[HN Gopher] Show HN: Jot: Rapid note management for the terminal...
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       Show HN: Jot: Rapid note management for the terminal, inspired by
       Obsidian
        
       Author : araekiel
       Score  : 92 points
       Date   : 2022-09-24 13:42 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | oktwtf wrote:
       | > It uses the same format of storage as Obsidian...
       | 
       | Can Obsidian and Jot co-mingle in the same vault?
       | 
       | I use Obsidian and am very happy with the git plugin[0] and
       | Working Copy(iOS)[1] for keeping things automatically synced
       | between my phone and desktop(s). Often I find myself dumping
       | notes into random places from the terminal; feeding markdown via
       | pipes. But I then have to remember to collect these artifacts and
       | ensure I fire Obsidian back up for a push. I'd love something
       | that could work "together" with my present setup.
       | 
       | Looks like things are set out quite clearly[2], and Rust looks
       | quite approachable. Very cool stuff!
       | 
       | [0]: https://github.com/denolehov/obsidian-git
       | 
       | [1]: https://workingcopyapp.com
       | 
       | [2]: https://github.com/araekiel/jot/tree/main/src
        
         | araekiel wrote:
         | Now that I think about it, they can, just not right now. What
         | Jot needs is a 'use existing folder as vault' feature like in
         | Obsidian, or an 'import vaults from Obsidian' feature. As an
         | Obsidian user myself, this would be neat. Thanks for the idea!
         | I'll add this to the feature updates list :)
        
           | pfd1986 wrote:
           | That was my thought / use case too. I'd love the ability to
           | quickly add notes to my existing obsidian if I'm in the
           | terminal. For longer notes, with images, links etc I'd rather
           | use the GUI.
           | 
           | Nice work tho!!!
        
             | araekiel wrote:
             | Funnily enough, this WAS the original idea, to have a cli
             | tool that acts as a sort of plugin for Obsidian, to be used
             | when in hurry. I looked for APIs and libraries that could
             | make this possible but couldn't find any. This will be a
             | great circle back :)
        
       | bongobingo1 wrote:
       | Maybe I'm dumb, but I don't see what this is doing besides
       | aliasing `cd`, `mkdir`, `ls` and `nvim note.md`?
        
         | araekiel wrote:
         | Jot's purpose is to ease note management, using vaults stored
         | in different parts of your storage, that can be accessed from
         | anywhere, essentially eliminating the need to manually cd to
         | different locations. This is still in its initial phase, hence
         | the rudimentary features (I prioritized everything I considered
         | basic necessities). I am working on adding more fancy features
         | though, for example, a fuzzy finder.
        
           | rbetts wrote:
           | Fwiw (maybe not much :-)), for me the the killer feature of
           | obsidian is the combination of markdown + inline image
           | rendering + local storage. My notes are typically screenshots
           | + text. Being able to drag and drop a screenshot into a note
           | is primarily why I use obsidian.
        
             | araekiel wrote:
             | Obsidian is an absolute dream, I know. I do still use it
             | for college/research projects (basically anything
             | information heavy), but I've found it to be a bit of an
             | overkill in most of my daily use cases <- one of the reason
             | why I am working on this tool.
        
       | Version467 wrote:
       | I like that this is editor agnostic, but I also think that
       | obsidians killer feature is the effortless linking between notes.
       | That seems to me like it would be much easier to do with an
       | editor plugin.
       | 
       | Do you have any plans to add something like that?
        
         | hermiod wrote:
         | I just wrote a super simple nvim plugin in fennel that allows
         | you to go straight to your daily note using your existing
         | obsidian config. https://git.sr.ht/~hermiod/obsidianlite.nvim
         | 
         | What I really want to do is build a language server for
         | "backlinking markdown". In that case any editor could consume
         | it to get references, go to definition, etc. Does that sound
         | like the right experience?
        
         | araekiel wrote:
         | Yes :) I do have plans for something similar, but its a bit low
         | on my priority list since I'm keeping this project focused on
         | note management right now.
        
           | Version467 wrote:
           | Cool, I'll keep an eye on it then. Linking and jumping
           | between notes IS what I'm using to manage my notes, so it
           | doesn't fit my workflow quite yet, but I'd love to ditch
           | obsidian for something that works with vim / in the terminal.
           | 
           | But keep going. The note taking space has made some serious
           | progress in the last few years with things like obsidian,
           | dendron, logseq, and many others, but terminal tools have not
           | caught up yet and I'd love to see more progress there.
        
             | araekiel wrote:
             | Thanks! This will take a minute to figure out, but I'll
             | definitely work on it eventually.
        
       | nmz wrote:
       | Is this is about the default freebsd command?
        
       | samsquire wrote:
       | My notes system is established but this tool looks interesting. I
       | essentially create a Github repository and journal computer and
       | software ideas in the open in a README.md with a markdown heading
       | for each note and number the notes.
       | 
       | You can find my journal of 450+ computer software ideas in my
       | profile.
       | 
       | If you're on the fence over what tool to journal with, then I
       | recommend my approach, it just works and it has low barrier to
       | entry, you just need github account, you could even use the web
       | interface to update your journal and edit the README.md.
       | 
       | Whatever tool you use it needs to have low friction so it
       | encourages you to write and you don't forget how to create a post
       | once you set it up.
       | 
       | The important thing about journalling is that it encourages you
       | to write and keep writing which is where the reward comes from.
        
         | araekiel wrote:
         | Sounds great :) Eventually, Jot will have git integration for
         | cross device sync, maybe then, it could serve as a nice
         | addition to your workflow.
        
           | dopidopHN wrote:
           | Oh it's does not? What happen if the vault happen to be a git
           | repo? I assumed that would allow to synchronize.
           | 
           | ( nothing automatic, no concurrency management of course )
        
           | samsquire wrote:
           | That's awesome. I sometimes edit my notes in IntelliJ or in
           | GitHub web interface.
           | 
           | At one point I created an autocommit script that commits
           | every second which you can change the commit message by
           | setting it in a file called "current-task"
           | 
           | Could combine this with automatic synchronization with
           | pulling too.                 #!/bin/bash            while
           | true; do               sleep 1               (cd app ; git
           | status -z;          git add . && git commit -m "autocommit
           | $(cat ../current-task)" ; git push -f app);            done >
           | autocommit.log 2>&1
        
             | araekiel wrote:
             | Cool! Just took a screenshot, might need this later.
             | Thanks!
             | 
             | Will add a reference to this comment, if I end up using it.
             | :)
        
       | yakcyll wrote:
       | I found Obsidian great, so if this reaches near feature parity
       | and allows me to stay in the terminal, it's a great upgrade
       | already.
       | 
       | Recently though I switched from vim to Doom Emacs and started
       | learning org-mode. This turned out to quite literally be a career
       | breakthrough for me, as I realized how much easier it is with
       | both to remain productive throughout the day and to manage my
       | personal knowledge base, or second brain.
       | 
       | I'd highly recommend everyone to try DE out [0]. I always thought
       | Emacs to be unnecessarily complex, but majority of it is hidden
       | away in special features. DE, especially for vimmers, delivers a
       | lot of very useful IDE-like functionality out of the box,
       | simplifies the hotkeys, provides stellar configurability and, in
       | my experience, just lets fingers flow more smoothly across the
       | keyboard.
       | 
       | Org-mode by itself may seem daunting as well, but it turns out to
       | be designed in a similar fashion - take and use what you need, no
       | hidden complexity or other strings attached. I can recommend
       | Distrotube's tutorials on either [1].
       | 
       | [0]: https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs
       | 
       | [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea_-TaEGa7Y
        
         | Jeff_Brown wrote:
         | Org mode has a lot of rabbit holes, but to use org roam (which
         | builds on org mode and Lets you manage a knowledge graph)
         | effectively is surprisingly easy. You need to know how to link
         | to something, how to view backlinks, how to format the tree of
         | text using asterisks to indicate depth in the tree, how to
         | define aliases in a note's Properties drawer, and that's pretty
         | much it.
        
         | araekiel wrote:
         | Cool! Will check it out.
        
       | octokatt wrote:
       | I appreciate this effort, and I want to try it out... but in the
       | README, I did not see how to literally make a note from the
       | terminal.
       | 
       | Is this intended to make something like Nano easier to integrate
       | with an extra tool set provided by Jot, or is there a feature I
       | missed? I'm not sure what problem this is trying to solve.
        
         | araekiel wrote:
         | Hey, try the _note_ command to make notes. Example - >
         | https://github.com/araekiel/jot#create-notes-and-folders
         | 
         | And yes, this tool is meant for integration with text editors.
         | Jot is simply for creating and managing notes (markdown files).
         | You can use the text editor that you fancy, like nano or vim,
         | or something like vscode, if you need a GUI.
        
       | emerongi wrote:
       | Personally, I'd like to take notes with vim (or helix), however
       | somehow it's still an unsolved problem to sync files with end-to-
       | end encryption between devices, without also having to use some
       | specialized application.
       | 
       | Obsidian is so far the most seamless way to write and sync notes
       | between Linux and iOS. I'd pay money for a daemon that could do
       | E2EE encryption of any files on my machine and also worked on
       | iOS.
        
         | tacostakohashi wrote:
         | > it's still an unsolved problem to sync files with end-to-end
         | encryption between devices, without also having to use some
         | specialized application.
         | 
         | How about using git, over https or ssh? Or are those
         | 'specialized'?
        
           | emerongi wrote:
           | Git is not that convenient to use on the phone.
        
             | araekiel wrote:
             | I don't plan on making jot mobile compatible. Maybe in the
             | future, but not right now.
        
             | tacostakohashi wrote:
             | Is vim?
        
         | Mylloon wrote:
         | Personally, I use Syncthing to sync all my notes between
         | computers and my phone, it works great!
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | tcrenshaw wrote:
         | Have you looked at syncthing? I believe it ticks off all your
         | boxes. I'm using it to sync my obsidian vault and Todo list
         | between multiple android, Windows, and Linux devices and it
         | Just Works. I do have an always on server running it as well to
         | both maintain a backup and to catch any notes devices powered
         | down might miss, but it's not a requirement.
        
         | araekiel wrote:
         | I do plan on adding vault encryption and cross device sync
         | (literally making a list of updates atm). Like tacostakohashi
         | mentioned, I too have been thinking of using git for cross
         | device sync.
        
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       (page generated 2022-09-24 23:00 UTC)