[[2022-08-06]] we had this discussion on the [[Fediverse]]:

bouncepaw 🍄 @bouncepaw

What note-taking software out there tries to mimic the concept of book?

CC @akkartik

Kartik Agaram @akkartik@merveilles.town

@bouncepaw Define "book" 😀

bouncepaw 🍄 @bouncepaw

@akkartik A sequenced collection of pages, I guess. Not pages having next/prev links, but a collection of pages. With a cover!

Kartik Agaram @akkartik@merveilles.town

@bouncepaw Do the pages have to have a fixed size?

bouncepaw 🍄 @bouncepaw

@akkartik In a physical book, yes. In a digital one, no.

Kartik Agaram @akkartik@merveilles.town

@bouncepaw Yeah, I'm only asking about what you consider to "mimic a book". I know what a physical book is.

The next question I have is, why do you want to mimic a physical book? A book with a cover and fixed pages is structured as it is partly because of economic considerations. It's a unit of commerce, something you can put a price tag on. When moving to software it's not clear to me that the unit of commerce requires pages and a cover.

bouncepaw 🍄 @bouncepaw

@akkartik To bring over some mental models from real life is a reason. I have a [note]book. I can open any page and write or draw something. The way I choose a page means something. The way I choose the book to write in means something. Et cetera.

I am not sure if those models are worth bringing over, I am investigating. That's why I am looking for existing software.

Kartik Agaram @akkartik@merveilles.town

@bouncepaw Ah, I see. I use a paper notebook as well, but for many years I use it totally sequentially, page after page. I suppose that's how I ended up at next/previous links.

So I think your question isn't really about "books" at all. It's really, "what would a workflow built for you look like?"

For example, if you divide up your book into sections, are the sections long-lived across multiple books?

This definitely seems worth investigating. I'd be happy to help you brainstorm features.

bouncepaw 🍄 @bouncepaw

@akkartik No, the question is exactly about books. I know how a workflow built for me looks like, it's https://mycorrhiza.wiki :-)

I haven't told the whole truth about my usage of notebooks. I then tear them apart, rearrange them in binders, scan, upload to wiki, etc. Very destructive. I consider a notebook to be complete once it's empty (empty as in no pages left).

As of brainstorming, I had some ideas before, see [[patchouli]]

Kartik Agaram @akkartik@merveilles.town

@bouncepaw But https://mycorrhiza.wiki doesn't feel sufficiently notebook-like to you? Or it doesn't feel like a note-taking app? I'm not following the distinctions you're making.

In [[patchouli]] you describe books as "there is a strict order. Chapter after chapter, page after page until the book is over." I don't follow why this isn't "pages having next/prev links." Not cool enough? 😀

You can define new edge labels in pensieve.love. Would labels of next-chapter/prev-chapter help?

bouncepaw 🍄 @bouncepaw

@akkartik Mycorrhiza is not a book, it's quite anti-book.

I can't really give a proper definition for a book. All I can say is that I haven't seen such software yet.

bouncepaw 🍄 @bouncepaw

@akkartik Maybe the distinctive feature of books is that they are finite!? Cool, gotta think about that

Devine Lu Linvega @neauoire@merveilles.town

@bouncepaw @akkartik like, how how you can't erase anything?

bouncepaw 🍄 @bouncepaw

@neauoire @akkartik no, not like that!