
Org mode 9.0 released - Philipp__
http://orgmode.org/Changes.html
======
mjhoy
I love Org mostly for its ability to link to stuff. In my mind it's the big
feature that sets it apart from using, say, a separate application to do my
task management. For instance:

\- When I'm reading email (in emacs), I can quickly create a TODO that links
back to the current email I'm reading (most of my TODOs, in fact, link to an
email, so this is very useful),

\- For my org file where I keep notes about the servers I'm running, I might
link to a specific line on a remote apache config,

\- For a bug report I might link to a specific git commit in a project to look
at later

Any TODO that is important gets scheduled, so that it is linked to from the
agenda view. In this way it's very hard for me to lose track of anything,
despite most of my work communication happening through email. In fact I now
prefer email over using something like Basecamp, because org makes it easier
for me to manage!

~~~
Fice
Because Emacs is an OS the way it should be — an extensible system with a
unified UI instead of a pile of separate and hardly interoperable
applications.

~~~
davexunit
"b-but the UNIX philosophy!"

The more time I spend with UNIX and hear the "UNIX philosophy" used in place
of argument when someone doesn't like the feature set of some software, the
more I realize that we need to move on from UNIX. We should take more ideas
from things like Emacs and the Lisp machines when designing our software, and
less from UNIX.

~~~
tumba
You might enjoy The UNIX-HATERS Handbook [1], published in 1994. It offers a
still-relevant critical perspective on the UNIX paradigm, birthed in a context
that had been exposed to alternatives.

[1]
[http://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf](http://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf)

~~~
davexunit
I'm a big fan of the UNIX-HATERS Handbook. :)

(For some additional perspective, I don't really _hate_ UNIX, I still recall
how much of a breath of fresh air it was coming from Windows, but I think it,
much like the X server, is really showing its age.)

------
bachmeier
Reading through the list of changes, I am very happy that I moved away from
org mode.

\- New syntax for export blocks

\- org-file-apps no longer accepts S-expressions as commands

\- Preparation and completion functions in publishing projects change
signature

\- Old Babel header properties are no longer supported

So in other words, for the classes I teach every two years, I can forget about
being able to open up my previous files and have them just work. This was a
_constant battle_ and is pretty much unique to org mode.

~~~
plg
I have experienced the same thing at least twice in the last 5 years ...
automated scripts for compiling and uploading >50 .org files for a course
website, suddenly fails. Spend 3 days chasing down why. Small naming change in
an org function.

Now again?

It's very frustrating.

~~~
kaushalmodi
In that case, do not update. Emacs and Org-mode are showing gear signs that
the development is active, the software is constantly improving, and bugs are
constantly getting squashed.

It is in your hands if you want to keep using the same version of org-mode and
Emacs, or update to the latest and greatest and fix few necessary backward
incompatible changes.

The ORG-NEWS also provide elisp snippets that help quickly make those fixes
for you. So if you choose to update, give some time to read through ORG-NEWS.

~~~
plg
yes I hadn't seen that but they do provide some elisp code snippets to
automate some of those code changes. thanks!

------
superflit
I really recommend everyone to try it. The power of org mode lies in its
simplicity. No fancy gui, not too many features but allows creating and
extending. When you need to be productive you need a simple tool so you do not
spend your time being busy instead of working

~~~
berntb
"Simplicity"?! <Cough> It took me quite a few hours to learn. :-)

At first, I was a bit frustrated and thought "Because of recommendations, I
just spent X hours learning a tool where the GUI applications can be learned
in minutes?! Was this a good use of my life?"

Then I realized the usability I had -- and that it was the closest thing I
ever got to paper and pencil with a keyboard; I didn't need to think so it was
not in the way when I wrote down notes.

Still use it.

~~~
mikekchar
Yes, another classic case of "ease of use" vs "ease of learning". It's easy to
conflate the terms (and most people usually mean "ease of learning" when they
say "ease of use").

I'm with you, though. I wouldn't call it simple, but man is it easy to use.

~~~
wodenokoto
This reminds me of something a guitar playing friend of mine once said, when
asked to play something difficult:

"Nothing is difficult if you practice it enough"

~~~
berntb
What the GP was referencing was the old argument of us Emacs users:

" _There is a difference with efficiency of easy learning and efficiency when
using_ ". It implies that the cost of learning Emacs is small, per year of
bliss using it. (Why would you downgrade to something else if you know Emacs?)

I guess, something like this for a musician: "This was a hard piece of music
to learn, but it is sure to get me laid many times." :-)

(Sorry about the preconceived opinion about why people learn to play an
instrument, it is obviously jealousy since I can't even clap hands to most of
my favorite music. :-) )

~~~
jeremiep
Learning to play an instrument "to get laid" is a guaranteed way to be
mediocre at said instrument :) Practicing for the wrong reasons is pretty much
bad practice.

~~~
berntb
Only joking, I know enough music people to get that a lot of musicians are
nerdier than I am.

But the music people I know would still have appreciated that joke, so either
drink more coffee or sleep more? :-)

(You could counter with "If those people knows _you_ , then they obviously
don't have much of a sense of humour anyway -- which is another proof of the
heterogeneity of musicians backgrounds." :-) )

------
biomene
I've tried to use org mode several times. Its functionality is truly great,
but having to use emacs to use it is too much of a hurdle for me. I struggle
to remember all the emacs key combinations, so in the end I just give up and
revert to text files.

It would be great if someone ported org mode out of emacs. I've tried the
Sublime Text org mode package[0] but it's still too bare to be useful. Does
anyone know of an alternative way to use it?

[0]:
[https://github.com/danielmagnussons/orgmode](https://github.com/danielmagnussons/orgmode)

~~~
Johnny_Brahms
Are you more of a vim person? If so, spacemacs might be something to use.
Sure, it is slow and buggy in some rarely-used layers, but other than that it
is a really neat experience. The org mode layer sees quite some love, and
works well.

~~~
CJefferson
I tried spacemacs for a month, but the problem is reading vim guides doesn't
quite work, reading emacs guides doesn't quite work, and there isn't good
enough spacemacs documentation.

~~~
ane
You can try evil-mode which is just the vi interface, Spacemacs is more of a
packaged solution that happens to include the vi interface. Having used vi
interfaces in other editors (VS, IntelliJ, Eclipse, NetBeans, Atom, Sublime,
VSCode, etc.), based on my experiences, evil gives the most accurate vim
experience.

~~~
flukus
The other editors don't have modes in the same way the emacs does though. What
I find frustrating is if your in the package manager mode for example, then
your keybindings break.

Spacemacs improves this for some modes, but it still won't allow custom
bindings in any/most of them.

------
melling
I'm a fan of using org mode files on Github. Hopefully, Github continues to
expand org support:

[https://github.com/melling/ios_topics/blob/master/README.org](https://github.com/melling/ios_topics/blob/master/README.org)

[https://github.com/melling/ComputerLanguages](https://github.com/melling/ComputerLanguages)

[https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/README...](https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/README.org)

------
massysett
What are Org users doing for mobile access? Using the phone to ssh to an
emacs? Using mobile org? I also saw an Org plugin for an iOS editor. How do
you keep it synched?

I need tasklists to be accessible on the phone.

~~~
shoover
I was never happy with the workflow of automatically syncing mobile org, so I
gave up. A scheduled task on the desktop exports org to HTML in a Dropbox
folder. Read-only HTML on mobile is good enough for my use in most cases. I
capture with Google Keep if needed.

~~~
mwfogleman
How do you schedule that task?

~~~
shoover
Windows Task Scheduler and a script wrapping an emacs batch command.
[https://bitbucket.org/snippets/shoover/ggM5z](https://bitbucket.org/snippets/shoover/ggM5z)

Alternately, you can invoke the org project/publish
system.:[https://bitbucket.org/shoover/emacs.d/src/4f5461d826c92c749b...](https://bitbucket.org/shoover/emacs.d/src/4f5461d826c92c749bfc1205f8216b7a5f4af5bb/lisp/publish-
org-dirs.el?at=default&fileviewer=file-view-default)

------
Wonnk13
anyone have any good introduction tutorials for

1\. org agenda integration into their todo lists 2\. babel mode? i'd love to
integrate code into some of study guides for interviews

love emacs, but i never feel like im using more than 1% of org mode's
potential.

~~~
mcshicks
I like this one. You don't have to do the whole thing just start taking pieces
of his init file and adding them as you want to try things.

[http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html](http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html)

------
_asummers
Anyone have any org-mode config settings that they've found invaluable? I
finally have my normal emacs config mostly working how I want it, so why not
go in and add more stuff to it with org-mode!

~~~
nextos
I use org-mode's agenda as kanban board, so adding a global shortcut for
agenda is invaluable.

Also more states. And I typically use a blank line between tree branches.
Without altering org-cycle-separator-lines, it will be eaten up by last leaf
of previous branch which I found annoying.

Apart from that their defaults are pretty good.

    
    
      (use-package org
        :bind ("C-c a" . org-agenda)
        :config
        (progn
          (setq org-agenda-files '("~/org"))
          (setq org-cycle-separator-lines 1)
          (setq org-todo-keywords '((type "TODO" "PROG" "WAIT" "|" "DONE")))
          (setq org-todo-keyword-faces '(("TODO" . "brightblack") ("WAIT" . "yellow")))))

~~~
TeMPOraL
Excerpts from my org-mode configuration:

[https://gist.github.com/TeMPOraL/a25fbf499e295537fa80e525fcc...](https://gist.github.com/TeMPOraL/a25fbf499e295537fa80e525fcceebf3)

As you can tell, I'm a huge user of agenda and org-capture, and also keep my
org files synced via Dropbox.

I don't document my configs much, so friendly reminder for readers of mine
(and others) - you can find documentation for any variable from within Emacs,
by pressing C-h v (or M-x describe-variable), and for any function by pressing
C-h f (or M-x describe-function).

try-load-and-configure-library is a small macro I wrote _long_ before I found
out about use-package.

    
    
      (defmacro try-load-and-configure-library (lib &rest configuration)
        (declare (indent defun))
        `(when (locate-library (symbol-name ,lib))
           (require ,lib)
           ,@configuration))

------
SnowingXIV
More and more I keep wanting to try emacs or vim, because nothing else seems
to work as far as productivity. I've tried Evernote and a bunch of other
applications, nothing seems to be useful (to me). I always stick to my
notepads of paper and pens, that may never change.

I do mostly front end work, so the tools I'm constantly in is in iTerm 2,
Adobe products, Mail, Sublime, and Transmit for SFTP.

Would there be any benefit of spending time learning these? Where does one
even begin?

~~~
gkya
Start Emacs, hit Ctrl-h and then t ( _C-h t_ in emacs lingo). Brings up the
tutorial, it's a quick intro to editing. Now open an org mode file, and open
the Org mode info manual: Ctrl-h and then i, then m, which'll bring up a
prompt, type "org" and hit enter ( _C-h i m_ org _RET_ ). By time you'll find
your way to use it. Both emacs and org-mode lend themselves to excessive
customisation, and learning a bit of Elisp unlocks incredible power.

There are a myriad of packages and tens of starter kits like Spacemacs out
there, it's quite possible that looking at these, one does not know where to
start. I suggest you start with vanilla emacs and build up your personal and
most-fitting experience. Takes some time but definitely worth it. It's like a
city, you may have read ten tourist guides, but until you go out there and
explore, you know nothing.

That said, this is my set of most basic "sanitisation settings" for emacs:

    
    
      (setf
       ;; Always open a new buffer if default is occupied.
       async-shell-command-buffer 'new-buffer
      
       ;; UI.
       visible-bell t
       uniquify-buffer-name-style 'forward
       save-interprogram-paste-before-kill t
       font-lock-maximum-decoration nil
       ;; Search help more extensively.
       apropos-do-all t
      
       ;; Ignore case when completing file names in minibuffer.
       read-file-name-completion-ignore-case t
       read-buffer-completion-ignore-case t
       completion-ignore-case t
       completion-styles '(initials substring partial-completion)
       find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings t
       enable-recursive-minibuffers t
       ;; Save bookmarks after each bookmark command.
       bookmark-save-flag t
      
       ;; Do not  ring the bell  when killing  in r/o buffers,  put the
       ;; kill in the kill ring but do not modify the buffer.
       kill-read-only-ok t
      
       ;; Search modes default to regexps. 
       search-default-mode t)
      
      (setq-default save-place t)

~~~
SnowingXIV
This looks great, thanks for the detailed response with providing what to
actually press. Looking at downloading it now but man there are a lot of
versions here.
[http://gnu.mirrors.hoobly.com/gnu/emacs/](http://gnu.mirrors.hoobly.com/gnu/emacs/)

~~~
gkya
25.1 is the latest:
[http://gnu.mirrors.hoobly.com/gnu/emacs/emacs-25.1.tar.xz](http://gnu.mirrors.hoobly.com/gnu/emacs/emacs-25.1.tar.xz)

And BTW you're very welcome.

------
SZJX
The most crucial thing for me is the inheritance of org-block face by src-
blocks. Now finally I'm once again able to use fixed-width font for all codes
and variable-width font for all normal notes, which greatly optimizes the
reading experience. This has been an issue since org 8.2.1

------
jiehong
The page doesn't show the changes for 9.0 for me yet.

Here is a link to the git repository of the org-file containing those changes:

[http://orgmode.org/cgit.cgi/org-mode.git/plain/etc/ORG-
NEWS](http://orgmode.org/cgit.cgi/org-mode.git/plain/etc/ORG-NEWS)

------
kozikow
Curiously to try it!

> New option org-attach-commit

> When non-nil, commit attachments with git, assuming the document is in a git
> repository.

Anyone knows if it would work with org-store-link in magit? That would be
handy.

------
vittore
I don't know how I've never heard of it, but now I know what are those .org
files. Can anyone explain what's big win with org vs say markdown?

~~~
peatmoss
For me, the biggie is better embedded code support. For example, with
RMarkdown, I can embed chunks of... R code in Markdown and have them executed
with results put in line. Org mode, by contrast, has had support for dozens of
languages for quite some time.

Beyond that, flexibility in rendered output formats. Markdown doesn't really
provide any mechanisms for when you want some things to be different between
the HTML and LaTeX -> PDF output. Org-mode supports multi output format issues
quite neatly.

Little things such as supporting in-document cross references work in Org-
mode, but not Markdown. If you've ever needed to do something like "As seen in
Figure [X]", know that with Markdown you'll be doing some hacks. Org-mode?
Just works.

~~~
vittore
Thank you! btw I was sure that MD has in-doc references, just never really
used them myself.

