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0 pointsmattnewport5y ago0 comments

What do you see as the advantages vs. Zettlr? I haven't got to a point where perf seems to be an issue that would require a real graph database and having your knowledgebase just be a collection of markdown files is the ultimate in local first no lock-in portability.

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6 comments · 1 top-level

tangjeff05y ago· 5 in thread

The current major difference between markdown-based and db-based apps is block references. Over time, the difference will become significant as knowledge bases grow in size.

CSV -> Excel -> SQL -> Distributed Cloud DBs

Furthermore, our database supports data types, including numbers, dates, etc. I don't think any networked notetaking app has executed well on tables and non-string types. UX for tables is generally not great for markdown.

pps5y ago

> The current major difference between markdown-based and db-based apps is block references. Over time, the difference will become significant as knowledge bases grow in size.

That should be true, but so far it is Roam with the biggest problems with performance, from 30+ seconds of loading each time you load/refresh tab to constant lags in normal usage for some users :)

I personally like the most this mixed approach of Logseq - app internally uses DataScript, but data is ultimately stored in plain files.

tangjeff05y ago

It's not either or as you mentioned! Plan to have user data stored in plain files as well.

Roam's performance suffers mainly on first-load because they are server-first, and they load the entire db into memory at the beginning (such that it's quite fast thereafter).

Once we have true local-first data structures with something like https://github.com/replikativ/datahike, we could still have fast in-memory, but also fast initial load.

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sandGorgon5y ago

Not markdown, but asciidoc has first class support for blocks and references/attributes.

- https://docs.asciidoctor.org/asciidoc/latest/macros/inter-do...

- https://asciidoc.org/userguide.html#X60

- https://asciidoc.org/userguide.html#X73

mattnewportOP5y ago

I'm not really familiar with Roam as I'm not interested in a non open source tool for this type of app (why I am more interested in what you're doing). What are block references?

I guess I can see perf becoming an issue for a company wide knowledge base or a wikipedia type of thing but for a personal knowledge base which is my main use case currently I'm not clear it's necessary to have a real database and the benefits of just a bunch of markdown files are more compelling to me right now. Maybe that would change if my knowledge base got big enough or my needs more complex regarding links and references.

input_sh5y ago

The simplest way I can explain block references is the ability to link any line in any file to any other line in that file or any other.

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