[HN Gopher] TreeSheets: Open Source Free Form Data Organizer
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TreeSheets: Open Source Free Form Data Organizer
Author : Tomte
Score : 145 points
Date : 2022-12-30 13:55 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (strlen.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (strlen.com)
| themodelplumber wrote:
| Are there docs online? I was wondering about the data format and
| some other things.
| quag wrote:
| It's a simple binary format. I've written a parser for it in
| python.
|
| https://gist.github.com/quag/e219f69670cd395d4a59a392557df28...
|
| An older version (v16) of the format is documented, but that
| was before zlib compression was added. I've opened an issue and
| listed out the gaps in the spec, but haven't gotten around to
| updating the spec itself.
|
| https://github.com/aardappel/treesheets/issues/185
|
| Happy to answer questions about the format.
| themodelplumber wrote:
| Thanks, that's helpful to know.
|
| Regarding the format I was wondering mostly how it might be
| possible to parse and add/remove data as part of an automated
| workflow. Most of my notetaking tools have ended up as part
| of a broader scheme like this.
|
| Related, if I'm viewing/editing a file and an external
| process updates the file, is there any kind of alert or
| notice for the user, or could you describe what happens?
| mhd wrote:
| There's a version of the tutorial[1] online, but the
| 2-dimensional, nested document setup doesn't really map that
| well to other formats. It does support various exports, from a
| quasi-WYSIWYG equivalent using HTML tables to more abstract
| ones (XML, outlines etc.).
|
| The native format (.cts) seems to be binary, with a simple spec
| online[2].
|
| [1]: https://strlen.com/treesheets/docs/tutorial.html
|
| [2]:
| https://github.com/aardappel/treesheets/blob/master/TS/docs/...
| ajvs wrote:
| Interesting variant to the common outliner format used by Logseq,
| Athens Research, Roam Research, Dynalist, WorkFlowy, Tana, etc.
| I'm happy with Logseq for now but love to see new alternatives.
| nanomonkey wrote:
| I'm not sure you can call it a _new_ alternative. From my own
| usage I 'd estimate that Treesheets is at least 9 years old. I
| used to use it for software project internal documentation, but
| have switched to Org-mode now. It's quite a impressive
| application.
| findalex wrote:
| I like logseq because it's one of the few editors to support
| org-mode (besides emacs).
| layer8 wrote:
| TreeSheets is over 14 years old:
| http://web.archive.org/web/20090129151535/http://www.treeshe...
| dorian-graph wrote:
| I've used this intermittently at work for great success in
| mapping out problems, etc.
| dspillett wrote:
| Interesting. This feels very like something I've been considering
| for managing my thoughts and notes, while presented a little
| differently the core idea has a lot of overlap.
|
| The version in my head (and occasionally in scribbled notes &
| diagrams) keeps getting massively overcomplicated though, then
| paired down to the point where it would be too basic,
| rinse+repeat. Perhaps this has found a useful compromise point,
| I'll have to give it a try (if it isn't close enough to ideal for
| what I want, it might help me constrain or at least prioritise my
| requirements).
| hosh wrote:
| This looks like a GUI variant of what Emacs Org mode offers. Am I
| missing something about it?
| googlryas wrote:
| Not sure, but a lot of people don't want to pay the learning
| cost to enter the emacs universe.
| walterbell wrote:
| Prior discussion, including author comments.
|
| 2021 (91 comments), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27614912
|
| 2017 (58 comments), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15057392
|
| 2016 (28 comments), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11247372
| sigmonsays wrote:
| i've gotten used to freemind (mind mapping software)
| rodolphoarruda wrote:
| Me too. And one of my dreams is to see it ported to the web
| browser so I could use it self-hosted on my home network.
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| How is this same or different than Microsoft OneNote?
| walterbell wrote:
| _> TreeSheets is exceptionally small & fast, so can sit in
| your system tray at all times: with several documents loaded
| representing the equivalent of almost 100 pages of text, it
| uses only 5MB of memory on Windows 7 (!)_
| Aardappel wrote:
| Radically. TreeSheets is much more focused on being tree-
| structured, with all forms of subdivision being part of the
| same "hierarchical spreadsheet cell" paradigm.
| password4321 wrote:
| C++ and wxWidgets under a ZLIB licence; nice!
|
| https://github.com/aardappel/treesheets
| jmartrican wrote:
| You denied me my first AMA question.
| account-5 wrote:
| I love this program, along with Zim-Wiki it's one of the first
| things I install on a fresh desktop. It has its limits but
| brilliant note taking app!
| jcadam wrote:
| First I've heard of this - but it appears to mimic how a lot of
| people (myself included) tend to take notes in a paper
| notebook. I might give it a shot.
| Simran-B wrote:
| Is it limited to mono-hierarchies or is there a way link pieces
| of informations to multiple parents? Maybe for something like
| tagging? It's particularly useful for organizing tags in a
| thesaurus.
| Aardappel wrote:
| It does not allow direct sharing of sub-trees, as in a single
| tree displayed and updated in 2 locations. It does have an easy
| facility to jump between cells with the same text, which is a
| form of linking. It also has tags which can be used with this.
| Aardappel wrote:
| Author here, AMA. Thanks for the ~yearly submit :) Software has
| existed since 2008 or so but still going strong.
| account-5 wrote:
| I would just like to say thank you for this beautiful bit of
| software. I install it on all my computer's and have a portable
| copy for when I can't.
|
| I don't know why but it seems to work very well with my
| dyslexic brain in a way other forms of note taking on a
| computer don't.
|
| If I was a better programmer I'd definitely be contributing!
| Aardappel wrote:
| Thanks!
| karlicoss wrote:
| First, big respect for working on software for so many years!
|
| My question is what data format is it using? I found some
| examples here [1], but looks like it's a custom binary format?
|
| Is there a functionality to auto-export (e.g. on save) to
| plaintext (xml/json/whatever), so I could hook TreeSheets files
| to other apps? I appreciate it would be lossy, but even a
| tree/graph structure with text nodes would be good.
|
| E.g. I'm a big fan of using plaintext search over all of my
| personal data/information, even in siloed apps [2]
|
| [1]
| https://github.com/aardappel/treesheets/tree/master/TS/examp...
|
| [2] https://beepb00p.xyz/pkm-search.html#personal_information
| Aardappel wrote:
| Yes, it is (compressed) binary: https://github.com/aardappel/
| treesheets/blob/master/TS/docs/...
|
| TreeSheets tries to be highly efficient in space/time, which
| is challenging with text formats.
|
| There's an option in the menus for auto html export on every
| save. It's what I use to browse my data from non-supported
| devices, e.g. mobile (thru e.g. DropBox).
| findalex wrote:
| Some of the funniest lorum ipsum I've seen in awhile.
| kosolam wrote:
| I'm a freeplane user. Would love to hear about advantages of
| TreeSheets.
| sidmitra wrote:
| There is definitely a lot of benefits to this free form format.
| This was the promise of MS OneNote, which i adored back in uni. I
| only forced myself to move off, when i moved to Linux and well
| came to know the importance of open formats! Since then there's
| nothing else that has comes close. This looks interesting, but
| lacks the drawing capabilities it seems?
|
| Currently i mostly stick to Org-mode for everything with deft for
| fuzzy searching... text never goes out of fashion. Had to
| sacrificed everything else non-text along the way though.
| Although lately been looking at diagrams as code again with
| mermaid and D2lang
| Tomte wrote:
| It's not free-form, but very rigidly hierarchical (with three
| different presentation modes), which is the best in it, IMO.
| Aardappel wrote:
| It's "free form" in the sense that every bit of structure
| doesn't "mean" anything, you can use it to create any kind
| organization you want. This as opposed to other organizers
| which have "documents", "folders", "tags", "bullet points",
| "sections" and all sorts of levels of hierarchy that come
| with an expected usage.
| quag wrote:
| I've found TreeSheets to be the best tool for popping up on
| screen to help a team talk through something.
|
| There is something about quickly making tables of tables and
| inserting new rows/columns that just fits with how people think
| and see things visually. And there's something natural to the
| editing.
|
| Need a list? Make a cell with a single column table in it. Then
| need to prioritise? Add another column with an order. And so on.
| It feels a lot like throwing up things on a whiteboard.
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