RedNotebook

我至今一直使用RedNotebook来记录我生物信息分析的日志。尽管现在有很多笔记本应用程序，我还是非常喜欢这个笔记本应用程序，和大家分享一下原因吧。

故事可以追溯到2012年，在我完成了我全职（湿）实验室工作之后，我开始全职从事生物信息分析(干实验室)。作为一名科学家，根据日期或每天写实验记录是很普遍的作息。然而我发现每天在纸质的实验日记本记录生物信息分析特别是包含指令代码分析，是一项不可能任务。不过，我的确曾这样做过，而我的结论是：这是一种愚蠢的做法。

因此，我便开始寻找一种工具，一种能让我每天记录或根据日期记录数据分析工作的工具，是的，以每天为基础。因为我使用不同的操作系统(Linux, Unix, Windows)进行分析工作，所以这个工具必须是跨操作系统平台的，并且支持云访问。

经过一番搜索，我决定试用 RedNotebook。RedNotebook 是什么？RedNotebook 是一种基于日记形式的笔记本应用程序，它允许用户每天记录笔记。该软件使用 txt2tags 标签，与 markdown (另一种轻量级标签语言) 标签类似。

我在不同的操作系统上安装了 RedNotebook，将 RedNotebook 的数据文件保存在云驱动器上，并在RedNotebook中配置好路径。 如此，我能够在家或办公室的其他操作系统上工作时在不同平台上访问同一数据文件。

我用自定义的模板把我每日的数据分析工作记录下来。必要时，我可以根据日期或月份将我的生物信息分析日志以HTML或文本文件的形式保存在我的电脑上，或者将其交予同事。我还可以使用关键字搜索、查看不同的日期日志、跟踪我以前做过的分析。

迄今为止，我仍然使用 RedNotebook。对于那些还在寻找理想电子日记类笔记本的同行们，我强烈推荐这日记笔记本软件。RedNotebook 是免费的(欢迎给作者捐款)，试试吧。

I have been using RedNotebook for my bioinformatics analysis logs until now. Although there are many notebook applications, I still like this notebook application very much. Let me share with you why.

The story can be traced back to the year 2012, when I started my bioinformatics analysis (dry lab) full-time after finished with my full-time (wet) lab works. As a scientist, writing an experiment log on a logbook daily or according to the date was a common practice. However, I found that recording bioinformatics analysis that involved command lines on a paper-based logbook was an impossible task. Nevertheless, I did that before, and I concluded that it was stupid.

Hence, I started to look for a tool that allowed me to write my daily analysis activities, yes, daily-basis. As I was using different operating systems (Linux, Unix, Windows) for my analysis works, the tool must be cross-platforms workable and support cloud drive access.

After googling a while, I decided to give RedNotebook a try. What is RedNotebook? RedNotebook is a diary-based journal/notebook that allowed users to write their notes daily. It uses txt2tags markup, which more or less similar to markdown (another type of lightweight markup language) markup.

I installed RedNotebook on different operating systems, kept RedNotebook's data files at cloud drive and configured the path in the RedNotebook. By doing so, I can access to same data files across different platforms while working from home or at the office on different operating systems.

I used a custom made templates to record my data analysis works daily. When needed, I can export my dry lab logs according to the date or month as HTML or text-based files on my computer or share them to a colleague. With keywords search, I can look at my different date logs and track what I have done previously.

Up to date, I still using RedNotebook. I strongly recommend this diary/journal to scientists who are looking for an ideal electronic logbook-like diary/journal. RedNotebook is free (donations to the author are welcome), try it.