How do you take technical notes?
Hi guys,
how do you store your personal and technical notes like code snippets, little hacks and technical stuff?
Over the years in my career as a software developer I have seen people creating word documents as well as using google docs, evernote and notion. Other options include personal wikis or just plain text files.
However most my co-workers, including myself, are not enjoying these solutions, as they don't seem to completely fit our use-case.
I'm really curious what your personal method is and if you are satisfied with it?
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I'm using Notion for all of that - what are you not enjoying there?
+1 for Notion
I tried notion for some time but I did not like it all. Maybe I give it a shot again...
I also started using Notion like 1.5 years ago and it didn't stick.
But I tried it a few months ago again and it is a life-changer.
I tried it also ~1 year ago and it changed a LOT. I did not like it that much aswell
If you are looking for an open source option checkout Joplin App.
I use Bear app. It’s note taking app with minimalistic and beautiful UI, Markdown support and syncs across apple devices. Absolutely love it.
I use Bear too. Search works great and you can use tags (which can be nested) to organise in a folder system (with a single note in multiple ‘folders’ by adding multiple tags). Simple and clear UI so it’s quick to make a new note, decent enough formatting support, sync just works, pricing is reasonable. If you’re an Apple user it’s well worth a look.
I've mentioned elsewhere that I've been using https://boostnote.io/ for a few years and, while it's fine, its awkward shift to a business and heaviness of however it's managing Electron's resources have sort of pushed me to start writing a replacement https://github.com/jcolag/Miniboost that I wouldn't recommend (the underlying user interface library isn't quite ready for prime time), but works as a stopgap for me.
Boost Note has the advantage, by the way, of supporting some diagramming languages https://github.com/BoostIO/Boostnote/wiki/Diagram-support - my adaptation doesn't go anywhere near this.
Storing the notes in a git repository makes it easy for me to jump from machine to machine or share my notes, too.
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I don't think my tool can support it, just because the UI library isn't very flexible (text boxes can't even manage word wrap, yet...), but I'll keep that in mind for other projects!
Boostnote looks fine, especially that it supports markdown and has a desktop app. I will check also your project out!
Storing notes in markdown format in a private git repository is also a interesting idea.
Yeah, the repository helps a lot. I ended up writing an end-of-day script to commit anything I might have missed, but it keeps off of services I don't know if I can trust.
I've also been working on GitJournal for storing markdown notes in a git repo.
It's currently mobile only.
Check this.
https://github.com/cavo789/marknotes
Nothing fancy, but does the work.
Using Taskade for mapping out my tasks and notes, though I'm biased. ;)
https://taskade.com to try it instantly!
If I can I simply publish it on my blog. For the rest I just start plain text documents and edit with Gedit (GNOME editor). Not ideal at all, should find something better.
For command line programs, I use this tool that I've created: https://github.com/soheilpro/mann
roamresearch.com is fast changing my life for the better
The most important tool I use is https://workflowy.com - and yes, I would sooner lose my email and calendar than everything I keep in Workflowy.
It is a powerful outliner tool, meaning lists of lists. It has some subtly powerful features for things like sharing arbitrary nodes with people, but for the most part one of the most impressive features is the restraint that they show before adding anything new. Instead, all of their R&D goes into making it faster, smoother are smarter.
Honestly, you owe it to yourself to try it.
I try to not use any dedicated tools... For code snippets I usually search my old code, for some technical stuff I create aliases in my .zshrc and for other stuff I usually bookmark web pages.
I saw something interesting the other day, though, and want to try it out, because the idea is really cool: https://github.com/jbranchaud/til