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Beginning to see the light with org-mode
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Posted by Brad91
Dec 21, 2015 at 03:41 PM
shatteredmindofbob wrote:
>I feel like these starter kits just introduce more confusion.
>
>Most useful thing I found (for Windows) was this installer:
>http://vgoulet.act.ulaval.ca/en/emacs/windows/
I don’t agree with this view. I have had an excellent experience
with a couple of starter kits, especially Steve Purcells. I should
have said that I’m using Mac. The experience with Windows
is an entirely different, and in particular the use of git for the starter
kits.
I note that I tried “http://vgoulet.act.ulaval.ca/en/emacs/windows/” on
Windows 7 and got a malware alert from my Avast security ware. Indeed,
while it is easy to install a vanilla emacs on Windows, I have not been
able to make the same progress that I have done with Mac and the Purcell
starter kit.
A note to Dr. Andus, while emacs is a high mountain to climb, it is no harder
to get started than ConnectedText. Org-mode outliner is very easy to use
and there are a couple of YouTube videos on its use. The problem is that
the documentation is so extensive, rather than use-oriented. My approach is
to create my own limited guide on what is necessary for my own purposes.
Indeed, there are videos and written materials aimed at the needs of writers.
By the way, searching is one of the most important features. orgmode.org
has some very good materials, (see http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/advanced-searching.html)
Posted by Dr Andus
Dec 21, 2015 at 05:32 PM
Brad91 wrote:
>while emacs is a high mountain to climb, it is no
>harder
>to get started than ConnectedText.
>The problem is that
>the documentation is so extensive, rather than use-oriented. My approach
>is
>to create my own limited guide on what is necessary for my own purposes.
Thanks for that. I have to admit the few times I went to the various Org-mode websites, it was the state of the documentation that put me off from trying.
Maybe what could make a difference is if one of you good souls would produce a basic guide specifically for the needs of this outliner & writer community, kind of like a cheat sheet for Org-mode for outlining and writing, alongside what’s already been discussed in this thread.
Posted by Brad91
Dec 21, 2015 at 10:38 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
>Maybe what could make a difference is if one of you good souls would
>produce a basic guide specifically for the needs of this outliner &
>writer community, kind of like a cheat sheet for Org-mode for outlining
>and writing, alongside what’s already been discussed in this thread.
We can do better than that. A great place to start is a You Tube video, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bzZ09dAbLEE, Taking Notes In Emacs Org-Mode.
Here is another thing you will love: Like ConnectedText, you can create the equivalent of a Topic by inserting text between double brackets. Using Steve
Purcell’s Starter Kit (on Mac), this will immediately ask if you want to have a separate heading. If “yes,” a separate heading will be created at the end of the current buffer (the work space in Emacs). (You can then add text as you would with ConnectedText Topic.) Whenever you enclose the “Topic” word/phrase in double brackets, it links to the “Topic.” (Control-c & takes you back to where you left off.)
Posted by Prion
Dec 22, 2015 at 09:07 PM
Disclaimer: I am a scientist and my interest in emacs or vim besides some general dabbling at text is really just driven by org mode.
If you are on the fence regarding org-mode and have been put off by the seemingly disparate nature of the various contributions to this endeavour, you may at least be congratulated for your good judgment. That said, there are some initiatives that make it much easier to start and one of the more notable ones is spacemacs (https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs). Unlike other starter packages, which represent one setup that works for its creator, this one has many developers and whilst prolific, is still focused.
To call it a starter package is an understatement, although you can treat it as one. It has many sane defaults and for the most part works out of the box. On the Mac it is much nicer looking despite my previous attempts to make Emacs look nicer, this one just does and supports themes that can be swapped easily.
Under the skin, it marries the power of Emacs to the modal editing philosophy of Vim (but only if you let it). This may not sound like much but if you are like me, remembering all those arcane keystrokes of pure Emacs that can very easily involve six keystroke combinations to invoke a single function can be too much very easily. They are all still there but much more accessible now by letting you switch between command mode and editing mode.
Don’t want to unlearn Cmd-S for saving, Cmd-V for pasting because it is too deep in your muscle memory? Just activate this and many other defaults by activating the OS X layer in your configuration file by simply uncommenting it. You can always include more powerful Emacs or Vim editing commands later on once you have built some confidence.
You only remember part of the name for a command that may be useful (or simply guessing one like “had something to do with org mode tables and column justification or was it alignment”)? Just type “SPC : org table” without the quotes and up pops the so-called helm mode that live-filters the 4000 or so commands. Better still, it will not be perturbed by occasional typos and also present fuzzy hits. Very, very useful.
But what does a function X really do? “SPC h d f” (think help describe function), again, there is helm’s fuzzy matching algorithm that let’s you just type the most unique parts of a function’s name and still give you the result.
Don’t remember what a certain keystroke does? “SPC h d k” to the rescue (think help describe key) followed by the keystroke you want to learn something about. The cool thing here is that it will tell you which function is actually tied to the key even if you have modified the keybinding, so all the googling in the world would give you a consistent but wrong answer (for your modified setup).
And so on.
Some of ingredients are spacemacs, some emacs functions, some are collections of little modes and modules that one could find somewhere on the internet and (with some luck) get to work on vanilla emacs, but spacemacs combines many useful ones in a single, remarkably streamlined package. Opinionated, but not dogmatic. Combining the best of emacs and vim may make the purist cringe (as will the inclusion of the OS X keystrokes) but if you simply want it to work and become productive it does a very good job.
Until spacemacs, I have had many unsuccessful attempts at making org-mode work for me, all of which failed because ultimately deadlines got in the way and I simply did not have the time to build the proficiency to get the work done, at least not in emacs org-mode. Utterly defeated I copied and pasted into a software that may have been inferior but better known to me.
I don’t know how it will turn out this time but Spacemacs has for me altered the equation significantly and I am loving it. Give it a try if you will but don’t come running to me asking questions….I am NOT an expert, not yet, ask again in some decades.
Sorry for the long post
Prion
Posted by shatteredmindofbob
Dec 22, 2015 at 09:44 PM
Throughout learning Emacs and Org-Mode, I’ve come across a *lot* of people evangelizing Spacemacs, but if I’ve never used Vim, what exactly does it offer me?
(That’s not entirely accurate, through my experience went something like “How do I type text? Insert mode? What YEAR is it?!? Wait..HOW DO I CLOSE THIS THING?!?” )
I’m really not sure what it does other than add even *more* weird keybindings. I mean, vanilla Emacs has a lot of ridiculous key-bindings but how is “SPC h d f” better than “Ctrl-h k”?
This is why I personally don’t care for these “starter packs.” They really don’t seem friendly to someone who is starting out in Emacs.