Tools

Note taking

• I haven’t found the perfect note taking app, but here are a few I use/used
• Confluence, currently using
  • Cons: $10/mo; sluggish UI; content lock-in (hard to export)
  • Pros: full-featured editing/formatting/automation/page-organizing capabilities
• Quiver, currently using
  • Cons: lacking some editing features compared to Confluence; somewhat buggy when converting between modes; buggy mobile app (as of 2019) - small issues but made me feel like I can’t fully trust the editing experience.
  • Pros: $10 one-time purchase; supports markdown/latex/code mode; Vim key binding; fast UI; no lock-in (content in plain text)
• Evernote, abandoned a few years ago, still holds older notes
  • Cons: poor organizing, no Vim, no markdown or latex support; subscription fees if you write a lot
  • Pros: good sync’ing, fast local app UI

Markdown

• Local edit and render: MacDown
• Rendering with GitHub api: use grip
• TOC generation: gh-md-toc

• Equation numbering inside MacDown: include the following in markdown text

    <script type="text/x-mathjax-config">
    MathJax.Hub.Config({
      TeX: { equationNumbers: { autoNumber: "AMS" } }
    });
    </script>
  

Vim

• macvim
• .vimrc config
• Pycharm darcular theme for vim

Blog related

• Jekyll minimal mistake theme
• Jekyll uses kramdown for parsing markdown

  • Kramdown uses $$ in new line for math blocks and inline for inline math. See Math Block section here https://kramdown.gettalong.org/syntax.html

    A math block needs to start and end on block boundaries. It is started using two dollar signs, optionally indented up to three spaces.

    Using inline math is also easy: just surround your math content with two dollar signs, like with a math block. If you don’t want to start an inline math statement, just escape the dollar signs and they will be treated as simple dollar signs.

    If you have a paragraph that looks like a math block but should actually be a paragraph with just an inline math statement, you need to escape the first dollar sign:

  • In _includes/head/custom.html I added the following for enabling MathJax and equation numbering. page.mathjax is defined in _config.yml.

    			
    			
          <script type="text/x-mathjax-config">
            MathJax.Hub.Config({
              TeX: { equationNumbers: { autoNumber: "AMS" } },
            });
          </script>
    			
          <script
            type="text/javascript"
            async
            src="https://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-MML-AM_CHTML"
          ></script>
    			
    			
    

• Favicon generator: https://realfavicongenerator.net/