Foam - A Roam Research alternative with VSCode, Markdown and Github

[Diego Mesa]

I came across another interesting TW competitor today on HN:

Github link: https://github.com/foambubble/foam

HackerNews Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23666950

[TW Tones]

Diego

Thanks for sharing and very interesting. In the past I may have adopted a solution like this, being a lot of what I really wanted from a non-linear notebook. However as broad as its scope I am not sure it is as much of a platform as tiddlywiki is, with high UI customisation and design alternatives.

Whilst you could make a tiddlywiki that looks and works like foam, I am not sure you could do the reverse. I would be more inclined to suggest it was a roam competitor and thus competition for tiddlywiki for users seeking roam type solutions, but not a full competitor to Tiddlywiki.

I would also argue to look into and hack foam would require a programmer, unlike tiddlywiki where you need not be a programmer, although you do start to develop some skills as a programmer it does not demand learning a whole language because of its building blocks. HTML CSS and Javascript are also a little more of a global standard.

Regards

Tony

[Diego Mesa]

Thanks for your comments Tony

I agree TW can do more, but this really got me thinking about what TW actually is. As I use the flat file/node version, I frequently use a text editor to interact with my tiddlers. Depending on my search task, I use command line tools to search these flat files and that lets me escape many of TW idiosyncrasies.

[TW Tones]

Diego,

I use command line tools to search these flat files and that lets me escape many of TW idiosyncrasies. 

That's where we differ,  although inhabiting the command line (WIndows), much of my life, I always seek out a way to do it in the interactive wiki. I use tiddlywiki to capture knowledge and methods rather than needing to use various memorised command lines. I still have not found something I can't do in the interactive wiki. I leverage tiddlywiki fully, code mirror is a good editor but I can also use an external editor on text areas using a browser extension if I want. But increasingly the interactive tiddlywiki is all I need.

Personal opinion

By operating within the wiki, any process or workflow is open to enhancement, innovation and new User Interface options. Command lines are not so much fun. The die hard linux fans often say the command-line is their preferred interface and even say its easier, but they are ignoring the years of learning that brought them to that point. They forget, it is harder to help new users, if the methods they refine are at the command prompt/shell, without forcing the new user on the same long journey. 

This bias is evident in many of the Node Enthusiasts use of tiddlywiki. As long as one command line is necessary the take up of node implementations is limited. Jed's bob.exe goes a long way to doing this, but barriers remain.

I think embracing the TW idiosyncrasies is better in the long run.

Each to their own.

Regards

Tony