[Techtalk] a paucity of available note takers

[pat]

  On 9/19/2010 6:18 AM, Anne Wainwright wrote:
> Hi, all,
>
> I use Gjots2 jotter to record and classify all my linux notes. This is
> fine. Tree hierachy is good, no fancy stuff is good. I don't want to
> clutter it up with personal stuff so...
>
> I use Tomboy for personal stuff, but it is a bit slow so might try
> Gnotes which is a clone in C++. Also OK, sort of.<thinks>  I had a
> fantastic one called Desk Notes in win ...
>
> I have a space for ephemeral notes, ones that I might well ditch
> when I shut down. Just a 1-page work area where I can marshal thoughts
> into text before I actually decide what to do with them. If I wrote
> a utility for what I want I'd call it 'Scratchboard' or something like
> that.
>
> I am just trying Xpad which is suitable small and featureless. but
> every keystroke rattles the hard drive. Sorry, I don't like that.  Also
> I find that Ctl-P will not print the note ...
>
> I'm not looking for an editor where I have to save the stuff under a
> name and then find that to reopen it if I do want it next time. Well,
> I could use one with a launcher and a file name on the command line.
> <thinks>.
>
> See, having written and marshaled my thoughts in this email I come up
> with an idea.
>
> Still, any better ideas?
>
> bestest
> Anne
> _______________________________________________
>
Hi Anne,

Over the years of linux play, I have finally gravitated to basically one 
of two editor type programs.
I do small quick things to small files, or start a new file using nano.

But for comprehensive use, emacs has become my trusted friend in 3 
different operating systems.  It behaves pretty much the same in any of 
those systems.

emacs is quite huge but can strip it  down as needed.  There are many 
external libraries to do things, and different modes of text handling, 
including note taking and outlining.

The customizing system is amazing in that there is hardly a thing that 
can't be modified to suit your need.

There is a learning curve, and I am still learning.  For instance, I can 
set a bookmark with ctl-x r m.  It will take the current directory as 
default, will title the location as you wish.  Then recall it with ctl-x 
r b and pick from your list.

You can start emacs from the command line with a number of parameters, 
and you can make them always part of the launch by adding them to ~/.emacs

I found this example page that shows just a few things emacs can do:
http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs_fun.html

Hope this is helpful, Pat