Frequently Asked Questions

When is Turtl for iOS coming?

A lot of the background work for Turtl iOS is now complete, and it’s a matter of putting in the time. Hopefully by 2019, Turtl will have an iOS app. Track the feature here!

How do I delete my account?

Use our handy account delete page.

Is Turtl HIPAA compliant?

The honest truth is we don’t know. The answer is currently likely not because HIPAA requires things like access logs, fine-grained access controls, and physical access safeguards. These are things we do not have in place either in the application itself or in our hosting environment.

If Turtl introduces access logs and per-note access controls, it’s quite possible it may achieve HIPAA compliance if hosted on premises.

We currently do not have the resources to fully evaluate HIPAA compliance at the moment, however it is certainly on our roadmap.

How do I get the server running?

People have issues with the Turtl server a lot. It’s best to hop onto the discussion board and ask there. Lots of people have asked for and received help on running the server on the discussion board.

Keep in mind by running your own server you’re going off the supported path. The maintainers of the project can’t go out of their way to help you if you run into problems. The bulk of the work for the project happens on the clients (desktop, mobile) and helping with platform-specific server issues is not a priority.

Why isn’t Turtl a native app?

This is a small project, maintained by people with limited time, built mainly for the common good.

Try building and maintaining three different apps on five different platforms with extremely limited spare time. You’ll quickly realize how difficult it is (even just one codebase is hard enough). In the age we’re in, it’s completely ridiculous that mobile platforms have made it nearly impossible to reuse code across platforms.

Think of Turtl’s choice to use HTML5/webviews instead of going native on all platforms as a conscientious objection to the idea of forcing platforms down builder’s throats. Really, we just don’t have time to deal with all different codebases.

Why does the note editor use Markdown?

Turtl makes use of Markdown because it’s a fairly easy format to learn and to write. Another big reason is that most rich text editors that are able to run inside of Turtl are horrible, buggy messes that would make the editing process a lot more painful.

We’re always looking for ways to improve the app, though. If you run across an HTML5 text editor that is clean, simple, mobile-friendly, and doesn’t make you want to blow your brains out whenever you use it then let us know.

Can I contribute?

Of course. For contributions of any significance (changing more than a few lines), we ask that you sign our Contributor License Agreement. Once that’s done, you’re free to contribute as much or as little as your heart desires.

Check out our contributing page for more details.