As developer you probably spend most of your time to learn and test things. Grab and test small pieces of code, read and write documentation, both for you or your teammates and eventually coding. 😋
Since years, I made a choice to use Markdown as primary format to taking notes and this for 2 reasons:
- The markdown is portable, non vendor lock-in
- It's perfect for writing code and documentation (code highlight, html conversion...)
I also decided last year to bring my contribution to the community by providing Znote. (self-promotion here) an electron cross-platform note-taking app offering a dedicated experience for developers.
Disclaimer: Even if the app is already available on all app stores and mobiles, Znote is still young with lot of improvements to do.
Furthermore, if as a software creator it's common to add new features, I'm really excited to share this particular one with you which completely changed my daily work.
The Lab 🧪
The Lab is a feature allowing to run JavaScript code directly in the note-taking app. You can use the Node fs API as well as the pre-included libraries to explore and visualize your data. ✨
Below are some examples:
Run plain Javascript
Read & Write file thanks to the Node FS API (it's an Electron App)
Explore Data with DanfoJs
Graph with https://plotly.com/javascript/
And generate diagrams with Mermaid
Are you interested in helping me?
Like I said above, even if the app is ready to use, my backlog is still enormous 📚.
I plan to integrate more libraries and build-in plugins to add shortcut functions. I will send tutorials, probably via my newsletter (link on the landing Lab page). Do you already have any suggestions for me? I will be happy to read them here or on my Github: landing page.
Hope you will enjoy using my app and it will make your job a little more fun.
Top comments (44)
Oh my, this is just what I've been looking for. Please add a premium paid feature so you can bring in money, and continue this awesome project full time.
🥲 oh Thank you so much. Currently I don't plan to do the premium feature as long as I can handle the load. I prefer to focus my efforts on creating a valuable and useful app for as many people as possible.
Right. Actually, you can already share your notes in the cloud for mobile use cases. The limit is currently a little low to allow everyone to have a free cloud space but you cannot sync local files. For these, OneNote is a good option.
For ideas I would look at a similar widely used tool called iPython Notebook or Jupyter Notebook. Previously separate but now just the one is used I think.
It lets you write markdown as notes. And code in Python, Bash and more. Node I guess if you have that installed. And it evaluates the code and printed results and shows graphs inline. This is popular for Python and data science.
You interact in a browser or IDE.
It also lets you save as a .ipnb file which you can run and edit again later. And it can be rendered as a HTML view on GitHub or by someone else locally, without having to actually run your code. So it is portable.
When browsing gists, I sometimes find ones made in this format.
Consider also how to write frontend JS because it looks like your support Node ie server side running internally but someone users may want to have frontend based JS. And there are some differences in allowed syntax and imports and what is in the std lib etc.
Hello Michael,
You are totally right 👍, this functionality is widely inspired from Notebook possibilities and I don't know yet, how to keep the results of code in notes.
Also true, the JS currently run into the internal Node Server. This first use case allow to execute code without configure any local environment. I love your thinking about running the code on configured external environments (bash, java, python and also JS...). It's a great idea to open up the app and include all Developers 🤩.
Thank you very much. I turned this into tasks.
Cool this looks interesting. I have been using Markdown a lot lately.
Thank you for your feedback. Good ideas, I will open Discussions soon and review each of your points.
Your app has given me a welcome dilemma 😅 I only just replaced Typora with Obsidian and now I am compelled to try out this app because it is cross platform.
It's funny 😋. It is so true, there are plenty of choices. Each application has its pros and cons. Just one thing, if you choose another app, please, really please 🙏 tell me why to allow me to improve my app.
So true yes of course I will. I plan to try out your app properly tomorrow.
I didn't know Phonito 🤩, it seems awesome. Thank you!
Omg, it looks really good... I'll definitely try it out, really excited! Thanks for sharing this gem with the community.
i am confused. i don't see any source code on your repo!
you need contributers or only feedback ?
Hello Tariq,
Right now, I am looking for feedback to guide my future releases. 🙏 Sorry if I am confusing. I am open to all proposals. Thank you for your help.
No need to apologize.
Nice software I’ve installed it and intend to use it at work
How about letting people use Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. for the storage, so that they're more in control and you don't have server costs?
Hello Jordan,
✅ Yes! Znote is already designed to allow you to use Google Drive or Dropbox to sync your markdown files.
Currently, the "Cloud" mainly consists of synchronizing volatile notes with mobile devices.