Rémi Connesson

Explain the problem as you see it

The code snippet formatting (code block & inline code) of Tana is a big F for Fail.

(copy pasted from slack #feedback, as it seems the feedback channel was not the right place for it. That this should be an idea here...)

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I came back after months of not using Tana; seeing the soon to come public release, hoping the code snippet handling would have for sure improved.

This issue was submitted as feedbacks months ago, it made me stopped using Tana and stopped recommending Tana to anybody who works with code (which is 90% of my network).

Well, It's even worst than before. Now it's even bugged:

• the syntax highlight flashes before disappearing
• you need to refresh to see the highlighting and then it disappears again
• Zooming on a code block renders it as a title instead of a code block which is very dubious UX.
• the paste code as shows up so MANY options that you have to almost type the full name of the language to format;
• when you paste as code and it doesn't select the appropriate language you now have to scroll for several seconds before finding the correct language.
• AND THE CODE BLOCK DOESN'T EVEN HANDLE PROPER TABULATION. (nice indenting code yourself in 2024, after having spent half a minute just creating the code block and selecting the proper language)
• Oh... and if you are writing code that you're not copy pasting but writing from memory or inventing, well guess what... THIS IS EVEN WORSE.

Ultimately, this breaks flow and is an instant disqualifier of Tana as a serious contender for anybody who uses code or thinks in code.

The inline code is subpar, is there a shortcut at least? Having to select back is painful with the mouse is pain, sure we can use Shift+CtrL+arrows but is there at least a shortcut to apply the inline code formatting without using the mouse?

Are any programmers on the tana team actually using tana? This level of papercut leads me to believe that it's not the case.

This was surfaced months ago during alpha , the investment of engineering time into doing flashy AI stuff while the UX is a big fail for programmers is not a good signal.

Keywords for Slack search: programming code blocks code snippets inline code

Verdict: as of today, Tana is not a suitable for anybody who needs to write code snippets without getting severely taken out of flow. Can you write code snippets in Tana: yes. Does it break you out of flow state: YES.
If you are reading this and were wondering how to do code block smoothly in Tana, here is the answer for you: you can't.

My advice, stop investing time in learning Tana and move away from this tool, the papercut is too severe and the Tana team has no track record of caring about this issue. (edited)

Why is this a problem for you?

This makes Tana unusable. Period.

Suggest a solution

Implement proper code block formatting. If you don't know what it means, ask your software team.