TreeSheets: Free-Form Data Organizer

[Zikes]

I really like these sorts of tools, but the file format[1] is a bit of a con for me. Being binary/proprietary, it makes it difficult to integrate other tools or feed the data into other systems.

[1] https://github.com/aardappel/treesheets/tree/master/TS/examp...

[Aardappel]

(disclaimer: I wrote the program).

The binary format is open source and documented, that doesn't fit the term "proprietary" to me.

It exports to text, html, xml, csv and more.

The reason it doesn't use any of that as its main storage format is that it tracks a lot of attributes that do not fit those formats naturally (I suppose you can store it all in xml, but I went for speed of loading/saving and smaller storage sizes).

[tra3]

Thanks, that would've been my first question. How am I suppose to use this on another platform that's not supported? Back to markdown & nvALT for me.

[jeffbarr]

I have been using this for the last 6 months or so. It is clean, efficient, and flexible. The UI is spartan, but it is also orthogonal.

[AstroJetson]

Can I ask a few questions?

* Do you share the data with others?

* Can you give an example how you use this as a "go to" tool?

* Do you keep separate files for the data you are using or most things in one file?

The tool looks pretty interesting, but I'm look at the friction to move from other tools.

Thanks for your time

[dzhiurgis]

Startup idea: make same app controlled by voice and sell to tech & consulting businesses as a whiteboard that you talk to.

Over time it learns not about your business and it's processes so can correct itself & so on.

[rlease]

This is really cool, and very similar to a hierarchical note taking app idea I've been kicking around. Kudos to Aardappel.

[noir-york]

Great work! I've been looking for something like this for ages.

[skimmas]

the idea is interesting, but I guess it need to be better designed. the ui does not look that good

[Aardappel]

(disclaimer: I wrote the program).

This has been a hobby open source project for a long time. It is built on the aging wxWidgets UI toolkit. I don't make money with it (this is not a startup, like everything else on HN ;), so, yeah, contributions to make it prettier welcome :)

[vmorgulis]

It's not a new project. History starts in 2009:

http://strlen.com/treesheets/docs/history.txt

[tunesmith]

Can a child node have multiple parents?

[Aardappel]

(disclaimer: I wrote the program).

No, it is strictly a tree, it derives its compact representation, automatic layout and quick manipulation from that limitation. There's a few ways around that, by tagging cells you can easily hop around cross-links.

[johnnyg]

Why build this as a desktop app instead of a SaaS? Not a snark, seriously why this design decision?

[Aardappel]

(disclaimer: I wrote the program). I started this in 2008 initially simply to scratch an itch I had myself. I guess back then desktop apps still ruled? I also wanted it be very fast on large documents, which back then didn't seem possible with web-apps yet. Today that's maybe different, but a SaaS version is almost starting from scratch given the tech it is built on (C++ and wxWidgets with only local file storage).

[Zikes]

SaaS has a huge overhead, and would've required a lot more programming effort. User account management, revenue generation, security, etc.

Sometimes, a desktop app is just simpler.

[flarg]

This really is a great app IMHO, a compact mind map.