Software Request: Open Source Personal Content Repository

Posted by nathanb
Sep 12, 2018 at 09:43 PM

Franz Grieser wrote:
Thanks nathanb for the explanation.
> >What I am not sure I really understand: You have a file named (let’s
>say) “outline for sci-fi novel.doc” and reference this file in 3 other
>places. Then you’d have to add 3 times a code like “Z18090121351” to the
>file name. Right? So, depending on the file system you’re using, there
>is a limit to the number of references you can add to the file name. In
>Windows a file name including the folder path may not be longer than 255
>digits (ok, there seems to be a registry hack that permits longer names
>but I haven’t tested that). What do you do when you reach this limit?

Sorry I wasn’t clear. I don’t have any filenames with more than one z-code. Maybe it’d be more accurate to say that the z-code is a special tracker for that file instead of the code representing a particular link between two things. In the case of only one note referring to only one file, the distinction is unnecessary.

So if I have several notes/projects/tasks etc referring to the same file, it’s going to be with the same Z-code they all share.

You bring up a pretty good point though about the difference between two-way linking (otherwise called directed graph, transclusion, back-links etc) and simple one-way ‘blind’ linking. I’m forever trying to figure out the best systems with true two-way links and we can only ever achieve that within a single database/wiki/app because it requires that the link itself (the relationship) be it’s own animal with its own properties whereas classic ‘blind’ links are nothing more than a road-sign with an address that may or may not still exist.

The way I’m using Z-codes is simply to make blind-linking more robust. I guess I never really thought about the codes representing an instance of a relationship between two things, which I suppose is closer to how a true Zettelkasten system works. That WOULD result in many additional codes assigned to the more popular targets as you describe. In that case I would start to just embed them within the files themselves.

I honestly haven’t ran up against that because my reference links aren’t nearly as intricate/circular as they’d be if I were trying to write a thesis or something. In that case I’d be trying to contain all the link relationships within software that handles two-way linking automatically.