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Comment by karlicoss | Hacker News Reader

First, big respect for working on software for so many years!

My question is what data format is it using? I found some examples here [1], but looks like it's a custom binary format?

Is there a functionality to auto-export (e.g. on save) to plaintext (xml/json/whatever), so I could hook TreeSheets files to other apps? I appreciate it would be lossy, but even a tree/graph structure with text nodes would be good.

E.g. I'm a big fan of using plaintext search over all of my personal data/information, even in siloed apps [2]

[1] https://github.com/aardappel/treesheets/tree/master/TS/examp...

[2] https://beepb00p.xyz/pkm-search.html#personal_information

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Yes, it is (compressed) binary: https://github.com/aardappel/treesheets/blob/master/TS/docs/...

TreeSheets tries to be highly efficient in space/time, which is challenging with text formats.

There's an option in the menus for auto html export on every save. It's what I use to browse my data from non-supported devices, e.g. mobile (thru e.g. DropBox).

Have you been exposed to Kaitai Struct[0] yet? As someone who wanted to use binary data from programs I’ve used it quite successfully and even more to the point: quite happily

[0] https://kaitai.io/

Nope, not seen this one, though there are many similar such specification languages. This one looks a bit overly verbose?

I suppose someone could write a description of https://github.com/aardappel/treesheets/blob/master/TS/docs/... in that specification language to give parsers in many languages. May not be as easy as it sounds with the embedded PNGs and compression etc.

If someone provides an example binary file I’ll give it a try

there are many here: https://github.com/aardappel/treesheets/tree/master/TS/examp...

Right on, thank you. Would you mind exporting some of those examples and commit them alongside the `cts` files so that I can validate my own parsing?

Oh hey: your articles on journaling and using a search-first interface heavily inspired me a couple years back, and formed the basis of my own system, with which I’m very happy. So, thank you very much!

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