Trying out Zettelkasten

After learning about #zettelkasten recently (via %fUWteSk..., %H1Z9w2i...), I am trying out the concept. I made an application, as a #dillo plugin as I like that kind of interface. On git-ssb: dillo-zet

Here is a screenshot of the application showing a note:

The notes in the screenshot might not follow the way Zettelns are supposed to be written, but I am new to this and am showing it mainly to demonstrate the UI.

The dual view with the textarea and markdown-rendered note is based on the way of composing messages in patchfoo, but using a vertical instead of horizontal split. The backlinks list is also somewhat informed by SSB client usage.

The use of the section sign ("§") as a note id sigil I got from here: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/add-identity/. But I am using a random hex string as the id rather than a datestamp or serial numbers. Not sure if that is the best approach, but it appears to be what https://notes.andymatuschak.org is doing at least.

Previously (for about the last 2 years) my note taking has largely consisted of appending to a single big text file (cat>>~/notes.txt), and editing text files in project directories (vi notes.txt). So far the new note method feels good. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks @SoapDog (SPX).

Currently there is no indexing. When rendering a note, it reads all note files to search for backlinks to the current note. As I get more notes I will probably want to add an index. Eventually maybe even store the notes in a database instead of as text files.

Follow-up: I'm still using dillo-zet. 111 files so far, 484K total. Haven't needed to add indexing yet, but thinking about it. I'm also still using cat>>~/notes.txt, as that is still the easiest way for me to just "jot something down".