Emacs Org Mode for Big Sur or substitution?
January 26, 2021 5:58 AM Subscribe
I have notes on many things spread out amongst many applications, because Chaos is the only god, I guess, but I do not like it. Also some of those apps have been rendered unusable because they don't care about accessibility and I can't stare at BRIGHT WHITE for very long. (Freaking Basecamp.) I keep seeing Org Mode for Emacs heralded as the solution to all things, but then from what I can tell, there isn't an Emacs for Big Sur (Mac OS 11.1). Is this...right? Why? Please help me.
Am I just SOL? Does Org Mode work with some other text editor? Will a substitution require more technical skill than I currently have? (Almost certainly; honestly emacs org mode was gonna be a Thing anyway.)
What attracts me to emacs org mode is the searchability and the standardization, and then, contradictorily, the ability to customize it as I figure out what my needs are. If I am SOL because Apple is being a dick (which...), is there another, comparable option?
Am I just SOL? Does Org Mode work with some other text editor? Will a substitution require more technical skill than I currently have? (Almost certainly; honestly emacs org mode was gonna be a Thing anyway.)
What attracts me to emacs org mode is the searchability and the standardization, and then, contradictorily, the ability to customize it as I figure out what my needs are. If I am SOL because Apple is being a dick (which...), is there another, comparable option?
As an alternative, if you already use something like Homebrew for Mac OS, Emacs is available in their repositories.
posted by Alensin at 6:28 AM on January 26, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Alensin at 6:28 AM on January 26, 2021 [4 favorites]
John Heideman's Notes-mode for Emacs is great, but I may be the only person who still uses it. Notes-mode is not as complicated as Org-mode, it indexes notes and entries by categories, and it has good search capabilities. Perl scripts do the heavy lifting and it can be set up to update its indices daily.
I use Notes-mode for journal entries and general notes. Entries are plain text. I have over twenty years' worth of notes which I transfer to new devices as needed, and the archive directory is just a few hundred kilobytes.
posted by Agave at 7:01 AM on January 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
I use Notes-mode for journal entries and general notes. Entries are plain text. I have over twenty years' worth of notes which I transfer to new devices as needed, and the archive directory is just a few hundred kilobytes.
posted by Agave at 7:01 AM on January 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you're using something like emacs, you probably are already or should be a brew user. Then you can just do "brew install emacs".
I however am a vi use ("brew install vim"), and am not supposed to like you, though my holy war reflexes have been dulled with time.
Oh I also am not on Big Sur yet so if there is some fundamental issue with emacs on Big Sur this may not work I guess.
posted by cmm at 7:28 AM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
I however am a vi use ("brew install vim"), and am not supposed to like you, though my holy war reflexes have been dulled with time.
Oh I also am not on Big Sur yet so if there is some fundamental issue with emacs on Big Sur this may not work I guess.
posted by cmm at 7:28 AM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
You can use Org Mode with non-Emacs editors, see this post for a few examples. The bulk of resources for Org Mode and so forth will probably be aimed at Emacs, though.
If you're not an Emacs adherent, though, and want something a little easier, cross-platform (though less customizable) I might recommend Joplin. It's open source. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. It's a bit fussy to set up sync between, say, macOS and iOS, but it's doable.
You just write in Markdown, it supports sync via Webdav (what I use), Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.
Strongly recommend giving it a try before embarking on trying to learn Emacs + Orgmode. Worst case scenario it'll export your notes as Markdown.
posted by jzb at 7:38 AM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
If you're not an Emacs adherent, though, and want something a little easier, cross-platform (though less customizable) I might recommend Joplin. It's open source. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. It's a bit fussy to set up sync between, say, macOS and iOS, but it's doable.
You just write in Markdown, it supports sync via Webdav (what I use), Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.
Strongly recommend giving it a try before embarking on trying to learn Emacs + Orgmode. Worst case scenario it'll export your notes as Markdown.
posted by jzb at 7:38 AM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
If I'm reading your question correctly you're not already an Emacs user, and you'd just be using Emacs to get to Org Mode. If that's the case you may find a lower barrier to entry through the Atom text editor with the Organized package.
posted by fedward at 8:50 AM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by fedward at 8:50 AM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
On a Mac, you can use Homebrew to install
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:18 PM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
emacs, and then add org-mode to emacs via the instructions here.posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:18 PM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
I am running Aquamacs on Big Sur and it works fine for me (despite the fact that youths these days will never have heard of Aqua).
posted by away for regrooving at 1:50 AM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by away for regrooving at 1:50 AM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
Others have recommended Homebrew. I'll just add that it is extremely fast and easy to install Homebrew and then use it to install Emacs.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:21 AM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:21 AM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
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