Org-mode idea?

Org-mode idea?

[Dennis Groves (CISG)]

Hello All,

I am sort of new to org-mode; I have been using it for some time but since I
am not a software engineer I am afraid I am not able to make use of all the
capabilities nor do I fully understand them all...

That said, in terms of life management; nothing even comes close to the
power and utility of org-mode in my experience so I use it.

I use org-mode for projects, exercise and fitness, and a daily task-diary.
And I currently do this all in one big giant unwieldy file.

I recently suffered a loss of data on my main computer. And as such I really
want to get my data into a git repository and have that backed up regularly.

(but I have been in management now for so long my developer tech skills have
really suffered - and this stuff isn't as obvious as it once was...)

I would also like to get the big file split out into many small files, so
that they are easier to work with.  I want to split this up into potentially
dozens of files in different subdirectories in my org folder. The structure
reflects my own mental outline of course.

Now my idea is this could agenda be made to read the subdirectories
recursively and scan the files there in for todo's? Sorta, like a compile?
Or could I have a single file that is simply a list of all the files to look
into in order to create my agenda?

Thank you,

And again, please forgive my 'newbness' ---

Dennis

Re: Org-mode idea? - Agenda files

[Giovanni Ridolfi]

--- Gio 6/11/08, Dennis Groves (CISG) <degroves@microsoft.com> ha scritto:

> I would also like to get the big file split out into many
> small files
[...]
> could agenda be made to read the subdirectories
> recursively and scan the files there in for todo's?
> Sorta, like a compile?
> Or could I have a single file that is simply a list of all
> the files to look
> into in order to create my agenda?

You can customize the variable org-agenda-files

I have this line in my .emacs :
(custom-set-variables
 '(org-agenda-files (quote ("c:/Documents and Settings/Me/Documenti/tmp/file1.txt" "c:/Documents and Settings/Me/Documenti/tmp/j.org")))
)

You can also add any file manually with C-c [ 
(section 10.1 of the manual)

cheers,
Giovanni


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Re: Org-mode idea?

[Eric Schulte]

"Dennis Groves (CISG)" <degroves@microsoft.com> writes:

> Now my idea is this could agenda be made to read the subdirectories
> recursively and scan the files there in for todo's? Sorta, like a compile?
> Or could I have a single file that is simply a list of all the files to look
> into in order to create my agenda?
>

This thread should help
http://www.mail-archive.com/emacs-orgmode@gnu.org/msg08942.html

Re: Org-mode idea?

[Charles Sebold]

On 6 Nov 2008, Dennis Groves wrote:

> I recently suffered a loss of data on my main computer. And as such I
> really want to get my data into a git repository and have that backed
> up regularly.
>
> (but I have been in management now for so long my developer tech
> skills have really suffered - and this stuff isn't as obvious as it
> once was...)

I did this.  There are a lot of places you could start on something like
this; I think John Wiegley's PDF on how to use Git was mentioned
yesterday, and that was pretty good.

The great thing about Git is that you can either treat this like
traditional source control, and set up a central repository somewhere
that gets backed up, or you can just clone the one you maintain on your
main computer to your server that gets backed up sometimes.  In either
place you have the complete history of your changes.

For myself, I have a primary system that is live on the internet, so I
can get my files from anywhere (with SSH, anyway).  Then my main place
to actually use the org files is on my laptop running Windows, and I do
most things there and regularly push commits in just so I have the
backup.  Then I have my main computer at home, a Debian system, and when
I'm at home that's often the place where I "live" with my org files.
Git handles this stuff pretty straightforwardly.

If I were to do it over again, though, I might not bother with the
central one, assuming that I was getting regular backups with one of the
other two "main" computers.

> Now my idea is this could agenda be made to read the subdirectories
> recursively and scan the files there in for todo's? Sorta, like a
> compile?  Or could I have a single file that is simply a list of all
> the files to look into in order to create my agenda?

For this you want to look at (info "(org)Agenda files") for everything
you need.  You can certainly do the second one out of the box.  I have
it reading everything in the top level of my org directory, then I
manually add things in the subdirectories, because sometimes I'm messing
with something that I don't want in the ordinary agenda.  You can
manually add a file that you're in right now with "C-c [" as you can see
from the info link above.

Then you could get really crazy and start having multiple
agendas... like a lot of people on here seem to be doing (and I just
started, and I am hooked on it).
-- 
Charles Sebold                                     7th of November, 2008
GNU Emacs 22.3.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) | Gnus v5.11 | org-mode 6.11pre01
 

Re: Org-mode idea?

[Sebastian Rose]

Hi Dennis,


"Dennis Groves (CISG)" <degroves@microsoft.com> writes:
> I would also like to get the big file split out into many small files, so
> that they are easier to work with.  I want to split this up into potentially
> dozens of files in different subdirectories in my org folder. The structure
> reflects my own mental outline of course.
>
> Now my idea is this could agenda be made to read the subdirectories
> recursively and scan the files there in for todo's? Sorta, like a compile?
> Or could I have a single file that is simply a list of all the files to look
> into in order to create my agenda?



are you aware of the shortcut
   C-c C-[
?
It adds any Org-file to your agenda files. Your agenda is automatically
compiled from all those 'agenda files'.


Nice side effect: you may open your agenda files by pressing
   C-,
which will open all of them, one by one for each C-,
C-c C-[ will add a file to the _front_ of the list, so the file will be the
first one opened through C-,


Regards,

  Sebastian


-- 
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Tel.:  +49 (0)511 - 36 58 472
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Http:  www.emma-stil.de

Re: Org-mode idea?

[Nick Dokos]

Charles Sebold <csebold@gmail.com> wrote:

> Then you could get really crazy and start having multiple
> agendas... like a lot of people on here seem to be doing (and I just
> started, and I am hooked on it).

Say, what?!? I must have missed the discussion. Can you provide a reference?
Or a short introduction?

Thanks,
Nick

Re: Org-mode idea?

[Charles Sebold]

On 7 Nov 2008, Nick Dokos wrote:

> Say, what?!? I must have missed the discussion. Can you provide a
> reference?  Or a short introduction?

I think I meant "custom agenda views," not "multiple agendas."  But the
effect is much the same, it seems to me, especially if you're entirely
changing context when you change views.

I've got everything in my life in my org files, but if I want to just
see work (which is frequently), I have something like this in my .emacs
stuff:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("w" agenda "Work Agenda"
	 ((org-agenda-files '("~/org/work.org"))))))

Maybe I've been misunderstanding some of the discussions going on around
here.  I don't know how long one could do that, but it's things like
this that make org-mode act like an extension of my brain.
-- 
Charles Sebold                                     7th of November, 2008
GNU Emacs 22.3.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) | Gnus v5.11 | org-mode 6.11pre01
 

Re: Org-mode idea?

[Richard Riley]

Charles Sebold <csebold@gmail.com> writes:

> On 6 Nov 2008, Dennis Groves wrote:
>
>> I recently suffered a loss of data on my main computer. And as such I
>> really want to get my data into a git repository and have that backed
>> up regularly.
>>
>> (but I have been in management now for so long my developer tech
>> skills have really suffered - and this stuff isn't as obvious as it
>> once was...)
>
> I did this.  There are a lot of places you could start on something like
> this; I think John Wiegley's PDF on how to use Git was mentioned
> yesterday, and that was pretty good.

For someone with relative basic requirements I would recommend an emacs centric
solution:

http://zagadka.vm.bytemark.co.uk/magit/magit.html

or if using Emacs23 use the builtin Version Control which includes GIT
and is well documented in the standard documentation.

Only one command to remember (give or take)  : C-x v v

If not using 23 then I'm pretty sure it's once eLisp file and a require
away regardless.

This gives a nice overview:

http://argandgahandapandpa.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/emacs-version-control/

Re: Org-mode idea?

[Nick Dokos]

Charles Sebold <csebold@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 7 Nov 2008, Nick Dokos wrote:
> 
> > Say, what?!? I must have missed the discussion. Can you provide a
> > reference?  Or a short introduction?
> 
> I think I meant "custom agenda views," not "multiple agendas."  But the
> effect is much the same, it seems to me, especially if you're entirely
> changing context when you change views.
> 
> I've got everything in my life in my org files, but if I want to just
> see work (which is frequently), I have something like this in my .emacs
> stuff:
> 
> (setq org-agenda-custom-commands
>       '(("w" agenda "Work Agenda"
> 	 ((org-agenda-files '("~/org/work.org"))))))
> 
> Maybe I've been misunderstanding some of the discussions going on around
> here.  I don't know how long one could do that, but it's things like
> this that make org-mode act like an extension of my brain.

OK, I think I see. Thanks for the reply!

Nick

Re: Org-mode idea?

[Manish]

  On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 7:51 PM, Dennis Groves (CISG) wrote:
  > Hello All,
  >
  > I am sort of new to org-mode; I have been using it for some time
  > but since I am not a software engineer I am afraid I am not able
  > to make use of all the capabilities nor do I fully understand them
  > all...
  >
  > That said, in terms of life management; nothing even comes close
  > to the power and utility of org-mode in my experience so I use it.
  >

Yep. +1 :)

  > I use org-mode for projects, exercise and fitness, and a daily
  > task-diary.  And I currently do this all in one big giant unwieldy
  > file.

FWIW, I currently split it mainly into personal.org and
my-current-employer.org.

  >
  > I recently suffered a loss of data on my main computer. And as
  > such I really want to get my data into a git repository and have
  > that backed up regularly.

I also suffered a massive data loss last February and lost years of
collected documentation, reports, scripts, email.  I never want to
have to be in same situations again So I dealt with this problem at
various levels.

1. Human mistakes

I have split all my major data into logically separate directories,
turned each of them into separate git repositories (I have 10 main
repos now) and set up .gitignore well.

Managing more than a few repositories becomes tedious quicly so I
resort to using Joey Hess' mr [1].  Also I tend to be very easily
distracted and forget to commit changes even I should have; so a shell
script is fired (by a batch script which is called by Windows
Scheduler) every hour that commits latest changes to the repo (with a
default commit message with timestamp.)

I suspect git is probably not meant to be used this way but it helps
in my case and I do not have to remember anything.  Committing when
you want to is still possible anyways (using command line or magit or
dvc or emacs-git or..)

2. Loss of hardware

Once the script is done committing, it checks if my home desktop
computer is available (when on home network && not on VPN) and then
rsyncs the data (approx. 15 GB of it) to a RAID 1 mirrored pair of
drives (this also happens every hour.)

3. Reinstallations/setup in case of hardware loss

I try to use portable applications [2] where possible and also install
Cygwin [3], Windows native Emacs, Org mode, Freemind, R etc. in a
single directory tree so that I can just copy the directory tree from
my desktop to a new machine quite easily.

Do let me know if you want further explanation of or to look into any
part of the setup.

HTH,
-- 
Manish

1. http://joey.kitenet.net/code/mr/
2. http://portableapps.com/
3. On a new computer, you would need to setup mount points and PATH,
   of course.

Re: Org-mode idea?

[Matthew Lundin]

Manish <mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com> writes:

>   On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 7:51 PM, Dennis Groves (CISG) wrote:
>   > Hello All,
>   >
>   > I am sort of new to org-mode; I have been using it for some time
>   > but since I am not a software engineer I am afraid I am not able
>   > to make use of all the capabilities nor do I fully understand them
>   > all...
>   >
>   > That said, in terms of life management; nothing even comes close
>   > to the power and utility of org-mode in my experience so I use it.
>   >
>
> Yep. +1 :)
>
>   > I use org-mode for projects, exercise and fitness, and a daily
>   > task-diary.  And I currently do this all in one big giant unwieldy
>   > file.
>
> FWIW, I currently split it mainly into personal.org and
> my-current-employer.org.

I've tried both big files and multiple small files, and I've found
that big org-files provide the fastest access to my projects. Using
narrow and agenda subtree views, it's easy to drill down to smaller
views of particular projects. 

My files: personal.org, professional.org, notes.org (for random stuff
I want to keep that's not related to a current project).

>   >
>   > I recently suffered a loss of data on my main computer. And as
>   > such I really want to get my data into a git repository and have
>   > that backed up regularly.

Yes, version control is the way to go. I, alas, am still stuck in
Subversion world, but it's actually a fairly good solution to keep
home directories in sync on multiple computers.

Matt