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I'm a UI developer, never used Org-Mode, not a VIM or Emacs user. But I am very interested in document creation, note taking, organizing workflows. Please forgi

I'm a UI developer, never used Org-Mode, not a VIM or Emacs user. But I am very interested in document creation, note taking, organizing workflows. Please forgive the lack of background in this question but... Can someone explain to me why if org-mode is so popular it is not used in places other than emacs or why is it bound to emacs? Is there some ux quality or set of features that are bound up in the unique key-bindings of Emacs or the scripting integration for example? Could any of this goodness make it's way to more accessible (for your average user) venues such as a basic GUI note taking app?

tetris11 6y ago
See orgzly for Android, and there are some web implementations too.
trobertson 6y ago
Org mode is great because it does 2 things extremely well: 1. Document structure. Folding, tree structures, linking, etc. are done very well in org-mode. But that's not unique to org-mode, several other solutions do that well. 2. org-mode lets you use all of the other Emacs major and minor modes in your document - restricted to sections. This is amazing, as it basically gives you an entire application layer in your text documents. Where by entire layer, I mean having your calendar, email, programming environments, etc. all within your notes. org-mode used this way is not merely a document editor. It is the best plain-text workflow enabler the world has ever seen. And you can't do this outside of Emacs without essentially rewriting Emacs. Emacs _is_ the strength that org-mode leverages. org-mode is a unification of the many and varied Emacs major modes into a simple plain-text environment. And the best part is, you only need to use the particular modes you want. Your org-mode experience is tailored around your use case. You bring in the mode you want in that section and you're done. It just works.
- da39a3ee 6y ago
  > org-mode lets you use all of the other Emacs major and minor modes in your document - restricted to sections. > You bring in the mode you want in that section and you're done. It just works. I haven't used org in a non-superficial way for a while. What are you referring to here, src blocks?
da39a3ee 6y ago
It's bound to emacs because it is written in emacs-lisp. It's a large, sophisticated codebase that dates back almost 20 years. There is no way it could ever be ported to another language in its entirety: it is very tightly bound into the (also sophisticated) string manipulation APIs available in emacs lisp.
- tgbugs 6y ago
  Technically it could be ported, but that port would require porting a major subset, if not all of emacs lisp as well. This is due to the fact that elisp closures are valid and often semantically critical arguments to src blocks. Defining the features that must be implemented to achieve a certain level of org-mode support and compatibility is something that definitely needs to be tackled in the future.

tetris11 6y ago

See orgzly for Android, and there are some web implementations too.

trobertson 6y ago

Org mode is great because it does 2 things extremely well: 1. Document structure. Folding, tree structures, linking, etc. are done very well in org-mode. But that's not unique to org-mode, several other solutions do that well. 2. org-mode lets you use all of the other Emacs major and minor modes in your document - restricted to sections. This is amazing, as it basically gives you an entire application layer in your text documents. Where by entire layer, I mean having your calendar, email, programming environments, etc. all within your notes. org-mode used this way is not merely a document editor. It is the best plain-text workflow enabler the world has ever seen. And you can't do this outside of Emacs without essentially rewriting Emacs. Emacs _is_ the strength that org-mode leverages. org-mode is a unification of the many and varied Emacs major modes into a simple plain-text environment. And the best part is, you only need to use the particular modes you want. Your org-mode experience is tailored around your use case. You bring in the mode you want in that section and you're done. It just works.

da39a3ee 6y ago
> org-mode lets you use all of the other Emacs major and minor modes in your document - restricted to sections. > You bring in the mode you want in that section and you're done. It just works. I haven't used org in a non-superficial way for a while. What are you referring to here, src blocks?

da39a3ee 6y ago

It's bound to emacs because it is written in emacs-lisp. It's a large, sophisticated codebase that dates back almost 20 years. There is no way it could ever be ported to another language in its entirety: it is very tightly bound into the (also sophisticated) string manipulation APIs available in emacs lisp.

tgbugs 6y ago
Technically it could be ported, but that port would require porting a major subset, if not all of emacs lisp as well. This is due to the fact that elisp closures are valid and often semantically critical arguments to src blocks. Defining the features that must be implemented to achieve a certain level of org-mode support and compatibility is something that definitely needs to be tackled in the future.