org mode

B

balanga

Never heard of org mode until yesterday, but it seems like a neat way of organising/documenting life, the universe and everything...

Does anyone have any opinions about it? Is it worth spending any time learning it?
 
I have used the basic features of org in doom-emacs for a couple of years and I like it a lot. I now have a long list of things I'd like to configure to suit my own workflow, so I'm slowly learning elisp and the API. Developing one's own emacs configuration is a long-term project, so one has to accept that as part of the deal. I like it well enough to continue, although I expect to be yak-shaving that configuration forever.

I think the easiest way to get a quick idea of the fundamental features is to watch Rainer König's org-mode tutorial videos. After that, you'll understand enough to begin using an org-file as a fancy text file for basic task tracking, which might be enough, depending on what you need. On the other hand, the most comprehensive workflow example I've seen is described here, and a quick skim of that page will show how much configuration is required to implement it.

Traditionally, people created their own emacs configs from scratch, but I think the starter configs like doom are a nicer entry point. I have also used spacemacs, but doom has worked much better for me. There are several other starter configs out there also.

You might also consider taskwarrior and its other alternatives before diving all the way into emacs and org.

Good luck with your new hobby!
 
balanga said:
Never heard of org mode until yesterday, but it seems like a neat way of organising/documenting life, the universe and everything...

Does anyone have any opinions about it? Is it worth spending any time learning it?
Click to expand...

This is necessarily a personal answer.

I have known about org mode for probably 10 years. I have used it for ~7 of those years (stopped 3 years back).
I find it feature-ful, well documented, customizable.

What value did it provide me? Entertainment, something to nerd about, something to explore.
Do I have a highly personal workflow for which I needed such flexible tool: no.
Did I become more productive thanks to org-mode: not at all, if anything it hurt my productivity.

So, what are your goals?
 
Org-mode is exactly that thing that one wished he knew about it 10 years before.
I started to take interest in org-mode after 2 years writing pandoc markdown. I was not satisfied with this later because of inconsistent and imprévisible rendering of tags.
 
tuxador said:
Org-mode is exactly that thing that one wished he knew about it 10 years before.
I started to take interest in org-mode after 2 years writing pandoc markdown. I was not satisfied with this later because of inconsistent and imprévisible rendering of tags.
Click to expand...
In my recent FreeBSD14 machine ( Ryzen 7 5700G 16go RAM) vanilla emacs runs without problems, but switching to doom makes it unusable. I did install all the dependencies even the optional , doom bin/doctor showed no errors.
I miss my doom workflow ...
 
cracauer@ said:
an impression.
Click to expand...

OK, I'm hooked. What was the impression (in the context of your screening for that employer)?

balanga said:
… seems like a neat way of organising/documenting life, the universe and everything...

Does anyone have any opinions about it? …
Click to expand...

I looked at org-mode a few years ago, never took it further than a look.

In response to bakul at <https://forums.freebsd.org/posts/637183>, at <https://forums.freebsd.org/profile-posts/5188/> I wrote:

… I was a Compendium person.
Click to expand...

That was long ago.

tl;dr software that's intended to organise or prioritise has minimal impact on my ability to do those two things.
 
grahamperrin said:
tl;dr software that's intended to organise or prioritise has minimal impact on my ability to do those two things.
Click to expand...
Such software can help. Just as a hierarchical file system can help organize files better - back in the DOS days you’d see many less computer savvy people put all their files in the top level directory.

But I think an even more important thing is to get in the habit of writing down (or sketching, if you are more of a visual person) key points or new ideas. Now you have a file or page where you can collect related notes & links. Then each time you review a page, something new may trigger in your brain and you can add more notes or link to a related page etc. If you keep it all in your mind, such growth becomes harder and you may even forget important or useful ideas. Better to write things down, revisit, review, reflect, reorganize. Also trash stuff that is no longer relevant! In effect, over time a useful structure will naturally emerge. Most of us are not disciplined or organized thinkers and we have faulty memory so this sort of external “extension” to our brain helps.
 
I've been trying to get to grips with org mode recently and followed a number of tutorials, many of which didn't work as they should, but have just recently found that org mode works differently under X than it does under text mode.... Or is it just me?
 
balanga said:
Never heard of org mode until yesterday, but it seems like a neat way of organising/documenting life, the universe and everything...

Does anyone have any opinions about it? Is it worth spending any time learning it?
Click to expand...
Watched the mentioned vid, and it looks a lot like editors/vim and folding. Seems that editors/vim can fold different syntaxes and even markdown files. Haven't tried it yet, but the org-mode-way of organizing is nice. But I prefer my favourite editor.

Here is a nice introduction to folding in Vim. It uses a plugin, but it seems Vim can do without.
 
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