Note-taking under linux

Currently optimizing my note-taking setup; I might write an actual article about this later.

I'll use this post to note down my ideas, and later on as an article draft.

1. Why use a computer in class?

* I keep my hard drive relatively well organized, which can not be said about any notes I ever took on paper.

* I'm not thrilled at the idea of printing hundreds of pages, either.

* A friend couldn't attend classes one day? export to pdf, send by e-mail, done.

2. Requirements

* Quasi-WYSIWYG math input

* Ability to draw good figures easily with or without a tablet.

* Perhaps audio (& video?) recording (if possible, automatically add timestamps to written notes)

* Little to no editing required after classes.

3. Current progress

3.1 Current application list

* Math & text: LyX (what you see is what you mean) is probably just as good as it gets. Quasi-WYSIWYG LaTeX. I still have to tweak some settings, and learn how to handle the layout correctly - at the moment, equations are either crammed inline, or given an excessive amount of space.

* Drawing figures to go with LyX files: Xournal (most of the time with a tablet). Just like pen & paper, but cleaner, with shape recognition, cut & paste, and keyboard text entry.

* No video or audio yet.

3.2 Future improvements

All I really need is LyX and Xournal integration, or the ability for Xournal to handle LaTeX input.

The first solution is easier to set up, but a bit of a hack. LyX can export to PDF files, which Xournal can annotate. But LyX can't edit the annotated PDF files... Ah, but Xournal saves annotations to .xoj ... which means you can replace the PDF with a new version and keep the annotations.

So basically, all you need is l... er all you need is a keyboard shortcut in LyX to automatically export to PDF, force matching Xournal instance to save and close document (might not be possible), and re-open.

There is, however, a problem: the number of pages in the .xoj file isn't updated automatically, and adding a page manually just adds a copy of the current page, and doesn't read the next page from the PDF. Aw, well...

[ unfinished, obviously ]