Org Mode - Organize Your Life In Plain Text!

Org Mode - Organize Your Life In Plain Text!

[David Masterson]

I've been reading Bernt Hansen's excellent paper on setting up Org-Mode,
but I noticed that it is rather dated and was wondering if Bernt is
watching and plans to update the paper.  In particular, the last version
of the paper on his website has a couple of things that I think should
be fixed even if he doesn't do anything further with the paper.

1. Update the stale screen shots to match the rest of the paper so that
people can see what you're talking about directly -- they would be very
helpful.

2. Embed the version numbers in the paper so that when people download
the paper, they don't lose the version/date of the paper they
downloaded.  If I read it right, the paper calls a function which gets
the version from git.  That won't work if I just download the org file.

Is Bernt watching?
--
David

Re: Org Mode - Organize Your Life In Plain Text!

[Bernt Hansen]

David Masterson <dsmasterson@outlook.com> writes:

> I've been reading Bernt Hansen's excellent paper on setting up Org-Mode,
> but I noticed that it is rather dated and was wondering if Bernt is
> watching and plans to update the paper.  In particular, the last version
> of the paper on his website has a couple of things that I think should
> be fixed even if he doesn't do anything further with the paper.
>
> 1. Update the stale screen shots to match the rest of the paper so that
> people can see what you're talking about directly -- they would be very
> helpful.
>
> 2. Embed the version numbers in the paper so that when people download
> the paper, they don't lose the version/date of the paper they
> downloaded.  If I read it right, the paper calls a function which gets
> the version from git.  That won't work if I just download the org file.
>
> Is Bernt watching?

Hi David,

Sorry my website on org-mode is stale and I don't currently have time to
update it.  I stopped updating it in 2015 after changing jobs and moving
to the windows platform (at work).  My main issue is lack of free time
to spend on this project.

The downloadable org file is actually the result of publishing the org
source from my very out-of-date Linux workstation.  The original org
file (all versions) is available in the git repository.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have related to the site or my
current use of org-mode.  I still work in a similar way described on
http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html but my agenda and some workflows have
evolved a bit from what is described in the document.

Regards,
Bernt

Re: Org Mode - Organize Your Life In Plain Text!

[David Masterson]

Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca> writes:

> Hi David,
>
> Sorry my website on org-mode is stale and I don't currently have time to
> update it.  I stopped updating it in 2015 after changing jobs and moving
> to the windows platform (at work).  My main issue is lack of free time
> to spend on this project.
>
> The downloadable org file is actually the result of publishing the org
> source from my very out-of-date Linux workstation.  The original org
> file (all versions) is available in the git repository.
>
> I'd be happy to answer any questions you have related to the site or my
> current use of org-mode.  I still work in a similar way described on
> http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html but my agenda and some workflows have
> evolved a bit from what is described in the document.
>
> Regards,
> Bernt

Thank you for replying.  I'll just ask a few questions and maybe expand
upon them later.

1. Are you still working with Emacs/Org from 2015 or have you updated
(but not updated your paper)?

2. If you've updated to Org v9+, did you find significant changes from
what you documented in your paper?  In other words, will running your
paper through tangle and trying to use the results with latest Emacs and
Org be likely to work?  Particularly agendas...

3. Can you suggest a more detailed manual on the setup and use of
Agendas?  The agenda manual with Org is not really clear to me.

--
David

Re: Org Mode - Organize Your Life In Plain Text!

[Bernt Hansen]

David Masterson <dsmasterson@outlook.com> writes:

> Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca> writes:
>
>> Hi David,
>>
>> Sorry my website on org-mode is stale and I don't currently have time to
>> update it.  I stopped updating it in 2015 after changing jobs and moving
>> to the windows platform (at work).  My main issue is lack of free time
>> to spend on this project.
>>
>> The downloadable org file is actually the result of publishing the org
>> source from my very out-of-date Linux workstation.  The original org
>> file (all versions) is available in the git repository.
>>
>> I'd be happy to answer any questions you have related to the site or my
>> current use of org-mode.  I still work in a similar way described on
>> http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html but my agenda and some workflows have
>> evolved a bit from what is described in the document.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Bernt
>
> Thank you for replying.  I'll just ask a few questions and maybe expand
> upon them later.
>
> 1. Are you still working with Emacs/Org from 2015 or have you updated
> (but not updated your paper)?

I am working with the latest git version (master branch) on Windows
running Emacs 25.1.1

$ git describe
release_9.1.14-1065-gdc7477070

(currently 2 commits behind master since I haven't updated today)

>
> 2. If you've updated to Org v9+, did you find significant changes from
> what you documented in your paper?  In other words, will running your
> paper through tangle and trying to use the results with latest Emacs and
> Org be likely to work?  Particularly agendas...

There were some changes:

  - dropping org-structure_template_alist and temporarily using
    org-tempo. Sinc then I've switched to C-c , which is much better.

  - org-time-clocksum-format -> org-duration-format

  - refile changes (use caching)
  - change time grid definition in agenda
  - org-finalize-agenda-hook -> org-agenda-finalize-hook

>
> 3. Can you suggest a more detailed manual on the setup and use of
> Agendas?  The agenda manual with Org is not really clear to me.

I am not aware of any other manuals.  When I started I used the
out-of-the-box org-mode agendas (daily, weekly, separate task lists) and
then when I was comfortable with how that worked I started making small
customizations so they worked better for me and this eventually turned
into the setup described on my website.

Regards,
Bernt

Re: Org Mode - Organize Your Life In Plain Text!

[David Masterson]

Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca> writes:

> I am working with the latest git version (master branch) on Windows
> running Emacs 25.1.1
>
> $ git describe
> release_9.1.14-1065-gdc7477070
>
> (currently 2 commits behind master since I haven't updated today)

You're a little ahead of me on Org and I am using Emacs 26.1 under
Cygwin to get a more Unix-like environment (personal taste).

> There were some changes:
>
>   - dropping org-structure_template_alist and temporarily using
>     org-tempo. Sinc then I've switched to C-c , which is much better.
>
>   - org-time-clocksum-format -> org-duration-format
>
>   - refile changes (use caching)
>   - change time grid definition in agenda
>   - org-finalize-agenda-hook -> org-agenda-finalize-hook

You're much more advanced than I am on Org.  I mostly a beginner who is
also looking to hook it into BeOrg and other iOS tools for my family.  I
like Org for managing all the family information, but Apple tools are
simpler for the non-computer literate.  Things like being able to use
Siri to create family reminders or grocery lists is hard to ignore (but
coming with BeOrg).

> I am not aware of any other manuals.  When I started I used the
> out-of-the-box org-mode agendas (daily, weekly, separate task lists) and
> then when I was comfortable with how that worked I started making small
> customizations so they worked better for me and this eventually turned
> into the setup described on my website.

I've hacked Emacs some over the last 35 years, but I'm not a deep Elisp
programmer.  Over the years, I was more the type to read other people's
Elisp packages and add the interesting ones into my .emacs.

I think I'm beginning to see from your custom agenda commands how to
adjust the standard agenda views without doing too much elisp
programming.  I was hoping to find more examples of agenda setups to get
simpler ones that I could use.

Thanks
--
David