Re: Org Tutorials need more structure

[Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl>]

Dnia 2013-09-28, o godz. 16:50:09
Charles Millar <millarc@verizon.net> napisał(a):

> On 9/28/2013 3:52 PM, Thomas S. Dye wrote:
> > Aloha Carsten,
> >
> snip
> > First, I think that most statements about "what Org-mode is" are
> > outdated. Many of them are quite good, but they represent the
> > previous state of an evolving system and so fail to capture the
> > full scope. To my mind, Org-mode is a "research programming
> > interface" written by and for scientists who take very seriously
> > certain core values of the scientific enterprise--reproducibility,
> > open access, and open source (a partial list).
> Strongly disagree with the sentiment. My undergraduate degree may
> gave been Physics, but I work as a freelance paralegal. I use Org
> Mode for project (file) planning, scheduling, drafting documents,
> etc. Also, I believe that there are some very active participants on
> this list who are not scientists and have made great contributions.

+1.  Although I'm also a scientist (mathematics), I used Org-mode /once/
for science, and it turned out that I felt very much constrained and
quickly got back to LaTeX, where I felt much more comfortable.

> > Its original focus on project planning has expanded with two
> > amazing and fundamental contributions, Eric and Dan's mature Babel
> > implementation and Nicolas' new export framework.
> I use the LaTeX export to create pdf documents, such as contracts and 
> pleadings, nothing "scientific" there. Sometimes I will export to
> utf-8 text file, so I can copy and paste into "those other" document
> formats. (Sorry to say, but most of the US legal community is still
> MS Word and WordPerfect oriented.) I believe that I can eventually
> use Org-Babel for reproducible "research", research being more other
> than scientific.

For me, Org-mode is /mainly/ a planner, outliner, scheduler, clocking
device and a tool to write blog posts.  I use Org spreadsheets just a
little bit.  As I mentioned, I work heavily with LaTeX (and beamer), but
do not use Org-mode for that (maybe apart from the initial stage) -- I
am comfortable with LaTeX (using AUCTeX, of course), so Org-mode export
does nothing for me.

This seems to confirm that Org is quite flexible and can be adapted to
a variety of workflows.

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University