28 ms·

Emacs org-mode examples and cookbook

386 points by dangom 10y ago

lemonberry 10y ago
I switched to Emacs specifically because of all the Org mode love I'd read about. I've barely touched the surface of Org, thank you!
nickpeterson 10y ago
Org-mode is on my list of things I should probably learn better, but never seem to get around to. Here are some entries in that list: Emacs Regex Latex Bash/Terminal/Powershell Unicode APL/J/K Linear Algebra Category Theory
- melling 10y ago
  I keep dozens of org files on Github in public repos. Here are a few: https://github.com/melling/LanguageLearning https://github.com/melling/LanguageLearning https://github.com/melling/ios_topics/blob/master/README.org https://github.com/melling/ios_topics/blob/master/README.org https://github.com/melling/ComputerGraphics https://github.com/melling/ComputerGraphics
  - e19293001 10y ago
    This gave me an idea on how to organize interesting stuffs and it's quite simple. Thanks! I hope nickpeterson did got that idea too. And what I could recommend is to use emacs and org-mode everyday especially when taking notes. You can't learn without using them. It gave me lots of benefits.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  Start using the tools. For LaTeX: I very strongly recommend picking up a copy of the Lion Book (Leslie Lamport) and running through the examples. I actually picked up a great deal by taking documents I'd found online in bastardised for and tagging them up manually in LaTeX for output into flexible formats -- HTML, PDF, ePub, and more. It turns out that the basics of LaTeX are, well, pretty basics. Paragraphs are double returns, which buys you a lot. Italic and bold text, and the ``quoting'' style, are the main adaptations I had to make. Digging into the equations and images features takes some doing, but you can produce excellent docs well before that point. Stack Exchange has a wonderful LaTeX community. Of the rest of your list: 1. Emacs: I actually got pretty good at it at one point, then signed on to a gig (in the days just before running one's own Unix was readily possible) in which it wasn't available and the boss (idiot) didn't believe in installing anything which wasn't vendor-provisioned. That said: commit to using it. I've found that I prefer vim's editing modes, but there's viper-mode in emacs. The power of having all text interactions under your editor is ... immense. 2. Regex: Start with the basics. The Sed & Awk book (O'Reilly) is a good start. Most of it is simple substiutions, and you can get tremendous mileage from that, though as with many tools, you can abuse the concept. Perl remains probably the canonical home for advanced regex use, though most languages have some facility for it now. 3. Bash: I'd recommend this, if only because Microsoft has a poor track record of integrating with others and/or supporting other tools over a long period of time. Bash has existed on Windows since the 1990s under various toolkits, most notably Cygwin, and is now pretty much native. 4. Unicode: mostly a matter of figuring out what bits you need within a given project. I'd deprecate that on your list and consider it something to pursue on an as-needed basis. I can't much speak to the remainder of your list, though I'd suggest treating them as tools adapted to uses and goals.
  - _jal 10y ago
    As far as regexes, The Sed and Awk book is good, but Mastering Regular Expressions by Friedl is amazing. The amount of time that went into that work is mind-boggling. The deep dives into the differences between different engines and the detailed explanations of why one regex performs horribly vs. another that matches the same thing quickly are really enlightening.
    - dredmorbius 10y ago
      I agree with both statements. I still think that Sed & Awk is the better starting reference, as it begins with basic tools. Deep dives are fine, but sometimes you just wanto to get a few toes in the water. I'd argue that if you've got performance issues with regexes, you're (arguably) abusing the tool.
- rgrau 10y ago
  * LearningList ** TODO Emacs ** TODO Regex ** TODO Latex ** TODO Bash/Terminal/Powershell ** TODO Unicode ** TODO APL/J/K ** TODO Linear Algebra ** TODO Category Theory EDIT: Format
- 404-universe 10y ago
  I've found that 3Blue1Brown's video series is a good introduction to linear algebra: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2x...
- GlennS 10y ago
  Regarding regexes, I would recommend http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html It doesn't take long, and I found the explanation clear enough that it's stuck. It's also a good reference site if you want to quickly remind yourself what X means in Y dialect. I also have a long todo list that more things go on than get done. But, I think it's probably unreasonable to expect to learn more than say one or two programming-language level things a year if you've got a job. Certainly if you're going to do the learning thoroughly and not just forget it all by the next year.
- stinkytaco 10y ago
  Well, org-mode is a pretty decent replacement for LaTeX. You can do most of the basic formatting, plus it supports specialty LaTeX syntax when org-mode is not sufficient.
nextos 10y ago
It's worth noting a great Android client for org-mode has been recently open sourced: http://www.orgzly.com/ http://www.orgzly.com/ https://github.com/orgzly https://github.com/orgzly https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/com.orgzly https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/com.orgzly It was a little annoyance we did not have anything as good as this before.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  An even better Android client for org-mode: 1. Install the Termux app. 2. Install the Termux API app. 3. Install the Termux api CLI tools via apt. You now have access to clipboard. 4. Install Emacs within termux. Termux offers an apt-based package management system, and a substantial, though partial, set of Debian-based packages. (592 packages as I write this -- a full Debian archive is >60k packages now.) There are other tools installable through other package-management archives -- notably python's "pip", which provides tools such as youtube-dl (I've previously mentioned this for offline viewing and listening of YouTube and other video/audio content). I'm not particularly enamoured of the Android app "ecosystem" on multiple points. Including privacy and quality.
  - nextos 10y ago
    This is a great setup. However, on a small screen phone without a physical keyboard I tend to prefer a touch-based application. I rarely make any edits to my org files, but I often want to have a quick look.
    - dredmorbius 10y ago
      Fair enough, though a larger tablet (8-10") and bluetooth keyboard makes for an excellent mobile platform. IMO the phone form-factor is too small for any really effective use, and a dedicated dumbphone, or more stationary use of IP-based voice comms is generally a preferred option. I've almost completely abandoned voice comms, as it happens.
      - nextos 10y ago
partycoder 10y ago
Looks great but I personally prefer to take notes with jupyter notebook. For TODO lists I prefer Asana, since it will send you e-mails/push notifications, and has a website + mobile app.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- base698 10y ago
  Can jupyter do tables and diagrams followed by code snippets in multiple languages?
  - Y_Y 10y ago
    Yes. You can use cell magic to change the language for each cell and you can display HTML/latex output inline or just mix computations in with markdown. The only problem is that the editor is just a text box with annoying bracket matching instead of Emacs.
    - Steeeve 10y ago
      I really want to like Jupyter. But taking notes or working through things in a textbox element just doesn't cut it. If I could build my notebooks in emacs... But then org mode has most of the same functionality.
      - matt-noonan 10y ago
        Oh, but you can! Check out ein-mode: https://tkf.github.io/emacs-ipython-notebook/ https://tkf.github.io/emacs-ipython-notebook/
      - peatmoss 10y ago
        My biggest Jupyter complaint is that, at least by default, produces files that are pretty hard to revision meaningfully in git.
cygned 10y ago
I write lectures for university in org-mode. The PDF export (org -> LaTeX -> PDF) with org-beamer and a theme makes it a nice looking presentation. I can check into Git, can copy and paste layouts, have a great search and don't have to leave the keyboard (which over time has actually become quite a big deal for me). Just wished Preview would show thumbnails in the TouchBar.
- throwanem 10y ago
  For those uninterested in getting into a LaTeX presentation tool, there's also a package [1] supporting export from org-mode to Reveal.js presentations. I've found it to work quite well, and to be much more convenient than any more GUI-focused tool. [1] https://github.com/yjwen/org-reveal https://github.com/yjwen/org-reveal
  - cygned 10y ago
    I have used that, too, works like a charm.
baby 10y ago
Every time I try to get into org-mode, I just don't get where to start and how to do things. So I end up going back to Sublime text, creating markdown files to take my notes, works well.
- jordskott 10y ago
  The beauty of orgmode is that you don't need to learn everything to start using it, actually, you can just start with your typical workflow and look for stuff as you need.
  - morbidhawk 10y ago
    I stopped using org-mode for a time after having invested a lot of time in learning all the cool stuff you can do because I felt like it was overkill and I was trying to do too much with it and organizing everything was becoming a chore. If you look at all it can do, it has so many capabilities (outlining, gtd, wiki, blogging, ebook publishing, presentations, time tracking, etc). Recently, I came back to it just to use for code/programming notes and instead of trying to organize all the code into source blocks I went the other way and added in my own comments and questions in blocks that can be toggled on/off around the code that's there. Now the only org syntax I really use from org-mode is `#+BEGIN:` blocks for comments/questions I can quiz myself on and occasionally headlines when I want to organize something because it's in the way of reading the plain text. If I gave advice to someone new to it it would be to start with just plaintext notes and only add what you really need. You can quickly go overboad once you are trying to figure out how to do footnotes, file linking, exporting w/ images, source code execution, etc.
    - _jal 10y ago
      Not sure if it is the same thing, but I find myself sometimes procrastinating by noodling with software features. It isn't the fault of org-mode (or any other software), it is mine, for not being disciplined enough. "Distraction free" apps don't work, because I frequently need to switch windows a lot and need some fancy features. Really, the answer for me is to work on staying focused. (Perhaps a lobotomy would help.) But it isn't a problem with my tools.
tomhoward 10y ago
Server is currently overloaded. Google cache version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HsxJcXanfuYJ:ehneilsen.net/notebook/orgExamples/org-examples.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HsxJcXa...
fosco 10y ago
bandwidth exceeded message http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HsxJcXanfuYJ:ehneilsen.net/notebook/orgExamples/org-examples.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HsxJcXa... I have gotten into org-mode a few months ago, simply amazing. Edit: I see why I have been downvoted, but here is the error message I received. 451 Actioning this file would cause "ehneilsen.net//notebook/orgExamples/org-examples.html" to exceed the per-hour file actions limit of 20000 actions, try again later
optimali 10y ago
Any suggestions for composing gantt charts in org mode? I've been using taskjuggler but printing them out to anything other than html (ex. image, pdf) has been a hassle.
thesorrow 10y ago
I'm surprised that no one tried to replicate this in electron yet. Outlining alone is really powerfull and would be a great fit for a web based app !
- wtbob 10y ago
  Why use electron? emacs is already available. And it includes a pretty great news reader, mail reader, git interface, source-control interface, a thousand other nifty things — oh, yeah, and a text editor too.
  - spinchange 10y ago
    Even if they should, not everyone needs to, or is inclined to learn and live in emacs. Thinking especially of technically inclined folks (or managers, etc) who don't really write code or have any reason to live in an editor, but get benefit from all the loads of other nifty things - just without the cognitive overhead of stuff like tweaking config files, learning all the keybindings, managing buffers and the like- again, just for the use of org as a powerful, text-based, personal information manager.
    - sedachv 10y ago
      Why do people think that Emacs is impossible for non-programmers to use? "He wrote a version of Emacs in Multics MacLisp, and he wrote his commands in MacLisp in a straightforward fashion. The editor itself was written entirely in Lisp. Multics Emacs proved to be a great success — programming new editing commands was so convenient that even the secretaries in his office started learning how to use it. They used a manual someone had written which showed how to extend Emacs, but didn't say it was a programming. So the secretaries, who believed they couldn't do programming, weren't scared off. They read the manual, discovered they could do useful things and they learned to program." https://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.en.html https://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.en.html "I'm a non-technical user, non-programmer, and I started using it because of org-mode." https://groups.google.com/d/msg/gnu.emacs.help/QU6xN34ollo/KRtRHBwW1lYJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/gnu.emacs.help/QU6xN34ollo/K... "Shel wrote Mailman in Lisp. Emacs-Lisp… Mailman was the Customer Service customer-email processing application for … four, five years? A long time, anyway. It was written in Emacs. Everyone loved it. People still love it. To this very day, I still have to listen to long stories from our non-technical folks about how much they miss Mailman. I'm not shitting you. Last Christmas I was at an Amazon party, some party I have no idea how I got invited to, filled with business people, all of them much prettier and more charming than me and the folks I work with here in the Furnace, the Boiler Room of Amazon. Four young women found out I was in Customer Service, cornered me, and talked for fifteen minutes about how much they missed Mailman and Emacs, and how Arizona (the JSP replacement we'd spent years developing) still just wasn't doing it for them." http://tess.oconnor.cx/2006/03/quality-without-a-name http://tess.oconnor.cx/2006/03/quality-without-a-name
amackera 10y ago
Every time I see something about org-mode posted, I get mad FOMO and decide to re-dedicate my life to learning emacs and everything it has to offer. Then a little while later I inevitably drift back to vim. It's getting to the point where I need to just ignore cool stuff like this post in order to get on with my life.
- Veen 10y ago
  I split the difference with Emacs and Evil Mode. It's not at all the same as using Vim, but at least I get org mode and Vim-like modal editing.
  - mikekchar 10y ago
    I'm also using Emacs and Evil mode as well. It really is very close to vanilla Vim. There are probably only 3 major issues I have. First is that there is no emacs way that I know of to duplicate the work flow for opening files in vanilla Vim. I personally hate control-P. Managing buffers is also a bit different because the paths are not searchable in the buffer names. I'm using ido to help with this, but it has some quirks that I don't really like so well. My biggest problem is the difference in the way the undo buffer works. There are a couple of scenarios where a single undo will back up before the last press of escape. I think there are some bugs for these issues so I'm hopeful that they will be fixed (or have been fixed already -- I haven't updated in a while). It took me quite a while to set things up, but I use it every day as my main editor and I'm quite happy with it. I can also easily jump back into Vim if I'm pairing with a Vim person, which was one of the things I was concerned about.
- pawelk 10y ago
  Five years ago I have started to use Emacs after I saw some cool org-mode demos in hopes of utilizing some of its power in my organization and task management. I've been using Emacs daily for every programming task since then, but diving into org-mode is still on my to do list...
  - krylon 10y ago
alphapapa 10y ago
Shameless plug: http://github.com/alphapapa/helm-org-rifle http://github.com/alphapapa/helm-org-rifle Makes it very easy and fast to search through org files.
- dangom 10y ago
  By looking at the GIF in helm-org-rifle I remembered reading about variable-pitch fonts on (what I believe to be) your blog. Great content in there, thanks a lot for sharing!
  - alphapapa 10y ago
    Don't actually have a blog, but I've been thinking about one for some Emacs-related stuff (though it would be feeble compared to the Emacs-related blogs already out there!). I assume you know about Planet Emacs, but if not, planet.emacsen.org. :) Anyway, about the fonts: I use monospace fonts for code, but I like proportional fonts for Org documents, so I have this in my org-mode hook: (buffer-face-set :family (face-attribute 'variable-pitch :family)) Then I use monospace in Org code blocks like this: (set-face-font 'org-block-background frame-font) You could also set that one in the customize interface.
tombert 10y ago
Org-mode is one of those things that I regret not learning about when I used Emacs full-time. I've had a few friends now show me how it's completely changed their workflow, but since it's not terribly popular in Vim-land (though I am aware there is a port to Vim), I haven't really had a chance to really learn it.
- ageofwant 10y ago
  Check out http://spacemacs.org/ http://spacemacs.org/. Adding the org layer is a one-liner: 'org' in dotspacemacs-configuration-layers.
  - tombert 10y ago
    I've actually used Spacemacs, but the problem with all these "recreate your Vim setup in another editor" things is that you end up having to redo your entire config. I've had years of custom key-rebindings and tweaks to my `.vimrc` that I don't really feel like redoing for something else.
    - weaksauce 10y ago
      I had a lot of modifications to my vimrc but spacemacs won me over. It's mostly setup well out of the box. If you feel like taking the plunge there is an Irc like thing for open source projects (don't recall the name of it now.) that is fairly active.
      - avtar 10y ago
        https://gitter.im/syl20bnr/spacemacs https://gitter.im/syl20bnr/spacemacs
JohnStrange 10y ago
I tried to get into org mode and even ordered the printed manual, but it was just too much configuration work and shortcut memorizing, to be honest. Maybe another time. For now I've reverted to using an Action Day Planner[1] and Leuchtturm1917[2] notebooks with numbered pages for notes, and I'm fairly happy with this system. In hindsight, given the many things I've tried, email + pencil&paper is still hard to beat. [1] http://www.actionday.com http://www.actionday.com [2] https://www.leuchtturm1917.us/ https://www.leuchtturm1917.us/
- lallysingh 10y ago
  They're for different kinds of work, really. I use a Leuchtturm1917 with a nice fountain pen for deep thinking and analysis, and org-mode for running notes while doing work. org-mode is very deep, and you shouldn't try to learn it all at once. Start off small in a way that you find it useful, then start adding in features as you need. There's no need to use all, or even many, of the features for most use cases. But it's nice to have them when needed.
vbernat 10y ago
As a complement on how to use Org mode for ops: - http://www.howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/literate-devops.html http://www.howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/literate-devops.htm... (Literate DevOps) - https://vincent.bernat.im/en/blog/2017-netops-org-mode https://vincent.bernat.im/en/blog/2017-netops-org-mode ("same" for NetOps, I am the author of this one)
- camperman 10y ago
  Howard's YouTube video is really nice too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dljNabciEGg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dljNabciEGg
  - ttsiodras 10y ago
    After watching this video, I spent a few hours reproducing the core functionality of what Howard demonstrated (with an .org file of my own)... ...and then went further down the rabbit hole. I installed org-reveal and used it to create a very nice presentation out of my .org file - with syntax-highlighted code seemlessly merging with screenshots. Incredible. Thanks for pointing me to this - and thank you, Howard!
    - camperman 10y ago
      Pleasure. org-mode really is the gift that keeps on giving.
greggyb 10y ago
Question I've found myself running into with org-mode. How do you use it to collaborate and share notes with others? I work in a Windows shop (Microsoft data platform partner), and most of my coworkers don't even know what emacs is. I can always export my own notes to HTML or similar for others to consume, but most of my coworkers are using OneNote. I prefer org-mode to OneNote, but for convenience I use OneNote since we can collaborate better. I didn't find anything that can ingest and spit out OneNote compatible notebooks when I looked.
- sk8ingdom 10y ago
  Maybe take a look at Pandoc[1]? It converts between Org-mode and Microsoft formats. [1] http://pandoc.org/ http://pandoc.org/
- chalst 10y ago
  Maybe make an AskHN out of your question? Or ask on the Emacs Stackexchange - http://emacs.stackexchange.com/ http://emacs.stackexchange.com/ - Link back here if you do
rerx 10y ago
I have been a heavy user of Emacs for six years or so. However, I never really got into org-mode. I use it for some simple notes and lists, but I never export them into any different format. If I want to produce a well-formatted PDF, I directly write LaTeX with the help of some very nice Emacs modes. For online documents I feel that some sort of Markdown is often the most practical choice. So far, in my experience there was little overlap in between these use cases for the same documents. This cookbook, however, is a very nice resource. Maybe one of these tricks will convince me to use org-mode more productively at some point. I thought org-mode would be useful for personal task management, but I find it to offer way to many intricate options for that. The restricted feature set of Wunderlist is actually better for me, and having all lists always fully available on any device and the web is extremely useful.
- BeetleB 10y ago
  > If I want to produce a well-formatted PDF, I directly write LaTeX with the help of some very nice Emacs modes. My experience is quite the opposite. I was a heavy LaTeX user, and stopped pure LaTeX years ago when I learned org mode. For the usual markup, Org mode syntax is much nicer than LaTeX's. And if I want custom LaTeX, Org mode lets me insert it in the document. I never manually write TeX or HTML documents any more. I always author in Org mode and export. >I thought org-mode would be useful for personal task management, but I find it to offer way to many intricate options for that. The restricted feature set of Wunderlist is actually better for me, and having all lists always fully available on any device and the web is extremely useful. The task management is as simple or as intricate as you like. Org mode doesn't force any intricacies on you. If you want a simple flow, you can get it without learning too much Org Mode. However, having it available on any device is a big deal. I'll grant you that.
  - rerx 10y ago
    > My experience is quite the opposite. I was a heavy LaTeX user, and stopped pure LaTeX years ago when I learned org mode. For the usual markup, Org mode syntax is much nicer than LaTeX's. And if I want custom LaTeX, Org mode lets me insert it in the document. That's interesting! I googled a bit and found that people actually write research papers in org-mode. But in my experience (physics) that usually requires a lot of manual LaTeX control. Also these documents are often written in collaboration with other people, who do not use org-mode. Frankly, Auctex with Reftex is so nice, I do not see the advantages of org-mode for my main use cases. Maybe I will give it another try one day for letters and other one-off documents. I could see an advantage in hiding all the LaTeX boilerplate cruft. > The task management is as simple or as intricate as you like. Org mode doesn't force any intricacies on you. If you want a simple flow, you can get it without learning too much Org Mode. This is one case where I find actual value in the choices and pleasant design somebody else has made for me. Of course, now that I have learnt how well Wunderlist works for me, I could try to re-implement it in org-mode. But what would I gain? Mainly nicer text editing capabilities, secondly independence from a cloud service. The text editing is not a big deal, since it is actually beneficial to keep these lists short. For now, the cloud service comes with so many advantages that I accept this dependence. Finally, I have come to the surprising realization that browsing and checking off these lists is actually nicer for me in a mouse-first, keyboard-second interface, at least as long as I get to use a keyboard with a trackpoint.
desireco42 10y ago
For all those who are coming from Vim and experience FOMO... I learned Emacs, it is fantastic editor. Org mode, it is nice, I tried to use it several times, it is a little bit overengineered, but very smart. I wasn't as awestruck with it. I find whole Emacs ecosystem slow. After I type, things are slowly happening one, by one. Org Mode, especially coming from Vim is not that impressive, I do respect history of it.
taude 10y ago
i used to use org-mode a lot back in the day, but I lost my emacs config, and since then haven't really gone back. I always have a fond memory of organizing my tech life with org-mode, though. It was truly ahead of its time, but I feel there's better tools for the job now, that specialize in doing each of the many things org-mode does, but better. Some alternatives I used off and on for a bit: * NValt * Respose Notes * Evernote * Plain Tasks for Sublime Text https://github.com/aziz/PlainTasks https://github.com/aziz/PlainTasks * Workflowy * Other web-based/mobile optimized tools It's still a great tool for managing a single dev's work life, especially if using emacs, but I've found more modern tools, with collaboration built in, pretty formatting for non-techies, etc. a little more flexible. (I also dare to say that I'm on Microsoft OneNote these days, mostly because I work in a multi-platform environment.)
- stinkytaco 10y ago
  Just to play counterpoint to this, these features being available in various tools is precisely why I like org mode. Workflowy has always struck me as "org-lite", and plain tasks for sublime is also a good package, as is nvalt. But the combination of org-velocity or deft and org give me all that in an integrated tool. The only thing I don't get is the clipping ability of Evernote. Plus my data is my own, not locked into someone else's ecosystem.
alanning 10y ago
Wow, I didn't know org mode did sequence diagrams. That is going to be really useful to document our code. Will be great to be able to check in the source for sequence diagrams since the online services I've found for making them are hard to work with as a team.
- codemac 10y ago
  Think of Org-mode as more of a multi-language ipython notebook, where anything (plantuml, ditaa, python, etc) can be used, along with a data interchange format (org-mode vars + tables). It can literally "do" any tool you use that has a cli interface.
snakeanus 10y ago
A bit unrelated but in the last update of org-mode when trying to use the listings latex package it starts inserting a \ before the { in \lstset {, is there any way to fix this?
euroclydon 10y ago
If anyone is having trouble getting the plantuml diagrams going, here is what worked form in OSX: 1) Didn't have Java, installed it by following the prompt that appears by running 'java' in the shell 2) brew install plantuml 3) M-x package-install<RET> plantuml-mode<RET> 4) Add following to .emacs (setq org-plantuml-jar-path "/usr/local/Cellar/plantuml/8057/libexec/plantuml.jar") (require 'ob-plantuml) ;; active Babel languages (org-babel-do-load-languages 'org-babel-load-languages '((plantuml . t) ))
spinchange 10y ago
For years I've wished to see an implementation of the basic feature set of Org and Remember, et al., as a javascript/node app that could be re-packaged as an outlook plugin, browser extension, or electron app, etc., ...for those of us non-pro-programmer/hobbyist types who really want to use emacs and org to do mere mortal stuff but don't need to live in a code editor/IDE like the pros.
nodivbyzero 10y ago
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chemag 10y ago
I've been trying for a while to understand what org-mode gives you. I saw Dominik's tech talk at Google, and Bieber's discussion on dropping vim with emacs. I really like the approach taken in this article, showing some of the language features. IIUC, what org-mode provides you is: 1. a (markdown-like) lightweight document markup language, with lots of syntax hooks ("#+") for different tools. 2. some (even lighter, i.e., no "#+" required) organization-based syntax hooks. These are the TODO/DONE/... labels (plus the "[ ]" tidbits), the table syntax, the metadata (e.g. AUTHOR). In fact, the idea of adding metadata to a lightweight markup language is very interesting. 3. some "programmy" syntax items, including things like tags, spreadsheet-like tables, properties, etc. 4. the agenda view. This is a horizontal search on multiple .org files to create a work agenda. 5. some emacs functionality related to automatic recognition and operation on some of the syntax items. For example, org-table-align will "Re-align the table and don't move to another field". There are lots of other features, but nothing that other lightweight markup languages don't/can't have too. My main concerns are: 1. it is inextricably tied to emacs. AFAICT, only (5) in the previous list is emacs-only. All the other functionalities are related to the markup syntax. 2. I wish the org-mode language was fully markdown compatible (I can barely remember the syntax of one, and now I need to use 2).
- dangom 10y ago
  You are very right that other lightweight markup languages could provide syntax for everything that org-mode does. But what would possibly interpret that syntax? The fact that org-mode is tied to Emacs is both its weakness but also its strength. By sitting on the Emacs interpreter, org-mode imposes no limits to what you can achieve. The synergy with other Emacs packages is enormous. You also forgot to mention one of the coolest features of Org: exporting your documents to whatever format you may want, e.g. html, latex, markdown, odt, reveal.js, - and it's possible to hack the export to fit your needs usually with modest effort. Here's an example of workflow to collaborate with Word users, for example: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2015-06/msg00246.html https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2015-06/msg... And here a recent blog post on exporting org to jupyter notebooks: http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu/blog/2017/01/21/Exporting-org-mode-to-Jupyter-notebooks/ http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu/blog/2017/01/21/Exporting-...
andrewdon 10y ago
exceeded bandwidth limit. how much traffic you think getting on hn's frontpage might bring in?
hyperhopper 10y ago
My big question with org mode is how to really handle todos. Should I always capture tasks into one big file? When I finish them, do I just leave them for this file to grow forever with more tasks being done and having to hunt for the todos in the file unless I use agenda view?
- caboteria 10y ago
  You can move no-longer-useful data into an archive file: http://orgmode.org/manual/Archiving.html http://orgmode.org/manual/Archiving.html
- juki 10y ago
  You can always put different tasks to different files (per project for example). There no need to hunt for todos; use `C-c \` (or `C-c /` for more options) to create a sparse tree. It supports the same queries as agenda tag searches. For example, `/!` to show all unfinished tasks, or `/TODO` for just the ones with TODO as the keyword. You can also use the timeline view with a prefix argument to see tasks in the current file (`C-u C-c a L`). Or you can restrict other agenda views to the current buffer (`C-c a < t` for a task list). Custom agenda commands can also specify their own set of agenda files (they can also be chosen by a function whenever the agenda view is created).
braveoyster 10y ago
oh, bandwidth restricted
type0 10y ago
It amazes me how powerful org-mode is. I saw that Hugo has started supporting org-mode, together with Caddy server and couple of extensions one could create awesome web based knowledge-base, all with a minimal stack.

386 points by dangom 10y ago

I switched to Emacs specifically because of all the Org mode love I'd read about. I've barely touched the surface of Org, thank you!

nickpeterson 10y ago

Org-mode is on my list of things I should probably learn better, but never seem to get around to. Here are some entries in that list: Emacs Regex Latex Bash/Terminal/Powershell Unicode APL/J/K Linear Algebra Category Theory

melling 10y ago
I keep dozens of org files on Github in public repos. Here are a few: https://github.com/melling/LanguageLearning https://github.com/melling/LanguageLearning https://github.com/melling/ios_topics/blob/master/README.org https://github.com/melling/ios_topics/blob/master/README.org https://github.com/melling/ComputerGraphics https://github.com/melling/ComputerGraphics
- e19293001 10y ago
  This gave me an idea on how to organize interesting stuffs and it's quite simple. Thanks! I hope nickpeterson did got that idea too. And what I could recommend is to use emacs and org-mode everyday especially when taking notes. You can't learn without using them. It gave me lots of benefits.
dredmorbius 10y ago
Start using the tools. For LaTeX: I very strongly recommend picking up a copy of the Lion Book (Leslie Lamport) and running through the examples. I actually picked up a great deal by taking documents I'd found online in bastardised for and tagging them up manually in LaTeX for output into flexible formats -- HTML, PDF, ePub, and more. It turns out that the basics of LaTeX are, well, pretty basics. Paragraphs are double returns, which buys you a lot. Italic and bold text, and the ``quoting'' style, are the main adaptations I had to make. Digging into the equations and images features takes some doing, but you can produce excellent docs well before that point. Stack Exchange has a wonderful LaTeX community. Of the rest of your list: 1. Emacs: I actually got pretty good at it at one point, then signed on to a gig (in the days just before running one's own Unix was readily possible) in which it wasn't available and the boss (idiot) didn't believe in installing anything which wasn't vendor-provisioned. That said: commit to using it. I've found that I prefer vim's editing modes, but there's viper-mode in emacs. The power of having all text interactions under your editor is ... immense. 2. Regex: Start with the basics. The Sed & Awk book (O'Reilly) is a good start. Most of it is simple substiutions, and you can get tremendous mileage from that, though as with many tools, you can abuse the concept. Perl remains probably the canonical home for advanced regex use, though most languages have some facility for it now. 3. Bash: I'd recommend this, if only because Microsoft has a poor track record of integrating with others and/or supporting other tools over a long period of time. Bash has existed on Windows since the 1990s under various toolkits, most notably Cygwin, and is now pretty much native. 4. Unicode: mostly a matter of figuring out what bits you need within a given project. I'd deprecate that on your list and consider it something to pursue on an as-needed basis. I can't much speak to the remainder of your list, though I'd suggest treating them as tools adapted to uses and goals.
- _jal 10y ago
  As far as regexes, The Sed and Awk book is good, but Mastering Regular Expressions by Friedl is amazing. The amount of time that went into that work is mind-boggling. The deep dives into the differences between different engines and the detailed explanations of why one regex performs horribly vs. another that matches the same thing quickly are really enlightening.
  - dredmorbius 10y ago
    I agree with both statements. I still think that Sed & Awk is the better starting reference, as it begins with basic tools. Deep dives are fine, but sometimes you just wanto to get a few toes in the water. I'd argue that if you've got performance issues with regexes, you're (arguably) abusing the tool.
rgrau 10y ago
* LearningList ** TODO Emacs ** TODO Regex ** TODO Latex ** TODO Bash/Terminal/Powershell ** TODO Unicode ** TODO APL/J/K ** TODO Linear Algebra ** TODO Category Theory EDIT: Format
404-universe 10y ago
I've found that 3Blue1Brown's video series is a good introduction to linear algebra: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2x...
GlennS 10y ago
Regarding regexes, I would recommend http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html It doesn't take long, and I found the explanation clear enough that it's stuck. It's also a good reference site if you want to quickly remind yourself what X means in Y dialect. I also have a long todo list that more things go on than get done. But, I think it's probably unreasonable to expect to learn more than say one or two programming-language level things a year if you've got a job. Certainly if you're going to do the learning thoroughly and not just forget it all by the next year.
stinkytaco 10y ago
Well, org-mode is a pretty decent replacement for LaTeX. You can do most of the basic formatting, plus it supports specialty LaTeX syntax when org-mode is not sufficient.

nextos 10y ago

It's worth noting a great Android client for org-mode has been recently open sourced: http://www.orgzly.com/ http://www.orgzly.com/ https://github.com/orgzly https://github.com/orgzly https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/com.orgzly https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/com.orgzly It was a little annoyance we did not have anything as good as this before.

dredmorbius 10y ago
An even better Android client for org-mode: 1. Install the Termux app. 2. Install the Termux API app. 3. Install the Termux api CLI tools via apt. You now have access to clipboard. 4. Install Emacs within termux. Termux offers an apt-based package management system, and a substantial, though partial, set of Debian-based packages. (592 packages as I write this -- a full Debian archive is >60k packages now.) There are other tools installable through other package-management archives -- notably python's "pip", which provides tools such as youtube-dl (I've previously mentioned this for offline viewing and listening of YouTube and other video/audio content). I'm not particularly enamoured of the Android app "ecosystem" on multiple points. Including privacy and quality.
- nextos 10y ago
  This is a great setup. However, on a small screen phone without a physical keyboard I tend to prefer a touch-based application. I rarely make any edits to my org files, but I often want to have a quick look.
  - dredmorbius 10y ago
    Fair enough, though a larger tablet (8-10") and bluetooth keyboard makes for an excellent mobile platform. IMO the phone form-factor is too small for any really effective use, and a dedicated dumbphone, or more stationary use of IP-based voice comms is generally a preferred option. I've almost completely abandoned voice comms, as it happens.
    - nextos 10y ago

partycoder 10y ago

Looks great but I personally prefer to take notes with jupyter notebook. For TODO lists I prefer Asana, since it will send you e-mails/push notifications, and has a website + mobile app.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
base698 10y ago
Can jupyter do tables and diagrams followed by code snippets in multiple languages?
- Y_Y 10y ago
  Yes. You can use cell magic to change the language for each cell and you can display HTML/latex output inline or just mix computations in with markdown. The only problem is that the editor is just a text box with annoying bracket matching instead of Emacs.
  - Steeeve 10y ago
    I really want to like Jupyter. But taking notes or working through things in a textbox element just doesn't cut it. If I could build my notebooks in emacs... But then org mode has most of the same functionality.
    - matt-noonan 10y ago
      Oh, but you can! Check out ein-mode: https://tkf.github.io/emacs-ipython-notebook/ https://tkf.github.io/emacs-ipython-notebook/
    - peatmoss 10y ago
      My biggest Jupyter complaint is that, at least by default, produces files that are pretty hard to revision meaningfully in git.

cygned 10y ago

I write lectures for university in org-mode. The PDF export (org -> LaTeX -> PDF) with org-beamer and a theme makes it a nice looking presentation. I can check into Git, can copy and paste layouts, have a great search and don't have to leave the keyboard (which over time has actually become quite a big deal for me). Just wished Preview would show thumbnails in the TouchBar.

throwanem 10y ago
For those uninterested in getting into a LaTeX presentation tool, there's also a package [1] supporting export from org-mode to Reveal.js presentations. I've found it to work quite well, and to be much more convenient than any more GUI-focused tool. [1] https://github.com/yjwen/org-reveal https://github.com/yjwen/org-reveal
- cygned 10y ago
  I have used that, too, works like a charm.

baby 10y ago

Every time I try to get into org-mode, I just don't get where to start and how to do things. So I end up going back to Sublime text, creating markdown files to take my notes, works well.

jordskott 10y ago
The beauty of orgmode is that you don't need to learn everything to start using it, actually, you can just start with your typical workflow and look for stuff as you need.
- morbidhawk 10y ago
  I stopped using org-mode for a time after having invested a lot of time in learning all the cool stuff you can do because I felt like it was overkill and I was trying to do too much with it and organizing everything was becoming a chore. If you look at all it can do, it has so many capabilities (outlining, gtd, wiki, blogging, ebook publishing, presentations, time tracking, etc). Recently, I came back to it just to use for code/programming notes and instead of trying to organize all the code into source blocks I went the other way and added in my own comments and questions in blocks that can be toggled on/off around the code that's there. Now the only org syntax I really use from org-mode is `#+BEGIN:` blocks for comments/questions I can quiz myself on and occasionally headlines when I want to organize something because it's in the way of reading the plain text. If I gave advice to someone new to it it would be to start with just plaintext notes and only add what you really need. You can quickly go overboad once you are trying to figure out how to do footnotes, file linking, exporting w/ images, source code execution, etc.
  - _jal 10y ago
    Not sure if it is the same thing, but I find myself sometimes procrastinating by noodling with software features. It isn't the fault of org-mode (or any other software), it is mine, for not being disciplined enough. "Distraction free" apps don't work, because I frequently need to switch windows a lot and need some fancy features. Really, the answer for me is to work on staying focused. (Perhaps a lobotomy would help.) But it isn't a problem with my tools.

tomhoward 10y ago

Server is currently overloaded. Google cache version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HsxJcXanfuYJ:ehneilsen.net/notebook/orgExamples/org-examples.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HsxJcXa...

fosco 10y ago

bandwidth exceeded message http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HsxJcXanfuYJ:ehneilsen.net/notebook/orgExamples/org-examples.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HsxJcXa... I have gotten into org-mode a few months ago, simply amazing. Edit: I see why I have been downvoted, but here is the error message I received. 451 Actioning this file would cause "ehneilsen.net//notebook/orgExamples/org-examples.html" to exceed the per-hour file actions limit of 20000 actions, try again later

optimali 10y ago

Any suggestions for composing gantt charts in org mode? I've been using taskjuggler but printing them out to anything other than html (ex. image, pdf) has been a hassle.

thesorrow 10y ago

I'm surprised that no one tried to replicate this in electron yet. Outlining alone is really powerfull and would be a great fit for a web based app !

wtbob 10y ago
Why use electron? emacs is already available. And it includes a pretty great news reader, mail reader, git interface, source-control interface, a thousand other nifty things — oh, yeah, and a text editor too.
- spinchange 10y ago
  Even if they should, not everyone needs to, or is inclined to learn and live in emacs. Thinking especially of technically inclined folks (or managers, etc) who don't really write code or have any reason to live in an editor, but get benefit from all the loads of other nifty things - just without the cognitive overhead of stuff like tweaking config files, learning all the keybindings, managing buffers and the like- again, just for the use of org as a powerful, text-based, personal information manager.
  - sedachv 10y ago
    Why do people think that Emacs is impossible for non-programmers to use? "He wrote a version of Emacs in Multics MacLisp, and he wrote his commands in MacLisp in a straightforward fashion. The editor itself was written entirely in Lisp. Multics Emacs proved to be a great success — programming new editing commands was so convenient that even the secretaries in his office started learning how to use it. They used a manual someone had written which showed how to extend Emacs, but didn't say it was a programming. So the secretaries, who believed they couldn't do programming, weren't scared off. They read the manual, discovered they could do useful things and they learned to program." https://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.en.html https://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.en.html "I'm a non-technical user, non-programmer, and I started using it because of org-mode." https://groups.google.com/d/msg/gnu.emacs.help/QU6xN34ollo/KRtRHBwW1lYJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/gnu.emacs.help/QU6xN34ollo/K... "Shel wrote Mailman in Lisp. Emacs-Lisp… Mailman was the Customer Service customer-email processing application for … four, five years? A long time, anyway. It was written in Emacs. Everyone loved it. People still love it. To this very day, I still have to listen to long stories from our non-technical folks about how much they miss Mailman. I'm not shitting you. Last Christmas I was at an Amazon party, some party I have no idea how I got invited to, filled with business people, all of them much prettier and more charming than me and the folks I work with here in the Furnace, the Boiler Room of Amazon. Four young women found out I was in Customer Service, cornered me, and talked for fifteen minutes about how much they missed Mailman and Emacs, and how Arizona (the JSP replacement we'd spent years developing) still just wasn't doing it for them." http://tess.oconnor.cx/2006/03/quality-without-a-name http://tess.oconnor.cx/2006/03/quality-without-a-name

amackera 10y ago

Every time I see something about org-mode posted, I get mad FOMO and decide to re-dedicate my life to learning emacs and everything it has to offer. Then a little while later I inevitably drift back to vim. It's getting to the point where I need to just ignore cool stuff like this post in order to get on with my life.

Veen 10y ago
I split the difference with Emacs and Evil Mode. It's not at all the same as using Vim, but at least I get org mode and Vim-like modal editing.
- mikekchar 10y ago
  I'm also using Emacs and Evil mode as well. It really is very close to vanilla Vim. There are probably only 3 major issues I have. First is that there is no emacs way that I know of to duplicate the work flow for opening files in vanilla Vim. I personally hate control-P. Managing buffers is also a bit different because the paths are not searchable in the buffer names. I'm using ido to help with this, but it has some quirks that I don't really like so well. My biggest problem is the difference in the way the undo buffer works. There are a couple of scenarios where a single undo will back up before the last press of escape. I think there are some bugs for these issues so I'm hopeful that they will be fixed (or have been fixed already -- I haven't updated in a while). It took me quite a while to set things up, but I use it every day as my main editor and I'm quite happy with it. I can also easily jump back into Vim if I'm pairing with a Vim person, which was one of the things I was concerned about.
pawelk 10y ago
Five years ago I have started to use Emacs after I saw some cool org-mode demos in hopes of utilizing some of its power in my organization and task management. I've been using Emacs daily for every programming task since then, but diving into org-mode is still on my to do list...
- krylon 10y ago

alphapapa 10y ago

Shameless plug: http://github.com/alphapapa/helm-org-rifle http://github.com/alphapapa/helm-org-rifle Makes it very easy and fast to search through org files.

dangom 10y ago
By looking at the GIF in helm-org-rifle I remembered reading about variable-pitch fonts on (what I believe to be) your blog. Great content in there, thanks a lot for sharing!
- alphapapa 10y ago
  Don't actually have a blog, but I've been thinking about one for some Emacs-related stuff (though it would be feeble compared to the Emacs-related blogs already out there!). I assume you know about Planet Emacs, but if not, planet.emacsen.org. :) Anyway, about the fonts: I use monospace fonts for code, but I like proportional fonts for Org documents, so I have this in my org-mode hook: (buffer-face-set :family (face-attribute 'variable-pitch :family)) Then I use monospace in Org code blocks like this: (set-face-font 'org-block-background frame-font) You could also set that one in the customize interface.

tombert 10y ago

Org-mode is one of those things that I regret not learning about when I used Emacs full-time. I've had a few friends now show me how it's completely changed their workflow, but since it's not terribly popular in Vim-land (though I am aware there is a port to Vim), I haven't really had a chance to really learn it.

ageofwant 10y ago
Check out http://spacemacs.org/ http://spacemacs.org/. Adding the org layer is a one-liner: 'org' in dotspacemacs-configuration-layers.
- tombert 10y ago
  I've actually used Spacemacs, but the problem with all these "recreate your Vim setup in another editor" things is that you end up having to redo your entire config. I've had years of custom key-rebindings and tweaks to my `.vimrc` that I don't really feel like redoing for something else.
  - weaksauce 10y ago
    I had a lot of modifications to my vimrc but spacemacs won me over. It's mostly setup well out of the box. If you feel like taking the plunge there is an Irc like thing for open source projects (don't recall the name of it now.) that is fairly active.
    - avtar 10y ago
      https://gitter.im/syl20bnr/spacemacs https://gitter.im/syl20bnr/spacemacs

JohnStrange 10y ago

I tried to get into org mode and even ordered the printed manual, but it was just too much configuration work and shortcut memorizing, to be honest. Maybe another time. For now I've reverted to using an Action Day Planner[1] and Leuchtturm1917[2] notebooks with numbered pages for notes, and I'm fairly happy with this system. In hindsight, given the many things I've tried, email + pencil&paper is still hard to beat. [1] http://www.actionday.com http://www.actionday.com [2] https://www.leuchtturm1917.us/ https://www.leuchtturm1917.us/

lallysingh 10y ago
They're for different kinds of work, really. I use a Leuchtturm1917 with a nice fountain pen for deep thinking and analysis, and org-mode for running notes while doing work. org-mode is very deep, and you shouldn't try to learn it all at once. Start off small in a way that you find it useful, then start adding in features as you need. There's no need to use all, or even many, of the features for most use cases. But it's nice to have them when needed.

vbernat 10y ago

As a complement on how to use Org mode for ops: - http://www.howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/literate-devops.html http://www.howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/literate-devops.htm... (Literate DevOps) - https://vincent.bernat.im/en/blog/2017-netops-org-mode https://vincent.bernat.im/en/blog/2017-netops-org-mode ("same" for NetOps, I am the author of this one)

camperman 10y ago
Howard's YouTube video is really nice too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dljNabciEGg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dljNabciEGg
- ttsiodras 10y ago
  After watching this video, I spent a few hours reproducing the core functionality of what Howard demonstrated (with an .org file of my own)... ...and then went further down the rabbit hole. I installed org-reveal and used it to create a very nice presentation out of my .org file - with syntax-highlighted code seemlessly merging with screenshots. Incredible. Thanks for pointing me to this - and thank you, Howard!
  - camperman 10y ago
    Pleasure. org-mode really is the gift that keeps on giving.

greggyb 10y ago

Question I've found myself running into with org-mode. How do you use it to collaborate and share notes with others? I work in a Windows shop (Microsoft data platform partner), and most of my coworkers don't even know what emacs is. I can always export my own notes to HTML or similar for others to consume, but most of my coworkers are using OneNote. I prefer org-mode to OneNote, but for convenience I use OneNote since we can collaborate better. I didn't find anything that can ingest and spit out OneNote compatible notebooks when I looked.

sk8ingdom 10y ago
Maybe take a look at Pandoc[1]? It converts between Org-mode and Microsoft formats. [1] http://pandoc.org/ http://pandoc.org/
chalst 10y ago
Maybe make an AskHN out of your question? Or ask on the Emacs Stackexchange - http://emacs.stackexchange.com/ http://emacs.stackexchange.com/ - Link back here if you do

rerx 10y ago

I have been a heavy user of Emacs for six years or so. However, I never really got into org-mode. I use it for some simple notes and lists, but I never export them into any different format. If I want to produce a well-formatted PDF, I directly write LaTeX with the help of some very nice Emacs modes. For online documents I feel that some sort of Markdown is often the most practical choice. So far, in my experience there was little overlap in between these use cases for the same documents. This cookbook, however, is a very nice resource. Maybe one of these tricks will convince me to use org-mode more productively at some point. I thought org-mode would be useful for personal task management, but I find it to offer way to many intricate options for that. The restricted feature set of Wunderlist is actually better for me, and having all lists always fully available on any device and the web is extremely useful.

BeetleB 10y ago
> If I want to produce a well-formatted PDF, I directly write LaTeX with the help of some very nice Emacs modes. My experience is quite the opposite. I was a heavy LaTeX user, and stopped pure LaTeX years ago when I learned org mode. For the usual markup, Org mode syntax is much nicer than LaTeX's. And if I want custom LaTeX, Org mode lets me insert it in the document. I never manually write TeX or HTML documents any more. I always author in Org mode and export. >I thought org-mode would be useful for personal task management, but I find it to offer way to many intricate options for that. The restricted feature set of Wunderlist is actually better for me, and having all lists always fully available on any device and the web is extremely useful. The task management is as simple or as intricate as you like. Org mode doesn't force any intricacies on you. If you want a simple flow, you can get it without learning too much Org Mode. However, having it available on any device is a big deal. I'll grant you that.
- rerx 10y ago
  > My experience is quite the opposite. I was a heavy LaTeX user, and stopped pure LaTeX years ago when I learned org mode. For the usual markup, Org mode syntax is much nicer than LaTeX's. And if I want custom LaTeX, Org mode lets me insert it in the document. That's interesting! I googled a bit and found that people actually write research papers in org-mode. But in my experience (physics) that usually requires a lot of manual LaTeX control. Also these documents are often written in collaboration with other people, who do not use org-mode. Frankly, Auctex with Reftex is so nice, I do not see the advantages of org-mode for my main use cases. Maybe I will give it another try one day for letters and other one-off documents. I could see an advantage in hiding all the LaTeX boilerplate cruft. > The task management is as simple or as intricate as you like. Org mode doesn't force any intricacies on you. If you want a simple flow, you can get it without learning too much Org Mode. This is one case where I find actual value in the choices and pleasant design somebody else has made for me. Of course, now that I have learnt how well Wunderlist works for me, I could try to re-implement it in org-mode. But what would I gain? Mainly nicer text editing capabilities, secondly independence from a cloud service. The text editing is not a big deal, since it is actually beneficial to keep these lists short. For now, the cloud service comes with so many advantages that I accept this dependence. Finally, I have come to the surprising realization that browsing and checking off these lists is actually nicer for me in a mouse-first, keyboard-second interface, at least as long as I get to use a keyboard with a trackpoint.

desireco42 10y ago

For all those who are coming from Vim and experience FOMO... I learned Emacs, it is fantastic editor. Org mode, it is nice, I tried to use it several times, it is a little bit overengineered, but very smart. I wasn't as awestruck with it. I find whole Emacs ecosystem slow. After I type, things are slowly happening one, by one. Org Mode, especially coming from Vim is not that impressive, I do respect history of it.

taude 10y ago

i used to use org-mode a lot back in the day, but I lost my emacs config, and since then haven't really gone back. I always have a fond memory of organizing my tech life with org-mode, though. It was truly ahead of its time, but I feel there's better tools for the job now, that specialize in doing each of the many things org-mode does, but better. Some alternatives I used off and on for a bit: * NValt * Respose Notes * Evernote * Plain Tasks for Sublime Text https://github.com/aziz/PlainTasks https://github.com/aziz/PlainTasks * Workflowy * Other web-based/mobile optimized tools It's still a great tool for managing a single dev's work life, especially if using emacs, but I've found more modern tools, with collaboration built in, pretty formatting for non-techies, etc. a little more flexible. (I also dare to say that I'm on Microsoft OneNote these days, mostly because I work in a multi-platform environment.)

stinkytaco 10y ago
Just to play counterpoint to this, these features being available in various tools is precisely why I like org mode. Workflowy has always struck me as "org-lite", and plain tasks for sublime is also a good package, as is nvalt. But the combination of org-velocity or deft and org give me all that in an integrated tool. The only thing I don't get is the clipping ability of Evernote. Plus my data is my own, not locked into someone else's ecosystem.

alanning 10y ago

Wow, I didn't know org mode did sequence diagrams. That is going to be really useful to document our code. Will be great to be able to check in the source for sequence diagrams since the online services I've found for making them are hard to work with as a team.

codemac 10y ago
Think of Org-mode as more of a multi-language ipython notebook, where anything (plantuml, ditaa, python, etc) can be used, along with a data interchange format (org-mode vars + tables). It can literally "do" any tool you use that has a cli interface.

snakeanus 10y ago

A bit unrelated but in the last update of org-mode when trying to use the listings latex package it starts inserting a \ before the { in \lstset {, is there any way to fix this?

euroclydon 10y ago

If anyone is having trouble getting the plantuml diagrams going, here is what worked form in OSX: 1) Didn't have Java, installed it by following the prompt that appears by running 'java' in the shell 2) brew install plantuml 3) M-x package-install<RET> plantuml-mode<RET> 4) Add following to .emacs (setq org-plantuml-jar-path "/usr/local/Cellar/plantuml/8057/libexec/plantuml.jar") (require 'ob-plantuml) ;; active Babel languages (org-babel-do-load-languages 'org-babel-load-languages '((plantuml . t) ))

spinchange 10y ago

For years I've wished to see an implementation of the basic feature set of Org and Remember, et al., as a javascript/node app that could be re-packaged as an outlook plugin, browser extension, or electron app, etc., ...for those of us non-pro-programmer/hobbyist types who really want to use emacs and org to do mere mortal stuff but don't need to live in a code editor/IDE like the pros.

nodivbyzero 10y ago

Bandwidth Restricted The page you have tried to access is not available because the owner of the file you are trying to access has exceeded our short term bandwidth limits. Please try again shortly.

chemag 10y ago

I've been trying for a while to understand what org-mode gives you. I saw Dominik's tech talk at Google, and Bieber's discussion on dropping vim with emacs. I really like the approach taken in this article, showing some of the language features. IIUC, what org-mode provides you is: 1. a (markdown-like) lightweight document markup language, with lots of syntax hooks ("#+") for different tools. 2. some (even lighter, i.e., no "#+" required) organization-based syntax hooks. These are the TODO/DONE/... labels (plus the "[ ]" tidbits), the table syntax, the metadata (e.g. AUTHOR). In fact, the idea of adding metadata to a lightweight markup language is very interesting. 3. some "programmy" syntax items, including things like tags, spreadsheet-like tables, properties, etc. 4. the agenda view. This is a horizontal search on multiple .org files to create a work agenda. 5. some emacs functionality related to automatic recognition and operation on some of the syntax items. For example, org-table-align will "Re-align the table and don't move to another field". There are lots of other features, but nothing that other lightweight markup languages don't/can't have too. My main concerns are: 1. it is inextricably tied to emacs. AFAICT, only (5) in the previous list is emacs-only. All the other functionalities are related to the markup syntax. 2. I wish the org-mode language was fully markdown compatible (I can barely remember the syntax of one, and now I need to use 2).

dangom 10y ago
You are very right that other lightweight markup languages could provide syntax for everything that org-mode does. But what would possibly interpret that syntax? The fact that org-mode is tied to Emacs is both its weakness but also its strength. By sitting on the Emacs interpreter, org-mode imposes no limits to what you can achieve. The synergy with other Emacs packages is enormous. You also forgot to mention one of the coolest features of Org: exporting your documents to whatever format you may want, e.g. html, latex, markdown, odt, reveal.js, - and it's possible to hack the export to fit your needs usually with modest effort. Here's an example of workflow to collaborate with Word users, for example: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2015-06/msg00246.html https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2015-06/msg... And here a recent blog post on exporting org to jupyter notebooks: http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu/blog/2017/01/21/Exporting-org-mode-to-Jupyter-notebooks/ http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu/blog/2017/01/21/Exporting-...

andrewdon 10y ago

exceeded bandwidth limit. how much traffic you think getting on hn's frontpage might bring in?

hyperhopper 10y ago

My big question with org mode is how to really handle todos. Should I always capture tasks into one big file? When I finish them, do I just leave them for this file to grow forever with more tasks being done and having to hunt for the todos in the file unless I use agenda view?

caboteria 10y ago
You can move no-longer-useful data into an archive file: http://orgmode.org/manual/Archiving.html http://orgmode.org/manual/Archiving.html
juki 10y ago
You can always put different tasks to different files (per project for example). There no need to hunt for todos; use `C-c \` (or `C-c /` for more options) to create a sparse tree. It supports the same queries as agenda tag searches. For example, `/!` to show all unfinished tasks, or `/TODO` for just the ones with TODO as the keyword. You can also use the timeline view with a prefix argument to see tasks in the current file (`C-u C-c a L`). Or you can restrict other agenda views to the current buffer (`C-c a < t` for a task list). Custom agenda commands can also specify their own set of agenda files (they can also be chosen by a function whenever the agenda view is created).

braveoyster 10y ago

oh, bandwidth restricted

type0 10y ago

It amazes me how powerful org-mode is. I saw that Hugo has started supporting org-mode, together with Caddy server and couple of extensions one could create awesome web based knowledge-base, all with a minimal stack.