[Orgmode] An Org-mode clone for Vim

[Herbert Sitz]

I've been working on a Vim plugin that is file-compatible with Org-mode and that
clones a good subset of features.  It's gotten to the point where I'd like to
put it up on Github and see if anyone wants to use it and/or help develop it
with me.  So far I've implemented a good subset of Org's functionality and,
though it has a few rough edges, right now it could be perfectly usable for
certain people out there who prefer Vim as a text editor, but who have been
drawn to Emacs' Org-mode because of its features.  My project isn't at the point
where it has all the features or the polish of Org-mode, but many Org-mode users
use only a small subset of Org.  For people who prefer Vim and have subsets
coinciding with my project it could be an option.

I've made a video showing what it looks like and demonstrating some of the basic
outlining stuff.  I just uploaded it to Vimeo, and it tells me it will be
available for viewing in a couple hours (i.e., around 3:15pm PST today, Friday
Nov. 5,2010).  When available it will be viewable at this link:
http://vimeo.com/16543959

For someone who asks, 'Why would you bother to do this for Vim when it's already
done in Emacs?", I would have these responses:

1.  A lot of people don't like Emacs.  It is of course an insanely powerful
piece of software, but a lot of people can never get accustomed to the chord-key
command system, or if they do get semi-accustomed they don't like it or it
causes them physical pain.
2.  Some people are of the opinion that, while Emacs is admittedly a great
operating system/development environment, it lacks a decent text editor.  ;)
3.  Emacs and Vim (or Vim and Emacs) are king and queen atop the pile of text
editors.  What one has the other should have to, to the extent possible.
4.  I consider myself a Vim person, but I moved to Org-mode and Emacs myself
(made almost palatable to me by Viper and Vimpulse) because I wanted to be able
to publish outlines to PDF and HTML.  Vim has a couple decent outliners but
nobody has bothered to create good export systems for quality output.  I had
written some (non-publishing-related) extensions for one of the Vim outliners
and I knew it wouldn't be that hard to write something in Vim that was
file-compatible with Org-mode, which would then be able to publish to PDF and
HTML simply by calling out to an Emacs server.  This was my original goal and
it's done and works great.
5.  As I did some work I became more curious about all the task management and
organization features in Org-mode, and how they might be implemented in Vim.  So
I started coding up stuff for the various Org searches, agenda views, sparse
trees, column views, date management, etc.  This is actually fun to do and Vim
is well-suited for doing it.  So I've kept going.  I'm hoping someone else might
have an interest in doing this with me.
6. As I said in 5., developing this stuff is fun.

That's about it.  If there's any interest I'll do more videos showing how other
Org-mode features have been implemented in the Vim plugin, and where they stand
right now in the Vim plugin compared to Org-mode.

Regards,

Herb Sitz
Seattle, WA