5 ms·

Org mode in a git repo. Easy enough. Don't need a fussy rendering step. Generate a PDF or HTML from org. Regardless of how you do it -- plain text will endure a

Org mode in a git repo. Easy enough. Don't need a fussy rendering step. Generate a PDF or HTML from org. Regardless of how you do it -- plain text will endure and using git makes it really simple. Markdown can never "go away" and neither can org files. They are inherently readable with cat and the naked eye. If I can't legibly read it with cat / less it will eventually leave me disappointed in some way.

zachlatta 9y ago
org-mode's format sucks, is only partially supported outside of Emacs, and is on its way out. org-mode is only any good if you're using the full power of it (tasks, agenda, etc), which is buying into a system that's soon going away.
- dasyatidprime 9y ago
  How do you mean “on its way out”? Do you just mean that people searching for new organizational software nowadays are decreasingly likely to choose it?
  - zachlatta 9y ago
    Yes and for a piece of software that heavily relies on its ecosystem, you want the ecosystem to be vibrant in 10 years from now.
    - unhammer 9y ago
      I've been using pretty much the same features from org-mode now that I used when I first started using it at least 11 years ago (actually, probably using even fewer features now, in the beginning I would export things, but these days I rarely see the need). All my notes still work, and are still plain text, and still don't rely on any "ecosystem", just Emacs and git.
    - s_kilk 9y ago
      Emacs and org-mode will still be here (along with the armoured cockroaches) long after we're all gone. In fact, I have more faith in the longevity of emacs than I do of Android or iOS, or Evernote/OneNote for that matter.
      - tripzilch 9y ago
        well, without any extra information, the expected future lifetime of a thing is proportional (equal, actually) to its lifetime so far. therefore, yes, it's perfectly sensible to expect Emacs to last longer :)
  - rileytg 9y ago
    small example: mobile client for ios is kinda bunk
  - rileytg 9y ago
    small example: mobile client for ios is kinda bunk
  - rileytg 9y ago
    small example: mobile client for ios is kinda bunk
- bitexploder 9y ago
  It isn't the best, but it is also very simple. I like the actual hierarchy vs Markdown. I can navigate a lot of notes fast in org. Emacs packages last a long time. Emacs API is stable. I am confident it will still work in ten years.
  - zachlatta 9y ago
    Emacs and plain org-mode may work, but will that be how you want to edit files in the future? It's been a decade and they still haven't figured out mobile.
    - yborg 9y ago
      I find this statement odd. "Figured out mobile" in what sense? The laptop solved the mobility issue for Emacs about 2 decades ago. If you mean "runs on Android or iOS", it's likely Emacs will still be around after one or both of those have been consigned to the scrap heap.
      - ShinTakuya 9y ago
        Not everyone wants to have to whip out their laptop every time they want to update their orgsniser. I mean I can get that before smartphones become a thing but we're supposed to be making things better and easier over time. Are you seriously trying to justify the lack of progress on that front by saying that a 20 year old technological innovation made things a little easier already? That's like claiming transport is OK with just horses even though the combustion engine exists.
        heavenlyblue 9y ago
        That's more like claiming transport is OK with just tanks when we've got electric vehicles. Tanks are not that efficient and neither are they that fast, and probably will not be allowed in the city - but they can go literally anywhere. And to be fair the guy has a point (a had a point for years beforehand). Unless you're that networking guy that just massively tries to organise a thousand meetings a day on the go - I believe that a laptop is a better way to use your organiser. I've had a lecturer at the university who still used a console-based e-mail client. He knew all of the shortcuts by heart - and I am pretty sure it would probably take me a few years to casually learn how to use Outlook/Gmail/etc.. as efficiently (and even then - most of the UI-based applications tend to somehow forget that a keyboard exists at all). You'll ask me: "but what about mobile?". Well - the guy _never_ replied to your e-mails outside his office hours; but when he did - he gave you a proper, short and an informal answer. And to be fair, he seemed to have a great personal life.
- dman 9y ago
  Can you elaborate what going away means here
  - apsdsm 9y ago
    "They are inherently readable with cat and the naked eye."
- willtim 9y ago
  Emacs has been with us for well over 30 years and during that time has always had folks claim it was obsolete (no graphical UI, no OOP etc). Emacs will be around for at least another 30 years.
- mondoshawan 9y ago
  For taking notes you don't need todos or the agenda -- it's heirarchical, fast to search through, and pleasing to the eye (at least, to a similar level to markdown). Aside from that, the syntax is at least as expressive, if not more so because of the extensibility of the language it's written in. Yes, buying into the todo and agenda systems effectively requires using an external integration script or using emacs all the way through, so that's not all that great. I, too, have yet to figure out how to integrate it into the usual PIM stuff like next loud calendars, etc. Has anyone else managed to figure this bit out?
- kaushalmodi 9y ago
  > Emacs, and is on its way out Being active on the Emacs and Org mode mailing lists, and other forums, I can say with confidence that this is not true. In fact, I am seeing active development in both Emacs and Org; not just bug fixes, but frequent additions of new features. > org-mode is only any good if you're using the full power of it (tasks, agenda, etc), which is buying into Org markup is much more powerful than Markdown. So you can be much more productive by using Org just as markup. One example is '#+INCLUDE: "foo.py" :lines-5-10'.. This is tremendously useful if you are writing notes that export to some format or blogging.. you don't need to copy-paste code snippets, Org will fetch them for you. (I have a customization built on top of that.. instead of specifying the line numbers, I can specify the start and end regexp for the lines containing my snippet). Add org-babel to this mix, and you don't even need to run the snippets, and copy the results manually; again Org does it. I recently blogged about comparing string related functions between Python and Nim: https://scripter.co/notes/string-functions-nim-vs-python/ https://scripter.co/notes/string-functions-nim-vs-python/ I cannot imagine myself writing (and maintaining) that post in Markdown! On the next update of Nim version, I'll simply run org-babel over the whole file, see git diff to check if anything major has changed, and update the post accordingly.. no copy/pasting ever :) > a system that's soon going away. Again, really? What made you think that?
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    (I have a customization built on top of that.. instead of specifying the line numbers, I can specify the start and end regexp for the lines containing my snippet). This is awesome. Is this available anywhere? I'd like to use it.
    - kaushalmodi 9y ago
      Sure, here it is: https://github.com/kaushalmodi/.emacs.d/blob/master/elisp/org-include-src-lines/org-include-src-lines.el https://github.com/kaushalmodi/.emacs.d/blob/master/elisp/or...
      - willtim 9y ago
        Thank you! I had been meaning to write something like this for myself. It's more useful than line numbers, which typically change often.
s_kilk 9y ago
I'm similar, my note-taking system is a directory full of org and markdown files, synced to dropbox. I don't think i could ever go back to a notes-as-a-service system again.

zachlatta 9y ago

org-mode's format sucks, is only partially supported outside of Emacs, and is on its way out. org-mode is only any good if you're using the full power of it (tasks, agenda, etc), which is buying into a system that's soon going away.

dasyatidprime 9y ago
How do you mean “on its way out”? Do you just mean that people searching for new organizational software nowadays are decreasingly likely to choose it?
- zachlatta 9y ago
  Yes and for a piece of software that heavily relies on its ecosystem, you want the ecosystem to be vibrant in 10 years from now.
  - unhammer 9y ago
    I've been using pretty much the same features from org-mode now that I used when I first started using it at least 11 years ago (actually, probably using even fewer features now, in the beginning I would export things, but these days I rarely see the need). All my notes still work, and are still plain text, and still don't rely on any "ecosystem", just Emacs and git.
  - s_kilk 9y ago
    Emacs and org-mode will still be here (along with the armoured cockroaches) long after we're all gone. In fact, I have more faith in the longevity of emacs than I do of Android or iOS, or Evernote/OneNote for that matter.
    - tripzilch 9y ago
      well, without any extra information, the expected future lifetime of a thing is proportional (equal, actually) to its lifetime so far. therefore, yes, it's perfectly sensible to expect Emacs to last longer :)
- rileytg 9y ago
  small example: mobile client for ios is kinda bunk
- rileytg 9y ago
  small example: mobile client for ios is kinda bunk
- rileytg 9y ago
  small example: mobile client for ios is kinda bunk
bitexploder 9y ago
It isn't the best, but it is also very simple. I like the actual hierarchy vs Markdown. I can navigate a lot of notes fast in org. Emacs packages last a long time. Emacs API is stable. I am confident it will still work in ten years.
- zachlatta 9y ago
  Emacs and plain org-mode may work, but will that be how you want to edit files in the future? It's been a decade and they still haven't figured out mobile.
  - yborg 9y ago
    I find this statement odd. "Figured out mobile" in what sense? The laptop solved the mobility issue for Emacs about 2 decades ago. If you mean "runs on Android or iOS", it's likely Emacs will still be around after one or both of those have been consigned to the scrap heap.
    - ShinTakuya 9y ago
      Not everyone wants to have to whip out their laptop every time they want to update their orgsniser. I mean I can get that before smartphones become a thing but we're supposed to be making things better and easier over time. Are you seriously trying to justify the lack of progress on that front by saying that a 20 year old technological innovation made things a little easier already? That's like claiming transport is OK with just horses even though the combustion engine exists.
      - heavenlyblue 9y ago
        That's more like claiming transport is OK with just tanks when we've got electric vehicles. Tanks are not that efficient and neither are they that fast, and probably will not be allowed in the city - but they can go literally anywhere. And to be fair the guy has a point (a had a point for years beforehand). Unless you're that networking guy that just massively tries to organise a thousand meetings a day on the go - I believe that a laptop is a better way to use your organiser. I've had a lecturer at the university who still used a console-based e-mail client. He knew all of the shortcuts by heart - and I am pretty sure it would probably take me a few years to casually learn how to use Outlook/Gmail/etc.. as efficiently (and even then - most of the UI-based applications tend to somehow forget that a keyboard exists at all). You'll ask me: "but what about mobile?". Well - the guy _never_ replied to your e-mails outside his office hours; but when he did - he gave you a proper, short and an informal answer. And to be fair, he seemed to have a great personal life.
dman 9y ago
Can you elaborate what going away means here
- apsdsm 9y ago
  "They are inherently readable with cat and the naked eye."
willtim 9y ago
Emacs has been with us for well over 30 years and during that time has always had folks claim it was obsolete (no graphical UI, no OOP etc). Emacs will be around for at least another 30 years.
mondoshawan 9y ago
For taking notes you don't need todos or the agenda -- it's heirarchical, fast to search through, and pleasing to the eye (at least, to a similar level to markdown). Aside from that, the syntax is at least as expressive, if not more so because of the extensibility of the language it's written in. Yes, buying into the todo and agenda systems effectively requires using an external integration script or using emacs all the way through, so that's not all that great. I, too, have yet to figure out how to integrate it into the usual PIM stuff like next loud calendars, etc. Has anyone else managed to figure this bit out?
kaushalmodi 9y ago
> Emacs, and is on its way out Being active on the Emacs and Org mode mailing lists, and other forums, I can say with confidence that this is not true. In fact, I am seeing active development in both Emacs and Org; not just bug fixes, but frequent additions of new features. > org-mode is only any good if you're using the full power of it (tasks, agenda, etc), which is buying into Org markup is much more powerful than Markdown. So you can be much more productive by using Org just as markup. One example is '#+INCLUDE: "foo.py" :lines-5-10'.. This is tremendously useful if you are writing notes that export to some format or blogging.. you don't need to copy-paste code snippets, Org will fetch them for you. (I have a customization built on top of that.. instead of specifying the line numbers, I can specify the start and end regexp for the lines containing my snippet). Add org-babel to this mix, and you don't even need to run the snippets, and copy the results manually; again Org does it. I recently blogged about comparing string related functions between Python and Nim: https://scripter.co/notes/string-functions-nim-vs-python/ https://scripter.co/notes/string-functions-nim-vs-python/ I cannot imagine myself writing (and maintaining) that post in Markdown! On the next update of Nim version, I'll simply run org-babel over the whole file, see git diff to check if anything major has changed, and update the post accordingly.. no copy/pasting ever :) > a system that's soon going away. Again, really? What made you think that?
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  (I have a customization built on top of that.. instead of specifying the line numbers, I can specify the start and end regexp for the lines containing my snippet). This is awesome. Is this available anywhere? I'd like to use it.
  - kaushalmodi 9y ago
    Sure, here it is: https://github.com/kaushalmodi/.emacs.d/blob/master/elisp/org-include-src-lines/org-include-src-lines.el https://github.com/kaushalmodi/.emacs.d/blob/master/elisp/or...
    - willtim 9y ago
      Thank you! I had been meaning to write something like this for myself. It's more useful than line numbers, which typically change often.

s_kilk 9y ago

I'm similar, my note-taking system is a directory full of org and markdown files, synced to dropbox. I don't think i could ever go back to a notes-as-a-service system again.