Mastodawn

Sevoris Aug 4, 2023

SiYan defs are definitely moving. In Alpha 1, databases were only visible from the database block itself. Now when you open the attribute list of a block, there are three tabs at the top, one of which is for databases. You can now edit properties of each database row in place, with some present limitations.

Database membership is not yet indicated in the normal editor UI.

Show thread

Sevoris Aug 4, 2023

But this shows the devs are aware of and rolling out feature enhancements you would expect. I suspect that being able to create databases bottom-up will be one of the later steps - the fact that they already introduced a UI wrapper to see and edit database memberships per block is an encouraging sign however, since in Alpha 1 you just saw a whole bunch of cryptic key-value pairs instead.

Given SiYuan already has a very mature outliner experience in top of its long-form editor...

Show thread

Sevoris Aug 4, 2023

I think for some pkm devs, it is time to take a look in the back mirror. SiYuan has made so far what appear to be good architectural choices, and alongside Capacities I would currently rate them in the top 3 of the pkm devs at the moment in terms of potential to be disruptive with the combination of differnt workflows through solid foundation work. And SiYuan's database model is honestly the most powerful of Notion, Capacities, and Obsidian. Only Tana has something of a parity there.

Show thread

Sevoris

But Tana is a strict outliner tool. It excells at open loop management and modelling project pipelines, but its integration of more complex knowledge workflows or output production are stymied.

SiYuan could potentially, depending on if they realize inline fields editable like normal text and other blocks, overtake Tana due to holistic integration with long-form writing. And I don't think that such designs are impossible. The data infrastructure is there.