I tried several times, but I just can’t get EMacs or org mode working.
It’s like every single functionality only works 90%, and breaks on the last 10% required to actually be a valid alternative :(
Org tutorials
61–70 of 79 posts
Re: Org tutorials
#62Funny, I just posted a standalone question but I'll repeat it here:
Anyone out there using Generative AI to modify their environment et al? Basically to attack the whole "lisp" thing?
I see the potential in the power and would love to get back into it (I used Org-Mode for about a year then gave up on it) and wondering if anyone else has tried.
Re: Org tutorials
#63Orgmode got me through college, research, and at work, it really is the perfected markup language that can do a lot more than just being a markup language. The extensibility and out of the box export to other formats makes it immediately useful for at least 80% of common tasks. It has ingrained itself so deeply into my muscle memory that I built out a whole website builder [1] and extended the language to support all…
> As of 2025-02, there is no formal Org-mode syntax definition. is very far away from perfection
> As of 2025-02, there is no formal Org-mode syntax definition.
Confusingly, you seem to have taken this from Karl Voit's website, without referencing having done so?
https://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/
And then taken the sentence out of context. His point is that even though there isn't a formal Org-mode syntax definition, there is an informal one in that all of the Org mode syntax elements are part of the Emacs Org-mode implementation. The latest Org-mode implementation /is/ the spec. This is in comparison with Markdown where there are numerous syntax definitions and no implementation which includes all elements and everything is a mess.
Re: Org tutorials
#64I'm on my seventh year of using org-mode for my task management. My system has slowly evolved over time but I'm pretty much still using the same single text file to manage everything. My main getting-things-done org-mode file is now at 6k lines long. Before org-mode, I was always downloading different software to manage tasks and notes. The tool churn was very degrading to my productivity but I feel that commercial i…
I try it regularly and I was running an org-mode based task management for a year and some months in between, but man, I do not have time and patience for sync conflicts in 2025. It can work but I have to be very cautious, and iCloud sync being a bit mysterious does not help. But I've also recognized that I don't have very complex projects, that GTD tools do not matter since their contents are transient by nature and…
I totally understand this situation. I actually never had a good mobile set up when I was on iOS and only when switching to Android was able to finally setup something I liked using orgzly-revived, syncthing, and android Emacs.
As for GTD, I never did proper GTD until about a year ago, after reading the GTD book. I don't consider my life complex by any means, but I've been surprised at the amount of projects in my life that have been reified in my system.
Re: Org tutorials
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is an implementation for neovim, and some "viewer" applicatrions for android, etc: https://orgmode.org/tools.html Basics are easy to replicate, but one of the reasons why org is so useful is because it is tied into the emacs ecosystem, so you can write extensions/configuration tweaks in lisp. You can hookup agenda (calendars), etc, etc, and those things don't really translate so well to external tools. If you h…
> You can hookup agenda (calendars), etc, etc, and those things don't really translate so well to external tools. Sounds like a replication of Unix inside an editor if you ask me.
I know you meant it as a criticism, but Emacs years view it as a feature.
Re: Org tutorials
#66I tried several times, but I just can’t get EMacs or org mode working. It’s like every single functionality only works 90%, and breaks on the last 10% required to actually be a valid alternative :(
I think a hurdle one has to make to adopt Emacs is to stop expecting things to work as you might have come to expect them from other programmes. Sometimes this is for historical reasons, but the main reason is that Emacs just has it's own logic, which may seem counterintuitive at first but often has very good reasons behind it. Try to persist past through that final 10% and you may find there are reasons why they're as they are. And when you need help use the channels out there...
Re: Org tutorials
#67Funny, I just posted a standalone question but I'll repeat it here: Anyone out there using Generative AI to modify their environment et al? Basically to attack the whole "lisp" thing? I see the potential in the power and would love to get back into it (I used Org-Mode for about a year then gave up on it) and wondering if anyone else has tried.
Yes! I experimented with it on my EXWM setup. After some back and forth via Aider, it made me a module to help me control and monitor tasks on my timewarrior setup, giving me a pomodoro-like indicator on my taskbar (changing colors as it approaches one hour).
It was a cool experience! I had it evaluate the code via commands to the emacs daemon, without reloading EXWM (ballsy, but I was prepared for failure).
EXWM is extremely flexible, but there is a high barrier of entry to using and customizing it. Having an LLM embedded to a live-evaluate desktop environment makes the interface more approachable without reducing its flexibility as much.
It also allows you to create explicit controls that map to the user’s muscle memory and sub-symbolic sensing of the environment, while staying out of the way during normal usage — a different paradigm than embedding an agent as an interface in its own right to control the environment (via speech or text).
Since open source software is readily modifiable, maybe soon it will unironically be the year of the linux desktop.
Re: Org tutorials
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As of 2025-02, there is no formal Org-mode syntax definition. is very far away from perfection
> As of 2025-02, there is no formal Org-mode syntax definition. Confusingly, you seem to have taken this from Karl Voit's website, without referencing having done so? https://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/ And then taken the sentence out of context. His point is that even though there isn't a formal Org-mode syntax definition, there is an informal one in that all of the Org mode syntax elements are p…
> taken the sentence out of context
> This is in comparison with Markdown
This context is irrelevant, I'm not discussing how bad markdown is, but how great org mode is.
> The latest Org-mode implementation /is/ the spec.
You're just conflating the terms, that's not what a spec is, and having one has benefits that living impls don't have
Re: Org tutorials
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I try it regularly and I was running an org-mode based task management for a year and some months in between, but man, I do not have time and patience for sync conflicts in 2025. It can work but I have to be very cautious, and iCloud sync being a bit mysterious does not help. But I've also recognized that I don't have very complex projects, that GTD tools do not matter since their contents are transient by nature and…
I totally understand this situation. I actually never had a good mobile set up when I was on iOS and only when switching to Android was able to finally setup something I liked using orgzly-revived, syncthing, and android Emacs. As for GTD, I never did proper GTD until about a year ago, after reading the GTD book. I don't consider my life complex by any means, but I've been surprised at the amount of projects in my li…
I am practicing GTD since ~15 years already, but while I stick to some practices (review, inbox and so on), I have a simpler setup for projects and files, sufficient for my needs. One of the lessons is that GTD and productivity systems are not about tools - I am equally productive (or unproductive) in emacs, omnifocus, reminders. The advantage of OF and reminders is that I don't have to look after sync, workflow-wise I quickly learn to navigate around idiosyncrasies of each of them and settle on the same workflow, helping myself with scripts and glue code where I need it.
This said, I still keep my long-term notes in denote, because it works and I don't trust Apple Notes for long-term stuff (missing built-in export).
Re: Org tutorials
#70I tried several times, but I just can’t get EMacs or org mode working. It’s like every single functionality only works 90%, and breaks on the last 10% required to actually be a valid alternative :(
Try asking your favorite LLM.
ChatGPT4o has been a godsend for adding helpful snippets of Elisp to my own ~/.emacs file.