In: computer, software, writing.

Plain text file

Articles

File over app

By Stephan Ango, posted July 1 2023
https://stephanango.com/file-over-app
File over app is a philosophy: if you want to create digital artifacts that last, they must be files you can control, in formats that are easy to retrieve and read. Use tools that give you this freedom.
File over app is an appeal to tool makers: accept that all software is ephemeral, and give people ownership over their data.
If you want your writing to still be readable on a computer from the 2060s or 2160s, it’s important that your notes can be read on a computer from the 1960s.
These days I write using an app I help make called Obsidian, but it’s a delusion to think it will last forever. The app will eventually become obsolete. It’s the plain text files I create that are designed to last. Who knows if anyone will want to read them besides me, but future me is enough of an audience to make it worthwhile.

Living in a single text file

By William Hern, posted May 2019
https://williamhern.com/living-in-a-single-text-file.html

Why plain text matters

By Scott Nesbitt, posted 11 July 2017
https://plaintextproject.online/articles/2017/07/11/matters.html
Even in this age of documents that support rich formatting, plain text matters. It’s more than just a plain vanilla format that you’re forced to use when you can’t use your favourite word processor or online writing tool. It’s one of the best ways to create your documents, record and track your tasks, and a lot more.
So why does plain text matter? It’s a ubiquitous, almost universal format. You can easily create plain text documents on any operating system and on any device. You don’t need a specialized tool to do it, either. You can use software - like Gedit, TextEdit, or Notepad - that’s already installed on the computer or device. In a sense, you get plain text without additional charge.
Believe it or not, plain text is used everywhere. Even when you don’t see it. Where? In the source code for software, web pages, blog posts and articles (like this one), configuration files on your computer, and more.
Many word processor formats used are no longer supported and it’s a pain to find a converter for them. In fact, I have writing from 20+ years ago that’s locked away in files, never to be seen again because the word processor I used to create them doesn’t exist anymore.

Life inside one big text file

O’Reilly Network Weblogs: Living in text files
By Merlin Mann, published Aug 17 2005
https://43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-text-file
Text is the simplest, most platform-independent, fastest-to-search format we have for storing information.
Everything I need - from todos, blog posts in progress, article ideas, addresses, my list of books to read, the shopping list, and much more besides, lives in just the one file.
My text file is now coming up on ten thousand lines in size. This sounds large and unmanageable but it is still little more than 300K in size - much smaller than the average PowerPoint presentation file we routinely send round attached to emails.

Why plaintext for notes?

By Michael Descy
Writing in plaintext focuses you on content and structure, and frees your mind from formatting decisions
https://plaintext-productivity.net/2-01-why-plaintext-for-notes.html

Plain text for education

Posted 22 Sep 2021
https://plaintext.bearblog.dev/plain-text-for-education
Plain text is the most raw, simple form of writtten digital communication there is. It is more stable than any other document file format, and like was said earlier, it doesn’t need any specialized software in order to view or edit it. It just works.

Eight questions for William Hern

By Scott Nesbitt, posted 05 May 2020
https://plaintextproject.online/articles/2020/05/05/Hern.html

Q: Is there anything you can’t do with plain text?

Let me tell you a story. About five years ago my uncle sent me an email with the text of a letter from my grandfather, while he was serving in the British Army during World War II, to his mother, written on VE Day in 1945. The text was interesting and I certainly got insights from reading it.
However, a few weeks later he sent me a scan of the actual handwritten letter. What a difference that made! Seeing his handwriting, that I knew well from the letters that he had sent me decades later, made the letter come alive for me. I could see where he had scored out text and chosen to write other words. I could see where he had paused in writing, perhaps thinking about what to say (and what not to say). There’s a whole lot of meta-information that gets lost when you reduce something to plain text.
As a result of this experience, I’m now trying to handwrite more of my personal letters and notes to close family and friends, rather than just send them an email. It’s slower to write and there’s the added expense of postage but I think that it makes for much more meaningful and sincere communication.

Spell checking your plain text files

By Scott Nesbitt, posted 04 August 2020
https://plaintextproject.online/articles/2020/08/04/spell.html

The plain text project

https://plaintextproject.online/articles.html

Plaintext-everything

https://github.com/captn3m0/plaintext-everything
A list of tools and articles helpful for keeping everything under plaintext

Plain text accounting

https://plaintextaccounting.org
Plain text accounting is a way of doing bookkeeping and accounting with plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software, such as Ledger, hledger, or Beancount.

Tools

Journal.TXT

https://journaltxt.github.io
Single-Text File Journals - The human multi-document format for writers

Klog

https://github.com/jotaen/klog
https://klog.jotaen.net
The idea behind klog is to store data in plain-text files in a simple and human-readable format. The notation is similar to how you would write down the information into a physical notebook using pen and paper. Manipulating your data is as easy as opening the file in a text editor and making changes to the copy. By using the klog command line tool you can search, evaluate and manipulate your data from the terminal.

Ledger CLI

https://github.com/ledger/ledger
https://ledger-cli.org
Ledger is a powerful, double-entry accounting system that is accessed from the UNIX command-line. This may put off some users, since there is no flashy UI, but for those who want unparalleled reporting access to their data there are few alternatives.
Ledger uses text files for input. It reads the files and generates reports; there is no other database or stored state. To use Ledger, you create a file of your account names and transactions, run from the command line with some options to specify input and requested reports, and get output. The output is generally plain text, though you could generate a graph or html instead.

pass - the standard UNIX password manager

https://passwordstore.org
With pass, each password lives inside of a gpg encrypted file whose filename is the title of the website or resource that requires the password. These encrypted files may be organized into meaningful folder hierarchies, copied from computer to computer, and, in general, manipulated using standard command line file management utilities.
The password store does not impose any particular schema or type of organization of your data, as it is simply a flat text file, which can contain arbitrary data. Though the most common case is storing a single password per entry, some power users find they would like to store more than just their password inside the password store, and additionally store answers to secret questions, website URLs, and other sensitive information or metadata.

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