zim-wiki team mailing list archive

[Rolf Kleef <rolf@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting to compare notes.

I work with Jekyll and markdown too to generate static sites, with
Github as the main collaboration platform. I use Typora as desktop
WYSIWYG editor (https://typora.io/) and sometimes try things with Zettlr
to organise writing (https://zettlr.com/) because it integrates nicely
with Zotero for references and is more of wiki with a focus on
(academic) writing.

However, Zim still is my notebook tool (and maybe a "rough draft/outline
tool", but not my "document production tool") because it:

- has integrated journaling and task management to keep a log and track
follow-up actions

- works really well for me to keep notes and files together

- offers quick keyboard navigation for note-keeping.

There's an example of how you can do static site generation from Zim
sources on Gitlab
(https://github.com/jaap-karssenberg/zim-wiki/wiki/Host-a-website-on-GitLab-Pages).
It's probably possible to do that with the new Github Actions too, to
make the workflow for publishing/updating a notebook a simple "git push".

With the Version plugin in Zim, saving a version to git is a simple
ctrl-shift-s away, or you can let is save versions automatically.

My content-keeping evolves as well, I'd say Zim is still an important
part of the ecosystem :-)

~~Rolf.

PS: there is also https://www.authorea.com as a sort of "Github for
writing" but it doesn't have a desktop version for offline use. It lets
you mix Latex, markdown, html, keep data files with the article, and has
several academic publishing workflow features.


On 04/09/2019 20:31, sreekar guddeti wrote:
> Dear Shivam,
>
> My motivation to migrate from Zim to Jekyll
> <https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll> actually involved a cascade of
> events primarily starting from a desire to version control my PhD
> thesis. As a result I fleeted along various tools like GitHub
> <https://github.com/> (for versioning content), markdown
> <https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#philosophy> (for
> structuring content), Atom <https://atom.io/> (for editing content)
> and Jekyll (for viewing content). The GCD (upside) of these tools
> turned out to be *seamless platform (desktop/web) agnostic
> content-keeping*. The LCM (downside) is the larger footprint compared
> to the much leaner Zim. Since Zim restrains itself by being a *desktop
> wiki*, I was more convinced to make the migration after reading this
> <https://github.com/zim-desktop-wiki/zim-desktop-wiki/issues/26> that
> Zim lacks markdown support. After reading this
> <https://v4.chriskrycho.com/2015/academic-markdown-and-citations.html>
> post on an academic writing workflow using markdown with the support
> of Pandoc <https://pandoc.org/> (for interdocument conversion), I
> started the migration. Jekyll is only a part of the process.
>    Notwithstanding my perceived limitations of Zim, as a testimony, I
> would like to share that Zim helped me learn a lot about web tools
> (like wiki functioning, html, thrill of creating your own site with
> fivethirtyeight theme :D (I still use it for my site
> <https://baalkikhaal.github.io/>)), content-keeping (like interlinking
> notebooks), API usage (my first serious foray into reading source
> codes was through Zim. I managed to extend Zim's functionality, along
> with some web scraping Python modules, to setup up a Mendeley like
> interface of many-to-many mappings between Authors, Titles and Years :D).
>   On a philosophical note, *Zim is but a bead in the process of
> evolution of content-keeping*. It is neither the beginning nor the
> end. Its a long way to go where the GCD equals the LCM (the ultimate
> non duality) ;).
>
> PS: I will check out the aforementioned tools -- Nikola, org-mode.
>
> sincerely yours,
>
> On Wed, Sep 4, 2019 at 8:49 PM Chuck Esterbrook
> <chuck.esterbrook@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:chuck.esterbrook@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Shivam,
>
>     What the "something better than Zim" look like? Just curious.
>
>     -Chuck
>
>
>
> -- 
> Sreekar Guddeti,
> Spintronics and Thin Film Magnetism Lab,
> Physics Department,
> IISc Bangalore,
> India.