bzWiki

Markdown Wiki - in native file system folders, with high hackability

This is the front page of my ideal Wiki / Note Taking platform. There might be some activities take place in somewhere else. Such as,

• retrofit some existing program
• implement in Svelte as bzWiki-sve
• implement in Vue as bzWiki-vue
• target spec in bzWiki-spec, very likely with nodejs and a browser client

Searching for an ideal Wiki / Note Taking platform

Benchmark / survey, or build my own bzWiki ?

Philosophy

• bzWiki:
  • Markdown files, in native file system folders
  • respect your folder structure, loosely connect everything with limited (very less) payload files
    • => very similar to the concept of Lolinote
    • Spec of Lolinote 2.0 - https://github.com/visig9/lolinote-spec/blob/master/spec-2.0.md
    • Spec 1.0 - https://bitbucket.org/civalin/lolinote/wiki/Rules%20&%20Philosophy
  • aim for hackability
• TiddlyWiki:
  • cook tiddlers as a set (in single HTML, or served by host), then ... [1], [2], [3]

... structured with links, tags, lists and macros.

... brought unprecedented freedom to everyone to keep their precious information under their own control.

... Only a small part of the TiddlyWiki is not managed as tiddlers,

• Evernote:
  • organize everything (text/voice notes, drawings, attachments) for you and get them synced
• VSCode:
  • Edit, build, and debug with ease.
  • Make it your own - Customize every feature

Scoring

• (5) best
• ...
• (1) poor
• (0) negative

File Format / Storage:

• bzWiki: Markdown files, in native file system folders
• (3.5) TiddlyWiki
  • single html (in browser), or
  • wiki folder (with node.js backend)
  • official markdown plugin
• (2) Evernote: proprietary database, only 2-layer folder
• (3.5) VSCode: as source code editor, respect your folder structure

Usability: UI / Sync / sharing

• bzWiki: try to be fusion of Evernote and TiddlyWiki
• (3) TiddlyWiki: someone like, while others don't
• (4) Evernote:
  • Handy with PC / mobile sync, and sharable link
  • only one main window, not good for massive search / browsing
• (3) VSCode: most for technical people, not for wiki

Hackability / Plugin / Macro

• bzWiki: target to be as good as TiddlyWiki
• (4) TiddlyWiki: first class hackability
• (1) Evernote: by import / export *.enex (XML), or Evernote API
• (3) VSCode: rich extension library, but not easy for beginner to code his own extension

Potential Candidate

Years ago, my previous attempt to create

• (2015) Hierarchical Note Taking App -- [1] [2]
• (2016) Markdown viewer

Today's technology (2020) tends to bring me an existing program, or even to build my own.

Major criterions

• Markdown files, in native file system folders
• File browsing / tree view / fulltext search
• Easy to customize / extend => function and markdown syntax
• not too heavy

vscode-crossnote

• TypeScript - further details

hakanu/pervane

• Plain text file based note taking and knowledge base building tool, markdown editor, simple browser IDE.
• py (Flask server), js, md - further details

fiatjaf/coisas

• client-side CMS for editing GitHub Markdown (and other) files

Vue framework

• docsify
  • ... generates your documentation website on the fly. ... smartly loads and parses your Markdown files and displays them
  • vue, marked, plugin

Svelte framework

• Sapper - application framework powered by Svelte — build bigger apps with a smaller footprint
• SvelteWeb
  • creating Svelte powered websites using markdown - raguay/SvelteGithubSiteTemplate
  • tutorial - https://dev.to/raguay/using-the-svelte-github-website-template-1ca1
• Markdown preprocessor for Svelte. https://mdsvex.com/
• Write Svelte components in markdown syntax - https://alexxnb.github.io/svelte-preprocess-markdown/