Re: still struggling with workflow

[Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com>]

Christopher W. Ryan <cryan@binghamton.edu> wrote:

> I've been using org-mode for, oh about a year now, and it seems like a
> very useful tool. But I'm still struggling to understand and implement
> effective workflows for projects, re-using bits and pieces of text.
> 
> For example, I have a general project related to heat wave morbidity and
> mortality, and indoor heat index. Hopefully I can parlay it into a
> number of distinct studies, each with IRB applications, grant
> applications, and papers (all pdf output), and presentations (beamer pdf
> output.)  For example, all my stuff for the first study is in a single
> org file, HeatWaves1.org. The second project's documents will need to
> re-use much of that material, but not all of it; and there will be some
> new material.
> 
> Is it viable to keep everything related to my heat wave work, for all
> substudies, in the one org file, and customize the output to my needs at
> different times, via judicious use of headlines and :export tags?  Or is
> it best to start a new org file for each substudy and copy/paste what is
> needed from the old?
> 

I should think you can do it either way: only you can decide what the
best way is. If you decide to go the second way, you might want to
investigate the #+INCLUDE mechanism: maybe you can use it to reduce
duplication.

I'm not an org "power user", so take the following with the
appropriately-sized grain (or boulder) of salt: I would start with a
single file and try to organize it in a way that encourages reuse, and
be able to do what you need to do today and possibly tomorrow; don't
worry too much about the day after tomorrow. If/when you find that the
process is broken, or the processing takes too long, then reorganize it,
massively if necessary; splitting it into multiple files might be the
more natural thing to do at that point, but with the experience you have
gained, you will probably be able to do that more reliably than when
starting.

Obviously, this is my personal biased view, and others might disagree.

Bernt Hansen's write-up (http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html), as well as
some of Tom Dye's project write-ups (check the "Reproducible Research
Examples" section of
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/uses.html) might be good
bedtime reading material: it's unlikely that they will answer your
specific questions, but they might inspire you to come up with better
solutions to your problems.

Nick