Other Text Editors with Link-as-Search Functionality (like The Archive and Zettlr)?

dylanjr

Hi all!

I've recently been demoing The Archive app, and one feature I've really come to appreciate is the link-as-search functionality (as opposed to the more common link-as-direct functionality found in other editors). This got me wondering—what other editors have link-as-search?

I searched the forums and found this thread where @Sasha mentioned that Zettlr has link-as-search functionality:

One big reason for Zettlr is the link-as-search functionality. This is perhaps the most important feature implementation to make an app software-agnostic.

Zettlr's documentation covers link-as-search here.

Additionally, I found a thread on the topic of link-as-search vs link-as-direct

Does anyone know of any other editors with built-in link-as-search functionality?

GeoEng51

@dylanjr said:
Does anyone know of any other editors with built-in link-as-search functionality?

Logseq does both - direct links and link-as-search.

dylanjr

@GeoEng51 said:
Logseq does both - direct links and link-as-search.

That’s interesting—I've been curious about Logseq but haven’t felt drawn to trying it yet. It’s good to know it supports both options.

BTW, I did some more research today and found out that it may be possible to setup link-as-search in VS Code (although, I'm not an experienced programmer). Perhaps it is also possible with EMACS or VIM (now we're really getting into uncomfortable territory for me). I'm only vaguely aware of the differences between these IDEs and have no idea how to effectively use them.

Here's @Sascha (again) from a separate thread on EMACS:

org-files are txt-files.

Emacs is like staring into the abyss Nietzsche talked about:

Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.

Translation:

He who fights monsters, should watch out to not become a monster himself. And if you stare into the abyss long enough, the abyss stares back into you.

zk_1000

Link as search is also supported by visual studio, sublimetext, notepad++, vim, Emacs and any other decent text editor from a low level perspective. You can also use the command line for this.

Shandi

@GeoEng51 said:
Logseq does both - direct links and link-as-search.

How? Do you mean queries? I've been messing around with Logseq a little for non-ZK stuff but I am still unfamiliar with all its nuances.

GeoEng51

@Shandi said:

@GeoEng51 said:
Logseq does both - direct links and link-as-search.

How? Do you mean queries? I've been messing around with Logseq a little for non-ZK stuff but I am still unfamiliar with all its nuances.

No, or at least not the formal (very powerful) queries that you might be thinking of, which you can do in Logseq.

I was talking about the fact that Logseq lets you make direct links (and shows the associated backlinks), but it also shows "unlinked references", which are a type of informal search. Here is an example from my Logseq database:

In the above, I am showing the page for the tag "behaviour" (this is how tags work in Logseq; unlike The Archive, which does a search on the tag, in Logseq each tag is its own note, to which any other note that uses the tag is linked). You will see there are 3 zettels that use the tag "behaviour", thus the behaviour note shows three direct (back)links.

Logseq has automatically and informally searched and found another 62 occurrences of the word "behaviour", which are listed as "unlinked references". I've only showed part of the first unlinked reference; the list goes on for several screens. Some of the unlinked references are to entries in my daily journal (such as the one shown), but most are to other zettels.

Thus, in terms of the previous discussion in this post, the Logseq "3 linked references" are the "direct links" and the Logseq "62 unlinked references" are the "link-as-search" items, which are all done automatically.

As mentioned earlier, Logseq also has a query language which lets you carry out powerful searches with Boolean terms, etc. (and more capabilities that I haven't explored yet). For example, I could search on the term "behaviour" but only within a certain date range or combined with some other term. But that is outside the scope of your question

Shandi

Redundant
Accidentally double posted because of the spam filter.

Shandi

@GeoEng51 said:
No, or at least not the formal (very powerful) queries that you might be thinking of, which you can do in Logseq.

I was talking about the fact that Logseq lets you make direct links (and shows the associated backlinks), but it also shows "unlinked references", which are a type of informal search. Here is an example from my Logseq database:

In the above, I am showing the page for the tag "behaviour" (this is how tags work in Logseq; unlike The Archive, which does a search on the tag, in Logseq each tag is its own note, to which any other note that uses the tag is linked). You will see there are 3 zettels that use the tag "behaviour", thus the behaviour note shows three direct (back)links.

Logseq has automatically and informally searched and found another 62 occurrences of the word "behaviour", which are listed as "unlinked references". I've only showed part of the first unlinked reference; the list goes on for several screens. Some of the unlinked references are to entries in my daily journal (such as the one shown), but most are to other zettels.

Thus, in terms of the previous discussion in this post, the Logseq "3 linked references" are the "direct links" and the Logseq "62 unlinked references" are the "link-as-search" items, which are all done automatically.

As mentioned earlier, Logseq also has a query language which lets you carry out powerful searches with Boolean terms, etc. (and more capabilities that I haven't explored yet). For example, I could search on the term "behaviour" but only within a certain date range or combined with some other term. But that is outside the scope of your question

Thanks for clarifying. I was imagining more literal link as search like Zettlr/The Archive does.
Obsidian would then presumably qualify for this thread. The "unlinked mentions" feature functions similarly as far as I understand.