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Re: "Why is emacs so square?"
From: |
Joost Kremers |
Subject: |
Re: "Why is emacs so square?" |
Date: |
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 10:41:05 +0200 |
User-agent: |
mu4e 1.4.1; emacs 27.0.91 |
On Thu, Apr 23 2020, Richard Stallman wrote:
It appears that what people call "Org mode" is a collection of
diverse
features, and what they have in common is use of a certain
format of
the text. Is that right?
That sounds just about right, yes.
I have to question the practice of treating these diverse
features
conceptually as a single mode. Although I still don't know what
those
features are, if one of them is a word processor and the others
are not,
they are too different to make sense conceptually that way.
The practice has probably arisen historically, but IMHO it still
makes sense to do so now, because probably Org's biggest strength
is that the various features are tightly integrated. That doesn't
mean you couldn't use Org for just one of its features, you
definitely could, but the beauty of the system is that the
different features aren't strictly separated.
For example, Org can be used as an agenda, to keep track of your
appointments, daily schedule, etc., much like Google Calendar and
other such offerings. At the same time, you can use Org to write
your papers.
Now, you would normally keep your appointments in one file, say
=agenda.org=, and the paper you're working on in another file, say
=paper.org=. So far, so uninteresting. But with Org you can put
TODO notes in =paper.org=, add deadlines, date and time stamps,
etc., anything Org supports. Then, when you display your agenda
(i.e., run a function that takes the contents of, in this example,
=agenda.org=, and creates a nice overview of it in an agenda-like
fashion), you can have the TODO items, deadlines etc. from
=paper.org= included in this overview automatically. Try that with
Google Calendar.
This is just one example, but it illustrates the whole point of
Org: the system has many different features, and they all work
together.
It would make more sense to call them various different modes.
That
they all use a certain way of formatting the text may not be
important
to mention.
Actually, it's crucial to mention that. You might say it's Org's
raison d'ĂȘtre. It's what makes integrating all of Org's functions
so tightly possible.
In other words, if we don't let the concept of "Org mode" shape
our thinking,
we might thing of these features differently.
I think it would certainly help newbies getting started with Org
to document its features separately. Eli's suggestions for
restructuring the Org manual sound very good. I had a difficult
time getting started with Org myself, and I can relate very well
to the impressions that you and Eli describe.
But at the same time it should be made clear from the outset that
Org's strength lies in its integration. I mean, I could use
Markdown with Pandoc to write my papers, *cough* Google Calendar
*cough* to keep track of my appointments, Jupyter for keeping
programming notebooks and *cough* Evernote *cough* to keep notes,
but there would be no way to link all of that. With Org, there is.
--
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", (continued)
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Richard Stallman, 2020/04/20
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Joost Kremers, 2020/04/21
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Richard Stallman, 2020/04/21
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Nicolas Goaziou, 2020/04/22
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Eli Zaretskii, 2020/04/22
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Richard Stallman, 2020/04/22
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?",
Joost Kremers <=
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Eli Zaretskii, 2020/04/23
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Joost Kremers, 2020/04/24
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Eli Zaretskii, 2020/04/24
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Stefan Kangas, 2020/04/24
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Eli Zaretskii, 2020/04/24
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Joost Kremers, 2020/04/24
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Eli Zaretskii, 2020/04/24
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Richard Stallman, 2020/04/23
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Joost Kremers, 2020/04/24
- Re: "Why is emacs so square?", Eli Zaretskii, 2020/04/24