this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
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what worries me about all these note taking apps is are they are future proof? (it's why i use libreoffice and org-mode), I am worried a project will get abandoned and then all the knowledge i inputted (which is years of work) could be hard to migrate.
Maybe all those note taking apps should develop a standard to import and export to?
If you really want to be future proof and interoperable, I suggest you to use something like a git repository + vscode + foam (https://github.com/foambubble/foam). All of the tech is open source and relatively easy to use, especially if you already know git.
Treedome on the other hand can be abandoned. It can be swallowed by the sands of time. It uses a custom file format after all. But because of its open-source nature, as long as you have the code, you can open the notes. But that's a good idea, to be able to export to a plaintext file. You could make a request here if you want https://codeberg.org/solver-orgz/treedome/issues
VSCodium is FLOSS
It's not that future proof, it is using non standard extensions to markdown from what i can tell, so other software would not work with it . The most future proof alternative is creating some standard that is the result of a consensus among multiple implementations (maybe by enhancing common mark? but that seems like the wrong place).
Its future proof tho? Markdown has a standard (or at least a common implementation) and foam is just a tool to automate and graph all the boring parts?
Yeah but as far as i can tell it still has extensions (see this) , there is no process including RFC where a standard is ratified like ISO/ECMA does for stuff like HTML/javascript/C++ or the open document format. i have some stuff that is more then a decade old that really don't want to lose.
the extension could cease to exist, but you can absolutely still access your notes with any text editor decades from now. I still don't get where the "non-future proof" here. Can't really be more future proof than a simple text file.
Arguably, open document format, although standardized, are harder to open and manage because it's far more complex than a text file that ends with
.md
.Yeah but his kinda turns into a "programmers user interface" that will drastically reduce the usability. As time go by they could add more and more extensions that could make using it in a text editor harder to and harder (my cognitive bandwidth could be used for better things then monitoring that situation).
It does a lot more then .md . The structure of incentives will make it usable for a very long time if not forever (there is a lot of content in it, and having it standardized means organisations are more likely to use it). it has also passed the test of time by existing for 19 years. foam is less then 4 years old as far as i can tell.
Hmm if it comes to the age of a tech and its stability, I agree. I guess only time will tell. But do you have any suggestion for what this note taking format would look like? I personally think for non encrypted notes, foam's implementation is on the right track.
seems fairly simple , some form of XML? that gives you a schema that can be used to check the file and a rich software ecosystem of writers and parsers. Speaking of consensus based standards its also a standard way to store data.
I would not worry too much about encryption, i use gocryptfs which gives me a encrypted folder where i store my notes in org-mode (there is also gui software for this). the encrypted notes could be some encrypted folder and some sort of standardized encryption (or maybe the encryption type specified in the metadata?)
Honestly this is the thing I worry the most. Without having encryption as a first class citizen, the ux of the notes will be sacrificed greatly. Simply because good encryption tends to be slow, making the app unproductive imo.
gocryptfs is very fast for me. i have a file with about 5600 lines and i detect no difference when opening it under encryption and not under encryption. but in gocryptfs each file is encrypted separately . so you could get some information about the directory structure. but the name of the files and folders is encrypted ("archive" for example turns into something like "AaL6P86WWMnqQkMYnsRBXg").