4 ms·

Grokking Org-mode and putting it in charge

48 points by codeup 15y ago

smackay 15y ago
The great thing about org-mode being text based and easy to structure is that you can put anything and everything into it. As I get older and more forgetful I get better at recording all the details of projects so hopefully in a few years I will have my project context-switching time down to zero.
deadcyclo 15y ago
I basically live my life inside org-mode and I love reading well written stuff about how others use org-mode since I always find new ways of doing things, and new stuff that can be done in org-mode. The slogan of the good old board game othello comes to mind; A minute to learn. A lifetime to master. So far the most advanced thing I do is my org-mode-blog: I create a blog entry directly in emacs, or from conkeror including the URL of the page I'm on. I write it in org-mode. It gets git-ed to my server that has a submit hook that publishes it directly to my blog through jekyll. So thanks for the submission. I skimmed through it, but I will read it again on the bus home this evening.
zacharypinter 15y ago
This definitely rings true: "...I tend to be rather cynical (wow! what a surprise!) about it all myself because it’s wonderfully easy to read about this stuff and feel better about yourself rather than actually do whatever it is you need to do."
CJefferson 15y ago
I keep seeing long articles about org-mode, but nothing very helpful to use it. It tried downloading it once and it didn't seem to come with any useful documentation, and as a non-emacs users, couldn't really even make it "start", never mind do anything useful. As a non-emacs, non-lisp users, is this really worth trying to learn? And if so, how can I get started with something small and useful?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- Sukotto 15y ago
  Try this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4940680/i-want-to-try-org-mode-whats-the-shortest-path-from-zero-to-typing/4940751#4940751 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4940680/i-want-to-try-org...
- kanak 15y ago
  > As a non-emacs, non-lisp users, is this really worth trying to learn? I've been using org for about 2 years to take notes... I've taken several hundred pages worth of notes using it by now. I've been using it for about a month as my task / appointment manager, and I'm impressed by its flexibility. I was in the same spot when I started because there's a lot of things that Org is capable of. I used the following resources when I was learning Org. You might find them helpful: 1. Carsten Dominick (lead dev of Org-Mode) talks about Org at Google: http://orgmode.org/talks/index.html#sec-1 http://orgmode.org/talks/index.html#sec-1 2. "Power users describe their setup" section on the worg tutorial list: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.html http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.html By this point, you'll have atleast some idea about how org can be used. If you decide to delve in further: 3. Sacha Chua's blog posts on Org-Mode: http://sachachua.com/blog/ http://sachachua.com/blog/ 4. Org compact guide: http://orgmode.org/guide/index.html http://orgmode.org/guide/index.html
- alaithea 15y ago
  If you happen to be a Vim user, and in the mood to try a bleeding-edge project, you might find this nascent Org-mode clone interesting: https://github.com/hsitz/VimOrganizer https://github.com/hsitz/VimOrganizer http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3342 http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3342
  - ecyrb 15y ago
    Or you could use the Viper and Vimpulse packages to enable Vi style emulation in Emacs.
gcv 15y ago
This article is a bit long and waxes too philosophical for my tastes. But, from the author's screenshots, he spent a lot of time customizing it to do exactly what he needs — and that's great. org-mode is awesome because it can be whatever you want it to be. I didn't write a single line of Elisp to customize it (except for a few small keybinding tweaks in my .emacs.d/init.el file). Even so, it serves perfectly as my personal, simple task list. I also share org-mode files, through Dropbox, with other people, and it works beautifully as a project documentation system, a shared task list, and a bug tracker. It saves a lot of time and trouble: no third-party paid services (other than Dropbox), almost no learning curve, no maintenance, no user management overhead, no vendor lock-in, and no proprietary file formats.
shabble 15y ago
http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html is definitely the best introduction I've seen. I still don't use it as much as I'd like, but I'm slowly getting there.

48 points by codeup 15y ago

The great thing about org-mode being text based and easy to structure is that you can put anything and everything into it. As I get older and more forgetful I get better at recording all the details of projects so hopefully in a few years I will have my project context-switching time down to zero.

deadcyclo 15y ago

I basically live my life inside org-mode and I love reading well written stuff about how others use org-mode since I always find new ways of doing things, and new stuff that can be done in org-mode. The slogan of the good old board game othello comes to mind; A minute to learn. A lifetime to master. So far the most advanced thing I do is my org-mode-blog: I create a blog entry directly in emacs, or from conkeror including the URL of the page I'm on. I write it in org-mode. It gets git-ed to my server that has a submit hook that publishes it directly to my blog through jekyll. So thanks for the submission. I skimmed through it, but I will read it again on the bus home this evening.

zacharypinter 15y ago

This definitely rings true: "...I tend to be rather cynical (wow! what a surprise!) about it all myself because it’s wonderfully easy to read about this stuff and feel better about yourself rather than actually do whatever it is you need to do."

CJefferson 15y ago

I keep seeing long articles about org-mode, but nothing very helpful to use it. It tried downloading it once and it didn't seem to come with any useful documentation, and as a non-emacs users, couldn't really even make it "start", never mind do anything useful. As a non-emacs, non-lisp users, is this really worth trying to learn? And if so, how can I get started with something small and useful?

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
Sukotto 15y ago
Try this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4940680/i-want-to-try-org-mode-whats-the-shortest-path-from-zero-to-typing/4940751#4940751 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4940680/i-want-to-try-org...
kanak 15y ago
> As a non-emacs, non-lisp users, is this really worth trying to learn? I've been using org for about 2 years to take notes... I've taken several hundred pages worth of notes using it by now. I've been using it for about a month as my task / appointment manager, and I'm impressed by its flexibility. I was in the same spot when I started because there's a lot of things that Org is capable of. I used the following resources when I was learning Org. You might find them helpful: 1. Carsten Dominick (lead dev of Org-Mode) talks about Org at Google: http://orgmode.org/talks/index.html#sec-1 http://orgmode.org/talks/index.html#sec-1 2. "Power users describe their setup" section on the worg tutorial list: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.html http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.html By this point, you'll have atleast some idea about how org can be used. If you decide to delve in further: 3. Sacha Chua's blog posts on Org-Mode: http://sachachua.com/blog/ http://sachachua.com/blog/ 4. Org compact guide: http://orgmode.org/guide/index.html http://orgmode.org/guide/index.html
alaithea 15y ago
If you happen to be a Vim user, and in the mood to try a bleeding-edge project, you might find this nascent Org-mode clone interesting: https://github.com/hsitz/VimOrganizer https://github.com/hsitz/VimOrganizer http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3342 http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3342
- ecyrb 15y ago
  Or you could use the Viper and Vimpulse packages to enable Vi style emulation in Emacs.

gcv 15y ago

This article is a bit long and waxes too philosophical for my tastes. But, from the author's screenshots, he spent a lot of time customizing it to do exactly what he needs — and that's great. org-mode is awesome because it can be whatever you want it to be. I didn't write a single line of Elisp to customize it (except for a few small keybinding tweaks in my .emacs.d/init.el file). Even so, it serves perfectly as my personal, simple task list. I also share org-mode files, through Dropbox, with other people, and it works beautifully as a project documentation system, a shared task list, and a bug tracker. It saves a lot of time and trouble: no third-party paid services (other than Dropbox), almost no learning curve, no maintenance, no user management overhead, no vendor lock-in, and no proprietary file formats.

shabble 15y ago

http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html is definitely the best introduction I've seen. I still don't use it as much as I'd like, but I'm slowly getting there.