Are folks using a mobile app to complement Bike 2 when using the .bikemd file format? If so, what?
Bike 2 has become central to my day-to-day life while at my desktop. I know Jesse plans on an iOS version in the future. But, in the meantime, curious what you all are using!
Iām curious too.
Also curious to hear what apps people like in iOS landscape in general. I donāt use many apps on iPhone, so Iām a bit out of touch. Iāve always liked the list app Clear, not so much for all the gestures (though I donāt dislike those), but more for the āclearā and simple visual presentation. What apps should I be looking at as inspiration as I start thinking about Bike on iOS design?
I suppose an obvious point of reference is OmniOutliner 3, which I do have a license for, and would like to like.
In practice I find that I keep giving up and deleting it, only to try again a few months later, and then delete again.
Hard to put a finger on why ā generally, I think, a feeling of too much clutter and ergonomic obstacle, including all those āopinionatedā (noisy) triangles, circles, and framed modal boxes.
(I think what I would really like is something visually restrained ā like Clear ā that is easy to use with the iPad (Pro) Magic Keyboard)
Hard to put a finger on why ā generally, I think, a feeling of too much clutter and ergonomic obstacle, including all those āopinionatedā (noisy) triangles, circles, and framed modal boxes.
+1 to this.
Currently, based on extensive testing across many iOS apps, NotePlan and Bear appear to be the only ones that make .bikemd files usable on iOS.
Regarding āclear visualsā, 1Writer, GoodLinks, Overcast, Things come to mind. as a note taking app, I also like Drafts, but it has a less clear interface.
Also curious to hear what apps people like in iOS landscape in general.
A few of my personal favorites ā
What apps should I be looking at as inspiration as I start thinking about Bike on iOS design?
I donāt know! My hopes for Bike on iOS are to basically bring the ethos of the desktop app, but in my pocket 
. Hereās what that means, to me ā
Currently, based on extensive testing across many iOS apps, NotePlan and Bear appear to be the only ones that make
.bikemdfiles usable on iOS.
Nice. Are you using either of those?
Iām a long time user of NotePlan. Recently Iāve been using Bear as well. But my main driver is NotePlan. Bear stylize indented heading so they look nicer
---
{"root-id":"vafBDekG8423r82owmA3t"}
---
- # Heading 1
- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
- # Heading 1
- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
- # heading indented
+ sdvsadvsfd
+ sfvfsdvf
+ svsadv
By the way, both NotePlan and Bear support collapsing and expanding parent/child items natively
One drawback of Bear is that it does not expose the files to the filesystem. So one should automate writing the original bikemd contents to Bearās markdown file which is not practical. But with NotePlan the user have a direct access to individual files.
It really depends on what the outline is. If I need to make small edits on the go, Iāll use Runestone, because it opens .bikemd directly and recognises most of Bikeās markdown syntax. Otherwise, Iāll rename to .md and throw into Obsidian, but I hate having to do round-tripping.
If I need to work on an outline both on macOS and i(Pad)OS for a longer period of time, Iāll skip Bike and use either MindNode Next or OmniOutliner. MN is great but missing some features (like zooming in), OO has all outline features you need but is a complete trainwreck on mobile.
I think Zavala nails it in terms of presentability, minimalism, mobile-friendly features. It has the best data-to-margin ratio among the outliners and still retains good tap ergonomics. Shame it fails in the reliability department.
What Iād look for in a perfect outliner:
Clear-style)And finally, a gallery of how mobile apps handle outlines today:
That gallery is a great resource. Thanks!
For me, outliners are a place for thinking and refining ideas. The general interface of OmniOutliner makes thatā¦difficultā¦
Iāve tried to use if for many many years, but like Complexpoint I always end up deleting it. I donāt think itās badly put together, I just think the Omni Group has a very different use case for outliners than I do.
Ugh, I used to love the original version of Clear when it synced with a desktop version, but it became much less useful to me without that feature and ultimately I replaced it with Taskpaper, which I was already using on desktop, synced with Editorial on iOS.
Editorial still works for you? I may have to look at that again as a way of using Taskpaper more often.
I just tried out Zavala and it seems very nice. What reliability issues have you come across?
It does (I assume you were talking to me), but I didnāt realise it wasnāt under development anymore, that is a pity.
Mostly sync related. I would end up losing data while doing some very basic tests. And while putting together this gallery, I managed to repeatedly crash it by pasting in text from Logseq.
I was. I just loaded it up on my iPhone and it seems to be working fine. Hasnāt been developed for awhile but as long as it works. Think Iāll use it for a bit.
