Org Mode syntax is one of the most reasonable markup languages for text (2017)

Post by thetemp_ » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

Spivak wrote: post #82

thetemp_ wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> approximately nothing else supports it. That's simply not true. There are numerous android and iOS apps that support it. There are implementations for Vim and other editors besides Emacs. GitHub supports it, for example. I have not found a satisfactory (to me) solution for note-taking in Markdown that is open-source, plain-text, and mobile-friendly with local (non-cloud) sync. (Except for maybe Logseq, which appear…

I've used those apps and the problem is that they only support a tiny subset of the format, and they can't support any of the features that require the rest of emacs to be present which is a lot of of the value. If you're okay with the stripped down version that's basically markdown but different and that's fine but I feel like most people fall in love with org mode because it's so powerful once you get it going and…

Post by jenadine » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

Post by getnormality » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 6:00 PM UTC

adityaathalye wrote: post #92

getnormality wrote: post #80

All well and good, but some Org Mode markup symbols are badly chosen if the purpose is human-to-human communication, and that is a profound demerit for a system that purports to structure and facilitate human-to-human communication. Most notably, asterisks are not good section headers. Pound signs are. So people are not going to switch from Markdown for most purposes. It feels really wrong. And they will generally pr…

> Perhaps Org Mode reskinned to look more like Markdown. or , reskinned to look visually whatever one wants... https://sophiebos.io/posts/beautifying-emacs-org-mode/ https://zzamboni.org/post/beautifying-org-mode-in-emacs/ I mention this, because I am not particular about which character symbolises what as long as it is consistent and documented . However, some people do want things to look just so , and for them, fe…

Post by arboles » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 6:01 PM UTC

skeledrew wrote: post #83

arboles wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you can type *word* without it becoming bold? So an article can contain: "The logs come to about ~300 lines once you start the server with ~systemctl start fnord~" The `code` equivalent in Org is ~code~. How do you type that without the Org highlighting removing the ~ from "~300 lines", thinking that the code snippet begins there? This is an example I got from grepping my org files for U+200B.

I see. Just gave it a try and backslash works as escape. Though also I'm probably unlikely to experience such issues myself as my Emacs theme shows formatting characters even after applying the formatting.

  \~300 lines

Post by bitwize » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

jameshart wrote: post #13

Sure. And driving on the left is one of the most reasonable sides of the road to drive on, but in a country where everyone drives on the right, it’s good to accept that, though driving on the left offers just as many advantages, nonetheless you shouldn’t insist on continuing to do so. Markdown is also one of the most reasonable markup languages to use for text, and it has won sufficient share that it should be your d…