to pick up DokuWiki syntax, but yeah it's different. DokuWiki is about as old as Markdown, when it was invented markdown was just another unknown formatting language...

dmje2• 5 years ago

I've not had any trouble moving it - in fact the folder system works perfectly. I can even point MD editing software like Obsidian at the network share I use for Dokuwiki and edit directly. Dokuwiki is clever enough to show when a file has been edited outside of the system, too.

Look and feel: agree, the default does it no favours (and I wish they'd update their website too, the 1990's look really runs behind the capabilities of the system) - but I've installed bootstrap and then modified to make it cleaner, which was again very easy, just some CSS.

cyneox• 5 years ago

Still in love with Tiddlywiki!

wycx• 5 years ago

I have progressed from Dokuwiki -> Tiddlywiki -> Gollum. I can now write everything in asciidoc.

Show HN: I built my own second brain software tool

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