RFC: Use of +, ~, @; clarifying extend-the-end [0234]

The Johnny.Decimal system 22 Blog
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As I mentioned in the discord, I do not see myself using this proposed notation. I lived for a while with my system (which you probably remember), so here is how it differs and where I see advantages.

Any sub-note gets +

Doesn’t matter whether it is arbitrary or extend-the-end. Reason: I only want to know that it is not an id definition note. This symbol is normally used only in the index.

Exception: sub-notes without id in the note

In some cases I don’t want id in the note name at all. So I just put them under id directory in the Obsidian. Examples: people notes, recipes, knowledge notes. Usually these are where I have lots of notes per id.

23.14 toto.md
23.15 Yoto content.md
23.15 Yoto content\
- 0011 Mes comptines.md
- 0012 Pass-Partout.md
23.16 blah blah.md

This is very specific to how I use Obsidian, with semi-flat structure! In normal situation these should look like 23.15+ 0011 Mes compines.md .

Labels get @

Labels are kinda like tags in the filenames. They are used for things like country codes, people short or long name codes. Examples:

  1. 11.11+ @AA name change.md note and 11.11 ...\@AA\Name change\ directory

    • Label is used as a directory name because there are a bunch of files like 11.11 .../@AA/@BB @CAN passport.pdf

  2. 11.12+ @SurnameN @CAN visa.md note and 11.12 .../@SurnameN @CAN visa/ directory

  3. 11.12 .../@BB @KAZ passport.pdf file

  4. 15.41+ 2024-07-31 @AA to @MNE via @AUT.md and 15.41 .../2024-07-31 @AA to @MNE via @AUT/ directory

  5. 13.54 .../2025 @CAN taxes/1 Inputs/@BB/2025 @BB some form.pdf file

Advantages are pretty obvious, but let’s be explicit:

  • You can use several labels in the same file or directory name
  • Label can exist any any level. It might be right under the ID or in the templated directories deeper down like in taxes
  • There are separate notes for people in my Obsidian, like 11.41 My partner . It has aliases pointing to the labels @AA and embedded base that looks for any notes with @AA in a name.
  • @ as a symbol is easy to remember because it is often used as a label in other apps.
  • Symbol is attached to the label which IMHO makes it easier to search for.
    • Your proposal to use + AA might cause more false positives. It shouldn’t, but it might.
    • + AA is less obvious when used anywhere in the filename (not just in the beginning)

So, what about your examples like + Work-log and + Meeting minutes? That’s an interesting idea. Normally, all my @labels don’t have any spaces and follow tag-safe structure. One similar thing I have is @OPS label for operational manuals. I agree that using free form text reads natural. Thus, maybe 21.35+ @Work log.md ?

Logs

Actually, I have some AC.ID+ blah blah log.md notes. I might switch this to AC.ID+ blah blah @log.md structure. I am mostly interested that these files are dated logs but they might be different logs: work logs, health logs, tantrum logs, etc.

Extend-the-end

I’ve come to believe that EtE is several techniques in one. All of them have the same goal: adding “sub-id” capability. What this sub-id pattern defines how it is stored in my system:

Dated EtE

E.g., taxes or travel information. Something that has a date first. In such cases I don’t see a need for any additional symbol to prepend. So they are stored as is. For taxes I don’t have sub-notes in Obsidian, so it’s only visible in the filesystem (see example 6 above). For travel I have sub-notes and sometimes directory in the filesystem (see example 5)

Labelled EtE

Typically used as a shadow system for other family members (see example 1).

There are cases like example 2 when I don’t have dedicated directory for @SurnameN under id: this is usually for more “project-like” events for people I don’t generally track in my system (e.g., grandparents).

Advantage of using label in this case is that since their files can happen in places like taxes, using search for @AA is way easier in the eventual case when I will hand down some of these files to them.

“I don’t care” EtE

Might be controversial one xD But for things like 13.51 Credit cards even if I have sub-directories with bank names, I don’t really care about labeling them, because I won’t search for this thing across all system. So, in the index it might be (or not) represented as a normal sub-note 13.51+ blah blah.md and there might be (or not) directory 13.51 .../blah blah/

Numbered EtE aka id-based work packages

In rare cases when you want to have work package inside the whole id but there are no natural sub-id, I just assign some numbers. Here how it looks like in the filesystem:

23.15 Yoto content\
- 0011 Mes comptines\
- 0012 Pass-Partout\

When I need to reference this somewhere outside Obsidian I can use 23.15+ 0011 Mes comptines.

~ for work package id linking?

I don’t use this pattern yet, but I agree that this symbol feels the most natural.

Though, if I would like to go very fancy, I might use :id_button: emoji. Because why not, it’s not like I’d use it very often.