5 ms·

A blog in pure Org/Lisp

55 points by Ambrevar 8y ago

clircle 8y ago
Seems like quite the salvo of articles about org mode blogging lately.
- vemv 8y ago
  Was thinking the same. Probably it doesn't make a particularly good image of Emacs/Lisp users. I happen to tweak Emacs and write Clojure for a living, but thankfully I left the 'meta' trap behind years ago. My blog in on Medium.
  - morgancmartin 8y ago
    I'm curious why you refer to it as a trap. I personally use spacemacs and am very happy with it and I also use org mode casually, though do not consider myself an expert by any means. I do think I've experienced a similar "quantum leap" in productivity through my usage of VIM commands in an emacs environment though and am thankful for it every time I see a coworker painstakingly navigating through sublime text or something similar. Definitely not a trap for me. I imagine the productivity gains heralded by fans of org mode are similar in nature, so your idea that this focus on increased automation for personal productivity should be considered a "trap" is curious to me. I do concede that org mode and lisp in general are brought up perhaps a bit too often here at HN seeing as they're not all that new though.
    - vemv 8y ago
      Emacs/Org aren't a trap per se, but if you find yourself using Org to blog about how you use Org for your blog, that seems a) funnily meta, and b) and indicator that you may have fallen in the 'trap' of investing far too much time in tooling, defeating the initial productivity intent. Been there.
      - xfer 8y ago
        Well, productivity isn't everything, not everyone times all their activity in daily life and decides what to optimize for. Maybe the author has that time to invest on tooling and doesn't care about how he would save a couple of hour by pushing a button on medium. Just because you did it unconsciously doesn't make it a trap.
      - Ambrevar 8y ago
        This is a fair point, but I don't think it applies here: the article is not so much about blog publishing with Org, but rather about 1) good practices and 2) hackable systems. Hacking here does not mean "crazy setup code just to get it to work", it means that I can add or customize (optional) features to my very needs. Those two points are, I believe, not in very widespread usage among blog writers. I believe that 2) is responsible for 1). Unflexible configurations are too widespread in my opinion and it goes very much against what a programmer / hacker could aspire for. In the end, the time I've spent on this was very short. Compared to the previous systems I've tried, it now makes for a much smoother publishing experience for me. The ultimate point is that I can tailor it to my exact needs instead of being endlessly frustrated with a non-hackable publishing system.
        vemv 8y ago
        Seems a more than respectable POV. My remark wasn't particularly aimed at you, simply it followed OP's (and also my) observation that "Org mode meta-blogging" is a category by itself :)
  - pixelrevision 8y ago
    Heh. Emacs/lisp users always make posts like: "look at this great [thing] to completely simplify [thing]" while simultaneously posting 82 steps to get it all working and automated :)
    - AceJohnny2 8y ago
      Isn't that what so much of what programming is about? Invest all the work once up-front so that the next iterations are trivial?
      - Omnius 8y ago
        Something like 80% of software costs are maintenance.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - pixelrevision 8y ago
        Of course and it's fun! :) I also often find myself going through all the steps in one of these articles then when I'm all ready to reap the results of success I move on to something else.
      - setr 8y ago
        The trap is when you invest all the work up front.... and the next() call immediately returns StopIteration Which seems to happen quite often when people customize their software, especially up-front, instead of over time. I suppose you could describe it as waterfall-style customization
        tincholio 8y ago
        This probably goes in waves for many people. When you just start, you're tempted to do all the clever little things you see online, and may end up being a bit lost. Once you've learned a bit more, it becomes second nature to a) make the tweaks you need and b) filter out those you don't. I, for one, enjoy the ability to adapt my editing/workflow as my needs evolve.
  - thedirt0115 8y ago
    I really like two things from the author's system, but I will call out that neither of them require org-mode: 1) Being able to clone the author's blog repo and read it offline (just a bonus that it's already in org mode so no post-processing necessary). Is there a "lemme download everything by this author and read offline?" button on Medium? 2) The blog being in a public Git repository is nice for transparency.
    - peatfreak 8y ago
      > 2) The blog being in a public Git repository is nice for transparency. The expectation that all your code is on a public repository (I blame GitHub for this) is one of the most horrifying developments in software engineering.
      - Ambrevar 8y ago
        Why?
  - michaelmrose 8y ago
    Using https://tools.pingdom.com/ https://tools.pingdom.com/ A random medium article https://medium.com/s/story/the-rise-of-anti-notifications-6c92e355612b https://medium.com/s/story/the-rise-of-anti-notifications-6c... 1.1MB 51 requests Parent article 26kb 4 requests. Both actually load quickly on a fast connection particularly with adblock. Sadly not everyone has a fast connection.
    - vemv 8y ago
      Well I can spend my personal time in addressing edge cases for a tiny/occasional audience, or not. That was the point rather than defending the benefits of a specific platform.
      - michaelmrose 8y ago
        Globally more people actually have crappy connections than not.
merlincorey 8y ago
Org-mode and Magit are the killer apps in emacs, for me. I also extensively use org-mode to publish static sites and, well, organize essentially everything in work and my private life. Learning org-mode is quite a valuable activity, in my opinion and experience.

55 points by Ambrevar 8y ago

clircle 8y ago

Seems like quite the salvo of articles about org mode blogging lately.

vemv 8y ago
Was thinking the same. Probably it doesn't make a particularly good image of Emacs/Lisp users. I happen to tweak Emacs and write Clojure for a living, but thankfully I left the 'meta' trap behind years ago. My blog in on Medium.
- morgancmartin 8y ago
  I'm curious why you refer to it as a trap. I personally use spacemacs and am very happy with it and I also use org mode casually, though do not consider myself an expert by any means. I do think I've experienced a similar "quantum leap" in productivity through my usage of VIM commands in an emacs environment though and am thankful for it every time I see a coworker painstakingly navigating through sublime text or something similar. Definitely not a trap for me. I imagine the productivity gains heralded by fans of org mode are similar in nature, so your idea that this focus on increased automation for personal productivity should be considered a "trap" is curious to me. I do concede that org mode and lisp in general are brought up perhaps a bit too often here at HN seeing as they're not all that new though.
  - vemv 8y ago
    Emacs/Org aren't a trap per se, but if you find yourself using Org to blog about how you use Org for your blog, that seems a) funnily meta, and b) and indicator that you may have fallen in the 'trap' of investing far too much time in tooling, defeating the initial productivity intent. Been there.
    - xfer 8y ago
      Well, productivity isn't everything, not everyone times all their activity in daily life and decides what to optimize for. Maybe the author has that time to invest on tooling and doesn't care about how he would save a couple of hour by pushing a button on medium. Just because you did it unconsciously doesn't make it a trap.
    - Ambrevar 8y ago
      This is a fair point, but I don't think it applies here: the article is not so much about blog publishing with Org, but rather about 1) good practices and 2) hackable systems. Hacking here does not mean "crazy setup code just to get it to work", it means that I can add or customize (optional) features to my very needs. Those two points are, I believe, not in very widespread usage among blog writers. I believe that 2) is responsible for 1). Unflexible configurations are too widespread in my opinion and it goes very much against what a programmer / hacker could aspire for. In the end, the time I've spent on this was very short. Compared to the previous systems I've tried, it now makes for a much smoother publishing experience for me. The ultimate point is that I can tailor it to my exact needs instead of being endlessly frustrated with a non-hackable publishing system.
      - vemv 8y ago
        Seems a more than respectable POV. My remark wasn't particularly aimed at you, simply it followed OP's (and also my) observation that "Org mode meta-blogging" is a category by itself :)
- pixelrevision 8y ago
  Heh. Emacs/lisp users always make posts like: "look at this great [thing] to completely simplify [thing]" while simultaneously posting 82 steps to get it all working and automated :)
  - AceJohnny2 8y ago
    Isn't that what so much of what programming is about? Invest all the work once up-front so that the next iterations are trivial?
    - Omnius 8y ago
      Something like 80% of software costs are maintenance.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - pixelrevision 8y ago
      Of course and it's fun! :) I also often find myself going through all the steps in one of these articles then when I'm all ready to reap the results of success I move on to something else.
    - setr 8y ago
      The trap is when you invest all the work up front.... and the next() call immediately returns StopIteration Which seems to happen quite often when people customize their software, especially up-front, instead of over time. I suppose you could describe it as waterfall-style customization
      - tincholio 8y ago
        This probably goes in waves for many people. When you just start, you're tempted to do all the clever little things you see online, and may end up being a bit lost. Once you've learned a bit more, it becomes second nature to a) make the tweaks you need and b) filter out those you don't. I, for one, enjoy the ability to adapt my editing/workflow as my needs evolve.
- thedirt0115 8y ago
  I really like two things from the author's system, but I will call out that neither of them require org-mode: 1) Being able to clone the author's blog repo and read it offline (just a bonus that it's already in org mode so no post-processing necessary). Is there a "lemme download everything by this author and read offline?" button on Medium? 2) The blog being in a public Git repository is nice for transparency.
  - peatfreak 8y ago
    > 2) The blog being in a public Git repository is nice for transparency. The expectation that all your code is on a public repository (I blame GitHub for this) is one of the most horrifying developments in software engineering.
    - Ambrevar 8y ago
      Why?
- michaelmrose 8y ago
  Using https://tools.pingdom.com/ https://tools.pingdom.com/ A random medium article https://medium.com/s/story/the-rise-of-anti-notifications-6c92e355612b https://medium.com/s/story/the-rise-of-anti-notifications-6c... 1.1MB 51 requests Parent article 26kb 4 requests. Both actually load quickly on a fast connection particularly with adblock. Sadly not everyone has a fast connection.
  - vemv 8y ago
    Well I can spend my personal time in addressing edge cases for a tiny/occasional audience, or not. That was the point rather than defending the benefits of a specific platform.
    - michaelmrose 8y ago
      Globally more people actually have crappy connections than not.

merlincorey 8y ago

Org-mode and Magit are the killer apps in emacs, for me. I also extensively use org-mode to publish static sites and, well, organize essentially everything in work and my private life. Learning org-mode is quite a valuable activity, in my opinion and experience.