Show HN: MindForger Markdown IDE – Autolinking, MathJax Menu and CSV Export

Show HN: MindForger Markdown IDE – Autolinking, MathJax Menu and CSV Export(mindforger.com)

72 points by dvorka 7 years ago | 17 comments

knight17 7 years ago |

One of the things I like about wikis is the concept of backlinks [1]. I currently use TW5 (TiddlyWiki) for my 700+ notes and I always find something that I have written but have forgotten ever writing those down. From the screenshoots it appears like MindForger has this feature and I am glad they chose to implement it. Very few note taking software seem to implement it these days. The ability to see the relationship of existing notes is revelatory. I will be watching this one to see how they progress. Hope they will release a Windows version too.

[1] : http://wiki.c2.com/?BackLink

kungtotte 7 years ago | |

In practice, back linking or otherwise connecting notes in some relational manner is the difference between a knowledge base and just a stack of notes.

bthallplz 7 years ago | |

Semi-unrelated: I am very eager to see how well MindForger can be used with my TiddlyWikis. Prior to now seeing MindForger, TiddlyWiki was the only thing I'd describe as being close to being an IDE for the mind, and the possibilities of such excites me greatly.

I like that MindForger might be useful for reading documents, not just writing them.

O_H_E 7 years ago | |

> and I always find something that I have written but have forgotten ever writing those down.

I don't get how does backlinks help here.

tarboreus 7 years ago |

The people cried out for Org Mode, taking strange convolutions on their search for the one true path https://orgmode.org/

velobro 7 years ago | |

Starting to become a bit annoying how orgmode is immediately linked whenever a notes app is posted on HN.

Emacs is a beast of a program in the same way Vim is. One has to sit down, bear through the pain, and force themself to be slow as hell while they "learn" the program. This culminates in a experience that arguably is only slightly better than something that a person can get immediately through installing any other modern notes app.

A majority of people don't want to have to do that.

tarboreus 7 years ago | | |

"Hey, people reinventing the wheel! There's a wheel over here!"

I could see how that would be annoying. But, really, there's a wheel over here. I do appreciate the wiki-oriented approach, though...if this can help with that, more power.

jitl 7 years ago |

This looks perfect. I’d like to be able to keep a notebook like this stuffed full of tiny opinions, software research, and project plans. Most notes tools are either too simple, or limit me to writing using their tool. This looks like a perfect solution, with really cool refactoring tools to boot!

antoineMoPa 7 years ago |

Refreshing to see a desktop app here not built with electron!

T-A 7 years ago | |

But a bit odd that running it on Windows requires WSL + an X server. It's built with Qt, should be easy enough to make cross-platform.

SeriousM 7 years ago | | |

Maybe you could help the dev to do that?

letientai299 7 years ago |

On one hand, it's so nice to have a proper IDE support for markdown and mathjax. But on the other hand, since when Markdown become so complicated that it needs a fully featured IDE?

rambojazz 7 years ago | |

Indeed, I started using Markdown because it was simple and minimalist and could quickly edit it in vim. In recent years it seems like a lot of complexity is being added to it.

frou_dh 7 years ago | |

It's not Markdown the format that's complicated here, it's finding effective mechanisms for recall and association in very large collections of notes

PurpleRamen 7 years ago | |

Since people want the power of an Office-Suite in plaintext, without using an actual Office-Suit.

somada141 7 years ago |

Great effort! Dunno if I'm quite ready to jump off Quiver [1] which has been serving me well but I'll definitely be looking more into MindForger.

[1]: http://happenapps.com/

osrec 7 years ago |

Interesting. I currently use the markdown preview in atom (Ctrl+shift+M), and that works pretty well too.