7 ms·

Bye bye iCal, welcome org-mode

82 points by codeup 16y ago

sergio_101 16y ago
i have switched to org-mode for some of the same reasons. i use gcal as an appointment planner, but when it comes to the wishy washy deadlines of real life and work, i use the task and project management facilities of org-mode daily.
tomstuart 16y ago
I'm surprised to see this article cite sync as a major problem. I find iCal's CalDAV support to work very well, and if you're competent enough to use Emacs then you should also be able to set up your own install of Darwin Calendar Server (or just use Google Calendar) to sync against.
- jambo 16y ago
  I have used self-hosted Darwin Calendar Server & more recently, Google Apps for a client that needs iCal syncing. Somehow we seem to have more problems with CalDAV syncing (e.g. timeouts during sync, unavailability) with Google Calendar than we ever did on DCS. It seems like, and probably is, an afterthought for Google. [edit: ActiveSync, now supported in iCal, seems to work pretty well]
- jolan 16y ago
  Ditto, I use DAViCal. It's opensource and works well: http://davical.org/ http://davical.org/
bubing 16y ago
⌒╮WELCOME http://www.yessoso.com/ http://www.yessoso.com/ ----- ~ ¤ ╭⌒╮ ╭⌒╮ ╭⌒╭⌒╮╭⌒╮～╭⌒╮ HANDBAG 35$ ,））））,''）~~ ,''~） ╱◥█◣ ╱◥█◣ SHOES 35$ ｜田｜田｜｜田｜田｜ CLOTH 15$ ╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬ 2010 NEW Your fashion! Your season! Michael bag fashion tidalcurrent.the fashionable element "bag" you - glamour infinite. Mass commodity, low discount, the buy cheaper. { www. yessoso.com } mall price can buy eligible products and services. Select all kinds of women, men's shoes, etc, { www.yessoso.com } shopping navigation! In addition, the company has a good reputation, quality standard, At a reasonable price. In the past few years, have been deeply overseas My friends for their support. Therefore, please rest assured purchase. ====== Free transport====== !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (http://www.yessoso.com/ http://www.yessoso.com/) !!!!!!!!!!!! input this URL: (http://yessoso.com/ http://yessoso.com/) you can find many cheap and fashion stuff (jor dan s-h-o-e-s) (NBA NFL NHL MLB j-e-r-s-e-y) ( lv h-a-n-d-b-a-g) (cha nel w-a-l-l-e-t) (D&G s-u-n-g-l-a-s-s-e-s) (ed har dy j-a-c-k-e-t) (UG G b-o-o-t) WE ACCEPT PYAPAL PAYMENT YOU MUST NOT MISS IT!! ----------------------
jambo 16y ago
Also, The Vim Outliner http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=517 http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=517
- sigzero 16y ago
  The VimOrganizer is trying to be as close to org-mode as it can be: https://github.com/hsitz/VimOrganizer https://github.com/hsitz/VimOrganizer
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
qjz 16y ago
I currently use Remind: http://www.roaringpenguin.com/products/remind http://www.roaringpenguin.com/products/remind It's not a plug-in, so you can use any text editor (or install a GUI frontend). It has a powerful date scripting language that can be complex, but flexible enough to meet almost any need. Most events can be entered simply on one line of text and it will handle the sorting, so you can organize entries however you want (even including them from other files). Multiple output formats are available. I publish my calendar to my web site in HTML and PDF, while a cronjob emails a text version to me twice a day. The only downside is that I end up managing the calendar for the whole family. I feel uneasy publishing my calendar to the cloud, but I'm considering using shared Google Calendars so everyone can manage there own schedules.
- rwl 16y ago
  Ah, wow, the "Microsoft Policy" and "Apple Policy" are awesome. Glad to see a free software project that says, on its front page, that it would "prefer" you compile and run the software on "a platform that is not controlled by a free-software-hostile corporation."
  - albertzeyer 16y ago
    Except that it just works fine on Mac and is as easy to compile there as on any other Unix/POSIX system. I found their attitude against Apple highly annoying. When I clicked on the source download link (in Chrome), I just got this message: Please do not run Remind on Mac OS Downloading via wget worked though. Then I started ./configure and I got this: az@74-112 1130 (remind-03.01.10) %./configure ********************** * * * Configuring REMIND * * * ********************** Please don't use Apple products. This script will continue in 30 seconds if you insist on compiling Remind on Mac OS X. How stupid is this? The compilation went just fine.
    - rwl 16y ago
      Yes, that does seem a bit over-the-top, compared to the usual configure/make routine for Free software packages. But is that the right contrast class? I wonder how you feel about software that: - refuses to run if it detects that it's running on a virtual machine (OS X) - refuses to run if it detects that it's running under a debugger (iTunes) - refuses to execute programs that aren't cryptographically signed by a particular vendor (iOS) To me, a preachy message that doesn't actually interfere with running the program looks downright friendly by comparison.
rwl 16y ago
The article doesn't mention one of the best features of Org: the "capture" interface [1]. This makes it possible to quickly file a new entry in the appropriate Org file, using a custom template, without interrupting your workflow. [1] http://orgmode.org/manual/Capture-_002d-Refile-_002d-Archive.html http://orgmode.org/manual/Capture-_002d-Refile-_002d-Archive...
kahawe 16y ago
Maybe I missed it but how/where can you sync all that with your phone then? At least in the past, this is where the whole Apple "PIM" suite was really shining for me: effortless syncing with mobile and smart phones without installing additional tools. And I agree, an easy, built-in option to sync several Macs would be great. Oh and complaining about iCal's interface is really moaning at a rather high level. At work I have to use Outlook for email, contacts, team calendar and our team todos and I cannot stop wondering how this thing is used by anyone let alone tech un-savvy people.. so I thank the FSM for the noodley goodness and simplicity that iCal is for me. And I wish Google Mail would finally allow me to update entries from iCal and offer syncing the todo list. Then I would be completely happy.
- rwl 16y ago
  For iPhone, there's MobileOrg: http://mobileorg.ncogni.to/ http://mobileorg.ncogni.to/ For Android, there's MobileOrg Android: https://github.com/matburt/mobileorg-android/wiki/ https://github.com/matburt/mobileorg-android/wiki/ Both can be set up to sync Org files via DropBox.
  - aerique 16y ago
    I find MobileOrg's workflow clumsy to work with. I wish it would just allow me to browse a directory in my Dropbox and leave the syncing to Dropbox itself.
    - dhess 16y ago
      I'm a MobileOrg user, and I completely agree. I would pay good money for an app that presents an iOS user interface for editing files with org-mode markup, including creating org-mode files on the fly. Unfortunately, MobileOrg offers neither of those features. MobileOrg is free software (https://github.com/richard/mobileorg https://github.com/richard/mobileorg), but it's so far from what I'm looking for that it might just be easier to start from scratch.
    - dlsspy 16y ago
      I just have a save hook to do all the work. I'm not even sure what all the work is, but emacs does it for me.
agentultra 16y ago
I use org-mode extensively. It integrates so well into the Emacs experience. There's just nothing like it. When I start working on a project, I use todo lists with notes, links, and tags to manage my tasks. I use org outlines to structure my work flow and organize my thoughts. I use the remember front-end to quickly capture notes on the fly. When I finish a task I just flick out the key stroke to clock out. Afterwards I can check a nicely formatted table to view my hours, paste it into an email within emacs and use org mode to reformat it into an HTML/multipart email with a properly formatted HTML table that I can send to my co-workers or clients to review. For intense bits of code I use the literate programming features of org-babel. Also, it has great export features. It can tangle, organize, and mine your org files for the information you want and export to a number of different formats. It's quite amazing. I'd go as far to say that org-mode is practically a killer feature of emacs and one really good reason for switching to emacs if you don't use it already. But I might be biased... :)
- abhiyerra 16y ago
  I switched to Emacs after 10 years of Vim because of it. It is quite amazing how good it is.
  - dlsspy 16y ago
    Woah. I had to check the username and date because I swear I wrote that. I was closer to 15, though.
    - agentultra 16y ago
      I was about 10 years give or take myself. I blogged the transition on my site. Glad I made the decision to give emacs a serious try. Didn't know what I was missing until I did.
dlsspy 16y ago
I use ical to pull my exchange and google calendars down, then a bit of applescript to update org-mode: https://github.com/dustin/snippets/blob/master/applescript/ical-to-org-mode.applescript https://github.com/dustin/snippets/blob/master/applescript/i... It's gross, but it means I can see everything I care about in one place. :)

82 points by codeup 16y ago

i have switched to org-mode for some of the same reasons. i use gcal as an appointment planner, but when it comes to the wishy washy deadlines of real life and work, i use the task and project management facilities of org-mode daily.

tomstuart 16y ago

I'm surprised to see this article cite sync as a major problem. I find iCal's CalDAV support to work very well, and if you're competent enough to use Emacs then you should also be able to set up your own install of Darwin Calendar Server (or just use Google Calendar) to sync against.

jambo 16y ago
I have used self-hosted Darwin Calendar Server & more recently, Google Apps for a client that needs iCal syncing. Somehow we seem to have more problems with CalDAV syncing (e.g. timeouts during sync, unavailability) with Google Calendar than we ever did on DCS. It seems like, and probably is, an afterthought for Google. [edit: ActiveSync, now supported in iCal, seems to work pretty well]
jolan 16y ago
Ditto, I use DAViCal. It's opensource and works well: http://davical.org/ http://davical.org/

bubing 16y ago

⌒╮WELCOME http://www.yessoso.com/ http://www.yessoso.com/ ----- ~ ¤ ╭⌒╮ ╭⌒╮ ╭⌒╭⌒╮╭⌒╮～╭⌒╮ HANDBAG 35$ ,））））,''）~~ ,''~） ╱◥█◣ ╱◥█◣ SHOES 35$ ｜田｜田｜｜田｜田｜ CLOTH 15$ ╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬ 2010 NEW Your fashion! Your season! Michael bag fashion tidalcurrent.the fashionable element "bag" you - glamour infinite. Mass commodity, low discount, the buy cheaper. { www. yessoso.com } mall price can buy eligible products and services. Select all kinds of women, men's shoes, etc, { www.yessoso.com } shopping navigation! In addition, the company has a good reputation, quality standard, At a reasonable price. In the past few years, have been deeply overseas My friends for their support. Therefore, please rest assured purchase. ====== Free transport====== !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (http://www.yessoso.com/ http://www.yessoso.com/) !!!!!!!!!!!! input this URL: (http://yessoso.com/ http://yessoso.com/) you can find many cheap and fashion stuff (jor dan s-h-o-e-s) (NBA NFL NHL MLB j-e-r-s-e-y) ( lv h-a-n-d-b-a-g) (cha nel w-a-l-l-e-t) (D&G s-u-n-g-l-a-s-s-e-s) (ed har dy j-a-c-k-e-t) (UG G b-o-o-t) WE ACCEPT PYAPAL PAYMENT YOU MUST NOT MISS IT!! ----------------------

jambo 16y ago

Also, The Vim Outliner http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=517 http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=517

sigzero 16y ago
The VimOrganizer is trying to be as close to org-mode as it can be: https://github.com/hsitz/VimOrganizer https://github.com/hsitz/VimOrganizer
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

qjz 16y ago

I currently use Remind: http://www.roaringpenguin.com/products/remind http://www.roaringpenguin.com/products/remind It's not a plug-in, so you can use any text editor (or install a GUI frontend). It has a powerful date scripting language that can be complex, but flexible enough to meet almost any need. Most events can be entered simply on one line of text and it will handle the sorting, so you can organize entries however you want (even including them from other files). Multiple output formats are available. I publish my calendar to my web site in HTML and PDF, while a cronjob emails a text version to me twice a day. The only downside is that I end up managing the calendar for the whole family. I feel uneasy publishing my calendar to the cloud, but I'm considering using shared Google Calendars so everyone can manage there own schedules.

rwl 16y ago
Ah, wow, the "Microsoft Policy" and "Apple Policy" are awesome. Glad to see a free software project that says, on its front page, that it would "prefer" you compile and run the software on "a platform that is not controlled by a free-software-hostile corporation."
- albertzeyer 16y ago
  Except that it just works fine on Mac and is as easy to compile there as on any other Unix/POSIX system. I found their attitude against Apple highly annoying. When I clicked on the source download link (in Chrome), I just got this message: Please do not run Remind on Mac OS Downloading via wget worked though. Then I started ./configure and I got this: az@74-112 1130 (remind-03.01.10) %./configure ********************** * * * Configuring REMIND * * * ********************** Please don't use Apple products. This script will continue in 30 seconds if you insist on compiling Remind on Mac OS X. How stupid is this? The compilation went just fine.
  - rwl 16y ago
    Yes, that does seem a bit over-the-top, compared to the usual configure/make routine for Free software packages. But is that the right contrast class? I wonder how you feel about software that: - refuses to run if it detects that it's running on a virtual machine (OS X) - refuses to run if it detects that it's running under a debugger (iTunes) - refuses to execute programs that aren't cryptographically signed by a particular vendor (iOS) To me, a preachy message that doesn't actually interfere with running the program looks downright friendly by comparison.

rwl 16y ago

The article doesn't mention one of the best features of Org: the "capture" interface [1]. This makes it possible to quickly file a new entry in the appropriate Org file, using a custom template, without interrupting your workflow. [1] http://orgmode.org/manual/Capture-_002d-Refile-_002d-Archive.html http://orgmode.org/manual/Capture-_002d-Refile-_002d-Archive...

kahawe 16y ago

Maybe I missed it but how/where can you sync all that with your phone then? At least in the past, this is where the whole Apple "PIM" suite was really shining for me: effortless syncing with mobile and smart phones without installing additional tools. And I agree, an easy, built-in option to sync several Macs would be great. Oh and complaining about iCal's interface is really moaning at a rather high level. At work I have to use Outlook for email, contacts, team calendar and our team todos and I cannot stop wondering how this thing is used by anyone let alone tech un-savvy people.. so I thank the FSM for the noodley goodness and simplicity that iCal is for me. And I wish Google Mail would finally allow me to update entries from iCal and offer syncing the todo list. Then I would be completely happy.

rwl 16y ago
For iPhone, there's MobileOrg: http://mobileorg.ncogni.to/ http://mobileorg.ncogni.to/ For Android, there's MobileOrg Android: https://github.com/matburt/mobileorg-android/wiki/ https://github.com/matburt/mobileorg-android/wiki/ Both can be set up to sync Org files via DropBox.
- aerique 16y ago
  I find MobileOrg's workflow clumsy to work with. I wish it would just allow me to browse a directory in my Dropbox and leave the syncing to Dropbox itself.
  - dhess 16y ago
    I'm a MobileOrg user, and I completely agree. I would pay good money for an app that presents an iOS user interface for editing files with org-mode markup, including creating org-mode files on the fly. Unfortunately, MobileOrg offers neither of those features. MobileOrg is free software (https://github.com/richard/mobileorg https://github.com/richard/mobileorg), but it's so far from what I'm looking for that it might just be easier to start from scratch.
  - dlsspy 16y ago
    I just have a save hook to do all the work. I'm not even sure what all the work is, but emacs does it for me.

agentultra 16y ago

I use org-mode extensively. It integrates so well into the Emacs experience. There's just nothing like it. When I start working on a project, I use todo lists with notes, links, and tags to manage my tasks. I use org outlines to structure my work flow and organize my thoughts. I use the remember front-end to quickly capture notes on the fly. When I finish a task I just flick out the key stroke to clock out. Afterwards I can check a nicely formatted table to view my hours, paste it into an email within emacs and use org mode to reformat it into an HTML/multipart email with a properly formatted HTML table that I can send to my co-workers or clients to review. For intense bits of code I use the literate programming features of org-babel. Also, it has great export features. It can tangle, organize, and mine your org files for the information you want and export to a number of different formats. It's quite amazing. I'd go as far to say that org-mode is practically a killer feature of emacs and one really good reason for switching to emacs if you don't use it already. But I might be biased... :)

abhiyerra 16y ago
I switched to Emacs after 10 years of Vim because of it. It is quite amazing how good it is.
- dlsspy 16y ago
  Woah. I had to check the username and date because I swear I wrote that. I was closer to 15, though.
  - agentultra 16y ago
    I was about 10 years give or take myself. I blogged the transition on my site. Glad I made the decision to give emacs a serious try. Didn't know what I was missing until I did.

dlsspy 16y ago

I use ical to pull my exchange and google calendars down, then a bit of applescript to update org-mode: https://github.com/dustin/snippets/blob/master/applescript/ical-to-org-mode.applescript https://github.com/dustin/snippets/blob/master/applescript/i... It's gross, but it means I can see everything I care about in one place. :)