Feature and Tool Evaluations issueshttp://opensource.ieee.org/groups/technical-advisory-group/feature-tool-evaluations/-/issues2023-04-05T22:42:02Zhttp://opensource.ieee.org/technical-advisory-group/feature-tool-evaluations/tools-to-evaluate/-/issues/16Video archiving platform for meeting recordings2023-04-05T22:42:02ZGeorg LinkVideo archiving platform for meeting recordingsThis is not a specific tool request.
IEEE SA Open needs a platform for storing and archiving meeting recordings.
Right now, recordings are saved in git repositories, which are not ideal for large video files.
I saw NextCloud #12 is be...This is not a specific tool request.
IEEE SA Open needs a platform for storing and archiving meeting recordings.
Right now, recordings are saved in git repositories, which are not ideal for large video files.
I saw NextCloud #12 is being evaluated, maybe that'll work.
Ultimately, I'm open to any tool (maybe something like YouTube?).http://opensource.ieee.org/technical-advisory-group/feature-tool-evaluations/tools-to-evaluate/-/issues/6Create an issue template for tools to evaluate2021-02-03T21:18:24ZKevin ColeCreate an issue template for tools to evaluateA template with all the basic fields would save the need to flip back and forth between the issues form and the README.A template with all the basic fields would save the need to flip back and forth between the issues form and the README.http://opensource.ieee.org/technical-advisory-group/feature-tool-evaluations/tools-to-evaluate/-/issues/5Note-taking applications2023-04-05T23:30:57ZAndrew OramNote-taking applications# Evaluation of open source note-taking applications
## Name
- Turtl
- Cherry Tree
- Laverna
- TagSpaces
- Standard Notes
- Simplenote
## Purpose
A note-taking application allows a person to record and recall small bits of infor...# Evaluation of open source note-taking applications
## Name
- Turtl
- Cherry Tree
- Laverna
- TagSpaces
- Standard Notes
- Simplenote
## Purpose
A note-taking application allows a person to record and recall small bits of information, such as minutes from a meeting or reminders of tasks. The current model for note-aking is Microsoft's OneNote, although the idea can be traced back to [Apple Computer's HyperCard](https://blog.adafruit.com/2019/06/18/apples-hypercard-history-and-a-possible-remake-hypercard-iot-internetofthings-circuitpython-adafruit/) of the 1980s.
Note-taking enjoys the presence of an impressive number of free software products. But the features are limited. Many products are open core, and offer the most valuable functions in proprietary extensions. Some of the features offered by the applications include:
- Frictionless pull-up and entry, so that fleeting thoughts can be quickly preserved
- Hierarchies of notes
- Privacy through encryption, and other guarantees
- Tags to facilitate search
- Ability for multiple people to collaborate on notes
- Easy cloud storage
Other desirable features, which don't seem present in current offerings, include:
- Access from the command-line, without need for a graphical interface
- Links to other notes
- The ability to work offline and synch to the cloud later
- Ability to convert a note to an outline in an authoring tool
A [summary blog posting](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/lightweight-onenote-evernote-alternatives/) offers some basic features of the tools. The open source ones are covered here.
## Turtl
[Turtl](https://turtlapp.com/) looks impressive on paper and deserves more investigation. Among its appealing features are:
- Fine-grained sharing with collaborators
- Tags that marke notes and help find them
- Support for Markdown (which is use on IEEE SA Open pages) and mathematics formatting through TeX
- Server that can be installed locally, as well as a cloud option
Statistics on GitHub:
Turtl consists of several projects, so gathering statistics is hard. I just checked the desktop app.
- 40 forks
- 1 pull request
- README.md was created in January 2014
- Web page with coding guidelines and other guidelines for contributing
- Empty TODO file
## Cherry Tree
[Cherry Tree](https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/) runs on Linux and Windows, and has an unsupported Mac version. It allows hierarchies of notes, and can export notes to PDF, HTML, or text.
One [article](https://opensource.com/article/19/5/cherrytree-notetaking) warns that it is "not for concurrrent use".
According to the GitHub repository, Cherry Tree has remained at version 0.99 for some time, and has not yet reached version. 1.0. Nevertheless, the [summary blog posting](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/lightweight-onenote-evernote-alternatives/) claims that "the app is regularly updated. For this reason, it is one of the best note-taking tools for programmers."
Statistics on GitHub:
- 401 issues
- 1 pull request
- 4 branches
## Laverna
[Laverna](https://laverna.cc/) is JavaScript-based, so it should run anywhere. The site says it is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, with an Android version upcoming. The tool has a simple interface that support Markdown formatting. The screen allows input in raw Markdown and shows the formatted text next to the input.
Versioning is a bit disturbing: GitHub shows that the most recent release was October 2017, and the version number was 0.7.51. On the other hand, the GitHub repository has been present for at least 7 years.
Statistics on GitHub:
- 431 issues
-10 pull requests
- 3 branches
## TagSpaces
[TagSpaces](https://www.tagspaces.org/) looks spiffy. It is open core, and is available for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android.
It supports plain text, HTML and Markdown formats.
## Standard Notes
[Standard Notes](https://standardnotes.org/) has a visually clean interface. Like most of the other offerings covered in this document, it offers end-to-end encryption and a promise not to track users.
Standard Notes is open core. A [blog posting says](https://blog.standardnotes.org/what-is-free-and-open-source-software/): "Standard Notes publishes the source code for its web, desktop, and mobile apps as well as its syncing server and extensions under AGPLv3." But the free/open part has limited functionality. For instance, I can see a list of changes, but the information shown is pretty useless. I don't know whehter you can get source control by paying for an extension.
## Simplenote
As the name suggests, [Simplenote](https://simplenote.com/) has few features. It did not work on my Mac, which is a bad sign. One of its attractive features is that it claims to preserve old versions of your notes.
## Conclusion
Readers who have come this far deserve a bit of [comic relief](https://www.gocomics.com/pickles/2020/10/11).