Quiver 3 2 – The Programmer's Notebook
Calling this 'The Programmer's Notebook' makes it seem like a broadly applicable tool for programmers in general, when it's actually fairly exclusive and specific. There's nothing particularly egregious about this example, but it's part of a larger pattern that is aggravating for any non-kool-aid drinkers. Quiver: The Programmer's Notebook-Android ReadOnly Version. Android quiver Updated Dec 12, 2019; Java; solwllms / quiver Star 3 Code Issues Pull.
The problem with most these apps is that I can't just point at a directory where the app should organise my files. I am not looking for something that saves my files to some strange (proprietary) format in an invisible place (some OS's app-data directories/online service). Putting files in folders is a problem that has been solved, it is called a file-system and all OS-s have it.
I want to work with a directory of markdown files like so:
- Easy to use on all my devices- Copy-paste images directly (biggest feature over a code-editor)- Proper code-highlighting and Markdown support support and generally easy to look at and use- Use normal directory structure for organisation- Sync using my normal tools (iCloud, Dropbox, etc), hence pointing at a dir- Search based on tags of some sort would be ok, but can't really see the use over directory structure
Apparently the top 2 requirements won out. I say 'apparently' as I ended up using Apple Notes for note taking as it is the easiest to use on all my devices and it does image copy-pasting very well. The only down-side is that there is no directory to point to at and it lacks proper support for code.
In reality I don't really feel the need to take code notes enough. I just put stuff in the `README.md` of a project that I needed the snippet for in the first place.
So I already have most of the features that I find relevant from a free part of my computer OS and phone OS (Apple Notes). Notes works very well, there is sync, pasting images works like a charm and when I really need a small code-snippet I can live with plain-text in monospace without code highlighting. Therefore I don't want to pay $1.5 (Bear) or any other amount of money per month.
I would pay a set price though for working with MY directories, but not ~$40 (Ulysses), rather than a monthly fee.
Especially pasting images from my clipboard is a must have feature for me. I'd also want to be able to work seamlessly from computer to phone to computer, etc. The last requirement being why just using Atom with git is not a good fit.
I recently came across Quiver which is described as a 'notebook built for programmers. It lets you easily mix text, code, Markdown and LaTeX within one note, edit code with an awesome code editor, live preview Markdown and LaTeX, and find any note instantly via the full-text search.'I downloaded the trial and played with it. There is much to like in this application. I am not a programmer, but I do like the way Quiver handles text, markdown, and pictures. I also like its search capabilities: 'Quiver's full-text search is based on Search Kit, the same technology used to power Spotlight on your mac. That's how Quiver can search through thousands of notes in a blink of an eye.' I also like that it 'stores data in a well-documented plain JSON format. So it’s easy to write scripts to integrate Quiver notes with other tools you use. Common scripts are provided on the Quiver documentation site.' Furthermore, 'Quiver lets you sync all your notes across multiple computers via Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, or any other file-based cloud services.'
Most of all, I like that it is an OS X application. If I were to adopt it, I would no longer have to run Windows.
There is, however, one thing that keeps me from adopting it, and that is the somewhat cumbersome implementation of linking. You have to first copy the target note, move back into the note, into which you wish to insert the link to the target and the paste it into the note. It would be so much better, if you could just enclose the name of the target in double brackets, the way nValt, or OneNote, or ConnectedText allow you to do it.
The author seems to be aware of this, and implicitly promises to improve the linking behavior.