The background for Hook's is cognitive science / education tech R&D I and my co-founders had been doing 2001 (2003, 2006)- 2009 at SFU called gStudy and nStudy (www.sfu.ca/~lpb/tr/2009-Luc_P_Beaudoin-Phil_Winne-nStudy.pdf). We had been designing and implementing personal learning environment for Phil Winne's Learning Kit project at Simon Fraser University (SFU). The core concept I contributed from the beginning of my design was "linking anything to anything" within the system and web (cf. Ted Nelson and Douglas Englebart). We were implementing / incorporating tools in the PLE (note-taking, mind maps, web browser, flashcards, etc.) My Tundra-related insight that led to Hook was that instead of re-inventing the wheel (note-taking, mind maps, etc.) in a big PLE, I could allow users to use best of breed apps and simply connect all their resources with a nimble piece of software. So with Hook, users can use whatever software they like (e.g., for Note taking Bear, Obsidian, BBEdit, Apple Notes, whatever). Hook would serve the links, connect the items, and allow users to navigate in a popup window they invoke within the context of their favorite apps.
Last year I published a chapter , [Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346734020_A_Manifes...), in the Future of Text book, to support the ideal of all apps being linkable. I guess I should post separately about that as we are looking for co-signatories (many are joining) for a variant of that document. People can email support@cogsciapps.com if they are interested in it.
We've found many Mac developers were happy to add a linking API to their apps. E.g., in the latest release I mentioned, Flexibits added an API for its Fantastical; Merlin Wizards is adding one for its Merlin Project (in Sept), and Ngoc Luu added one for GoodLinks.
If an app does not have an API, Hook tries to use UI scripting to get the link. That's how it works with Slack and Notion. We've requested that Notion and Slack provide a client side API to make their apps "truly linkable" more robust. If anyone wants that, they might want to do the same.
(Hook innovated in so many ways ( https://hookproductivity.com/help/general/features ) that I had expected it would be discussed on Hacker News out of the gate in 2019; but I didn't want to be the one to mention it of course. My OP was my first one here. )
The background for Hook's is cognitive science / education tech R&D I and my co-founders had been doing 2001 (2003, 2006)- 2009 at SFU called gStudy and nStudy (www.sfu.ca/~lpb/tr/2009-Luc_P_Beaudoin-Phil_Winne-nStudy.pdf). We had been designing and implementing personal learning environment for Phil Winne's Learning Kit project at Simon Fraser University (SFU). The core concept I contributed from the beginning of my design was "linking anything to anything" within the system and web (cf. Ted Nelson and Douglas Englebart). We were implementing / incorporating tools in the PLE (note-taking, mind maps, web browser, flashcards, etc.) My Tundra-related insight that led to Hook was that instead of re-inventing the wheel (note-taking, mind maps, etc.) in a big PLE, I could allow users to use best of breed apps and simply connect all their resources with a nimble piece of software. So with Hook, users can use whatever software they like (e.g., for Note taking Bear, Obsidian, BBEdit, Apple Notes, whatever). Hook would serve the links, connect the items, and allow users to navigate in a popup window they invoke within the context of their favorite apps.
Last year I published a chapter , [Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346734020_A_Manifes...), in the Future of Text book, to support the ideal of all apps being linkable. I guess I should post separately about that as we are looking for co-signatories (many are joining) for a variant of that document. People can email support@cogsciapps.com if they are interested in it.
We've found many Mac developers were happy to add a linking API to their apps. E.g., in the latest release I mentioned, Flexibits added an API for its Fantastical; Merlin Wizards is adding one for its Merlin Project (in Sept), and Ngoc Luu added one for GoodLinks.
If an app does not have an API, Hook tries to use UI scripting to get the link. That's how it works with Slack and Notion. We've requested that Notion and Slack provide a client side API to make their apps "truly linkable" more robust. If anyone wants that, they might want to do the same.
We've defined "linkability" here: https://hookproductivity.com/help/integration/data-linkabili... I think that is worthy of its own post here on Hacker News if anyone wanted to share the link.
(Hook innovated in so many ways ( https://hookproductivity.com/help/general/features ) that I had expected it would be discussed on Hacker News out of the gate in 2019; but I didn't want to be the one to mention it of course. My OP was my first one here. )