The phone did make it a little challenging but before that I used a notebook and dumped it into org at the end of the day. I've been doing something similar with my phone now.
A lot of people refer to org-mode as the gateway drug for Emacs and it truly is that.
My big blocker is that a significant portion of my time is on a phone rather than a computer these days and I have to think that all the chording with Emacs would get impossibly cumbersome.
Anyone here have a good way to leverage Emacs on the go?
I sync org files to phone (using Syncthing) and use Orgzly to access these from Android. Although it is possible to install Emacs in Android as a terminal tool in Termux or even as a GUI tool, you need to connect a keyboard to do something sensible. Long story short, if your phone is your daily driver, Emacs may not be for you as it is keyboard oriented. But if you are a computer person who occasionally uses the phone, there are ways to get by.
Neither are full org mode, but good enough for reading notes and minor edits/captures on the go.
This was new to me. Can install with F-Droid or support the author by purchasing from an app store.
FWIW, it seems Emacs can now be built for Android natively - there seem to be related files and documentation in the main Emacs repo, though I haven't actually built it myself, so I don't know how well it works.
That being said, it is not perfect. My ultimate (and imperfect) solution was to acquire a GPD Micro[1]. Now that thing makes up for all shortcomings of mobile devices, not just Emacs :)
[0]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.madlonkay.orgro/ [1]: https://gpd.hk/gpdmicropc
I have one, but coming from a tiling wm, and Vim I have a hard time imagining using it productively. It is in my sell pile.
I barely see the desktop TBH. It is there just so I have convenient control of peripherals. 99% of my time is in Web browser or Emacsclient or Terminal. On GPD I use the browser even less, because its purpose is to be a lightweight mobile terminal. Graphical Emacs is just superset of terminal one, so it is preferred is all.
For someone who is disciplined, organized and feels limited by their current tooling, Emacs will probably work great like these anecdotes. If having the discipline itself is a problem then Emacs is probably not the right choice to start with because of the learning curve and the friction due to sub-optimal experience on phone.
That said, I do recommend to give it a go. On Android, Orgzly + Syncthing is good enough to get started.
- Actual emacs as a client strongly preferred; don't assume anything else can correctly parse org-mode - Sync between Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android - Don't force me to remember to sync, so `git commit`/`git pull` or `rsync` isn't viable unless it's completely hidden - Don't allow me to overwrite the file if the sync has failed - Work from an ssh terminal
The closest I got was `crdt-mode.el`. That gives me real-time updates between connected clients. It needs some UI polish around connecting and disconnecting, but it's nothing unworkable. I can get to it on Android via termux ssh to emacs running in tmux on an always-on raspberry pi in my office. That's just about ok in terms of key chording for most things. You do lose some capabilities. I've contemplated getting a bluetooth keyboard for these situations but obviously that's not usable in a lot of situations you might want to be taking notes in. I got in the habit of using the very top of the file as a dumping-ground for one-liners from mobile because sometimes that was just easier than anything else. If I was feeling particularly keen I might try something in the spacemacs vein to make the key combinations work better on mobile. From memory org-agenda was fine, so I tended to use that as a default view for TODOs.
What's annoyingly broken is having Windows in the mix. There's something not quite right about the way `crdt-mode` handles line endings which means updates from Windows mess up the other copies, and given how much org-mode relies on line endings it can completely break whole sections at a time. I ended up using the version running on SSH from Windows too, but there are a couple of chords which Windows Terminal mucks up. That bit's not great.
Take Windows out and sshing to a shared terminal emacs instance running in `screen` is worth a try, with the caveat that you will have to rebuild the muscle memory for the chording on mobile. The termux keyboard has a couple of niceties that the default Android one doesn't, without which it would be a complete non-starter.
I still use org mode to write my blog and journal but my knowledge management is all in Roam.
I'm not an org power user (yet), but I find this iphone app works great to quickly add todos, view outlines, see my agenda, etc whilst I am out. I have it synced via Dropbox so when I get back to my desktop everything is waiting to be properly organized.
probably the nicest part of org is that you don't pay for things you don't use - using it as a just a nice way of organising bullet points works fine, and then there are a jillion optional features around it.
You start off first writing simple outlines, and then you start creating todos, and then maybe you start to look at agendas to organize your todos (note: I rarely do this).
The biggest game changer for me was org-roam. It's essentially a database of all my files where I can add snippets or link to other files, or whatnot.
The TODO stuff I use a rough general guide of where I am, but I do not strictly adhere to it.
Essentially: Make Org-Mode work for you and your mindset, don't feel the need to bend to it.
do you know good videos of people demonstrating their workflow habits ?
1. "Huh, I wonder at what point SSDs of today are comparable
to RAM speeds of yester-year?"
2. `C-c n c` (create-node) "ssd_ram_yearly" (title)
3. (a document spawns) "\* SSD vs RAM comparison" (I give it a
better unofficial title)
4. I do googling, drag and drop images into the document (org-download
is a must have)
5. Satisfied with the document, I decide to link it to a
parent node
6. `C-c n i` (insert node) "random_thoughts"
7. If the random_thoughts node exists, it just links, if not, it
creates a new document which I can fill out, and then `C-c
C-c` to complete it, and then it links back to the ram document.
8. I finally do `C-c C-c` to complete the original ram document.
1. "Huh, what was I thinking about again?"
2. `C-c n f` (find node) "random_thoughts"
3. `C-c n l` (show backward links) a new buffer pops up showing
all files that link to random_thoughts, and I click on
the Ram ssd one.Org mode is a bit of a mystery to me thus far, collapsible sections are great but could you expand on what is so helpful to you and how you use it?
Keeping notes. Org Mode doubles up as an Outliner. You can keep hierarchical notes in a single large file. You can mix-in tables (with support for LISP formulae) for tabular data. You can embed images and LaTeX too. You can convert your notes to HTML or Markdown in a jiffy. There are shortcuts for instant note taking. You can archive sections that are no longer required.
I have stopped using mindmaps and now rather rely on Org. It can handle tree-structured information very well.
As a calendar. You can also add diary-remind reminders. Remember one's wedding anniversary (and Spouse's birthday) to save one's marriage.
As with everything in Emacs, configurable and extensible (with ELisp). Almost every method and every variable is Global. This is of course crazy, but the power that this proffers is enormous.
I learn something new about Org Mode every now and then. I do not consider myself as a power user, as I am sure there is still much left to be explored.
This flexibility means you can bend it to rather odd requirements. For example, in my current job I'm required to track time against project codes, but I have to scale the proportion against the hours I'm contracted for (it's a tax thing, I'm told). Org supports clocking in/out of things. It doesn't know what those things are, they are just items in the outline. So I structure my todos under the project codes then track time against those tasks or just directly to the project. Then I have an agenda view which shows me totals for each project and a column scaling the proportions to the total contracted hours over the period.
But you might have completely different requirements. You might want a flat backlog and to "refile" tasks into "sprints" when they get properly defined then set a deadline on the whole sprint. Org supports it all because it doesn't really care that much. Seeing people struggle with the likes of Jira becomes rather comical.