Comment by angleofrepose | Hacker News Reader

Comment by angleofrepose | Hacker News Reader

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Are there in-place macro tools that could be similar to this?

Examples: - italics in a live markdown editor usually hides the asterisks after you've closed the pair, but can get them back if you backspace with your cursor at the 's'. - [[]] style links in similar live editors hide/show content as the syntax has been designed to do.

These examples do it for me, the author, not just in publication.

Other examples include CAD software array-style duplication as a single example. Draw one thing, give a command like "copy 10 times" and then move the piece and see 10 copies laid out.

I can imagine using something like that `define` example in m4 and wanting the instruction to propagate throughout my text file, yet retain the command as a sort of undo/toggle option. Again, all for me the author as I think through my work in this editor, publication isn't really the point in these thoughts.

The workflow for applying formulas to org mode tables is fantastic. I'm still an absolute novice, but I can keep an array of TBLFM formulas[1] below my table which I write and execute at will (C-c C-c or ,,) and can retain as a sort of history of the table state. There seem to be an endless variety of hooks I can tap into for these kinds of table editing sessions.

I'm thinking about this in the context of the process of doing research and writing. When my thoughts are not concrete, I do not have a formal document I'm writing but I'm learning and thinking and connecting information. I am in the process of auditing a whole load of these tools and I want a tool that is the superset of all functionality I see, not sacrificing the awesome transclusion of TiddlyWiki or internal links in org mode for the drawing abilities of OneNote.

I think what I want is an exceptionally powerful "viewport" for lack of a better term. I take great inspiration from ZUIs and wonder how to apply the fantastic text based tools I know to a semantically zooming canvas. I don't like directories, I do like juxtaposition of disparate thoughts and projects. Can I have an AutoCAD/OneNote/orgmode? I want one. m4 seems inspires me towards this goal, even though I realize that's not exactly it's intention.

[1]: https://orgmode.org/manual/Durations-and-time-values.html#Du...

Tbh I cant figure out what you're asking for

As an example, Dropbox Paper supports a number of keyboard-text[1] to formatting capabilities. - The markdown goodies (bold, italics, line break, headings, quotes, etc)

- Dropbox Paper specific items like +LinkToDocument, @Person, #tag

- Digital Paper functionality like stylized tables /note red, creates a red box and puts your cursor inside it

- literally just two commandline tools /date, /time

These are all much more convenient than clicking GUI buttons to get these formatting options yet incredibly limited. There are on the order of tens of these capabilities in any similar application. Notion, Slack, TiddlyWiki, etc.

I can think up hundreds of keyboard-text -> computer-things. Sure they are basic and understood processes, but unless they are built by a developer for a walled garden application you can't really have them. In general, this is one of the reasons I primarily use vim/emacs and linux, so I can build my own interface for my computer. But I'm interested in bringing that textgrid customization into a canvas application that supports more media types than text. vim + repl + powerpoint. Keyboard driven, mouse driven, stylus driven and as powerful as a computer can be.

- I can highlight 3 paragraphs and type /column to make a three column layout.

- I can type /tabs to create tabs in my document ala tiddlywiki tabs.

- I can link statusbar like information into a document with /uptime and document how much time this document has been open.

I would like these capabilities in a shared document system to be able to work collaboratively on a higher level than text, and with more programmatic options than the tens that these applications provide.

I think I can't express this well and I'm really at the beginning of thinking about it, thanks for taking the time to read it. Maybe there's nothing here and this is just a manifestation of my frustration of using a computer.

[1]: things I can type on my ~80 or ~100 key keyboard.

Maybe OneNote would be a place to look.

I used OneNote every day for a month. It's a toy application not meant to be used seriously. It has no navigational tools beyond its hierarchy of files and search. Import a 78 page pdf to read and annotate? You can't set bookmarks or even jump to the bottom.

Searching the text of pdfs just failed in 3/3 tests I tried going through my old notes to find a document.

You can use hyperlinks as a navigational tool as well. You can get a link to any paragraph on any page and paste anywhere else. You can also use tags and "tag summary pages."

I'll have to look more into this, thanks for the tip. I have found it incredibly difficult to figure out how OneNote was intended to be used. The in-app tutorials are basic in the extreme (describing only the visible UI) and I couldn't seem to google-fu it well. There are endless YouTube videos and reddit fluff posts but even the technical looking channels just have a 10 min video where the main content consists of a stylized "Science is cool" header with some vectors or bio notes.

As I said I used it in my full class load for a month then entirely gave up on it. Too many papers and too many large documents of notes, I have much more reusability and ease of access and searching my pile of md documents next to a pile of PDFs (I write `zathura path/to/paper`) at the top of each section in my markdown doc that I edit in vim, then when I want it open I put my cursor on it and hit `gx`. This beat out any OneNote workflow I could figure out in a month of daily use.

Ok good to know

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