On Mar 24, 2010, at 7:18 AM, Russell Adams wrote:

Carsten,

I discussed this with a few users off an on.

In the manual there are items required to setup org, keybindings, etc.

The idea would be to include:

- An Agenda file, which loads by default
- Init file which
  - Preconfigured keybindings
  - Remember keybinding for basic todo to agenda file
  - Configured auto-mode-alist
  - Recommended Global key maps

They are all basic items to an experienced emacs user, but a new user
doesn't understand why they have to go edit the config file and make
changes. Their emphasis is on they want to run "Org-mode", not "Emacs
with Org-mode".

Perhaps an install script which sets the file association for .org in
whatever OS they are installing to. Option icon to load straight to
agenda view...

Just a few idea that have been bantered around, I suspect all of those
could be performed with a script as opposed to redistributing emacs.

Thanks.


On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 11:52:41AM +0100, Carsten Dominik wrote:
Hi Russel,

this is also a valuable idea.  There are two avenues in this direction.

1. Make the org-mode defaults already set all this stuff up.

2. Offer a blind set of configurations and tell users,
  if you don' know nothing yet, use these.


In either case, what would the improved defaults be that
help beginners get a better start?

- Carsten

On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:07 PM, Russell Adams wrote:

The idea of a tutorial is great, but has anyone considered a
pre-configured out-of-the-box Org customized Emacs distribution?

I've had to help several new users get things like basic agenda, emacs
initialization, and remember templates setup and it seemed very
repetitive.

The Emacs learning curve really holds back Org adoption in that sense,
they can't just open Emacs and use Org immediately as anything other
than an outline editor.

Perhaps just a script to enact default customizations, that the
tutorial could then build upon?

Thanks.

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 07:59:11PM +0100, Alexander Poslavsky wrote:
Hello,

lately there is some talk about a basic org-mode tutorial. Something
simpler then the documentation, that will help a person new to emacs
and org-mode start using org. I would like to put the following on
worg, if people would think something like this would fit the bill.
What do you think? If the response is positive then I would add more
chapters to it.

greetings,

alex



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- Carsten





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Aloha all,

A possible contribution to this thread, org-check.org, is now available on Worg:
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/examples/org-check.php

This is a stub for a file that uses Org-babel to execute functions that query various configuration parameters and report back results in a table.  Eric Schulte generously provided technical assistance.

The table is organized by task, e.g. preview latex, with various configuration topics and their tests under each task.  

Here is an example of the anticipated use-case: the new user who wants to preview latex, but gets no results when following the manual instruction, can refresh the org-check table to see if the system has the necessary software, paths to the software on exec-path, and the value of the :scale property.  Results are reported as pass/fail, or some other easy-to-interpret value.

My ability to augment the file and to test it on different architectures is limited (as is Eric's ability to offer me technical assistance) and I'm hoping that others on the list will find the idea worthwhile and help out.  The file org-check.org is available on github:
http://github.com/tsdye/org-check
and this link can be found on Worg, as well.

Comments, contributions, criticisms, and suggestions are all welcome.

All the best,
Tom