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# Build a Zettelkasten with the Hyperbole Rolodex
Ramin Honary ("Rah-mean" (hard-H) "Ho-na-ree", he/him.
- Email: <mailto:ramin.honary@gmail.com>
- Homepage: <https://tilde.town/~ramin_hal9001/>
- GitHub: <https://github.com/RaminHAL9001>
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"Zettelkasten" is a methodology for marshaling your knowledge,
ideas, creativity, into a database of hyperlinked notes, each note
representing a single quantity of knowledge. The method was first
devised by a well-published social scientist named Niklas Luhmann.
Though he constructed his database with actual slips of paper in a
box with a notebook for indexing, naturally, modern software removes
the manual labor from the process.
In the world of Emacs packages, Org Mode is the most well-known
package that provides the tools necessary for building a Zettelkasten,
along with extensions such as "Org Roam" which add functionality that
manage links between Org Mode documents. But Org Mode is not the only
Emacs package to provide such tools.
In this talk, I demonstrate how to use an oft-overlooked package
called Hyperbole as an alternative to Org Roam for managing hyperlinks
and building a Zettelkasten. In particular I use the Hyperbole
"Rolodex" feature, called "HyRolo." It was originally designed for
tracking your personal relations, but it can be used to build a
Zettelkasten with almost no additional configuration or 3rd-party
packages. HyRolo is a purely textual database, and does not require
an external database software to index the notes. It also provides a
very rich set of "actions" so that notes not only link to each other,
but can also trigger Emacs to execute code as well.
# Presentation outline:
## Introduction
- Ramin Honary
- Software Engineer, App Developer (mostly Python and Haskell)
- Emacs user for about 4 years (since 2018)
## Key Takeaway
- The Hyperbole hyperlink markup language lets you create links that
execute arbitrary Emacs commands.
- To link entries, create a hyperlink that executes a **HyRolo**
search.
## Quick overview of the Zettelkasten methodology
- **Note:** most of what I say about the Zettelkasten method comes
from Sacha Fast of <https://zettelkasten.de>
- **Zettelkasten is:** a database of interconnected ideas
## Tools I use in day-to-day writing
- **Hyperbole:** for hyperlinking, search, project management
- **Embark:** arranging text, copy and paste
- **Org-Mode:** for markup
- **Dired:** for working with sets of files
- **Consult, Vertico, Orderless, Marginalia:** interactive search
- **Magit:** Git revision control of my plain-text database
## Quick overview of Hyperbole
- **Core functionality:** a markup language for hyperlinks
- Applications such as **HyRolo** and **Koutline** built on top of
this core functionality.
- **HyRolo** is the feature I use as my Zettelkasten.
## Configuration of Hyperbole using `use-package`
```emacs-lisp
(use-package hyperbole
:config
(setq hbmap:dir-user "~/.emacs.d/hyperb/")
(setq hyrolo-file-list '("~/.emacs.d/hyperb/ideas.org"))
(setq hyrolo-date-format "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"))
```
## The Hyperbole Menu-Driven User Interface
- Menus are a kind of modal user interface
- Enter menu with Hyperbole leader key `{C-h h ...}`
- Select menu items with key presses
- Works a little like `which-key`
## Getting started with **HyRolo**: Create a *zettel*
- Add entry: `{C-h h r a}` "*hyperbole rolodex add*"
- Prompts you for a title for the entry
- The Zettelkasten file (e.g. ~idea.org~) is opened
- Write the body of the *zettel*, save the file.
## Searching the *HyRolo* database
- Multiple search options: by **string**, by **regex**, by **word**.
- I use **string search** most often: `{C-h h r s}`
- String search provides logical `AND`, `OR`, `XOR`, `NOT`
- Executing a search opens the `*HyRolo*` buffer.
- Read-only mode buffer with useful single-key navigation.
## Searching the **HyRolo** database
- **`{o}` as in "overview":** hides all but the headings
- **`{a}` as in "all":** shows all information under each heading
- **`{t}` as in "top":** shows top-level entries
- **`{n}` and `{p}`:** next/previous result
- **`{h}` and `{s}`:** hide/show a search result subheading
- **`{C-u r}` as in "regex":** prompts for a new string search
- **`{e}` or `{M-RET}` :** jump to that entry for editing, although
using this command inserts a new timestamp, I just use `{C-/}`
to undo insertion of the timestamp.
## How is **HyRolo** a Zettelkasten?
- **Key take-away:** The Hyperbole hyperlink markup language lets
you execute *arbitrary Emacs commands.*
- To link Zettelkasten entries, create an hyperlinks that execute a
**HyRolo** search.
## How to create an explicit link
1. Highlight text to be linked
2. `{C-h h e c}` to create a link
3. Prompted for link text with highlighted region (press enter)
4. Prompted for action: `hyrolo-fgrep`
5. Prompted for search string: `hyperbole`
## How "explicit buttons" encode actions
- A **separate file** from the HyRolo flat-file database.
- By default, called `.hypb`, exists in the same directory as the
HyRolo flat-file database.
## Conclusion
1. A Zettelkasten is database of ideas linked together
2. The Hyperbole **HyRolo** can run search queries
3. The Hyperbole markdown creates links that execute queries
4. This results in a minimal but useful Zettelkasten.
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[[!taglink CategoryHyperbole]] [[!taglink CategoryZettelkasten]]
