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Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

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Re: Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

#51

Post by sinkasapa »

tomcooks wrote: post #10

Can I get a quick rundown on why Org Mode is better (easier/faster/more organized/whatever you prefer) than a ~/TODO.md file? I use this format: ``` ## yyyy-mm-dd name of the homework - for tasks that have to be done ! for tasks that contain a warning, careful, beware > for tasks I am waiting for others to give me output about ? for tasks I am not sure about v for tasks I've completed x for tasks i won't do, WONTFIX…

For me the advantage is that I mostly use org-mode for other reasons, like note taking, but when it makes sense to integrate TODO functionality, which comes up frequently while taking notes, it is there and I don't need an additional app using some other database which I then need to synchronize with my note taking system.

Re: Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

#52

Post by tonyarkles »

sinkasapa wrote: post #35
birracerveza wrote: post #3

Org Mode keeps being pushed again and again, but honestly this title is one of the boldest claims I've seen about it. Just look at the document. It's a 400+kb HTML page of Emacs configurations, keybindings and other stuff that makes absolutely no sense unless you've been an avid Emacs user for years. Where is the Plain Text here? I see nothing of the sort. Sure, the output might resemble Plain Text, but it's clearly…

I suppose it is like saying: "Python: Write computer programs in plain text!" In my experience, one does actually just edit text files using org-mode. It is different than the Tasks sub-application of Thunderbird/Lightening, for instance.

Yeah, my first thought when I started reading your comment was “yeah, it’s a bit silly, but you can’t ‘grep’ Jira”.

I’ve been a long time org user and am slowly starting to move bits of my workflow out of it to ease collaboration with the staff I’m planning to hire in the next couple months. I absolutely love Org and am not particularly happy about moving away from it, but... it seems like trying to use it in a collaborative way is not going to go well. I’ll keep using it for myself though because it’s awesome :D

Re: Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

#53

Post by nanna »

spaniard89277 wrote: post #2

It looks like some people want to spend more time organizing their life than living their life. IDK man, I already need some willpower to use Trello and looks far easier.

Trello will forever be the relatively slow, clunky, time-sucking platform that it is.

In org mode you get faster, more efficient and more powerful as you develop, which means you don't need to summon that willpower.

Re: Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

#55

Post by rgoulter »

michaericalribo wrote: post #36
tomcooks wrote: post #10

Can I get a quick rundown on why Org Mode is better (easier/faster/more organized/whatever you prefer) than a ~/TODO.md file? I use this format: ``` ## yyyy-mm-dd name of the homework - for tasks that have to be done ! for tasks that contain a warning, careful, beware > for tasks I am waiting for others to give me output about ? for tasks I am not sure about v for tasks I've completed x for tasks i won't do, WONTFIX…

In short: org mode is software that sits on top of the markup language, and lets you interact in sophisticated, semantic ways with the information in a file. The markup is just markdown, modulo a few conventions. The power of org mode is manipulating the data / text / content you have written and marked up

> In short: org mode is software that sits on top of the markup language, and lets you interact in sophisticated, semantic ways with the information in a file.

As one example of this, org mode makes it easy to collapse/expand the content of a task.

Re: Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

#56

Post by enitihas »

dijit wrote: post #14
enitihas wrote: post #7

I was a big fan of org mode, and I still think nothing beats it for free form note taking. But if your use cases are very simple todo tracking, you might want to try OmniFocus. I have bene using OmniFocus and found a very easy to use replacement. It doesn't match the flexibility of org mode but gets the job done.

The wider implications of recommending a proprietary application (worse: a GUI based one which costs money and is only available on one platform) is that now your documents are tied to a particular time of reference in an ecosystem. Something which moves. For context I have lost files because the old version of the software which could read the formats would not run on my operating system, and purchasing a new licens…

I think OmniFocus can export in a wide variety of formats, including plain text formats, so you can always take backups of plain text files.

I agree that a FOSS solution is preferable to a proprietary one, however, an easy to use software with a GUI is also preferable to one with a good amount of learning curve. I don't have any issue with the GUI.

I also don't have any issue with costing money. Quality software can cost money, since it costs money to create it. The alternative is software which spies on you and serves you ads. I don't know any other model by which a note taking app can make money.

What's wrong with costing money anyways. A vast majority of HN earns fat salaries writing software. Either those salaries have to come from selling software or from tracking users. I much more prefer software being charged for.

Re: Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

#57

Post by dijit »

microtonal wrote: post #46
dijit wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wider implications of recommending a proprietary application (worse: a GUI based one which costs money and is only available on one platform) is that now your documents are tied to a particular time of reference in an ecosystem. Something which moves. For context I have lost files because the old version of the software which could read the formats would not run on my operating system, and purchasing a new licens…

The wider implications of recommending a proprietary application (worse: a GUI based one which costs money and is only available on one platform) is that now your documents are tied to a particular time of reference in an ecosystem. Something which moves. I am not an OmniFocus user, recent versions of OmniFocus can export data to the TaskPaper format (which is just plain text) or to a CSV file.

That is not the native format, therefore it doesn't really matter.

You _can_ export Excel documents as CSV too.

Re: Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

#58

Post by sinkasapa »

pkalinowski wrote: post #23

It looks insanely complicated for no reason. Why do such super organisation, where you have great search at your disposal? I just have everything inside Notes folder with subfolders if any project is getting bigger. Anytime I want to look for something, I just do global text search for the whole Notes folder.

I suppose this is for the same reason that people structure databases. There are often non-trivial relationships between different types of information that are useful to keep track of. Citations and links are useful features for note taking.

Re: Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

#59

Post by rgoulter »

pkalinowski wrote: post #23

It looks insanely complicated for no reason. Why do such super organisation, where you have great search at your disposal? I just have everything inside Notes folder with subfolders if any project is getting bigger. Anytime I want to look for something, I just do global text search for the whole Notes folder.

Notes and reference material benefits from good search tooling.

But tasks or todo lists benefit from being well-organised.

Re: Org Mode – Organize Your Life in Plain Text

#60

Post by dijit »

enitihas wrote: post #56
dijit wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wider implications of recommending a proprietary application (worse: a GUI based one which costs money and is only available on one platform) is that now your documents are tied to a particular time of reference in an ecosystem. Something which moves. For context I have lost files because the old version of the software which could read the formats would not run on my operating system, and purchasing a new licens…

I think OmniFocus can export in a wide variety of formats, including plain text formats, so you can always take backups of plain text files. I agree that a FOSS solution is preferable to a proprietary one, however, an easy to use software with a GUI is also preferable to one with a good amount of learning curve. I don't have any issue with the GUI. I also don't have any issue with costing money. Quality software can…

It's not about costing money, it's about costing a lot of money and being a proprietary format.

The idea of locking myself out of my data is unappealing.

And as I replied to the sibling: the ability to export to a format does not mean that it's the default, that it's optimal and not lossy.

If you were able to change the output format permanently to .taskpaper and the software "just worked" I would have less of an issue.

I don't mind software costing money (I pay for an all-license JetBrains account) but that doesn't lock information away in proprietary formats requiring me to renew my subscription or lose my data.

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