video - introduction to org-mode featuring its originator Carsten Dominik

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Posted by jimspoon
Jun 13, 2014 at 07:28 AM

I’d always dismissed org-mode as an outlining option for myself, thinking it would be too arcane, too many keystrokes to memorize, too foreign, too nerdy, too much of a learning curve, etc. But favorable comments about it made me wonder - so I sought out some more info. I found an introductory video by its originator, and it has definitely caught my interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMM
http://orgmode.org/talks.html
http://orgmode.org/

Posted by shatteredmindofbob
Jun 14, 2014 at 04:22 AM

I like the idea of org-mode, but in practice, ugh.

I’d be willing to give it another try if someone managed to extricate it from emacs, but as it stands, blah.

I mean, I start up emacs and OK, I’m in a text editor…now, how to get activate org-mode?

That simple question took some digging. Finally found out I just need to type M-x org-mode. ...uhh…I pushed M and then pushed x and..oh, it’s just making the system error sound.

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jun 14, 2014 at 11:32 AM

Good video. I am especially interested in the beginning of the talk, where Carsten talks about the key principles of a good outliner:

- clear hierarchy
- easy shifting deeper into the hierarchy and back out again
- easy re-organization of headings/notes

Those have always been the key factors that I’ve used when first evaluating any outliner, and I’m glad to see that I am not alone in this.

However, org-mode makes my head hurt. Any application that needs a table of contents for the “how to install” information is going to be more complicated than I can handle, I’m afraid.

But I am glad that others find it useful. There’s room for lots of different types of apps, and even though I won’t use org-mode, it makes me feel good that others do.

Steve Z.

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jun 14, 2014 at 03:04 PM

I know that this is as off-topic as it gets but, half way into the talk, what I can’t get out of my head is the image of the guy who introduced Karsten; after explaining how thanks to org-mode he stopped writing HTML by hand, he gets off the stage, walking cane in hand, and sits next to his guide dog.

Posted by jimspoon
Jun 14, 2014 at 08:01 PM

I know, that blew me away too!

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