RatCreature (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratcreature) wrote2007-02-03 07:50 pm
ratcreature) wrote2007-02-03 07:50 pm
neat!
So I asked what people use to keep track of all kinds of quotes and other interesting bits of knowledge they accumulate and how they deal with this problem in general, and I haven't really found anything suitable for my needs yet. These things apparently tend to be all either very academic, like all kinds of bibliography tools with a ton of input fields (kind of overkill for me) and only intended for having a database of your academic sources rather than a thing, that while suitable to keep track of quotes and books and such, also has the more freeform options I'm looking for, or the programs are just general note taking and organizing programs or outliners.
However since a general way to keep track of the mix of random text files and sticky notes all over my desktop and hard drive wouldn't be bad either, I looked into those too. And well, it turns out that most of the linux programs wouldn't easily install on my system because they apparently always want a newer version of some library or other, and I'm not sure I'd keep yet another program open at all times anyway. Many people seem to use the method of just keeping anything in one text file and utilize search to its fullest potential, and I get that approach, since this way you only have to keep your favorite editor open and can easily make backups and keep it synced between computers and operating systems too. I tried that for a while, but the problem for me with this approach is not that I can't find specific things I'm looking for in that huge file, but you can't easily browse to get an overview of your odds and ends, and I tend to forget about things I dumped into my general notebook file so that I never search for them again in the first place.
Still for saving, searching and portability is having a single file instead of some database thing not bad. So when I found TiddlyWiki I thought its basic idea was very cool: It's like a personal wiki but since it is just javascript on a single HTML file on your disk, you don't need to install anything on your computer, just to save that page, and the data of your notes is plain HTML with no databases needed, but when it displays in a javascript capable browse you can hide and display your notes as you like, you can tag and search as well, and link them to each other and outside pages. It's very neat. And if you want to just save a few of your notes as a separate HTML file that's possible too.
I tried it out this afternoon, and it's actually fairly practical for saving things you come across and for notes and such. I used it to save a bunch of things, like noting a couple of books that seemed interesting to read, a recipe I found, and transferred a bunch of my stack of desktop sticky notes, and so far I really like it.
However since a general way to keep track of the mix of random text files and sticky notes all over my desktop and hard drive wouldn't be bad either, I looked into those too. And well, it turns out that most of the linux programs wouldn't easily install on my system because they apparently always want a newer version of some library or other, and I'm not sure I'd keep yet another program open at all times anyway. Many people seem to use the method of just keeping anything in one text file and utilize search to its fullest potential, and I get that approach, since this way you only have to keep your favorite editor open and can easily make backups and keep it synced between computers and operating systems too. I tried that for a while, but the problem for me with this approach is not that I can't find specific things I'm looking for in that huge file, but you can't easily browse to get an overview of your odds and ends, and I tend to forget about things I dumped into my general notebook file so that I never search for them again in the first place.
Still for saving, searching and portability is having a single file instead of some database thing not bad. So when I found TiddlyWiki I thought its basic idea was very cool: It's like a personal wiki but since it is just javascript on a single HTML file on your disk, you don't need to install anything on your computer, just to save that page, and the data of your notes is plain HTML with no databases needed, but when it displays in a javascript capable browse you can hide and display your notes as you like, you can tag and search as well, and link them to each other and outside pages. It's very neat. And if you want to just save a few of your notes as a separate HTML file that's possible too.
I tried it out this afternoon, and it's actually fairly practical for saving things you come across and for notes and such. I used it to save a bunch of things, like noting a couple of books that seemed interesting to read, a recipe I found, and transferred a bunch of my stack of desktop sticky notes, and so far I really like it.
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