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Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

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Re: Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

#91

Post by TeMPOraL »

catnaroek wrote: post #82
pzone wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Comparing org-mode to handwritten notes? You can grep through your notes, quickly refile, integrate with other software, use hyperlinks, and synchronize over multiple devices. But the same is true of onenote or evernote.

I can draw arbitrary diagrams and pictures on my notebook. I can write using arbitrarily big or small letters. I can write fancy formulas and even make up my own notations on the fly. I can use pens of different colors, and let the colors highlight the relationships between ideas. And I don't need to worry about “synchronization”, because I always carry my notebook with me. It's not all downsides for handwritten note…

Totally. That's why in my response I avoided saying that one is better than other. It totally depends on your situation and use cases.

There's tons of stuff that is about infinitely more convenient to do with paper than with computers (even tablets). Fast arbitrary drawing, fast arbitrary coloring, being able to get a full overview quicker (if you use a binder, just take out all your notes and spread them on your desk - even three 4k screens won't beat that), etc. But nobody says you have to stick to one and only system for everything. Personally, I still make a lot of designs on paper - but I store tasks and project notes in a digital form.

Re: Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

#92

Post by preek »

MarcScott wrote: post #84
preek wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be so kind as to share this Python script? I'd be happy to give it a shot^^

Sorry, not got it any more. It was a one-time use thing as once I was done with Evernote, I was done for good. It was pretty specific to my use case anyway - as most of the content was tabulated student data.

Very well, then. Thanks for taking the time to respond anyway and for making thoughtful comments on your use case of org-mode, I appreciate your comments a lot!

Re: Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

#93

Post by amasad »

atemerev wrote: post #77
amasad wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arrow keys are the worst ergonomically. You need to be able to stay as close as possible to the home position. When my RSI got really bad I noticed how bad it can be to keep reaching for the arrow keys.

I don't feel uncomfortable when reaching for the arrow keys with my right hand. But I _do_ feel very uncomfortable when I press wrong navigation key in Vim (was it h or j? My fingers don't _feel_ it), and it's really uncomfortable reaching for Ctrl for anything in Emacs, especially Ctrl-B — now _this_ is RSI-prone).

True, emacs default key binding is also RSI-prone. I suggested going with vim's key binding (evil-mode, spcemacs) for newcomers.

But I don't buy the argument that they're so hard to learn, consider it a new video game controller.

Re: Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

#95

Post by TeMPOraL »

midgetjones wrote: post #73
Uberphallus wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone trying not to make the same terrible mistake, you have vim-orgmode: https://github.com/jceb/vim-orgmode

Or for anyone that is more open-minded, yet worried about the learning curve of switching from vim to emacs: http://spacemacs.org/

Also worth checking out for anyone who (like me) thinks vim has much better keybinding philosophy than Emacs, and that switching evil-mode makes Emacs a perfect working environment.

Re: Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

#96

Post by terhechte »

MarcScott wrote: post #86

Most comments here seem to focus on the notes and GTD side of org-mode. For me, org-mode is my go to markup language. So much so that I now find writing in Markdown to be almost painful. A few of my favourite features are: - Tables are amazingly easy in org-mode, with spreadsheet features thrown in as well. - Code snippets can be written in their own major mode, giving me syntax highlighting, auto completion and the…

Absolutely. When I can, I write everything in Org-Mode: - Code / Project Documentation: Written in Org-Mode, then exported as PDF via Latex - Blog: My complete blog is written in Org-Mode [1] (Source: [2]). Via Source-Blocks, I can write Code-Examples directly in the document, execute them there, and make sure they work correctly and / or embed the results. I can even write multiple code blocks and then reference them within each other. This makes it easy to explain a subject by continuously revealing more snippets from a larger code example - Link Lists: I'm storing links to books, articles, papers, in Org-Mode where I can add quotes, tags, or relevant thoughts in a structured way.

I actually, currently, use Org-Mode much more for writing than for organising / tasks / todos.

[1] http://appventure.me [2] https://github.com/terhechte/appventure-blog/blob/master/res...

Re: Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

#97

Post by Chattered »

MarcScott wrote: post #86

Most comments here seem to focus on the notes and GTD side of org-mode. For me, org-mode is my go to markup language. So much so that I now find writing in Markdown to be almost painful. A few of my favourite features are: - Tables are amazingly easy in org-mode, with spreadsheet features thrown in as well. - Code snippets can be written in their own major mode, giving me syntax highlighting, auto completion and the…

I recently had a paper published written in org mode and I have another in review. I don't plan to write straight LaTeX again.

For me, babel is the killer feature. I can write code snippets in the buffer, highlighted and indented according to the corresponding emacs mode, with paredit for lisp, and beautifully exported via pygments. A single key combo lets me evaluate my code in persistent repls associated with my buffer, and I can choose what combo of code/result I want to export. I had some of my snippets generate raw LaTeX that I could include in the document.

Org links make section references trivial, and I have it hooked up to ebib so my citations are pure org. In the emacs buffer, clicking a citation link takes me straight to the bibtex entry.

I don't much use the organiser, but I do use org heavily for writing cross referenced notes about other people's code.

Re: Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

#98

Post by TeMPOraL »

atemerev wrote: post #77
amasad wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arrow keys are the worst ergonomically. You need to be able to stay as close as possible to the home position. When my RSI got really bad I noticed how bad it can be to keep reaching for the arrow keys.

I don't feel uncomfortable when reaching for the arrow keys with my right hand. But I _do_ feel very uncomfortable when I press wrong navigation key in Vim (was it h or j? My fingers don't _feel_ it), and it's really uncomfortable reaching for Ctrl for anything in Emacs, especially Ctrl-B — now _this_ is RSI-prone).

Remap CTRL to CAPS LOCK. It's a pretty standard thing in Emacs world.

Also, learning keybindings is a matter of your state of mind. Or rather, of your attitude. You didn't start knowing how to use arrows, you learned it at some point in your life. It took time then too. Like 'amasad wrote, treat it as a new controls for a videogame. Somehow people don't have problems with learning those.

Re: Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

#99

Post by bloat »

mbrock wrote: post #44
TeMPOraL wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say there's one primary "potential to improve" - a mobile app. The situation is better than it used to be, but frankly still not good enough IMO. Otherwise, an org-mode + Dropbox combo works perfectly for me; every computer I own or work on has Emacs installed anyway. And it's hard to note down so much content on mobile that you won't be able to retype it back on a proper computer under 5 minutes.

I googled and couldn't immediately find a thing that eats notes from IMAP into org-mode. That could be pretty useful for capturing on the go, since e.g. iOS Notes does good IMAP sync.

If you're using GNUS to read your IMAP mail, you can link from org into GNUS.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15736590/how-to-automatic...

Org can also store arbitrary links, with custom protocols - for instance I link from org to our jira project using links like [jira:3456].

Re: Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

#100

Post by brianclements »

Fice wrote: post #39
colah3 wrote: post #24

I really like org-mode and used it heavily for about a year. But I found having my todo list on a single computer pretty limiting. Thankfully, there's a new generation of org-mode inspired cloud apps: * https://workflowy.com/ -- the most mature app * https://www.moo.do -- really nice Google Apps integration * https://checkvist.com/ -- extremely feature rich I'm really excited by these tools. I feel like org-mode has…

Emacs can transparently edit remote files: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TrampMode All you need is a machine accessible via ssh, and you won't have to trust centralized proprietary services.

Speaking as a Workflowy user to your concerns, it's the best of all worlds for me:

- nightly export to dropbox as plaintext and a backup as a type of json format with more metadata. If Workflowy goes away tomorrow, I have everything and can continue in an editor if I like. But until then, I use the pretty web interface.

- multiple device support. I am not going to mess with ssh on my mobile devices. I use Workflowy for everything from extended note-taking and long-form writing to quick pre-set searches on the go for reference; and that's on all my various interfaces (and sometimes other peoples too).

- Workflowy is easy enough for laypersons to view and/or collaborate in seconds. No setup necessary on their end.

I am a happy paying customer of theirs.

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