Denote – Simple Emacs Zettelkasten (by Prot)(protesilaos.com)
protesilaos.com
Denote – Simple Emacs Zettelkasten (by Prot)
https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote
9 comments
One thing made by Prot that has made a big difference to me is his high-contrast light theme Modus Operandi, which has made working on my laptop on Emacs outside in bright sunlight a cinch. It's comprehensive in terms of the modes it supports, and he chose colours based on WCAG AAA standards. Like Denote, it's excellently documented. Highly recommended.
https://protesilaos.com/emacs/modus-themes
https://protesilaos.com/emacs/modus-themes
The documentation of the package, i.e. the very link of this thread is worth a read by itself. I 'm not an Emacs user so I won't use this but I enjoyed your documentation.
Anything written by Prot is a delight, he takes a lot of care in the design and documentation of what he writes and it's often accompanied by a full write-up and video demo. All his other packages are worth a look as well.
I agree. Here are some discussion in HN:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30774724
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29638547
And an interesting profile about him:
https://protesilaos.com/about/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30774724
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29638547
And an interesting profile about him:
https://protesilaos.com/about/
It was written using emacs org-mode[0] and was exported from emacs org-mode to HTML.
[0] - https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/blob/main/README.org
[0] - https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/blob/main/README.org
Thank you for this link, just reading the source of that document tells me I have a long way to go before I'm a good technical writer. It's just so wonderfully structured and makes great use of org export.
This looks like a really neat version of org-roam, has anyone tried and if so, how does it compare to roam ?
This is simpler, with no database program necessary.
As I understand it, org-roam uses the database as an information cache to improve performance. But the org roam files are self-contained and doesn't need the database to be saved along with it.
I recall seeing some discussion on emacs-devel about SQLite being bundled with Emacs too. If that came to pass then it's no longer a true external dependency either.
I've been using emacs for over a decade and when it comes to notes in emacs I'm usually on org-mode. This package is interesting, and I like the naming concept. But, I'm not convinced plain-text is a good general purpose note-taking medium.
To be clear, I don't think the issue is that the content is just text. I think text-only systems are great (I built one myself [0]). But, like org-mode, the system should help you make sense of what the text is for or about. I mean what it's about in a mechanical sort of way: such and such format means X and can be recalled like so.
Here's the thing, there's so much you can accomplish with a note-taking practice, whatever medium you choose. I do my books, budget, keep track of my time, manage a running task list, track aspects of my health, all in addition to collecting notes. The _process_ of capturing all this information is exactly the same, I shouldn't need multiple tools for each thing.
But, if I rely on plain-text notes all these functions would add up to a significant time commitment, both on the collection side and the recall side. Not to mention the fact that a lot of time I'm not at my computer to crack open an org-mode buffer.
The thing is, the note-taking system can (and should) supply functionality to support all the things you might want to include in your note-taking practice.
And sure, there could be some specialized functions that are not practical within the note-taking system. But as long as there's an easy way to extract the information to plug into something else -- it's all good.
[0]. https://tatatap.com
To be clear, I don't think the issue is that the content is just text. I think text-only systems are great (I built one myself [0]). But, like org-mode, the system should help you make sense of what the text is for or about. I mean what it's about in a mechanical sort of way: such and such format means X and can be recalled like so.
Here's the thing, there's so much you can accomplish with a note-taking practice, whatever medium you choose. I do my books, budget, keep track of my time, manage a running task list, track aspects of my health, all in addition to collecting notes. The _process_ of capturing all this information is exactly the same, I shouldn't need multiple tools for each thing.
But, if I rely on plain-text notes all these functions would add up to a significant time commitment, both on the collection side and the recall side. Not to mention the fact that a lot of time I'm not at my computer to crack open an org-mode buffer.
The thing is, the note-taking system can (and should) supply functionality to support all the things you might want to include in your note-taking practice.
And sure, there could be some specialized functions that are not practical within the note-taking system. But as long as there's an easy way to extract the information to plug into something else -- it's all good.
[0]. https://tatatap.com
[deleted]
As a dedicated org-roam user: Interesting to read Prot's analysis of this crowded space. I must give this a spin some time.
Nice to see the Alternatives section of the documentation! Talking plainly about options and tradeoffs is so useful.
Good stuff =)
Meanwhile in Emacs, you can use a client like Notmuch for email (https://notmuchmail.org/notmuch-emacs) and drop links to individual emails or email queries into your notes (https://git.sr.ht/~tarsius/ol-notmuch). I use this to minimize context switching while keeping reference material nearby. It also enables workflows that integrate emails, todos, etc. with checklists in notes. For example I have a “weekly review” Org document that has links to email and todo queries for staying on top of flagged emails, or low priority tasks that nonetheless need to be moved along.