New possible ZK tool: nb

donblanco

Just stumbled across this tool recently. I moved all my journal-type notes over to this system. Nice little command-line tool. To me, some of the main benefits are:

1. Simplicity, of course
2. You can list files using 'nb list' or just regular 'ls'
3. Lots of commands to query, list, move, rename, etc. Some of these I find much easier/faster than standard bash commands.
4. Multiple notebooks
5. You can auto-sync w/ git repos
6. You can specify your favorite command-line editor (I'm currently using vim)
7. Bookmarks, to-dos, tasks, linking
8. Wiki-style links!
9. You can browse your links across files/notebooks
10. Written in Bash!

On the web site there is a section on Zettelkasten as well.

https://xwmx.github.io/nb/#home

GeoEng51

@donblanco Thanks for sharing this information. I don't think I would use the app / system, but it could well be of use to others. Heck - I'd have to figure out what Bash is before going any further

kohled

I remember checking nb out a while back. Totally amazing. I didn't end up using nb because emacs/org-roam. But it's super impressive... plus... bash!

I found this 12 minute video walk-through of nb if anyone wants to see how it works etc nb - Next level Bash note taking for your command line.

@GeoEng51 I'm not a programmer, but I've slowly gained proficiency with the command line (often a bash shell, now zsh by default on macos). I found it a very useful skill. One I wish I'd picked up a long time ago. The most useful programs on my computer run from the command line.

gour

Hello,

I'm also considering nb, but it lacks ability to show graph of one's notes and that's why, preferring open-source applications, consider to simply use Emacs' org-roam, but wonder whether you consider having graphing back-end useful/important feature for doing Zettelkasten since there are some other options - e.g. Denote - which don't have graphing capabilities?

kohled

@gour I think of a node graph as more of a 'nice-to-have' than essential, but that's just me. I do find a it useful for tracking unlinked notes. Plus... it just looks cool and it's fun to play with. Something to be said for that.

I haven't used Denote, but I think it has fewer external dependencies – e.g. no sqlite. Which may or may not be important to someone. Seems there was discussion about including sqlite into emacs core. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Tangentially related, after reading this blog post, I spent a chunk of time refactoring my notes and emacs config to play nicely with logseq to access org-roam files and links on mobile. I'm finding such access quite useful to practice active recall of whatever I'm studying.

Anyway, good luck with your exploration. They're all great tools so you really can't go wrong.

gour

@kohled said:
@gour I think of a node graph as more of a 'nice-to-have' than essential, but that's just me. I do find a it useful for tracking unlinked notes. Plus... it just looks cool and it's fun to play with. Something to be said for that.

Thank you for that!

It makes Denote even more attractive...btw, found some posts in the archive that the value of node graph is deteriorating as the number of nodes does increaase.

I haven't used Denote, but I think it has fewer external dependencies – e.g. no sqlite. Which may or may not be important to someone.

I'm not such purist, so the dependency is not so important for me, but Denote's file naming scheme is lucrative.

Tangentially related, after reading this blog post, I spent a chunk of time refactoring my notes and emacs config to play nicely with logseq to access org-roam files and links on mobile. I'm finding such access quite useful to practice active recall of whatever I'm studying.

I've tried Logseq, but, frankly speaking, not certain about its future (aka business scheme), so I feel more secure investing my time & energy into more mature ecosystem.

Moreover, when I'm "mobile" I prefer to depend on just pen & paper. :-)

Anyway, good luck with your exploration. They're all great tools so you really can't go wrong.

Thanks.