video - introduction to org-mode featuring its originator Carsten Dominik
Started by jimspoon
on 6/13/2014
jimspoon
6/13/2014 7:28 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/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMM
http://orgmode.org/talks.html
http://orgmode.org/
shatteredmindofbob
6/14/2014 4:22 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.
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.
Stephen Zeoli
6/14/2014 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.
- 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.
Alexander Deliyannis
6/14/2014 3:04 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.
jimspoon
6/14/2014 8:01 pm
I know, that blew me away too!
jimspoon
6/14/2014 8:05 pm
Dr Andus
6/14/2014 8:43 pm
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
For similar reasons I've never been inclined to actually try it out, beyond watching a few videos here and there. It is clearly a very sophisticated system. I might be wrong, but my impression is that it appeals to a very particular type of people who are already computer scientists or at least programmers and who spend most of their time within a single type of editor (such as Emacs or Vim), and therefore the benefits for them justify the learning curve, plus their minds and habits have already been primed by their studies. E.g. I do like to use keyboard shortcuts, but there is a limit to how many I'm willing to memorise, while these editors seem to require a huge number of different combinations... Plus I like to use lots of different software ;-)
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.
For similar reasons I've never been inclined to actually try it out, beyond watching a few videos here and there. It is clearly a very sophisticated system. I might be wrong, but my impression is that it appeals to a very particular type of people who are already computer scientists or at least programmers and who spend most of their time within a single type of editor (such as Emacs or Vim), and therefore the benefits for them justify the learning curve, plus their minds and habits have already been primed by their studies. E.g. I do like to use keyboard shortcuts, but there is a limit to how many I'm willing to memorise, while these editors seem to require a huge number of different combinations... Plus I like to use lots of different software ;-)