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About 1000 times per day, someone says emacs is too big an ask for org-mode, and someone replies, it's configurable to feel like whatever you're used to. The l

About 1000 times per day, someone says emacs is too big an ask for org-mode, and someone replies, it's configurable to feel like whatever you're used to. The latter needs to accept that most users, particularly scientists, reject out-of-hand anything requiring configuration or compilation no matter how trivial. But it's all moot since org-mode is largely promoted by non-scientists (computer science is not a science), and should a wysiwig-inclined scientist ever get past the emacs obstacle, he'll balk at the awkward BEGIN_SRC incantations.

avgcorrection 4y ago
Is astronomy a science? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgyRdnjRI4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgyRdnjRI4o
medo-bear 4y ago
> But it's all moot since org-mode is largely promoted by non-scientists (computer science is not a science) My academic training is in physics and mathematics. I was introduced to programming in my computational physics class. We used emacs as our editor
- dtech 4y ago
  Congratulations for being special, 99% of academia uses Matlab, a simple GUI text-editor or something like Anaconda. Emacs is such a fundamentally different paradigm from all other IT tools/editors that it just doesn't make sense to recommend a specialized tool with a steep learning curve and non-transferable skills when it's not ubiquitous and more standard alternatives exist without it which do OK. It doesn't matter that emacs was historically the first and everyone else decided to go in different directions, that's just the reality of today.
  - medo-bear 4y ago
    > non-transferable skills im curious which transferable skills you think Jupyter has > Emacs is such a fundamentally different paradigm from all other IT tools/editors its not. you use a mouse and click where you want your pointer to go. you use a keyboard to type > steep learning curve this is very much like saying that linux has a steep learning curve and you refuse to touch ubuntu because you are scared to blow up your computer
    - scombridae 4y ago
      much like saying that linux has a steep learning curve Most people do say that. What programmers cannot grasp is progress is about giving people what they want, not what is rationally best. Most scientists want to knock out a paper or presentation, and make it home on time for dinner.
      - medo-bear 4y ago
        > Most scientists want to ... are you their union rep ?
BeetleB 4y ago
> But it's all moot since org-mode is largely promoted by non-scientists (computer science is not a science) I think you're just suffering from selection bias, given that this is on HN. Add me to the list of people who began using Emacs and Org mode during academia in a non-CS program. Furthermore, go look at the Emacs conference - you'll find a significant number of speakers are not CS folks.
- disgruntledphd2 4y ago
  Yeah, me three. I started with Emacs because it could syntax highlight both R and LaTeX code for Sweave, and discovered org mode a few years later. That being said, nobody's gonna learn Emacs for org-mode, unfortunately.

avgcorrection 4y ago

Is astronomy a science? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgyRdnjRI4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgyRdnjRI4o

medo-bear 4y ago

> But it's all moot since org-mode is largely promoted by non-scientists (computer science is not a science) My academic training is in physics and mathematics. I was introduced to programming in my computational physics class. We used emacs as our editor

dtech 4y ago
Congratulations for being special, 99% of academia uses Matlab, a simple GUI text-editor or something like Anaconda. Emacs is such a fundamentally different paradigm from all other IT tools/editors that it just doesn't make sense to recommend a specialized tool with a steep learning curve and non-transferable skills when it's not ubiquitous and more standard alternatives exist without it which do OK. It doesn't matter that emacs was historically the first and everyone else decided to go in different directions, that's just the reality of today.
- medo-bear 4y ago
  > non-transferable skills im curious which transferable skills you think Jupyter has > Emacs is such a fundamentally different paradigm from all other IT tools/editors its not. you use a mouse and click where you want your pointer to go. you use a keyboard to type > steep learning curve this is very much like saying that linux has a steep learning curve and you refuse to touch ubuntu because you are scared to blow up your computer
  - scombridae 4y ago
    much like saying that linux has a steep learning curve Most people do say that. What programmers cannot grasp is progress is about giving people what they want, not what is rationally best. Most scientists want to knock out a paper or presentation, and make it home on time for dinner.
    - medo-bear 4y ago
      > Most scientists want to ... are you their union rep ?

BeetleB 4y ago

> But it's all moot since org-mode is largely promoted by non-scientists (computer science is not a science) I think you're just suffering from selection bias, given that this is on HN. Add me to the list of people who began using Emacs and Org mode during academia in a non-CS program. Furthermore, go look at the Emacs conference - you'll find a significant number of speakers are not CS folks.

disgruntledphd2 4y ago
Yeah, me three. I started with Emacs because it could syntax highlight both R and LaTeX code for Sweave, and discovered org mode a few years later. That being said, nobody's gonna learn Emacs for org-mode, unfortunately.