dart VS Joplin

I wrote a similar app for archivists to push materials into preservation repositories. I used Electron, since it has good cross-platform support. The source is at https://github.com/aptrust/dart with documentation at https://aptrust.github.io/dart-docs/users/getting_started/

The underlying JavaScript code in that app started getting messy because I was working on several other projects simultaneously, but you might find it useful to play with as you consider your desktop app.

The archival community uses a simple text-based packaging format from the Library of Congress called BagIt, which allows you to include metadata and checksums with your archived materials so you can ensure their integrity and make sense of them when you get them back.

Anyway, you're working on an interesting problem. I'd be interested to see how it goes.

I've had great success with using Joplin for this, with Syncthing as a sync backend. Works well across OSes; I use it on Linux, macOS, Windows and Android.

https://joplinapp.org/

The tools to manipulate SQL aren't that bad, no.

But rather than having a self explanatory markdown & flat file, now I have to start learning about the schema & making specific tools (in my preferred language) for manipulating Joplin's schema.

Suddenly I'm digging through 20 different technic specs to decode what data is where, how it works, and what I can do to it. Want to edit history? This is the best help you'll get, pray it's adequately technical to expedite you to your purpose: https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/dev/readme/dev/spec...

As I began with, I struggle to imagine anything that generates anywhere near as much user agency as flat files and markdown. Having boring common data & systems lets me apply portable skills I already have, rather than having to skill up in some particular product's own ecosystem.

Joplin is a good open source option too, feels more like the original Evernote in terms of UI/UX https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/

Joplin, an open source, extendable, Markdown-based hierarchical note-taking app: https://joplinapp.org/

It lets you choose a synchronization backend, offers applications for every major desktop and mobile OS (also has a terminal version). You can create notebooks and subnotebooks to organize your notes. You can also add tags for better search experience. I created notebooks for specific domains (work-related, home improvement, etc.) and also keep a "temp" for quick notes and W.I.P. snippets.

Its only con that it uses Electron on desktop which causes relatively slow start of the application.

done