Denote - Alternative for your zettelkasten in emacs

Jvet

While I was doing my research for an alternative to The Archive in Windows being unhappy with the mainstream options I found Denote. After working with the archive for 2 years and reading a bunch of times the Getting Started I can say this one ticks all of the boxes for me. Yes the downside is learning emacs, although maybe not A LOT of emacs and just what's necessary to feel comfortable with Denote. Also, it doesn't rely on org-mode so you don't need to also be familiar with how org mode works and just stay within emacs for your note taking needs. Another big win is that of course its free.

I'll leave a link to a video from the developer here.

What do you think about it?

ctietze

What do you think about it?

Protesilaos is amazing, Denote does things in a sane way by default, and since Prot is Prot, it's customizable to no end to get a file naming scheme with spaces instead of _ and time stamps without T, I believe. (Both of which I'd favor.)

Haven't stress-tested Denote, but you found something solid.

I'm using Emacs for ... 3 years or so now? So I absolutely love writing in it with all my current settings. The bare bones first impression is 'meh', and you will need to spend time tweaking things, but with a "killer app" that can pull you in, you'll be fine.

Sascha

I left Emacs and am happier every day I remember this pain in the ass. (I love Emacs, but I postpone becoming proficient with it to another life)

Andy

@Jvet, thanks for mentioning Denote. I watched a few minutes of Prot's video and then skimmed the documentation. I enjoyed reading about his design choices within the limitations of Emacs, which I'm still glad I don't use. Since I manage references in BibTeX format in BibDesk (with web scraping via Zotero), I naturally noticed a link, in the section of the Denote documentation titled "Publications about Denote", to a document titled "Managing a bibliography of BiBTeX entries with Denote". I've never felt more grateful for BibDesk than when reading this document about trying to managing BibTeX references in Emacs! I'll just quote @Sascha: what a...

pain in the ass. (I love Emacs, but I postpone becoming proficient with it to another life)

Jvet

@ctietze said:

What do you think about it?

Protesilaos is amazing, Denote does things in a sane way by default, and since Prot is Prot, it's customizable to no end to get a file naming scheme with spaces instead of _ and time stamps without T, I believe. (Both of which I'd favor.)

Haven't stress-tested Denote, but you found something solid.

I'm using Emacs for ... 3 years or so now? So I absolutely love writing in it with all my current settings. The bare bones first impression is 'meh', and you will need to spend time tweaking things, but with a "killer app" that can pull you in, you'll be fine.

Thanks! I’ll get into it during my free time. Although in the meantime I’m more than happy to keep testing my approach with analog index cards. An hour or two a day will have to suffice in my journey through emacs again, I have become familiar with it, not a super user but my brain kind of “gets it” and it’s not like I’m looking at another dimension.

What I love is the idea that it doesn’t matter if I change again from windows to Mac or to Linux. Emacs will be there.

Jvet

@Sascha said:
I left Emacs and am happier every day I remember this pain in the ass. (I love Emacs, but I postpone becoming proficient with it to another life)

It’s kind of a pain, although if you ever decide to open emacs again I’m sure you will feel more comfortable. The first attempt with emacs is like being thrown into a deep pool and not knowing how to swim. You take some lessons, maybe quit for a period of time. When you try again now it’s not that unfamiliar and you kind of “know” what to expect and what to do.

I’ll have to do it if I plan to have a digital Zettelkasten. The only app I liked was The Archive, so in a way me trying emacs is a compliment to you guys.

In the meantime, I’ll keep making index cards.

ZettelDistraction

@Sascha said:
I left Emacs and am happier every day I remember this pain in the ass. (I love Emacs, but I postpone becoming proficient with it to another life)

I'm with you on this. I could never get the left pinky to do what I wanted. Nevertheless, the Platonic Idea of Emacs far outruns the contingent practicality of Vi, to which I have sworn unflagging allegiance. (A near oxymoron, as in, "I pledge unflagging allegiance to the Flag.")

sirredcrosse

@Sascha said:
I left Emacs and am happier every day I remember this pain in the ass. (I love Emacs, but I postpone becoming proficient with it to another life)

Extremely relatable. I have it on my computer right now but .... I just don't have it in me to learn to use it. I have so much to do, it's easier, faster, and more efficient to just write everything down, no matter how much it will save me in the long term, because I simply don't have the time right now to dedicate to learning it or making it pretty or usable.
That said, I would LOVE to make use of it someday in the future. Once I graduate from grad school, I certainly will make a point of it.

ctietze

Update to Denote:
https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-08-01-emacs-denote-luhmann-signature-sort/

You can sort by Luhmann ID even though it's late in the filename, for example.

jbz

There is also a package which enable folgezettel signature creation, navigation,etc.

https://github.com/MirkoHernandez/denote-folgezettel/blob/main/denote-fz.el