SmallNote

A modern note-taking app (Obsidian-lite / Apple Notes–style) with to-dos and task management for GNUStep in Objective-C.

Features

• Notes: Plain text / Markdown notes stored as .md files in a configurable folder (default: Application Support/SmallNote/Notes).
• To-dos: Markdown-style checkboxes (- [ ] / - [x]) in note body; toggle with Cmd+Enter or menu Toggle To-Do.
• UI: Main window with a note list (sidebar) and editor; New Note, Open Notes Folder, Delete Note, Quit.

Dependencies

• GNUStep (base, gui)
• SmallStep (../SmallStep): app lifecycle, file system, main menu, file dialog

Core logic uses Foundation only (no extra FOSS libraries): note storage via SmallStep’s SSFileSystem, checkbox parsing in Objective-C.

Build (Linux/GNUStep)

1. Build SmallStep first (must link with libobjc for NSView+SSTag; SmallStep GNUmakefile sets SmallStep_LIBRARIES_DEPEND_UPON = -lobjc):

   . /usr/share/GNUstep/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh
   cd ../SmallStep && make && make install
   cd ../SmallNote

2. Build SmallNote:

   . /usr/share/GNUstep/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh
   make

   If you see undefined reference to objc_getAssociatedObject when linking, ensure SmallStep was rebuilt with SmallStep_LIBRARIES_DEPEND_UPON = -lobjc so that libSmallStep.so has libobjc in its NEEDED list. SmallNote uses -Wl,--allow-shlib-undefined so the linker allows SmallStep’s runtime dependency on libobjc to be resolved at load time.
3. Run:

   openapp ./SmallNote.app

   Or: ./SmallNote.app/SmallNote

Project layout

• main.m – entry point, uses SSHostApplication runWithDelegate:.
• app/SNAppDelegate – implements SSAppDelegate; builds menu via SSMainMenu, owns MainWindow.
• core/NoteStore – list/load/save/create/delete notes; uses SSFileSystem.
• core/TodoParser – parse and toggle - [ ] / - [x] in text.
• ui/MainWindow – split view: note list + editor.
• ui/NoteListController – table data source, selection.
• ui/NoteEditorController – load/save text, toggle to-do at current line.

See SMALLCORE.md for shared patterns across Small* apps and possible refactoring into a common core.

License

GNU AGPLv3 (see LICENSE).