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Comment by gkya | Hacker News Reader

Org-mode. A benevolent beast. Once one gets to learn it, it can be made to do anything. Also having a programming language shared with the runtime and other programmes for that runtime (Elisp and Emacs) is just priceless, it just lends itself to be customized in whichever way one would like. A major con for me, though, is the lack of decent iOS-Android integration.

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I've been wanting to learn org-mode for years but I never get around to it. I use something similar, but I only worry that if I were to move to something else I would want it to be in the cloud so I could access it from devices and other laptops. Do you have a solution for this?

@spatten and @kristiandupont - orgzly is a nice android client. You can sync the org files with dropbox or with git. You could also run a linux locally and install emacs. A keyboard is essential though when you're using emacs, orgzly works ok with touch but is less full-featured. Just as with vim i only use a small subset of what's possible with org-mode: clock in/out, tables, nested outlines, tags and priorities, links to other files and images.

I have a bunch of org-mode files that I save into a Dropbox folder.

That gives me backups, and access from other computers / laptops.

Search is via ack or grep.

It theoretically also gives me access from my phone using MobileOrg[1], but I have never actually set that up.

[1]: http://orgmode.org/manual/MobileOrg.html

> ack or grep

C-c C-j. You're missing out :)

Cool, didn't know about that. Does it search multiple files in a directory? I use it for work logs and keep one file per week.

It's just plain text files, so you can sync it using whatever you want. Many people use Dropbox.

This. Best organizer I've ever used!

I'm a Vim user, but thanks to SpaceMacs/evil-mode I feel right at home. Actually, it works so well that I've come to prefer evil-mode over the real Vim!

http://spacemacs.org/

Hey, I found spacemacs a bit intimidating. How do you get started with it? I have plenty of text to write in the coming weeks, so I already have the substrate to practice on. I just need a good introduction to evil-mode+org-mode.

Spacemacs has pretty good docs: http://spacemacs.org/#learning-spacemacs

org-mode and evil-mode alone, without Spacemacs, work pretty well already. It's just additional glue to make it more seamless.

Thanks! For some reason I never saw this page before. I wasn't satisfied with the README on Github. Off to read!

Exactly, did you know you could install a special spacemacs org-mode layer?

I suspected as much, but I've never tried it.

Thanks for the reminder!

My main problem with org-mode is the lack of good display for math notations as well as multimedia (picture/video etc). Did I miss something that I can use with it?

AFAIK it's possible to use $$ -- $$ for math notation, it exports to LaTeX/MathJax etc, and there's a setting for making it to preview within the buffer (the function is "org-latex-preview-fragment"). And there is very good latex integration, support for latex blocks etc. I do not know the details tho, I'm not a maths guy.

If you set

  #+OPTIONS: inlineimages

you'll see links to local images inline in the buffer. IDK, if video is possible, but I think no.

AucTeX is what you're looking for. More ideas: http://kieranhealy.org/resources/emacs-starter-kit/

You can display images in-line if you're using the graphical emacs.

I haven't gotten around Emacs yet. I'm on a MBP and the Emacs controls are bothersome (to say the least) compared to Vim. I tried using Spacemacs, but it kind of assumes one is already familiar with Emacs and seems a bit too bloated for a newcomer.

So, how do you suggest I acquaint myself with Org-mode? Vanilla Emacs + evil-mode?

These are my suggestions:

Take Emacs as a lisp machine, a working environment, a framework. Then start building it up to your liking. A bit of Emacs lisp knowledge is essential, and it is an easy language, though with rough edges. With org, be experimental and incremental, don't try to create a perfect system from day one, start small and tame it to your habits and tendencies. But get used to the capture+refile flow (see info).

I can't comment about evil, but I do not really feed the need for vi-style editing. Typing speed is not the bottleneck for me. When I type prose, I use Emacs standard bindings + visual line mode. When I program, and nowadays I program exclusively Emacs lisp, and exclusively for my needs, I use paredit. I feed good with these, and I do not feel a need for more speed. But everybody is a bit unique in their needs, so if you'll feel better with evil, go for it.

My last suggestion will be that of avoiding things like Prelude and SpaceMacs. Steal from them, but build your own config yourself. Apart from this, I always use a stable release of Emacs and always check in to git the packages I use, so that I will not have to depend on 3rd parties for my setup. My .emacs.d is simply vital to me.

Edit: about controls, mapping caps lock to ctrl is a life saver, though I do not know well the mac keyboard.

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