Hello,

I am intrigued by block based apps and wanted to explore some apps before I dive all-in.
Currently, I've checked xtiles, walling and organizedly.

xtiles has decent UI but doesn't seem to have proper list view and tagging functionality
walling seems to have decent task manager + block based structure but no graph view
organizedly seems to have all of it but I am not sure if it'll be around after few years. I've hardly seen youtube videos too.

So reaching out to the community if there are any options I might be missing out on.

Sarah wrote:

Hello,

I am intrigued by block based apps and wanted to explore some apps
before I dive all-in.

Do you mean graph as in boxes and arrows or graph as in function graph? If the former, then you might want to check out our https://www.hyperplan.com software. The professional edition supports box and arrow graphs.

--
Andy Brice

Yes, check out Hyperplan. But also consider Scrintal or Heptabase. Where Walling and xTiles are more structured as to how your blocks (tiles or cards) are shown on the page, Heptabase and Scrintal are more free form.

Watch this video for Scrintal: https://youtu.be/VeyTDh0n-yw

Watch this video for Heptabase: https://youtu.be/xtWdCi18yWI

I wrote an article comparing those four apps:

https://stephenjzeoli.medium.com/card-based-whiteboard-pkms-5608dfe4a771



Andy Brice wrote:

Sarah wrote:
Hello,
>
>I am intrigued by block based apps and wanted to explore some apps
>before I dive all-in.

Do you mean graph as in boxes and arrows or graph as in function graph?
If the former, then you might want to check out our
https://www.hyperplan.com software. The professional edition supports
box and arrow graphs.

--
Andy Brice

I wrote an article comparing those four apps:

https://stephenjzeoli.medium.com/card-based-whiteboard-pkms-5608dfe4a771

Sure thanks! I had scrintal and heptabase on my watchlist but they still seem to be work in progress.

>Do you mean graph as in boxes and arrows or graph as in function graph?
>If the former, then you might want to check out our
>https://www.hyperplan.com software. The professional edition supports
>box and arrow graphs.
>
>--
>Andy Brice
>
Do you mean graph as in boxes and arrows or graph as in function graph?
If the former, then you might want to check out our
https://www.hyperplan.com software. The professional edition supports
box and arrow graphs.

--
Andy Brice

I meant graph as a way to connect all related notes, kinda like how organizedly does it.
Very simple example - I read a book about c++ templates and create a "block" of note about templates.
Then I read some article about it and create another block of note. I would then want both of the notes linked so they're connected.

You may even want to look at mem.ai again..
their "AI" on surfacing notes just went live, and Napkin has an appealing but strange offer that does just that!

Sarah wrote:

I wrote an article comparing those four apps:
>
>https://stephenjzeoli.medium.com/card-based-whiteboard-pkms-5608dfe4a771
>
>
>
Sure thanks! I had scrintal and heptabase on my watchlist but they still
seem to be work in progress.

>>Do you mean graph as in boxes and arrows or graph as in function
graph?
>>If the former, then you might want to check out our
>>https://www.hyperplan.com software. The professional edition supports
>>box and arrow graphs.
>>
>>--
>>Andy Brice
>>
>Do you mean graph as in boxes and arrows or graph as in function graph?
>If the former, then you might want to check out our
>https://www.hyperplan.com software. The professional edition supports
>box and arrow graphs.
>
>--
>Andy Brice
>

I meant graph as a way to connect all related notes, kinda like how
organizedly does it.
Very simple example - I read a book about c++ templates and create a
"block" of note about templates.
Then I read some article about it and create another block of note. I
would then want both of the notes linked so they're connected.

Not big fan of mem.

I chanced upon anytype.io and that looks quite promising too. Their offline support and on-device model is very intriguing.

One question I had was even though walling/xtiles/scrintal/heptabase look good in demo videos etc, how suitable are they when you build up a huge knowledge base?
How easy is it to navigate around and find what you want?

I've 2 main use-cases for now:
1) To learn a new programming language. I believe lot of "blocks" / "boxes" will be created when I embark on this
2) Practise programming challenges on codeforces etc . So I wanna distill knowledge from all that and make connections

Not sure which app I should go with - especially being on budget!

Sarah wrote:

Very simple example - I read a book about c++ templates and create a
"block" of note about templates.
Then I read some article about it and create another block of note. I
would then want both of the notes linked so they're connected.

You can do this in RoamResearch (by using direct links or automatic backlinks), especially if you're expecting to build a huge database. Once it's huge though, the graph view in its current form is of not much use.

Hi Dr Andus - would the graph and other features in Obsidian be any better for Sarah's purposes? I'm curious as I am trying to make my mind up whether to go with Obsidian or Logseq. Thanks.

Daly

Dr Andus wrote:

Sarah wrote:
>Very simple example - I read a book about c++ templates and create a
>"block" of note about templates.
>Then I read some article about it and create another block of note. I
>would then want both of the notes linked so they're connected.

You can do this in RoamResearch (by using direct links or automatic
backlinks), especially if you're expecting to build a huge database.
Once it's huge though, the graph view in its current form is of not much
use.

Btw, for now, I've ended up going with capacities.io . Looks pretty amazing and is power packed. The visual organization makes things quite appealing too.

I wish I had scrintal access, but I am happy with capacities.io so far!

Daly de Gagne wrote:

Hi Dr Andus - would the graph and other features in Obsidian be any
better for Sarah's purposes? I'm curious as I am trying to make my mind
up whether to go with Obsidian or Logseq. Thanks.

Hi Daly,
sorry, can't comment on Obsidian, as I've never tried it. But Roam and its clones such as Logseq operate on a fundamentally different priciple as far as I understand it, so it comes down to whether your smallest unit is a piece of text (for which Obsidian seems better) or a bullet point (block or line) in an outline, which is how Roam, Logseq etc. work.

I don't use Roam for writing or organising pieces of texts, so for me bullet level data is more important. Essentially Roam type apps allow you to link to information contained in bullet points (the basic building block), and it has all kinds of features to find and reference bullet level information (such as automatic backlinks etc.).

I use Roam essentially as a todo system and as a space for daily todo management and execution (at the end of the day each of my Roam day pages reflect exactly what I did during that day, with any incomplete actions moved forward into the future - this is a bullet journal type manual process).

capacities.io looks good, though it seems it hasn't reached feature parity with Roam yet. It does look like a Roam type app though.

Obsidian is cool. I've got it on a crash-and-burn box.

I wish the graph view had a configurable limit. I've seen situations where a document one hop from the current center is off-screen while documents more hops away are in view.

If there was a way to set a maximum number of hops from the current focus, re-mapping each time I clicked on a new node, that would be awesome.

Thanks Dr Andus.

Daly

Dr Andus wrote:

Daly de Gagne wrote:
Hi Dr Andus - would the graph and other features in Obsidian be any
>better for Sarah's purposes? I'm curious as I am trying to make my mind
>up whether to go with Obsidian or Logseq. Thanks.

Hi Daly,
sorry, can't comment on Obsidian, as I've never tried it. But Roam and
its clones such as Logseq operate on a fundamentally different priciple
as far as I understand it, so it comes down to whether your smallest
unit is a piece of text (for which Obsidian seems better) or a bullet
point (block or line) in an outline, which is how Roam, Logseq etc.
work.

I don't use Roam for writing or organising pieces of texts, so for me
bullet level data is more important. Essentially Roam type apps allow
you to link to information contained in bullet points (the basic
building block), and it has all kinds of features to find and reference
bullet level information (such as automatic backlinks etc.).

I use Roam essentially as a todo system and as a space for daily todo
management and execution (at the end of the day each of my Roam day
pages reflect exactly what I did during that day, with any incomplete
actions moved forward into the future - this is a bullet journal type
manual process).

capacities.io looks good, though it seems it hasn't reached feature
parity with Roam yet. It does look like a Roam type app though.