
Emac’s Org Mode will improve your software engineering - rohankshir
https://medium.com/@rtotheohan/emac-s-org-mode-will-improve-your-software-engineering-d7bc2f30a0#.r2ohguph1
======
tunesmith
I don't know why so many people make the point that hierarchical structures
are how the brain works. Graphical structures are how the brain works. The
hierarchical structure is how the physical world works (you can't put the same
shirt in two closets), and we have an unfortunate habit of trying to force our
brain to work the same way, but it's an impedance mismatch.

Unless I'm the only one that is frustrated that you never know where to find
vegetable oil in the grocery store. Is it in the cooking aisle near the flour,
or the condiments aisle near the vinegar? Seems like every store chooses
differently since it doesn't make sense for them to put it in both places.

~~~
epaga
Totally agree - being able to not only list things from top-to-bottom but more
visually seems to work far better for me as well (though I suspect people's
brains may work differently?)

My love for outlining like in Workflowy or org-mode but my need for more
visual-based tools like Scapple or mind-mapping is what led me to scratch my
own itch and create Mindscope. It's an attempt to be the best of both worlds.
Would love feedback, of course...
[http://www.mindscopeapp.com](http://www.mindscopeapp.com)

~~~
jacalata
I'm a little put off by ipad-only: I want to be able to at least read my data
from anywhere. I don't want it gone for a week when my iPad gets run over by a
car. I'd also like some non-video content on the website: when I visited the
page just now (on Android) I see two videos and an app store link. I'm not
going to watch a video on the bus right now so that leaves me with no info at
all.

------
julienchastang
What this story and many of the comments herein miss is that org-mode coupled
with org-babel is a full-fledged multilanguage literate programming
environment. When you have access to the shell, Python (w/ matplotlib for
graphs), Clojure, R, etc. right in your org buffer, and can interact between
them (and even pass data between cells of different languages), you really do
have what Ken Iverson (inventor of APL, Turing award winner) called a “Tool
for thought”. This prose first style of programming where text is punctuated
by code (instead of the other way around) is excellent for your own thought
process, exposition (via Latex, MD, HTML, text export) as well as taking
notes. The only downside to org is that it is intimately tied to emacs, so if
you don’t like emacs (lisp) you won’t want to use org. And one more thing, the
hierarchical folding in org is second to none. That should be a simple matter,
but no other environment/editor handles that feature like org.

~~~
hsitz
I agree, Babel is often overlooked subset of orgmode's features. The linked
article that's spawning these comments doesn't do an especially good job of
explaining why a developer would should want to use orgmode. Common problem,
though, orgmode is far more than an outliner tool, a lot of what it does is
truly mindblowing.

Orgmode has so many features, and there are so many ways to combine them, that
it's really hard to get a grasp on everything it can do. It is certainly not
just an outlining tool restricted to working with strict hierarchies. E.g.,
searches can be done within a file -- or throughout hundreds of files -- which
will then assemble all responsive headings (i.e., all connected items) in the
Agenda buffer (which is, in a sense, virtual, since it doesn't represent any
file or document at all; it temporarily collects items from different files).
Many org-mode users "live" in their Agenda buffer. The Agenda buffer isn't
technically "graphical", but in many ways it's better and more powerful than a
graphical solution because the relevant, connected items all then appear as
items in a single buffer, no need to follow lines on a picture connecting
sometimes far-away items in a complex, confusing graphical representation.

There's so much more it's hard to know even where to begin. For programmers,
learning more about org-babel is definitely a good place to start.

~~~
grayje
I've been using org-mode in various capacities for a little over a year now.
I've tried other tools but keep coming back. As far as complexity goes, I feel
like I'm barely scratching the surface. I like what Neal Stephenson has to say
about emacs (which applies just as much to org-mode):

 _In the GNU /Linux world there are two major text editing programs: the
minimalist vi (known in some implementations as elvis) and the maximalist
emacs. I use emacs, which might be thought of as a thermonuclear word
processor. It was created by Richard Stallman; enough said. It is written in
Lisp, which is the only computer language that is beautiful. It is colossal,
and yet it only edits straight ASCII text files, which is to say, no fonts, no
boldface, no underlining. In other words, the engineer-hours that, in the case
of Microsoft Word, were devoted to features like mail merge, and the ability
to embed feature-length motion pictures in corporate memoranda, were, in the
case of emacs, focused with maniacal intensity on the deceptively simple-
seeming problem of editing text. If you are a professional writer – i.e., if
someone else is getting paid to worry about how your words are formatted and
printed – emacs outshines all other editing software in approximately the same
way that the noonday sun does the stars. It is not just bigger and brighter;
it simply makes everything else vanish._ [1]

A few things for newbies that might help:

1\. A lot of org-mode 'power users' post their workflows and all of the
attendant emacs lisp code [2] [3], and many new users feel like they have to
customize their org-mode experience to that level to get any use out of it. DO
NOT DO THIS! Start completely fresh with a clean install, just use it as a
braindump outliner, and SLOWLY start adding new features as you go, based
specifically on what you need for your individual workflow (the most useful
first thing to learn for most people, after basic outline creation and
folding, is probably the agenda view). This way you 'grow' the program to fit
your own needs organically, rather than trying to shoehorn yourself into
someone else's idea of a perfect workflow.

2\. One customization thing I will say you should do immediately is to change
the theme to match your preferred UI style. It will make a huge difference in
how you 'feel' while you're using it. I love emacs but I hate, hate, hate the
default UI look-and-feel. I will plug leuven-theme [4] as my current go-to for
org-mode, but also dig the sanityinc tomorrow themes [5].

I will also throw in a compliment to the awesome community around emacs. It's
happened to me many times where I've encountered some shortcoming or 'missing'
feature of my existing setup, thought to myself "if only I could do X and Y,"
and discovered after 5 minutes of Googling that someone has already written
something that does exactly what I'm looking for...

[1] from 'In The Beginning Was The Command Line' (1999) [2]
[http://pages.sachachua.com/.emacs.d/Sacha.html](http://pages.sachachua.com/.emacs.d/Sacha.html)
[3] [http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html](http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html)
[4] [https://github.com/fniessen/emacs-leuven-
theme](https://github.com/fniessen/emacs-leuven-theme) [5]
[https://github.com/purcell/color-theme-sanityinc-
tomorrow](https://github.com/purcell/color-theme-sanityinc-tomorrow)

------
hashkb
I spent a few months on emacs, mostly so I could experience the magic of org.
I didn't get it. It's a super powerful outliner with scripting... Through that
experience I rediscovered pen and paper, actually. No scripting, but I can
write sideways and sketch things. A pocket sized notebook was the answer for
me.

~~~
kleiba
> _I didn 't get it. It's a super powerful outliner with scripting..._

At its very heart, yes. And that alone is cool, I think (the scripting part).

But it's also a lot more: org-mode supports a simple form of task management
(TODOs, Agenda views,...), it has a built-in spreadsheet editor (with formula
support, all in ASCII), you can export contents to various backends (HTML,
Beamer, ...) -- it really is a beast!

~~~
cyphar
Pencil and paper is much better for me for making quick notes to be honest. I
actually don't like writing my brain dumps on a computer because it makes it
harder for me to think about them. I find that physically using a pencil helps
me develop my ideas more because I have to reiterate what I'm writing while
writing it. It's definitely a personal preference, maybe it comes from the
fact that I always draw things on paper when designing them and always do
working out for Physics and Maths problems on paper. When I go to write it in
a file, it always feels more official and like a proper document than just
scribbles.

~~~
pmoriarty
The problems with paper notes are poor searchability, linking,
extracting/copying of data, and portability.

But yes, there are advantages to paper, like the ability to easily draw
diagrams and link ideas with arrows, etc.

On the other hand, if you need that, you could always use something like a
Wacom tablet, or maybe some other touch-screen device with a stylus. That
would give you the best of both worlds.

~~~
desipenguin
Wacom tablet/touch screen+stylus have same problem of poor searchability.
(Assuming that you are suggesting "drawing" digitially, as opposed to on
paper)

Are there tools that will let the user search "hand drawn" digital image ? One
can always use tag like system, which one can't with paper, but then it is
extra work, and adding "text" tags is easier when using something like org-
mode, or just plain text.

~~~
pmoriarty
I wasn't arguing that digital drawings wre searchable, but that typed text
was.

Still, there are ways to make drawing somewhat searchable too.

The (typed) names of the drawings you make are searchable, as are the tags (if
you've used any, and you should), and their location on your filesystem. If
there's some writing on the same page as the drawing, that's potentially
OCR'able, and then searchable. Finally, you could always combine drawings with
typed text, wich will be searchable.

------
escherize
I'm pretty into org-mode. I got started from this article by Sacha Chua[1].
Her note taking style helped me learn faster. (This post was written in
emacs.)

[1] - [http://sachachua.com/blog/2014/01/tips-learning-org-mode-
ema...](http://sachachua.com/blog/2014/01/tips-learning-org-mode-emacs/)

------
laughinghan
Do people here have opinions on Workflowy?
[https://workflowy.com/](https://workflowy.com/)

As a Vim adherent, I never really got into Org-Mode, but from what I've seen
from my Emacs friends, Workflowy seems kinda like Org-Mode Online, but with
additional features like being able to share a sublist as a URL (which was
noted in this blogpost as a weakness of Org-Mode: "The caveat here is that
it’s mostly a one man show.").

I use it very much like this blogpost describes, to quickly jot-down and
organize thoughts, then later reorganize them, update them, or archive them.

~~~
fsiefken
Have you tried evil mode with vi bindings? The good thing of org-mode is that
it runs locally and through ssh, but any task outliner tool is useful to
organize thoughts or tasks.

~~~
ascagnel_
evil mode is pretty good, but I find that there's a few rough edges. Also, I
can't find a good type-ahead search plugin for picking files like in TextMate,
Sublime Text, or (my current preferred tool) the Ctrl-P plugin for Vim [0].

[0]
[https://github.com/ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim](https://github.com/ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim)

~~~
Scarbutt
You didn't search hard enough ;) Really, Ctrl-P is joke to anything compared
available in Emacs.

~~~
robertcarter
Can you provide some examples and/or the name of the packages etc. I've just
started emacs and the way I use dired mode is too slow. In terminal I have a
bunch of aliases for fast navigation. How do you do this in emacs?

~~~
nandkeypull
You can have aliases in emacs as well - just use bookmarks. Set a bookmark
with C-x r m and jump to a bookmark with C-x r b (I bound this to a "bj"
keychord to invoke bookmark-jump faster). If you install ido/helm/ivy, you'll
have a quick fuzzy selection mechanism to grab whatever bookmark you want with
just a few letters.

Plus you'll want to install a fuzzy file finder like find-file-in-project.

------
themodelplumber
I like this. Not because I use this process or even Emacs, but because it
focuses on the center of the issue: Bringing your full mind to bear on the
object at hand. If there's anything that will de-stress a frustrated hacker,
it's that sort of directed, decisive action toward the best perceivable
outcome.

Often you don't even have to save your notes file if you are just using this
as a method to defeat procrastination or build up momentum for a busy day.
Many of mine don't survive the day and that's fine.

------
LVB
The biggest issue I had with org-mode was the sad state of mobile clients.
They were all convoluted to set up and, once working, didn't work very well
[1]. The experience was much worse that what I've become accustomed to with
Todoist, Nirvana, etc. where mobile sync is pretty seamless.

Org certainly is interesting and ticks the main boxes for me: outliner/TODO
system, open source, text file, etc. With a better mobile solution available,
I could definitely see myself using org-mode as my primary organization
system.

[1] To be fair, this was under Android. I've not rerun the experiment using
iOS, but I'm seeing one MobileOrg app in the store, last updated in 2013, with
the most recent comments citing issues similar to what I experienced.

~~~
glynsync
[http://www.orgzly.com/](http://www.orgzly.com/) isn't quite there yet (no
automated sync yet), but is a vast improvement over MobileOrg for Android

------
lcall
Others here have described really well the defects in most products for
information managers, knowledge managers, note-takers, etc etc. I created
OneModel ([http://onemodel.org](http://onemodel.org)), as an org-mode
alternative. (Really, an everything-else alternative.) Free (AGPL), and
contributors welcome. Especially feedback! It has many advantages over emacs
org-mode (details in the FAQs, but e.g. the speed of navigation, ease of
learning, and flexibility).

Vision, in buzzwords: outlines + mind mapping + evernote + wikipedia +
knowledge management + _spreadsheets /apps_ \+ PIM, you decide what to share
or import. It lets you organize arbitrary knowledge in a structure that makes
sense to you, based on how you think. It is meant to be very easy to learn. It
is (so far) text- and keyboard-only, since everything you need to know at any
given time is on the screen. It is highly efficient to navigate.

For "what it is today" with details, & links to more about the future:
[http://www.onemodel.org/1/e-9223372036854622523.html](http://www.onemodel.org/1/e-9223372036854622523.html)

------
kchoudhu
I finally got GTD implemented in OneNote. Now you're telling me I now need to
move on to Emacs org mode?

God, it's like trying to choose a Javascript framework.

~~~
js8
Emacs org-mode will be there long after OneNote is gone. And the format is all
text. It's a life-long investment.

~~~
CJefferson
There are already (to me) very useful places where I can get OneNote where I
can't get emacs -- Android and iOS. I don't expect to ever see Emacs on iOS,
and I tried it on android but it doesn't work well at all.

Not sure why you think emacs org-mode will be around forever. While I'm sure
emacs will be around forever, I've had vim (not emacs, I don't use it I will
admit) extensions which rotted as new versions of vim came out.

~~~
jbmorgado
Not Emacs but Org-mode.

There is [http://www.orgzly.com/](http://www.orgzly.com/) for Android. not
sure about iOS.

------
falcolas
So this boils down to take notes, add do/done flags for items. OSX' Notes app
can do the same thing...

Not to downplay org mode's usefulness, but this isn't really a post about org
mode, just some general note taking strategies.

------
wowtip
Surprised he did not mention org-capture for this use.

[http://orgmode.org/manual/Capture.html#Capture](http://orgmode.org/manual/Capture.html#Capture)

------
shadeless
This has also been my experience, journaling helps a lot both while working on
something and when getting back to it, especially after a longer period of
time.

I found this discussion interesting too:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9895713](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9895713)

------
melling
You can use Github to use create org files. I have several repos of org files:

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

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

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

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

------
duncan_bayne
Very happy org-mode user here. Two things that are worth mentioning:

\+ org-present, which lets you write presentations as org files

\+ Orgzly, which gives you a great interface to search, create and edit org-
mode files on your Android device

------
norswap
I kind of agree.

But I just use plain text files with bullets.

I haven't seen a compelling argument to justify learning all the concepts and
keystrokes of org-mode. I don't need all the bell and whistles. Export to
HTML? Why?

~~~
Jtsummers
If you're already an emacs user (is it supported in other editors?) you can
start here and grow as you need it. At least, that's how I've done it. Started
with bulleted lists (folding was convenient and really all I made use of).
Then expanded to linking within a document and to other documents. My .emacs
file auto-loads an _index.org_ file for me, this has links to numerous other
documents. Some are little more than scratchpads, one is a list of PDFs. Some
of those have become links to org files that link to the pdf and I have
notes/annotations in the org file. It's my own wiki.

Export to HTML was useful a couple times, but not something I've used much of.
I generated some code samples and used org-babel mode. The HTML view was nice
enough to share out to other people.

I'm still barely using any of its features. The compelling thing for me is
that when I've wanted a new feature, it was already there 9 times out of 10.

------
Delmania
A key point to this article is that the author does his development work in
Emacs, so for him, taking notes doesn't require him to switch or launch a new
application.

As a lowly Windows developer, I struggle to make use of any note taking
application outside of a sheet of paper. I'm sure a tool like OrgMode, Zim, or
OneNote would help me organize my life, but as soon as I try to do this, I
simply ask myself, why not just simplify?

~~~
Splines
I use OneNote on a daily basis and really like it. Mostly just an easy way to
write down text with simple markup. Tables work well and you can add
checkboxes if you want.

OneNote's search is IMO it's killer feature. After you've built up a sizable
amount of content you're going to start to need to search for stuff and it's
pretty much instantaneous. Also returns results for pictures too (using OCR).

~~~
groovy2shoes
I use a Windows Phone which came with OneNote. It automatically syncs between
my phone and my desktop. It's really nice when I'm out on the town and have an
idea or something I want to jot down.

------
matwood
I think the main takeaway here is not that org mode will make you more
productive, but that taking notes will. I have tried many programs including
org mode, and found that OneNote works best for me. It is stored in the cloud
so always available, has native clients for mobile, and a web client. It does
impose a bit of structure which some people may or may not like.

------
rogeryu
I use my own wiki for everything I want to remember, and have used it as a GTD
method. But in the end I moved away for GTD stuff. I used Chandler, and really
liked it, but then it was abandoned. Then I used Quickfox Notes in Firefox to
make a simple plaintext todo list. That works OK til now. Lately I've been
using Evernote more and more, and now I mix them all more or less.

I've tried Emacs, tried the Eclipse todo, but neither caught on with me. I
hear great things about Emacs and about Vim, and although I use Vim a lot to
edit files on the server, I keep having difficulties changing to either of
them for development. Maybe it's a matter of time.

~~~
MollyR
I had a similar issue has well. I ended up in Onenote for years, and honestly
I had no real issue. . . until my move to linux mint. Now I'm using raw text
for the time being.

~~~
groovy2shoes
The webapp version of OneNote works pretty well. I use it on Linux with no
troubles.

[https://www.onenote.com/hrd](https://www.onenote.com/hrd)

------
pjkundert
I built a system to generate SVG burn down charts from Org Mode task lists
stored in Git (for historical project data):
[https://github.com/pjkundert/burndown](https://github.com/pjkundert/burndown)

It was somewhat useful, but requires regular updates of project status to be
checked in; somethings I found challenging to remember to do.

------
grandalf
I use this exact process only without any special mode in emacs. I do not mark
items complete I just remove them when they are no longer relevant.

When something important comes up it goes to the top and often when I am
finished with it a lot of the stuff below it can be deleted too.

------
jxy
This title really puts me off. I can't find a conceivable reason for anyone
who actually uses Org Mode to write it as "Emac's Org Mode". Another reason to
never go to this particular website I guess.

------
justin_vanw
Should be Emacs', not Emac's

------
cdelsolar
What is Emac?

~~~
mafuyu
It's a bit like Vi.

~~~
base698
It's really not at all like vi.

~~~
mafuyu
It was a dumb pun on the last letter of "emacs" being left off. :P

------
eng_monkey
> your software engineering

What does this mean?

------
klog
*Emacs's

------
anentropic
I doubt it

