www.mechaelephant.com VS audience-minutes

For me, the idea is sound but the implementation always seems so cumbersome. I want something that separates the data from the display as much as possible, has an easy 'note taking' and has an easy install. One problem I always encounter is that if the interface to add notes has too much friction, I stop using it pretty quickly.

Anyway, so I created something over the weekend called 'notenox' [0]. It creates a a JSON file of relevant information, one JSON file per note, with keywords and a "special" keyword prefix called a 'title' that mimics how I've actually been taking notes (email, so the 'title' mimics an email thread). For display, I consolidate all JSON files into a single JSON file and then have it loaded into the browser with some Javascript to group by title or keyword, along with doing all cross referencing and counting on the client end.

Creating notes is done through the command line, because that's a common way I interact with my computer, with different options to create titles, links, keywords, etc. I'm sure there are many different Zettelkasten implementations out there but they always seem so clunky and cumbersome. It's not hard, so the simple use case should be simple, nor should it proprietary or locked behind a SaaS.

You can see my personal notes in action, if you like [1] (sorry, not mobile friendly!).

[0] https://github.com/abetusk/www.mechaelephant.com/tree/releas...

[1] https://mechaelephant.com/notenox

Here's my personal goto:

Find some minimal CSS framework. My preference is Skeleton [0] or Bootstrap [1]. The key is just finding something minimal that works without too much fuss. Personally, I rather have a minimal framework provide 'responsiveness' so I don't have to worry about it but I also want it to get out of the way of anything I do.

Use JQuery [2]. Don't rely on CSS for animations or interactivity. In theory CSS does a lot. In practice it's a nightmare to use and to get it play well with whatever else I'm doing in the page.

Write in "bare" HTML and "vanilla" JavaScript. Don't use a static site generator and don't use a JavaScript framework.

Port in JavaScript libraries as needed. Some of the ones I tend to use are numeric.js [3], downlaod.js [4] and audience-minutes [5]. If you're doing spreadsheet things, maybe there's some JS package out there that will help.

Doing "raw" HTML/"vanilla" JavaScript makes me effectively unhirable but for limited scope side projects where I have full control and want to minimize bit-rot, this is fine.

The point is to create something that's minimal and focuses on functionality. The CSS is just there to make it not look like a Web 1.0 page but otherwise steps out of the way to focus on the actual usage of the application.

For context, here are some projects where I've used this philosophy (all open source, feel free to pilfer): Noixer [6], Resonator Voyant Tarot [7], Boston Train Track (now defunct) [8], CalebHarrington.com (an artist friend) [9], What Is This License [10], HSV Hero [11].

[0] http://getskeleton.com/

[1] https://getbootstrap.com/

[2] https://jquery.com/

[3] https://github.com/sloisel/numeric

[4] https://github.com/rndme/download

[5] https://github.com/berthubert/audience-minutes

[6] https://mechaelephant.com/noixer/

[7] https://abetusk.github.io/ResonatorVoyantTarot/

[8] https://github.com/abetusk/bostontraintrack

[9] https://calebharrington.com/

[10] https://mechaelephant.com/whatisthislicense/

[11] https://mechaelephant.com/hsvhero