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Show HN: Desktop app displaying files on a 2D canvas

(limandoc.com)
41 points limandoc | 2 comments | 18 Oct 24 12:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.401s | source

Hey all! I always wanted to arrange my text/markdown/pdf files on a 2D canvas and visualize them without opening all the windows. An extra feature I added is also visualizing folders within - so kind of a 3D visualization? It was also important to be an offline desktop app, rather than online tool like Miro or Mural, because once I edit files in Sublime or AdobePDF then I want changes to sync in the canvas right away.

Some technical points and lessons learned: being Android developer helped a lot with this project since I used Kotlin Multiplatform with Compose Desktop renderer (actually skiko). It runs on JVM under the hood, which was exciting at first since I can use the app on all of my Mac/Windows/Linux machines. Right? Wrong. One lesson I learned wasn’t “write once - run everywhere”, it was “write once - test everywhere; repeat”. On the other hand, using Kotlin Multiplatform will allow me easily to port to Android and port the logic to iOS.

Anyways, I released LimanDoc v1.0.3, still in Proof-Of-Concept, so I hope to get some feedback and features you think would be helpful.

I was thinking these features would be great for future releases: - adding a local LLM support to search/summarize your docs, books, videos, etc; - sync on local network (including future mobile apps) - Templates, groups, and better diagram integration like in Drawio.

1. dr_kiszonka ◴[19 Oct 24 05:16 UTC] No.41885796[source]▶
It looks neat. One aspect that I didn't quite get from the clips was accessing "distant" documents. Let's say I work with two files. One file on the very surface and another a few levels deeper. Do I need to zoom in and zoom out all the time to compare the documents? In other words, is there an equivalent of two windows opened next to each other, even if the documents come from two very different locations?
replies(1): >>41886603 #
2. limandoc ◴[19 Oct 24 08:59 UTC] No.41886603[source]▶
There are tabs, like in a browser, so you can have two tabs for your usecase. Perhaps I can work on tab division, like I'm IDEs. I'll be also implementing a search functionality later to find the files and even searching across the content of files.

However for both files to be visually be on the same level, I am now thinking about shortcuts, where the original document will live in a distant folder (board), and you can view it from other board by creating a reference/shortcut to it. Possibilities are endless!