Luhmann-like file-naming scheme

[gour]

Hello,

recently I watched the video series which describes Zettelkasten note-taking by using Emacs' Denote package. It uses a very interesting file-naming scheme in the signature branch allowing one to name one's notes with the “signatures” which do resemble, afaict, the original Luhmann's index-card's naming scheme. This allows to “…be used to establish a sequential relationship between files (e.g. 1, 1a, 1b, 1b1, 1b2, …)”, so I wonder if something like that could be deployed with zk?

Denote package itself is very powerful, but I'm simply still not sold on Emacs…not knowing Elisp etc…. 😄

[mickael-menu]

It is not possible out-of-the-box with zk. However you could do some scripting to extract the current ID from the filename or the YAML frontmatter and build a new child.

For example, given this note:

---
id: 1b
---

# Test

You can get the id with:

$ zk list test.md --format json | jq -r .[0].metadata.id
1b

Then use a zk alias to add a new command such as zk branch.

[gour]

It is not possible out-of-the-box with zk. However you could do some scripting to extract the current ID from the filename or the YAML frontmatter and build a new child.

Zk is, again, catching my interest...I've thought that instead of using separate metadata (id), I could simply use Luhmann's naming scheme as one of the tags, since filtering by them is nicely supported by zk.

What do you think?

[tjex]

I think then you may dilute the efficacy of the tagging system for filtering / search narrowing. Tags should be used to find notes that share some attribute(s) but are not necessarily directly related. Your tag panel would become unwieldy.

My opinion with regards to Luhmann's numbering system, is that it was developed within the limitations of his paper and pen system. The numbering system did help him to think logically and iterate on ideas, but it also served as an organisational system so that he could physically place and find notes. It's in general a contentious issue as to its value: https://zettelkasten.de/folgezettel/

With a digital system (hyperlinks), the ordering of the notes in 'space' within a draw / in a directory is no longer necessary.

A happy medium, which is often recommended, is to simply prepend all your notes with a date stamp. This creates a natural chronological ordering, and when combined with outbound links, allows you to identify which notes in the sequence are parents / children of others.