4 ms·

But why. What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Jtsummers 7y ago
I've not used the others, but org-mode is capable of everything described in the linked site, and a lot more. It's a text format (so from a future-proofing perspective, similar). The task tracking system is fairly straightforward, if you just wanted tasks you'd have something like: * TODO Call mom :phone: DEADLINE: <2019-08-24 Sat> * DONE Ignore dad You can create custom workflows, (details in the manual): * TODO Do something * WORKING Doing something * DONE Did something Or perhaps you're a kanban fan? * BACKLOG CR 1 * ANALYSIS CR 2 * CODE CR 3 * QA CR 4 * DEPLOY CR 5 * DONE CR 6 (Extra whitespace added for formatting here.) You could create somethnig akin to a workbreakdown structure, and have org prevent marking parent activities done until children activities are done: * IN-WORK CR 1 ** DONE Analysis ** DONE Develop acceptance tests ** IN-WORK Code ** TODO Peer Review ** TODO Release And all those are headings, you can put text underneath them. * IN-WORK CR 1 The customer wants us to stop storing passwords in a plaintext file. If you use it for meetings, as I have, you can do something like this: * TODO Some Meeting DEADLINE: <2019-08-23 Fri> ** Agenda - [X] Introductions - [X] Presentation - [X] Discussion ** TODO Actions *** TODO Fix typos Accidentally typed /x/ everywhere I meant to type /k/ *** TODO Email minutes All the todos are integrated in with the notes, references, and other documentation. The full context is available. When I'm reading a book, I break it down into a todo per chapter, and record notes in the appropriate chapter as a way to monitor progress. When I'm writing a program, I try to develop the spec and other things inside of org files as well (conveniently works with literate programming, but I can't use that at work, couldn't sell it, but I use that for personal projects). Downside: Some mobile viewers that can also edit the files, but full org capability is really only available in emacs (as best I can tell, is there a fairly feature complete implementation besides that one?).
- johntash 7y ago
  You sound like you know quite a bit about org-mode. I recently started using emacs again and want to also give org-mode another shot. IIRC last time I gave up on using org-mode for todos/notes because the experience on Windows wasn't as nice as on Mac (Mac for work, Windows at home). Orgzly is good enough for Android imo. Do you have any experience with emacs+org on Windows, and any tips if you do? I'm also curious about your kanban example. What are CR 1/2/3/..? Are they some sort of tag, or just the name of that item? Would you just move (refile?) a task from CR 1 to CR 2 for example? Last question - do you use one instance of emacs for both notes/tasks and regular code editing? I enjoy reading examples of other peoples workflows because it helps me realize what I didn't know I could be doing better.
  - Jtsummers 7y ago
    I use emacs+org on my work computer, which is Windows. It seems to work pretty well. I have not used the mobile apps in a while so I can't comment on them. The main issue on Windows is where it decides to stick your .emacs file. Your "home" directory is "C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming", which is not the most practical location. So I use this option: (setq custom-file "fileshare-or-other-path/config.el) (load custom-file) All my customizations live in that config file, and having it on the network share has made it easier to move between systems. "CR" means "Change Request", the way we term high level feature changes (additions, alterations, removals) from customers (as opposde to bugs or other things). We give them unique identifiers (usually a combination of a system identifier and unique number), but in a project we usually just refer to them either by a short description of the capability or "CR ##". The Kanban example was more a quick demonstration of how you might use a custom workflow, it's not something I've actually used. Having to coordinate with others is not a strength of org-mode, I can't get other people to use it. So we use other project management systems at work. But for my own things, I often do have a custom workflow set up to indicate what I'm working on, or what it's status might be. I do use one instance, the first thing my config file does is: (server-start) I can launch new clients and they all connect to the same server. I also make extensive use of frames, and added a quick way to cycle between them stealing the Command-` key from macOS (where it switches between windows in the same application): (global-set-key (kbd "M-`") 'other-frame) (global-set-key (kbd "C-`") 'other-window) Much more convenient, for me, than the standard way. This makes switching between different sets of activities pretty easy.

I've not used the others, but org-mode is capable of everything described in the linked site, and a lot more. It's a text format (so from a future-proofing perspective, similar). The task tracking system is fairly straightforward, if you just wanted tasks you'd have something like: * TODO Call mom :phone: DEADLINE: <2019-08-24 Sat> * DONE Ignore dad You can create custom workflows, (details in the manual): * TODO Do something * WORKING Doing something * DONE Did something Or perhaps you're a kanban fan? * BACKLOG CR 1 * ANALYSIS CR 2 * CODE CR 3 * QA CR 4 * DEPLOY CR 5 * DONE CR 6 (Extra whitespace added for formatting here.) You could create somethnig akin to a workbreakdown structure, and have org prevent marking parent activities done until children activities are done: * IN-WORK CR 1 ** DONE Analysis ** DONE Develop acceptance tests ** IN-WORK Code ** TODO Peer Review ** TODO Release And all those are headings, you can put text underneath them. * IN-WORK CR 1 The customer wants us to stop storing passwords in a plaintext file. If you use it for meetings, as I have, you can do something like this: * TODO Some Meeting DEADLINE: <2019-08-23 Fri> ** Agenda - [X] Introductions - [X] Presentation - [X] Discussion ** TODO Actions *** TODO Fix typos Accidentally typed /x/ everywhere I meant to type /k/ *** TODO Email minutes All the todos are integrated in with the notes, references, and other documentation. The full context is available. When I'm reading a book, I break it down into a todo per chapter, and record notes in the appropriate chapter as a way to monitor progress. When I'm writing a program, I try to develop the spec and other things inside of org files as well (conveniently works with literate programming, but I can't use that at work, couldn't sell it, but I use that for personal projects). Downside: Some mobile viewers that can also edit the files, but full org capability is really only available in emacs (as best I can tell, is there a fairly feature complete implementation besides that one?).

johntash 7y ago
You sound like you know quite a bit about org-mode. I recently started using emacs again and want to also give org-mode another shot. IIRC last time I gave up on using org-mode for todos/notes because the experience on Windows wasn't as nice as on Mac (Mac for work, Windows at home). Orgzly is good enough for Android imo. Do you have any experience with emacs+org on Windows, and any tips if you do? I'm also curious about your kanban example. What are CR 1/2/3/..? Are they some sort of tag, or just the name of that item? Would you just move (refile?) a task from CR 1 to CR 2 for example? Last question - do you use one instance of emacs for both notes/tasks and regular code editing? I enjoy reading examples of other peoples workflows because it helps me realize what I didn't know I could be doing better.
- Jtsummers 7y ago
  I use emacs+org on my work computer, which is Windows. It seems to work pretty well. I have not used the mobile apps in a while so I can't comment on them. The main issue on Windows is where it decides to stick your .emacs file. Your "home" directory is "C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming", which is not the most practical location. So I use this option: (setq custom-file "fileshare-or-other-path/config.el) (load custom-file) All my customizations live in that config file, and having it on the network share has made it easier to move between systems. "CR" means "Change Request", the way we term high level feature changes (additions, alterations, removals) from customers (as opposde to bugs or other things). We give them unique identifiers (usually a combination of a system identifier and unique number), but in a project we usually just refer to them either by a short description of the capability or "CR ##". The Kanban example was more a quick demonstration of how you might use a custom workflow, it's not something I've actually used. Having to coordinate with others is not a strength of org-mode, I can't get other people to use it. So we use other project management systems at work. But for my own things, I often do have a custom workflow set up to indicate what I'm working on, or what it's status might be. I do use one instance, the first thing my config file does is: (server-start) I can launch new clients and they all connect to the same server. I also make extensive use of frames, and added a quick way to cycle between them stealing the Command-` key from macOS (where it switches between windows in the same application): (global-set-key (kbd "M-`") 'other-frame) (global-set-key (kbd "C-`") 'other-window) Much more convenient, for me, than the standard way. This makes switching between different sets of activities pretty easy.