On Saturday, February 8, 2020 at 2:15:42 PM UTC-5, andyjim wrote: > > Seems this issue needs a lot of thought. Niklas Luhmann's zettels had > numerical ID numbers, without textual clues as to their content. And it > was a paper system. And he certainly didn't work by remembering filenames > (he had 75,000 zettels).... > > I understand your wanting individual text-based filenames, in order to be > forward-compatible with an uncertain future. I get that and agree with the > principle. But it appears to me that while that idea is forward-compatible > it's not current-compatible with a software-based zettelkasten. How do we > resolve this? Well, you suggested an optional, user-entered title as the > UID. What if the system could (optionally) generate a separate file using > the zettel title as the filename? The reason I say 'optionally' generate > that file is that in my case I do intend to use titles, but they won't be > unique. I might use the same title for a hundred different zettels, some on > entirely different subjects. >
I think we're pretty much on the same page here. There seem to be three similar but different things in play: 1. Unique IDs for each zettel; 2. Titles; 3. File names for a putative move to to another system or even (temporarily, we hope!) a manual system. 1. IDs are easy. I happen to prefer ids that are more or less readable, but that's not all that important. They are helpful when debugging, for example. What I've suggested has worked well for me before: make an id out of the title, with modifications if that title is already in use. If a title is missing, make up an arbitrary ID. Luhmann used unique indexing expressions, mainly so he could find things again, and refer to them from other zettels. A hierarchical system like the one he devised helps in keeping related zettels - like child notes - quick to find. As you say, since we expect to keep relationships in the system, we don't need indexing terms to play that role. 2. Titles are good for quick visual recognition, and as a memory aid. They can also be the basis for all kinds of later analysis, such as generating clusters, or connecting different thoughts because they have something similar in the titles. The system can check to see if a title is unique, and modify it or just let you know if it's being duplicated. I suggested making a title out of the first line of the zettel, if the system sees that there is no title. Titles wouldn't be used by the system to refer to anything, so one could always change a title later. 3. File names. I do think that for export, it would be a good idea to use the title in the file name - assuming that the export method generated one file per zettel. That assumption could be revisited. For example. you could have all the zettels in a single file, separated by some distinctive mark. But *if* it were to be one file per zettel, then the system could make sure it didn't duplicated any by modifying the filename to avoid a name collision. E.g., a duplicate "U.S. Navy in WW2.txt" filename could become "U.S. Navy in WW2_02.txt". I'm with you that any and all of the metadata, including id and title, should be optional when the zettel is typed in. Let the system work it out if the information isn't included. The only item that can't be changed later is the id. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to leo-editor+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/leo-editor/3a1e53fe-09e7-495b-b20f-a016a16a6233%40googlegroups.com.
