Share this page!

Robert Haisfield Profile picture
Twitter logo
25 Mar, 5 tweets, 2 min read
The UX of @obsdmd is sort of like if Emacs were built specifically for writers. org-mode is cool, but very few people want to learn Emacs/elisp just for that purpose.
With the plugin ecosystem and some of its power features, it really feels like an IDE for writers.

What happens when they take that notion further?
Everything @jaydixit demonstrates in this video are trivially accomplished in Obsidian with either base features or plugins that are trivial to install. Not saying he should switch away from Emacs, just saying that this sort of power is way more accessible to writers these days!
Shared UX:

Obsidian shares saved workspaces / sessions with Emacs
Shared UX:

Obsidian shares tiling pane management with Emacs. Similarly, you can have multiple instances of the same file open side-by-side

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Robert Haisfield

Robert Haisfield Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @RobertHaisfield

Robert Haisfield Profile picture
16 Mar
Being able to color groups based on a graph view search in @obsdmd is brilliant. Here I'm narrowing my website's contents down to "onboarding" and coloring the results.

However, some of these nodes certainly overlap. If only it showed that somehow? Perhaps split colors?
Given that I can hover preview over any node, this might be preferable to viewing search results in a linear format... ideally with a way to see nodes with split colors, and would require me to have really good titles for notes.
On that note... why can't I color code linear search results in the same way I can color code graph search results? Wouldn't that also provide me with similarly helpful utility?
Read 7 tweets
Robert Haisfield Profile picture
12 Mar
AFAICT the fact that open source builds on open source is one of its greatest strengths (the practice is cumulative) and its greatest weakness (there’s a ton of baggage that gets kept, especially on projects that value backwards compatibility)
Before working in learnable programming, I had no prior coding background. I’m approaching this with no coding related tacit knowledge, just applying my own design sensibilities.
Emacs is a great example. The core concept is strong, and 40+ years of dev means there’s an amazing ecosystem of prebuilt extensions around it. Backwards compatibility is a value though, so there’s 40+ years of baggage. But what if you could start fresh with lessons vs code?
Read 4 tweets
Robert Haisfield Profile picture
11 Mar
IMO, Roam is a better interface for Twitter than Twitter. A lot of my knowledge management is in my tweets and their replies. @ollybot_redux and I were were working on Twitter import... who wants to pick up where we left off? Olly put it on GitHub github.com/oliverb123/roa…
Here I have some notes on what a good Twitter import would look like. We were working on import from tweets.js - ideally I'd import all from there, and then set up something more continuous. roamresearch.com/#/app/Rob-Hais… cc @dvargas92495 @houshuang @andyga0 @adam_krivka
Some possibilities for fetching replies to tweets, shared from discussion with Andy:
Read 7 tweets
Robert Haisfield Profile picture
8 Mar
The light pen was immediately intuitive, while the mouse wasn't. Engelbart put two people against each other on the same task, and mouse users were initially slower, but quickly they outpace those with the light pen. We live in a world of light pens.

"That's the reason why people are bragging that infants can use iPads as if this was a point of pride rather than something horrifying." We infantilize people with apps that are built to be intuitive from the start but can't do anything serious.
"This is why we live in a world where most things are easy to learn, but hard to use. By hard to use, I don't mean that we feel they are difficult, but that we never reach our capacity to meld with these systems because we've chosen this path."
Read 4 tweets
Robert Haisfield Profile picture
6 Mar
I wonder if DSLs are just the next logical step for apps built for power usage. Let people directly input data and manipulate it, following your apps data model.
That’s not to say that GUIs shouldn’t exist. This thread on designing for power usage makes the argument that there should be a smooth learning curve from beginner to power user. Ultimately, no GUI is gonna be faster or more powerful than a well-designed domain-specific language
If onboarding is the perceived problem... then whatever, they can absolutely be designed to be learnable. Clear feedback loops, affordances for different stages of the learning curve, and minimalist language design. That’s basically been my work w/ GuidedTrack for the last year
Read 4 tweets
Robert Haisfield Profile picture
5 Mar
Okay now imagine you have a keyboard where you have low height twin control sticks on your space bar that could move independently of each other. What would that do for you?

Maybe holding a modifier key changes the output of your stick movements. Image
Slow vs. fast movement based on how far you push each stick? With adjustable stick sensitivity? Image
Fighting game like gestures? Force quit an app by inputting a Shoryuken? Image
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @RobertHaisfield has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @RobertHaisfield!

Read all threads by @RobertHaisfield