I’ve been gradually reviewing and revising the packages I use to complete particular tasks and the way the underlying data (my data) is being stored.
Where possible I prefer to have my data stored on systems I own in something like plain text format, and retrievable or at least accessible through a number of means.
The types of tasks I have in mind, the primary package I use to access this data and some backup packages are listed below:
Around a month ago I decided that it would be a good idea to begin to learn and use Vim as my primary text editor. Prior to that I had used Notepad++ on Windows-based machines and either Mousepad or Leafpad on my Linux-based machines.
Vim (pronounced, not surprisingly to rhyme with “him”) is an updated, improved version of a program called Vi (pronounced, somewhat surprisingly as “vee-eye”). Vim stands for Vi-improved.
Vim is a standard offering on linux machines and works in console mode whereas many other text editors such as Leafpad, Gedit, Mousepad etc work only in Linux desktop or windows environments.
Last year I posted some brief ponderings about a few different wikis. At the time I was intent on getting to grips with TiddlyWiki. I began doing that and used it within my employment for around 5 or 6 weeks. During that time I migrated my previous notes into TiddlyWiki and began using it to take notes during meetings and to record a range of tasks and activities. Shortly after that, however, I came across what was, for me, was a major hurdle. That hurdle was accessing and updated my wiki whilst I was travelling. Each time I edited and saved the wiki it was another 1+mb of usage on my mobile plan. Even a one-letter change and save would mean the wiki in toto was being resaved to my cloud storage. As a result TiddlyWiki got shelved.
My search for productivity tools that suit my platforms (linux @ home, windows @ work) and work philosophy (KISS, plain text preferred for transportability, not being locked into a particular tool or suite) continues.
I’m now using TiddlyWiki for general notes - one wiki file for home stuff and another wiki file for work stuff. I use minimal formatting in the tiddlers, but try to make good use of tags so I can track/trace ideas. I was using TiddlyWiki through Firefox but apparently a future release of Firefox (due in a month or two) won’t allow TiddlyWikis to be easily saved. As a result I’m now using Pale Moon browser for my wikis and will probably migrate the majority of my web usage to/through it.