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?
- 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 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.
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.
I still use org mode to write my blog and journal but my knowledge management is all in Roam.