Cherrytree - a note-taking application similar to notecase

[mikeslr]

The newest version (.039) of Cherrytree has newer dependencies than supported by Puppies OOTB. Version .037 for 32-bit dpup-stretch and bionicpup64 can be obtained here, http://www.mediafire.com/folder/7lwg8pj ... herry_Tree. These may run OOTB under other puppies.

Cherrytree is often referred to as a note-taking application similar to notecase. However, its file-management capabilities also make it an excellent tool for project management. What it does is create nodes with links between them. The nodes open content you can either create under Cherrytree (e.g. notes) or in an appropriate application any file on your computer. The files on your computer can either be linked-to, or copied into Cherrytree. The latter is likely necessary if the original is on a hard-drive but you have Cherrytree on a USB-Stick to be used anywhere. As long as you take the time to create a node to such 'external-to-Cherrytree' files, all the files relating to a project can be easily located and opened.

Cherrytree looks to the file-ending (mime-type?) to determine which application to open. External files will be opened by the default application assigned to that type of files. IIRC, it is sufficient if that assignment is made via rox's Right-Click menu: the files of planner, ending with the suffix '.planner' being an example.

[01101001b]

I've been using Cherrytree during last 3 years or so. Before that, I tried Notecase (not Pro). In my case, 2 things made me switch from NC to CT:

- NC is plagued with bugs (and no development). For instance, I can't turn on "Word Count" or NC aborts.

- I couldn't find a way to go backwards in NC (like in a browser). I mean, to go back to previous nodes/annotations (if you jump to another node). However, in CT is easy-peasy.

The only thing I couldn't replicate in CT is NC's feature to link a node name to a webpage. There are workarounds but they are neither the same nor as easy as in NC.

All in all, it's a fantastic tool with much more features, less bugs... and it's free

[wiak]

Unfortunately, both Python2 and GTK+2 are deprecated and apps that use them gradually obsoleted (Python2 official sunset date was 1 Jan 2020). That was a major worry for me with version 0.39.x cherrytree, since I rely on it so much, and like to use rolling regular upgraded distros so that I can benefit from new app/system improvements. Even worse is that 0.39.x cherrytree relies on some long deprecated (dead project) dependencies, one being PyGTK. A negative result of the previous deprecated state of cherrytree development is that major upstream distros stopped providing cherrytree packages in their official repos. Fortunately, until very recently, old 0.39.2 cherrytree was stiill available from Arch community AUR repo, so I've been using that in my WeeDogLinux Arch64 installations.

However, a couple of days ago I was about to run my AUR fetch cherrytree script, on a new WDL Arch64 system build, only to discover that gtk+2 cherrytree is no longer available from Arch Linux AUR either (or from official cherrytree site). Fortunately, cherrytree development has been forging ahead and the new GTK+3 (Gtkmm3 providing C++ bindings for GTK) has reached 'stable' status (well... might not be 'very' stable yet... but seems to work in my early tests), so cherrytree release is 'obsolete' no more... (and hopefully will become available in official upstream distro repos again soonish...). In the meantime, packages for the new stable GTK+3/Python3 cherrytree (which seems to have successfully implemented pretty much the same functionality as previous versions) can be downloaded from its official site.

More details at https://www.giuspen.com/

download current stable version 0.99.18 (October 28th, 2020 – Changelog: https://www.giuspen.com/2020/10/cherryt ... 18-issued/)

Binaries and source code available there for Microsoft, Ubuntu, Fedora, and tar.gz. The new version is also available for Arch Linux from its AUR repo, and I'm using it in my WDL Arch64 installations now.

Of course, nothing wrong with the previous 0.39.x version on systems that already have it, but hopefully new features will be developed for the GTK+3 version. For example, markdown support would be nice, though I much prefer cherrytree to any markdown-based-only note keeper. One big advantage of cherrytree over the likes of Zim (markdown) is that you can highlight and cut and paste from websites into cherrytree notes, which is hugely useful in practice. The CSS and Javascript gets thrown away in the process, but that can be a useful tranformation/conversion anyway particularly if, like me, you sometimes want to copy and paste that result into a WYSIWYG html editor (most of which get messed up if you try and copy and paste into them directly from webbrowser). If only an Android port was available (along with native cloud storage support and team editing).

wiak

[wiak]

Just something I discovered today relating to Cherrytree (for more on cherrytree also see old forum thread: https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=118944).

Yes, I use it ALL THE TIME since it is my brain.

I was using Chromium browser (my favourite) and cutting and pasting some short extracts into my cherrytree notes so I could find them quickly. For example:

Code: Select all

markdown tools/file format converters
Post by wiak » Mon Nov 02, 2020 10:49 pm

I today noted a thread started by rockedge re using markdown for this Puppy Linux phpBB website: viewtopic.php?p=9010#p9010

I found such extracts immediately posted very well indeed (in terms of retaining format) into cherrytree.

But Suddenly I was getting very strange formatting after posting like so:

Code: Select all

      markdown tools/file format converters   
                              Post               by wiak ยป Mon Nov 02, 2020 9:49 am    
            I today noted a thread started by rockedge re using markdown for this Puppy Linux phpBB website: viewtopic.php?p=9010#p9010

What is going on I thought?! Very inconvenient.

Turns out it was because I had Firefox as my default system browser, and I had clicked on a link stored on cherrytree page and it had opened firefox at the page. Then I had been copying from Puppy Linux posts when using that now opened Firefox (instead of Chromium) which resulted in that daft formatting for any pasted work!!!

Moral is, I now have Chromium set as my default browser. I guess any Chromium-based browser would also be fine for such work.

So if you have been copying web browser extracts into cherrytree and very disappointed with the results then you should try doing so from Chromium or similar rather than Firefox if that is what you were using... Depends what kind of content you are copying of course, but certainly for copying notes into cherrytree from Puppy Linux forum, Firefox really messes up whereas Chromium works beautifully. That is very important for me since I do not want to rely on often tricky forum searches for information so try to keep my own cherrytree database of main posts of interest to me and don't want to waste lots of time removing spaces and tabs from badly formatted extracts.

[rockedge]

@wiak ,
I really have to get onboard with Cherrytree! I spend SO MUCH time searching through the forums for that one post I know I just saw and now need to reference desperately but can't find. Only later on when I am looking for something else will that post suddenly appear.

Then there are my notes.... literally everywhere spread over many operating systems and machines. No wonder KLV-Airedale isn't at Release Candidate stage yet.

Most likely it's time to include Cherrytree as a stock application in the KLV's.

[wiak]

@wiak ,
I really have to get onboard with Cherrytree! I spend SO MUCH time searching through the forums for that one post I know I just saw and now need to reference desperately but can't find. Only later on when I am looking for something else will that post suddenly appear.

Then there are my notes.... literally everywhere spread over many operating systems and machines. No wonder KLV-Airedale isn't at Release Candidate stage yet.

Most likely it's time to include Cherrytree as a stock application in the KLV's.

Yes, despite cherrytree, I have a lot of the same issues, but using cherrytree more could eliminate my difficulties. The main thing is to be consistent and not scatter notes all over the place or try and use too many apps or methods for organisation (stick to cherrytree most of the time!). My sin is that I have a bad habit of sometimes just using cherrytree as a quick scratchpad rather than taking a couple of seconds to create an appropriate cherrytree node or subnode. Fine to reserve one node say for a quick scratchpad, but important not to overdo that somewhat untidy way of doing things. I've decided to concentrate on using cherrytree more carefully and for just about everything in terms of documentation/organisation. Cherrytree can be used for notes, weblinks, links to any resource on the filesystem, as an app launcher, and a fantastic tool for cutting and pasting from websites and the forum, which is a huge plus, again if careful, in terms of not losing track of where important forum posts are. It is also pretty good for storing code snippets in syntax-highlighted code blocks, which can be run in situ... amazingly useful really. No app is perfect of course, and for all its functionality I sometimes think of something else I wish it could do or do slightly differently (table handling is weak, for example - sorts only on the first column and can't do arithmetic on entries or would have been like a nice simple spreadsheet).

I've actually spend a couple of days using cherrytree to organise some of my IT duties for my wife's business, including all the domain name details and setups including email redirects, some online website configs and github-related info, and all the DMARC blah blah blah sets ups and so on - endless amount of stuff, but now I truly have that organised and at my fingertips (I was losing control, but now I am back in control of that side of things... it works).

[mikeslr]

@wiak ,
I really have to get onboard with Cherrytree! I spend SO MUCH time searching through the forums for that one post I know I just saw and now need to reference desperately but can't find. Only later on when I am looking for something else will that post suddenly appear.

Then there are my notes.... literally everywhere spread over many operating systems and machines. No wonder KLV-Airedale isn't at Release Candidate stage yet.

Most likely it's time to include Cherrytree as a stock application in the KLV's.

Is there anyway to increase the efficiency of the Forum's search engine? https://rockedge.org/psearch/ is good. But my recollection was that however the search engine on the old forum was configured it was better. It could for example find my previous posts by including my handle 'mikeslr' with a couple of other relevant terms.

[wiak]

Is there anyway to increase the efficiency of the Forum's search engine? https://rockedge.org/psearch/ is good. But my recollection was that however the search engine on the old forum was configured it was better. It could for example find my previous posts by including my handle 'mikeslr' with a couple of other relevant terms.

That much the forum search itself can do. Just do 'Quick links' Search on forum for post author mikeslr.

[rockedge]

Is there anyway to increase the efficiency of the Forum's search engine? https://rockedge.org/psearch/ is good. But my recollection was that however the search engine on the old forum was configured it was better. It could for example find my previous posts by including my handle 'mikeslr' with a couple of other relevant terms.

As mentioned go into the Forum's Advance Search page and better control of the search filters are available.

Screenshot.jpg (21.26 KiB) Viewed 1554 times

Or as wiak mentioned use the Quick links menu to call up Advanced Search

Screenshot(1.5).jpg (36.42 KiB) Viewed 1554 times

Advanced Search console page :

Screenshot(2).jpg (39.26 KiB) Viewed 1550 times

The Forum's search engine indexes are in order and static on the oldforum.

pSearch is also here -> psearch.puppylinux.com and it is a good tool but I have not tried to search with it and adding a user's handle to the search string, that often.

@wiak Nice that cherrytree is available in the Void Linux repos! Installed like a cool breeze on a hot summer day.