More convenient links

[Nadrieril]

Linking between zettels is arguably one of the main features of the method, yet the syntax is quite clunky: [20200101](z://) (especially when typing on a phone). Would it be possible to make this more convenient ? For example, having just [20200101] seems quite markdown-y, since markdown supports link reference definitions.

[Nadrieril]

I see this is a limitation of mmark :/ I would support switching to pandoc, because it would allow so much more stuff like syntax highlighting, math or latex.
That could support a naked z://20200101 link for example, which mmark doesn't support.

[srid]

Having just [20200101] was what I was originally trying to do. Yea, it is a limitation of mmark, but maybe we can extend mmark or mmark-ext to support it.

Syntax highlighting is already supported by mmark/neuron. See example. You need to include the language name as the first thing in the code fence (see source for that example).

Math support was added in this PR. And I'm not sure how you plan to use latex in a Zettelkasten.

I feel ambivalent about switching to Pandoc; it will require some thought. MMark is just simpler to deal with. But if it proves to be too restrictive, and Pandoc is not too complex to use, then it may be worth considering.

[Nadrieril]

Oh, I had no idea neuron supported highlighting and maths, that's quite cool ! FWIW I've used Pandoc to parse markdown before and found it relatively straightforward.
I just discovered the <https://example.com> markdown syntax, which seems to be equivalent to [https://example.com](https://example.com). mmark supports it. Maybe we could convert <20200101> and <z://20200101> to zettel links ?

[srid]

Interesting, I didn't know about the angle brackets.

Maybe we could convert <20200101> and <z://20200101> to zettel links ?

Yea, I'd be open to that. The exact format will have to be decided first. The ID in "z://20200101" is currently ignored by Neuron, which requires the ID to be in link text. So it is more straightforward to support <20200101>.

But in general I wonder if neuron should support z://<id> style links as well.

[srid]

One idea is to use a single protocol, z:, to refer to all link types (deprecating zcf, zquery, zquerycf):

z://link/2012342 # Equivalent to [2012342](z://...)
z://link/2012342?linkType=nobacklink # Like zcf
z://query?tag=science # Like zquery://search
z://query?tag=science&linkType=nobacklink # Like zcfquery

And then have <2012342> as an easy-to-type alias for z://link/2012342, as it would be most commonly used.

[Nadrieril]

Yeah, looks nice! The main issue I have is the extra keystrokes required. Can we bikeshed shorter links? E.g.

z://2012342 # Equivalent to [2012342](z://...)
z://2012342?nobacklink # Like zcf
z://?tag=science # Like zquery://search
z://?tag=science&nobacklink # Like zcfquery

In fact we don't need z:// anymore, do we ?

<2012342> # Equivalent to [2012342](z://...)
<2012342?nobacklink> # Like zcf
<?tag=science> # Like zquery://search
<?tag=science&nobacklink> # Like zcfquery

Unless you plan other things than links and queries

[srid]

By the way, syntax highlighting is now documented here: https://neuron.srid.ca/2013702.html

And mathjax here: https://neuron.srid.ca/2013701.html

[streaps]

z://link/2012342 # Equivalent to 2012342
z://link/2012342?linkType=nobacklink # Like zcf
z://query?tag=science # Like zquery://search
z://query?tag=science&linkType=nobacklink # Like zcfquery

I don't like it very much, too many special characters for simple functionality:
: / ? = &

It's hard to remember. Not everyone is a web developer and is used to the syntax.

And third, the URL doesn't make much sense:
"z" ist not really a scheme
"link" and "query" not really an authority

Why not use just relative URLs that map to the http URL? From a user's perspective I don't see any reason for the z:// and also not for //link.

<2012342>
<2012342!> for nobacklinks
<tag/science> (I couldn't find any clickable search link on the website, no idea how the http URLs look like in the browser)

(... the markdown syntax for links is really stupid. The rest of markdown too ;)

[srid]

@streaps It is an URI ("a string of characters that unambiguously identifies a particular resource"), not an URL, which is just a form of URI. URIs won't be going away from neuron; I think they are vital in defining simple and clear links to resources (zettels). Aliases to them would be introduced so that users won't have to type in the full URI.

---

Here's what I've tentatively come up with, using some ideas from above:

URI spec:

z://link/2012342 # Equivalent to [2012342](z://...)
z://link/2012342?conn=bare # Like zcf
z://linkmany?q="tag=science" # Like zquery://search?tag=science
z://linkmany?q="tag=science"&conn=bare # Like zcfquery

Aliases:

<2012342> # == z://link/2012342 
<2012342?bare> # == z://link/2012342?conn=bare

Nothing is finalized, yet.

---

Note that:

• z://link basically says "link to this zettel"
• z://linkmany says query the zettelkasten and link to the results
• Query q= is a string, because it will support operators like OR as well as custom fields in the future.
• I'm not convinced if an alias for z://linkmany (which doesn't seem used very often) would be worth it; besides I can't find a good alias that will allow arbitrary query strings.

[srid]

URIs won't be going away from neuron

Although URN might be more suitable.

<z:2012342>
<z:many?=q="tag=science OR tag=math">