60 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 21.3 ms ] thread
How does it compare to Quiver (http://happenapps.com/#quiver) notebook?
It appears to store data on their server, not in local files as Quiver does. It also looks like it may be (this could be mistaken, I haven't tried Inkdrop) an Electron app, in which case performance & memory usage is likely to be significantly worse than Quiver, which is not only native but very well optimized in my experience. On the plus side, it does have cross-platform support, which Quiver does not.

ETA: yup, grabbed the release and it is an Electron app - can't test without a beta invite, but for comparison on my machine it's about 3-4 seconds on launch before it gets to login screen, and uses 190mb of RAM at login screen. For comparison, Quiver is effectively instantaneous (a lot less than a second) to launch and uses 64mb of RAM displaying an empty document.

>It also looks like it may be (this could be mistaken, I haven't tried Inkdrop) an Electron app, in which case performance & memory usage is likely to be significantly worse than Quiver, which is not only native but very well optimized in my experience.

Quiver is native? From the very first moment it struck me as an 100% web-based app.

Would appear that the preview is a web view but nothing else is, as far as I can tell. Editor might be but I think it's just a series of text views. Rest of the interface is definitely native. Also, even the web parts aren't embedding & shipping Chromium but rather using the MacOS WebKit framework which is definitely preferable from at least a memory usage, battery life, and security standpoint.
Yep, the author subclassed native UI elements and added CSS styling support. It’s definitely native though.
How is it "definitely native" is both the editor and the viewers (the two main things you work with in Quiver) are webkit based, as @kawera and @ptomato said?

What else is there, the notebook management sidebar?

The editor is WebKit based too and uses some open-source js widgets. (/Applications/Quiver.app/Contents/Resources/html-build)
Yup, looks like. Not sure if that's just for code editor or not, but it's at least for that, using ACE (https://ace.c9.io)
Quiver uses cells, similar to Jupyter/IPython Notebook, and supports inline LaTeX, which is a very useful feature for when you need to display something outside the scope of Markdown (like an equation).
LaTeX cell are great and diagram cells are surprisingly useful too. Now if only Quiver supported table cells it would be perfect. I know it's possible to use markdown for tables but they aren't convenient.
Quiver looks great. If only it ran on an OS I used.
You may want to fix the language on the thank you page. I think you meant "priority" rather than prior.

"Get earlier access! We'll send you a prior invitation if you share special link with your friends:"

Lastly, you should also probably tell people that there is a waiting list on the landing page since it sometimes upsets users that want to try your product.

Count me as upset.

It says "get access to the beta", and then not only it doesn't give that after I gave my name and email, but it additionally asks to send a link (spam) to your friends to get the "priority invitation" whenever that's due.

So, that would be one less potential customer -- and I have bought both Quiver and Dash in that category...

What's the point of having a checkbox next to the newsletter subscribe text if it isn't uncheckable?
It's the cost of having beta access, I guess. :)
To test how familiar you are with browser dev tools I suppose.
I would imagine many forms that don't allow unchecking of check boxes also just assume it is checked on the processing side of things, so dev tools might not help.
Nothing like forcing user consent to opting in to email marketing.
What is the selling point vs Markdown + one's favourite editor?
Built-in syntax highlight support, viewer, file management, tags, etc... Isn't it obvious?
(comment deleted)
Atom has syntax highlighting, markdown live renderer, file management, maybe even tagging.
Any sufficiently bloated editor environment with the right plugins is indistinguishable from a dedicated tool.

That's not saying much though.

Meh, doesn't work with Linux so I'm staying with Emacs.
No Linux love? I'll wait for the invite and see how well it plays with Wine.
I love the UI. That said, I'd be hesitant to use this because I have no way to trust the security of the remote server.

It would be nice to have an option to use my own Google Drive/Dropbox account or network mount, or alternatively to use client-side encryption for the entire database.

I use jrnl http://jrnl.sh/ It supports tags, text files, date filters, I can use my own editor, it's open source, multiplatform and even supports encryption. Oh yeah, and it's super minimalistic and can be used directly from the terminal.
My problem with all these types of apps is: What happens when the app goes away? This is partly why I use org-mode, because it's just a text file, more or less perfectly usable without actually being in org-mode. So I'd love to see an app like Inkdrop which stores everything as readable text. (I didn't see anything about file format on the page, but might have missed it.)
Markdown (.md) is the format and outputs what is essentially a text file. The translation to nice and proper formatting that you see on the right hand side is what the apps are for. Granted there are in-line symbols throughout if you just look at the raw file, but I don't think markdown converters will die out anytime soon.
With Simplenote, you can use Notational Velocity (or nvALT) to maintain a plain text copy of your notes locally.
Huge fan of nvAlt. I made a theme to make the markdown rendering closer to github and added some extra features.

https://github.com/bwiggs/nvalt-prime

I second org-mode, being using it for years. I had to write a couple of scripts to update my notes to newer versions, but it went mostly painless. I however found myself using more and more plain text recently without much markups. There is certain mental ease and simplicity in writing:

    ed
    a
    Just write what's in my mind.
    .
    w now/figure/a/path/to/save
    q
Looking for something like this with asciidoc(tor) support and simple, local file storage. Still using Notational Velocity in the meantime - it's wicked-fast:

http://notational.net

nvALT is a newer fork with Markdown support:

http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/

The only thing missing from nvalt is support for better organization. Tags are supported but not searchable for instance. With hundreds of notes it starts getting harder to search.
So basically, this is org-mode but prettier. Also, I can encrypt my org notes and back them up using literally anything that will push bits.
What are the advantages of such a notebook (and the others mentioned below/above) over a general tool like Vim and Emacs?
In short the advantage is the same as sublime over vim / emacs.

Or the disadvantage is the same that sublime suffers against vim/emacs.

For what it's worth, they claim to support vim & emacs keybinds (haven't tried).
Is there anything like this with cross-platform support? (Windows / Linux / OSX)
(comment deleted)
So... This is pretty much Quiver? Looks... Very similar.
"Notebook app for Hackers".. and No Linux support? I'm confused why their definition of hacker is only bound to those who use Windows and OSX.

Not even "Linux coming soon"...

If I hold an event in Chicago called "An evening for families," that doesn't mean my definition of family somehow includes living close to Chicago. Just that this event happens to be in Chicago, and this app happens to be for Windows/Mac because of implementation/demand/whatever reasons, not because of some definition about hackers.
in your OS/physical-location analogy, what's the interpretation of cross-platform support?
Sounds like marketing, not engineering. The "DBaaS operated by IBM" backend also doesn't sound hacker-friendly...
Welcome to the new meaning of "hacker": the Macbook packing hipsters churning out web "apps" at your local coffee place.
Still not sure what to think of Electron built applications.

Maybe it is my older laptop, but still feels odd to me. I'll have to think about it some more, since even more stuff is being made with it.

How can it be called "The Notebook for Hackers" when there's no Linux support?
How is Inkdrop different from Boostnote - open source notetaking app for programmers with markdown support & available on Windows, Mac & Linux. https://b00st.io/
Linux version in the works?