Hello,

I very much like Denote's "signature" feature and believe that
signatures are a very underrated feature in many applications 
claiming to
support Zettelkasten methodology.

In comparison with the pen & paper, computers have a great 
advantage in
being able to quickly find some (indexed) content based on
phrase-searching, using tags etc.

However, historical context provided by signatures in file naming 
does
provide the ability to get more profound insight into one's 
personal knowledge
base.

Denote's manual states:" Signatures are not included in a file’s 
front
matter. They are reserved solely for creating a sequence in a file
listing, at least for the time being.", so here I'd like to 
propose
including them (optional) in the file's front-matter.

Besides its possible/general usefulness, I'm also thinking about
interoperability with some other (rare) tools like Tp-Note which 
claims
to have compatibility with Denote
(https://blog.getreu.net/20230904-tp-note-news11/).

What do you think?


Sincerely,
Saša

-- 
As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body,
from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes
into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered
by such a change.

> From: Saša Janiška <sjaniska@atmarama.net>
> Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2024 08:57:32 +0100
>
> Hello,

Hello Saša,

I have noted this in a previous message to you from almost a month ago,
but I repeat. This mailing list is defunct and I will eventually delete
it: <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-01-27-sourcehut-no-more/>.
Development continues on GitHub with GitLab as a mirror. Please use
those.

+ GitHub: <https://github.com/protesilaos/denote>
+ GitLab: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/denote>

I am replying here this one time.

> [... 16 lines elided]

> Denote's manual states:" Signatures are not included in a file’s front
> matter. They are reserved solely for creating a sequence in a file
> listing, at least for the time being.", so here I'd like to propose
> including them (optional) in the file's front-matter.
>
> Besides its possible/general usefulness, I'm also thinking about
> interoperability with some other (rare) tools like Tp-Note which
> claims to have compatibility with Denote
> (https://blog.getreu.net/20230904-tp-note-news11/).
>
> What do you think?

The reason I have not added this feature is that signatures do not have
a clearly defined function. The other file name components have front
matter counterparts that are used widely and for which there are
standards (e.g. Org #+title and #+filetags). With signatures, we do not
even know what key to use to ensure interoperability.

A quick look at the Tp-Note link you posted suggests they use the
'sort_tag:' key. But this implicitly hardcodes signatures to the role of
sorting. In Denote, we can sort with any file name component, not just
signatures, so having something with the "sort" moniker feels strange.

Unless there is a concrete use-case, I think it is premature to build
anything along those lines for signatures. I am interested to hear from
people who use signatures long-term and who can show actual scenaria
where we can make changes. I have not had that input to date and must
thus remain cautious.

The reason we need to be careful is that core features (such as
interoperability) cannot be rolled back willy nilly, otherwise we will
be breaking the users' workflow.

All the best,
Prot

-- 
Protesilaos Stavrou
https://protesilaos.com