Mourning the passing of Pocketthinker

Posted by Chris Thompson
Oct 26, 2011 at 09:21 PM

I haven’t posted in a while, but I’m also an Org-mode user.

I don’t think that Org-mode is any harder to learn than old-style DOS apps like Grandview, particularly if you rely on the menu system rather than trying to memorize keystrokes. (Remember, the old DOS apps often tended to have different shortcuts for cut and paste and things like that… often very counterintuitive ones like Wordperfect’s shift-F7 to exit… it wasn’t until graphical environments that common keyboard shortcuts tended to be standardized.)

I also find that Org-mode does have that “Zen” simplicity that DOS tools used to have. Once you go fullscreen, there are so many fewer distractions than most applications… it’s a nice writing environment. And it’s unbelievably powerful and customizable if you decide that you need something out of the ordinary.

That said, I don’t use Org-mode for everything. Although it is capable of building personal wikis, I prefer Dokuwiki for a variety of reasons. ConnectedText 5 is fantastic too, and a good alternative (it does some things better than DW and other things DW does better). I’ve never really understood the point of Tiddlywiki… anything it can do would probably be best just left in Org-mode, and if one needs a full-blown wiki, why not go with a full-blown wiki? Also, while the underlying calendaring features of Org-mode are perfect, its lack of a graphical calendar view makes it more suited for task management IMHO. (Yes, ongoing iCalendar export is an option, but then it’s not perfectly integrated and you don’t get alarms.)

—Chris

JBfrom wrote:
>The nice thing about Emacs Org-mode is there’s never a limit to the value you can get out
>of investing more time into learning it.
> >The reward/learning curve goes flat on
>most programs, and you’re left fiddling with frustrating hacked-up workarounds.
> >
>With Emacs, every year you get better. It’s like having a symbiotic brain pet.
>Personal customization is literally unlimited.
> >For a starting point, get a
>windows keybind distro and just use the basic outlining functions within a single
>file.