Hi all,

The beta testing for TheBrain 12 started two days ago.

Here is an overview of the new features added to v12 (posted by Harlan Hugh):
https://www.thebrain.com/blog/version-12-beta

My first impressions (after playing with it for one hour):
- Quite stable but please be careful as this is still a version under development
- Much improved notes editor
- Mapped Links: Thoughts are that are connected in the plex as parents, children, jumps or siblings
- Backlinks: Thoughts whose notes link to the active thought
- Mentions: Thoughts whose notes contain the name of the active thought even if not explicitly linked
- What I really like this new feature: Backlinks and mentions are shown within the context of the paragraph headings where they appear. The inclusion of this context effectively enables adding content to one note from another via links or mentions
- Notes can be expanded / collapsed based on their structure (paragraph headings and lists)

There is much more to explore so you can expect an update here soon.

Kind regards,
Dominik

Thank you for the notice.

TheBrain 12 is going to give Roam-ism a significant challenge for a lot of people.

I was a Brain addict for years. The expense and data loss (version 8, I think) I had drove me away.

Looks like I might have to reconsider. I still think of tagging sort of like having jump thoughts.

Are backlinks a new feature to The Brain?

Dominik Holenstein wrote:

Hi all,

The beta testing for TheBrain 12 started two days ago.

Here is an overview of the new features added to v12 (posted by Harlan
Hugh):
https://www.thebrain.com/blog/version-12-beta

My first impressions (after playing with it for one hour):
- Quite stable but please be careful as this is still a version under
development
- Much improved notes editor
- Mapped Links: Thoughts are that are connected in the plex as parents,
children, jumps or siblings
- Backlinks: Thoughts whose notes link to the active thought
- Mentions: Thoughts whose notes contain the name of the active thought
even if not explicitly linked
- What I really like this new feature: Backlinks and mentions are shown
within the context of the paragraph headings where they appear. The
inclusion of this context effectively enables adding content to one note
from another via links or mentions
- Notes can be expanded / collapsed based on their structure (paragraph
headings and lists)

There is much more to explore so you can expect an update here soon.

Kind regards,
Dominik

Oh, man... this is quite cool. Really love the new features.

I’m still mourning the loss of the Expanded View, that will probably never come back...

Skywatcher wrote:

I’m still mourning the loss of the Expanded View, that will
probably never come back...

Thanks for the trigger. See my follow-up: https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/9182/0/thebraindead-hopefully-not-yet

When Roam then Obsidian started emerging & evolving this year out of the primordial swamp, the thought that occurred to me was: when i get some time, i should buy The Brain.

Still haven't bought it as haven't had time to even test several other things I got already.

But it is getting to the status of must have. just need to get the time.

22111 worte:
"Thanks for the trigger. See my follow-up: https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/9182/0/thebraindead-hopefully-not-yet&quot

Sorry, I don't have the time to read and try to understand such a mess.

Dominik

Dominik Holenstein wrote:

22111 worte:
"Thanks for the trigger. See my follow-up:
https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/9182/0/thebraindead-hopefully-not-yet&quot

Sorry, I don't have the time to read and try to understand such a mess.

Dominik

Dominik Holenstein wrote:

22111 worte:
"Thanks for the trigger. See my follow-up:
https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/9182/0/thebraindead-hopefully-not-yet&quot

Sorry, I don't have the time to read and try to understand such a mess.

Dominik

This reminds me of the German chancellor's, Ms. Merkel (Kasner), ex-functionary in the fascist murderous "SED" regime (i.e. of the "German Democratic Republic"), famous dictum "Not helpful", on Mr. Thilo Sarrazin's (ex German Federal Bank head) (2010) book "Germany abolishes itself", "Not helpful!" - whilst it had been established, later on, that she had not even read it. Which, in turn, reminds me of Mr. Scholz' "too long to read", and then fervently commenting on my thread-initiating post.

For some things, it's the Germans, again, who own the spot-on term: "kindergarden" (google: 6m), hahahahaha! (Gosh, all that "meta" here where you fail, too... yeah, it's rejoicing, but then, not constructive, in the end...)

Little correction: If I remember well, it was AFTER the publication of his enlightened book that he was forced to step down as German Federal Bank ("Deutsche Bundesbank") head - well, that's pc application at its best, hey? (And to heck with the facts.)

Skywatcher wrote:

I’m still mourning the loss of the Expanded View, that will probably never come back…

22111 wrote:

Thanks for the trigger. See my follow-up: https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/9182/0/thebraindead-hopefully-not-yet

Dominik Holenstein wrote:

Sorry, I don’t have the time to read and try to understand such a mess.

Here's the important bit:

22111 had a video chat with Matt C. at TheBrain.com, who said:

"Thanks for writing in. I’m aware of the v8 Expanded View feature and I do know that it was very popular. It has been replaced with MindMap View, which does allow users to see the full picture of a large Brain. Still, I’m aware of the differences between the two.
We’ve always said that we do hope to bring the classic Expanded View back in the future, but as far as I’m aware, we have never promised it’s return in version 9, 10, etc.
Bringing this view back will take many, many… MANY engineering hours of labor. If we want to bring it back it will need to work properly in our current framework and that won’t be a small task.
So again, we do hope to bring it back in the future and I do know the popularity of this feature, but I/we can’t promise any updates on this request in the near future."


Hope that helps. :)

22111 wrote:

Dominik Holenstein wrote:
22111 worte:
>"Thanks for the trigger. See my follow-up:
>https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/9182/0/thebraindead-hopefully-not-yet&quot
>
>Sorry, I don't have the time to read and try to understand such a mess.
>
>Dominik

This reminds me of the German chancellor's, Ms. Merkel (Kasner),
ex-functionary in the fascist murderous "SED" regime (i.e. of the
"German Democratic Republic"), famous dictum "Not helpful", on Mr. Thilo
Sarrazin's (ex German Federal Bank head) (2010) book "Germany abolishes
itself", "Not helpful!" - whilst it had been established, later on, that
she had not even read it. Which, in turn, reminds me of Mr. Scholz' "too
long to read", and then fervently commenting on my thread-initiating
post.

For some things, it's the Germans, again, who own the spot-on term:
"kindergarden" (google: 6m), hahahahaha! (Gosh, all that "meta" here
where you fail, too... yeah, it's rejoicing, but then, not constructive,
in the end...)

@ 22111 : respectfully, you're completely out of your mind.

Back to the subject. I downloaded the new V12 version, and frankly it convinced not to renew my expensive subscription once it runs out. Now after having eliminated the Expanded view, they have also removed the Hover feature, and alos insisted that it was not coming back *. I just don't understand the thinking of the Brain decision makers. It seems that their goal is to remove anything that could be a distinctive feature, and make it look as undistinguishable as possible from the competition. Except with an inferior implementation. Features like Expanded view and" Hover over the note" makes you want to use it instead of the competition. removing those makes you want to use the competition instead...

*On their forum, they said it was because it was "confusing" to some users and because their devceloppers couldn't make it work without it being buggy. It makes you appreciate even more the talent of the solo developpers of Curio and Tinderbox..

Skywatcher wrote:

Now after having eliminated the Expanded view, they have also removed the
Hover feature, and alos insisted that it was not coming back *.

They've added Update on Hover back in 12.0.11: https://forums.thebrain.com/post/thebrain-12-0-11-11248357

Seems like the large outcry for the feature saved it, so they are listening.

AdminByTheBay wrote:

Skywatcher wrote:
>Now after having eliminated the Expanded view, they have also removed
the
>Hover feature, and alos insisted that it was not coming back *.

They've added Update on Hover back in 12.0.11:
https://forums.thebrain.com/post/thebrain-12-0-11-11248357

Seems like the large outcry for the feature saved it, so they are
listening.

Only for notes however. "Hover" for the embedded Webbrowser, Html links, etc.. is still gone, unless I missed something. You now need select the Thought, then click on the links for every Thought you want to visualize the weblink. All you had to do before is fly-over the various Thoughts.

For those who are curious about the new features in 12 but don't want to invest too much time, we recently put up a 5 minute tour of the top new features: https://www.thebrain.com/products/thebrain/thebrain12

If you've been following TheBrain for a while here is a quick recap of the most recent releases: Version 11 added a custom-built Markdown editor that offers in-place previewing, tables, images, and synchronized, near-identical notes-editing functionality on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Version 12 adds backlinks, mentions, and a redesigned content area with the ability to operate fullscreen without the plex.

Based on user feedback, TheBrain 12 has been the most highly-regarded update we have ever done.

Skywatcher wrote:

Only for notes however. "Hover" for the embedded Webbrowser, Html links,
etc.. is still gone, unless I missed something. You now need select the
Thought, then click on the links for every Thought you want to visualize
the weblink. All you had to do before is fly-over the various Thoughts.

The hover feature has been fully restored in version 12 and works better than before. Not sure why some people got the impression that it does not work for web links and other content as that is not the case.

Disclosure: As one of the founders of TheBrain, I may be slightly biased. ߘœ

Regards,
-Harlan

Harlan : Unless I'm mistaken, it was re-implemented in a different way than in V.11. In V.11 you could setuup the behavior so that in case a thought has both a Note and Content (web links ex.), you could prioritize one over the other on hover. In my case it was setup to always show the web content in the built'in browser even if a note is also present.

In V.12 however, the Hover will always show the Notes even if both Notes and Content are present in the thought. It will ONLY show the content if no notes are present in the thought. I remember reading on your forum that the whole "show content on hover " feature was removed because some people find it confusing. And even now that it is re-implemented it removed the flexibility that was in V.11
I believe that the best way to make the people that found it confusing less confused is by making the choice of prioritizing Notes or Content clearer, not by removing the feature, or reimplementing only one behavior.

Harlan Hugh wrote:

The hover feature has been fully restored in version 12 and works better
than before. Not sure why some people got the impression that it does
not work for web links and other content as that is not the case.

Disclosure: As one of the founders of TheBrain, I may be slightly
biased. ߘœ

Regards,
-Harlan

@Harlan : also, I would say tha The Brain, has always been , by very far, the worst performer of any app I use. it has always been very inneficient in terms of processor power. on a MacbookPro with 2,8 GHz Intel Core i7 and 16 GB RAM, all versions of TheBrain ( inclusing the lates v12 betas ) are constantly hitting 80 to 120% (!) of processor use. And that with around 70 Thoughts in it. Tinderbox, with nearly a 1000 notes barely hits 20% at most on the processor ( whatever map mode I'm using ), Devonthink with more than thousand documents never goes over 5 or 6%

I'm getting into 3D creation, and at times TheBrain consumes almost as much processor power as some rendering I've been doing in Cinema 4D. There is absolutely no way in hell that an app like TheBrain with 80 notes needs as much power as a high-end 3D modeling software rendering with hundreds of polygon ! Unless it's due to ( and I'm very sorry to say this but it has to be said ) very clumsy programming.

Skywatcher wrote:

I would say tha The Brain, has always been , by very
far, the worst performer of any app I use. it has always been very
inneficient in terms of processor power. on a MacbookPro with 2,8 GHz
Intel Core i7 and 16 GB RAM, all versions of TheBrain ( inclusing the
lates v12 betas ) are constantly hitting 80 to 120% (!) of processor
use.

I have to say that I had the same experience on Windows. I've trialled The Brain multiple times over the years on different Windows machines, and I never managed to get it run properly, it was just unusuably slow.

Clearly there have been many users of The Brain here who have used it successfully over time, so I'm wondering what the secret is. Does one need to have the very latest top specs to be able to run The Brain?

I never felt speed was a problem.

Trying to recall my Brain days, I think there's a speed setting for animations. Maybe you have that set slow and it takes its time migrating from one node to the next?



Dr Andus wrote:

I have to say that I had the same experience on Windows. I've trialled
The Brain multiple times over the years on different Windows machines,
and I never managed to get it run properly, it was just unusuably slow.

Clearly there have been many users of The Brain here who have used it
successfully over time, so I'm wondering what the secret is. Does one
need to have the very latest top specs to be able to run The Brain?

With regard to performance, TheBrain scales very well to hundreds of thousands of thoughts/notes and does not require a high spec machine. In fact, there is almost no relationship between the number of thoughts in a brain and performance.

I'd guess the CPU usage numbers you to which you are referring to are during animation of the visual interface, which occurs only when you switch thoughts and which Amontillado points out can be adjusted to be as fast as you like. Since most other applications do not feature an animated UI, this does not affect them (It seems Tinderbox's graphical UI is static as far as I have seen and does not do animated transitions). As for comparing TheBrain UI to 3D rendering applications, those applications utilize the graphics card which is specially optimized for rendering 3D and does not show on the CPU usage. Since we render text primarily the graphics card is unable to assist as significantly.

Skywatcher Wrote:

Harlan : Unless I’m mistaken, it was re-implemented in a different way than in V.11. In V.11 you could setuup the behavior so that in case a thought has both a Note and Content (web links ex.), you could prioritize one over the other on hover. In my case it was setup to always show the web content in the built’in browser even if a note is also present.

If a note is present it always takes precedence over the first attachment. This functionality has not changed in version 12.

However if you want to achieve this, you can remove the content of the note and move it into a markdown attachment that you make into the second attachment - keeping the first attachment as the web content. The additional markdown attachment functions just like the normal note except that it can be set to a different priority in terms of what is shown on hover.

@ Harlan :
- You're right regarding the note precedence behavior. I got confused in between the moment the feature was removed from v12 and ithe moment it was reinstated.

- In regards, to performance : The speed issue doesn't just affect animation. I set it to maximum, and even just resizing the window's application is very sluggish. It's a matter of processor consumption.

I've run some tests this morning. My Mac's configuration is stated in a post above.
Tinderbox actually has animated views, the Hyperbolic view moves and shuffles figures and notes around as much as TheBrain does.

I put the Activity Monitor beside it , and what it shows is that being idle takes around 4%.
Clicking on another note sends the processor around 24% during the animation then quiclky goes down again to around 4 or 5 % as soon as the animation is over.
Clicking fast and continuously from one note to another to keep the animation almost constant sends the processor to around 54 % . It alsmot immediately goes back to around 4% as soon as I stop.

In contrast, doing the same thing with TheBrain : being Idle takes also around 4 or 5 %
Clicking on another thought sends the processor immediately to around 70 or 80 % . It remains there for more than 10 seconds before returning to 5% , as if it is wasn't aware yet that it being in idle state.
Clicking continuously on various thoughts ( in a slower rate than Tinderbox, maybe 1 second between each thought ) sends the processor consumption through the roof , well over 100%, usually around 120 to 140%. The Macboook's fans hit full speed, gets very hot. Going back to idle state, the processor remains at well over 120% for almost up to a minute at times before going back to the usual 4%. Meanwhile, the fans are blowing like crazy and the Mac is becoming an oven.

In many years of using Tinderbox, Curio and others, never did they get the processor to the point of launching the fans even once. Unless it is because they are optimised to use the graphics card ? I doubt it though...

The most disturbing thing for me, is that Cinema 4D , the 3D software I use, doesn't actually use the graphics card on the Mac. It's purely a CPU modeler. And slow at that. Only the PC version uses GPUs because it it built around some specific features of NVIDIA graphic cards ( CUDA ), while the Mac only uses AMD Gpu ( and very anemic ones). In fact I've just ordered a custom configured PC with an Nvidia RTX 2070 specifically to continue my 3D work on a faster level.
Now , continuing on my tests, and opening a complex scene on C4D , moving and orbiting around the objects in real-time, my processor sits constantly at... 70 to 90 %. We are tallking thousands of polygons, on a software that is purely CPU based on the Mac version.

Once again, it is very hard for me to believe that animating a rectangle containing a couple of words inside it should send the processor and the fans thru the roof, while animating thousands of polygons , with textures sometimes, is less processor intensive.

I don't think I'm the only one having an issue with this aspect of TheBrain. You forum has plenty of people , both on Mac and PC complaining about it, for almost as long as I remember ( I've been using Brain on and off since version 8 ). There is a real optimization issue with it, that has never been solved.
While I've commited myself to other apps like Tinderbox, Devonthink, Curio, etc with thousands of notes , I've never been able to do that with TheBrain. I don't even think twice renewing my update for those apps even though they are priced similar to the Brain.
I've skipped the yearly Pro Combo a few times since V8, and only my CRIMPING gets me to payup for other years as I never been able to trust the app enough to really commit my notes to it. I don't think I'll renew my license this year, as I have no hopes this performance issue will ever get resolved .

@Skywatcher: Thanks for your feedback and explanation. I understand your concerns. CPU usage is something we are always looking to improve.