Re: LaTeX letters in Org

[Alan E. Davis]

I had a set of three capture templates for memos, a number of years ago.
It was very convenient.  A letter is usually pretty much the same thing.  I
don't even know whether I have the original templates around anymore; it
should be pretty easy to implement.  IMHO, easier than dealing with all of
the header materials you are describing.  I think, anyway.

Two files were invoked: a header and a tail.  Then there were capture
template interactively filled addressee and whatever else.  One had a
letterhead.  It was, admittedly, a kludge.  A kludge that worked and saved
a lot of time.   For memos it's maybe more sensible, as they are quick
one-offs, for the most part.

Alan Davis

On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 9:03 AM Michael Eliachevitch <
m.eliachevi...@posteo.de> wrote:

> Hi Arne,
>
> > Alternatively add a capture-template that creates a letter. Then M-x
> > org-capture L (or such) would create a new letter prefilled with
> > everything you typically need.
>
> Thanks, weird I didn't think of it. Capture templates are awesome and
> powerful. Mostly I use them for some tasks, notes and journalling-type
> entries, not for long-form writing. But as a letters are usually short and
> writting in one session, capture-templates seem a good fit.
>
> Cheers, Michael
>
> --
> Michael Eliachevitch
> Public PGP Key:
> https://keyoxide.org/hkp/546908c782383ad0e7d894ec1b8f95c8125dce31
>
>

-- 
  "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we *should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others* by any invention of ours, and
this we should do freely and generously."   ---Benjamin Franklin

  "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
   pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
   of polluting substances."
   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
.
(p. 81)

Re: Re-installing org-mode packages due to annoying message

[Alan E. Davis]

Perhaps I'll try it, just for fun.  I'm pretty happy with my layout and
theme, everything, but maybe I could get some ideas.

Thank you,
Alan

On Mon, Nov 29, 2021 at 7:39 AM Thomas S. Dye  wrote:

> Aloha Alan,
>
> Alan E. Davis  writes:
>
>
> > It is interesting that an old timer like yourself would reach
> > for
> > Spacemacs.  I haven't, mostly because I don't think I need the
> > modal model
> > of Vi.  The keybindings of Emacs or so convenient and
> > intelligent I find
> > them to be enough.  Here's where I might have spent more time in
> > the early
> > days learning the basics better.  One of the things I like about
> > Emacs is
> > that I can dance around a page of text, in a manner that the
> > commercially
> > produced text editors and word processors I know have not dared
> > to
> > implement.  We are locked in to a dumbed down interface in all
> > the software
> > we encounter.  I cannot think of one example just now, but maybe
> > the way
> > one can move back and forth over characters and words.  I never
> > learned Vi,
> > except to be able to edit a simple config file if need be.
> >
> > I know I am over my head, and I have been so for the 30-ish
> > years I have
> > been using Emacs and for the time I have used Org-mode.  It is
> > more than I
> > can do to keep up with the newer complexities that are cropping
> > up.  Yet,
> > just like the plain text files, and the LaTeX source for my one
> > publication, a lexicon of animal names, they live on while
> > documents using
> > the high priced tools are not longer readable or editable.  And
> > through all
> > the changes, my little utilities for editing things that only I
> > could
> > probably care about, and I would not expect anyone to care to
> > learn---they
> > still work today.  I love it!
> >
> FYI, from another old-timer in over his head, Spacemacs has a simple
> option to enable Emacs key bindings.  You don't need to use the modal
> bindings.
>
> hth,
> Tom
>
> --
> Thomas S. Dye
> https://tsdye.online/tsdye
>
>

-- 
  "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we *should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others* by any invention of ours, and
this we should do freely and generously."   ---Benjamin Franklin

  "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
   pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
   of polluting substances."
   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
<https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/publishing/meadows/ltg/>.
(p. 81)

Re: Re-installing org-mode packages due to annoying message

[Alan E. Davis]

Tim:

I appreciate your thoughtful response.  You went to a great deal of
trouble, and answered, I think, most of the important questions I have with
this issue.

I use Arch Linux, and have been installing the AUR emacs-git package.
Sure, I don't need to go beyond the current stable package.  For now, I
do.  I have a few org-mode ancillary packages installed, some I am still
uncertain of, and some of which are more essential.

I have indeed installed some packages and also some code into my init file,
without understanding what they do, because I want to test whether they
will work for my needs.  I plan to steal your initialization for use of
packages, because mine is out of date, and I think this may solve the
problem of the annoying message I refer to.  The message is to the effect
that one needs to install Org-mode from a different repo, because after
version 9.5 (I think) the existing elpa repo will not be updated.  I hope
your simple code will solve that. I may just follow your advice and declare
emac init bankruptcy (If I understand that correctly), and start by copying
over the functions I have written and the configurations I have found
essential.  I have actually done that in the past.

I appreciate that Emacs exists.  I cannot overstate my appreciation for the
work that Richard Stallman and the multitudes of programmers have put into
making this tool and making it better.  I see the need for cleaning out the
garage once in a while, and I understand that Org-mode will be better
served by consolidating the repositories.  I have just not been able to
understand the shop talk, I guess.  Your example is really helpful.

It is interesting that an old timer like yourself would reach for
Spacemacs.  I haven't, mostly because I don't think I need the modal model
of Vi.  The keybindings of Emacs or so convenient and intelligent I find
them to be enough.  Here's where I might have spent more time in the early
days learning the basics better.  One of the things I like about Emacs is
that I can dance around a page of text, in a manner that the commercially
produced text editors and word processors I know have not dared to
implement.  We are locked in to a dumbed down interface in all the software
we encounter.  I cannot think of one example just now, but maybe the way
one can move back and forth over characters and words.  I never learned Vi,
except to be able to edit a simple config file if need be.

I know I am over my head, and I have been so for the 30-ish years I have
been using Emacs and for the time I have used Org-mode.  It is more than I
can do to keep up with the newer complexities that are cropping up.  Yet,
just like the plain text files, and the LaTeX source for my one
publication, a lexicon of animal names, they live on while documents using
the high priced tools are not longer readable or editable.  And through all
the changes, my little utilities for editing things that only I could
probably care about, and I would not expect anyone to care to learn---they
still work today.  I love it!

I appreciate your help.

Alan Davis

On Sun, Nov 28, 2021 at 2:38 PM Tim Cross  wrote:

>
> "Alan E. Davis"  writes:
>
> > I have just spent an hour trying to figure out what's going on with
> ELPA, GNU ELPA, NONGNU ELPA packages.  I am lost.
> >
> > A plethora of methods exist for installing org-mode and other packages;
> it is unnecessary to list them, even if I could.
> >
> > I've been using Emacs and Org-mode for many years.  I am not interested
> in spending an hour of my time to learn a new way to install
> > something that has been working well for me.  I may not use org-mode
> with the facility of a programmer who can whip off a quick utility
> > in emacs lisp, but I have come to depend on the basic tools as a core of
> my work flow.
> >
> > I have tried "use package",  but I would prefer something
> straightforward, like just list-packages then install.  I don't understand
> how to
> > set up my init file (dot emacs) for various package repos.  It was
> working, that's all I needed.  Now I get a 5 second delay each time I use
> > org-mode.  I cannot seem to find the information I need to fix this.  On
> reddit, on emacs wiki, on this list, I cannot find the magic search
> > term.  I see advice like "the maintainer has written a very clear
> explanation of the issue" but,this very clear explanation does not help
> > me understand what I need to do.
> >
> > I guess I need a formula, but I have cut and pasted two or three
> different things into the top of my .init file.  Perhaps I need to start
> > again, but my .init file has been taking root for nearly 30 years; it's
> burned into my muscle memory.
> >
> > I hope I will never have to write another email like this to get help
> for something that should be simpl

Re-installing org-mode packages due to annoying message

[Alan E. Davis]

I have just spent an hour trying to figure out what's going on with ELPA,
GNU ELPA, NONGNU ELPA packages.  I am lost.

A plethora of methods exist for installing org-mode and other packages; it
is unnecessary to list them, even if I could.

I've been using Emacs and Org-mode for many years.  I am not interested in
spending an hour of my time to learn a new way to install something that
has been working well for me.  I may not use org-mode with the facility of
a programmer who can whip off a quick utility in emacs lisp, but I have
come to depend on the basic tools as a core of my work flow.

I have tried "use package",  but I would prefer something straightforward,
like just list-packages then install.  I don't understand how to set up my
init file (dot emacs) for various package repos.  It was working, that's
all I needed.  Now I get a 5 second delay each time I use org-mode.  I
cannot seem to find the information I need to fix this.  On reddit, on
emacs wiki, on this list, I cannot find the magic search term.  I see
advice like "the maintainer has written a very clear explanation of the
issue" but,this very clear explanation does not help me understand what I
need to do.

I guess I need a formula, but I have cut and pasted two or three different
things into the top of my .init file.  Perhaps I need to start again, but
my .init file has been taking root for nearly 30 years; it's burned into my
muscle memory.

I hope I will never have to write another email like this to get help for
something that should be simple.  Maybe I will now have to install from
git.  I think I am already too far out at sea to abandon the packages
approach.  I guess it serves me right for stepping off the beach.


Alan Davis

-- 
  "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we *should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others* by any invention of ours, and
this we should do freely and generously."   ---Benjamin Franklin

  "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
   pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
   of polluting substances."
   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
.
(p. 81)

Re: org-table change time from UTC to other timezones

[Alan E. Davis]

Maxim:

Both of these links, like your comments, are incredibly useful.

Happy New Year (however you may measure that thing)

On Sun, Dec 13, 2020 at 9:05 AM Maxim Nikulin  wrote:

> 2020-12-13 Alan E. Davis wrote:
> >
> > I think R would not be too unwieldy as a hammer here.  My use case  is a
> > humble one: just take a several clock times in HH:MM format (utc) and
> > adjust to  another timezone by adding or subtracting the relevant number
> > of hours.  The day of week is not important; i will have to deal with
> > it.  I did imagine a conditional subtraction by adding of subtracting
> > 24:00 as needed.
>
> Likely your approach is suitable for you and you could ignore my
> comments. I just live in a city having longitude that should be (and it
> was) the border between time zones, so majority do not like any
> decision. Since cancellation of DST 10 years ago, local time has been
> shifted 2 times...
>
> To get time offset for some timezone, it is necessary to specify
> timestamp, so a date is required in addition to time. Namely day of week
> is mostly irrelevant.
>
> Time transitions are usually arranged at night when most of people are
> not active. Astronomers is a different case, that is why their chance to
> face a timezone bug is higher.
>
> When operations with arbitrary time zones are not required and a process
> could be run with TZ variable set to desired time zone, libc functions
> should work correctly. I have not tried elisp functions
>
> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Time-Zone-Rules.html
>
> A bookmark for those who still hopes to avoid complications with
> time-related operations
>
> Falsehoods programmers believe about time
>
> https://infiniteundo.com/post/25326999628/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-time
>
>
>

-- 
  "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
   pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
   of polluting substances."
   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
<https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/publishing/meadows/ltg/>.
(p. 81)

Re: org-table change time from UTC to other timezones

[Alan E. Davis]

Thank for the ideas.  The 'date' command examples look interesting.

I think R would not be too unwieldy as a hammer here.  My use case  is a
humble one: just take a several clock times in HH:MM format (utc) and
adjust to  another timezone by adding or subtracting the relevant number of
hours.  The day of week is not important; i will have to deal with it.  I
did imagine a conditional subtraction by adding of subtracting 24:00 as
needed.

Much thanks for the advice.

Alan




On Sat, Dec 12, 2020, 15:00 Tim Cross  wrote:

>
> Maxim Nikulin  writes:
>
> > 2020-12-12 Alan E. Davis wrote:
> >>
> >> Thank for the clear explanation.  My little problem seems to require a
> >> super steam hammer.  Your insights are most helpful.
> >
> > In my opinion, org mode is too rigid in respect to timestamp format.
> > Sometimes I would prefer to specify timestamps with timezone.
> >
> > Well known example of idiosyncrasy of particular applications.
> > Timestamps in xls files are represented by floating point numbers,
> > namely days since 1 Jan 1900, fractional part is time. Unfortunately
> > 1900 is not a leap year, so to avoid unnecessary complications of code
> > and keep memory footprint small, on Macs epoch starts in 1904, on
> > windows year 1900 has Feb, 29...
>
> Although there are likely some dark corners where bugs can be found, I
> think you could probably add timezone data to org timestamps by changing
> the default format strings. Org also uses an 'internal' 'time' value to
> represent timestamps which are then converted to the required format
> using these format strings.
>
> What is possibly missing is an easy way to specify a time zone when
> creating a timestamp. I suspect it will default to whatever the local
> system tz is and I don't think there is any convenient way to change tz
> values like there is for the other timestamp components.
>
> --
> Tim Cross
>
>

Re: org-table change time from UTC to other timezones

[Alan E. Davis]

Maxim:

Thank for the clear explanation.  My little problem seems to require a
super steam hammer.  Your insights are most helpful.

Alan



On Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 07:46 Maxim Nikulin  wrote:

> 2020-12-11 Alan E. Davis wrote:
> >
> > I had hoped that subtracting 10 hours from 06:44 UTC would get me at
> > least -04:44.
>
> I am in doubts how to present negative time correctly. Having in mind
> wall clocks with hands, your expectation has some sense.
>
> I think, the source of confusion is that you are trying to use
> facilities intended for TimeInterval + TimeInterval arithmetic, where
> TimeInterval denotes a type. Actually you need to compute Time +
> TimeInterval. Sorry, I am unaware if Emacs provides proper functions.
>
> There are a lot of subtle issues with time-related operations, but most
> of DST complications pointed out by Tim could be handled with IANA
> (Olson) DB for time zones, on Linux it is almost always installed as
> tzdata package and is getting regular updates. It is rather precise and
> contains history of DST and other transitions. If people complains on
> incorrect results, usually they have wrong timezone set on their computers.
>
> For astronomy the best representation should be timestamp (seconds since
> epoch) converted to local date time when necessary. Unsure concerning
> leap seconds.
>
> Human-related future events mostly should be stored as date + local time
> + label of administrative region that allows to get time zone ID (namely
> ID, not offset from UTC). Time offset could be changed after event has
> been planned, time zone could be split into several ones with distinct
> offsets.
>
> - LocalTime + TimeInterval operation could give incorrect result unless
> LocalTime is augmented with date and TimeZone, the latter is the history
> of transitions.
> - TimeZone (e.g. Europe/Berlin) as full transition history is not the
> same as TimeOffset at particular moment (+0100).
>
> Carefully choose storage format:
> - just Date e.g. for date of birth (adding time or time zone could
> distort results),
> - Date + LocalTime + Place for planned events
> - Timestamp for most events in past. Use it for future if local time is
> irrelevant, astronomical events is an example.
>
> Conversion to local time could evolve due to administrative decisions.
>
> Examples when Olson DB is not enough and additional negotiations or
> justifications are necessary:
>
> - (March, 31) - (1 month)
> - Conversion from Date + LocalTime to Timestamp around time transition
> when non-existing or ambiguous local time is possible.
>
>
>

Re: org-table change time from UTC to other timezones

[Alan E. Davis]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, TIm.

For my purposes, it's maybe easier to just bite the bullet and do it in my
head.

I had hoped that subtracting 10 hours from 06:44 UTC would get me at least
-04:44.  I can easily make the change to correct clock time (19:44) and
change the day name.  I was duplicating the work of looking up the time in
XEphem, the ephemeris program I am using, which requires some amount of
fiddling---solving for the time of max/min lunar declination.   It will
save hours of time to use org-mode's spreadsheet to add/subtract the
Timezone offsets.

As it turns out, this is not a straightforward procedure.  Also, as you
point out, this process is even less convenient due to inconsistencies in
the political realm.

I appreciate your comments.

Alan Davis

On Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 12:17 PM Tim Cross  wrote:

>
> Alan E. Davis  writes:
>
> > I am close to throwing in the towel.
> >
> > Thank you for the suggestion.  Several problems have been encountered.  I
> > wonder whether I understand this tool at all.   If I subtract 10:00 from
> > 08:46, the answer given is -01:14.  I used #+TBLFM: $6=$4+$5;U, as
> follows
> > (please forgive the formatting):
> >
> > | Phenom |   Date | DoW |   UTC |Hrs |   ChST |   |
> > |++-+---+++---|
> > | ApoG   | 22 | Fr  | 06:44 | -10:00 | -03:16 |   |
> > |++-+---+++---|
> >   #+TBLFM: $6=$4+$5;U
> >
> > When I add 10:00, I think the values are sensible: 21:45 + 10:00 = 31:45.
> >
>
> What did you expect for 8:46 - 10:00? Looks correct to me or were you
> expecting 22:46 (24:00 - 01:14)? This would mean 21:45 + 10:00 should be
> 07:45. I think when your working with times like this, you need to
> include the date to help make sense of the result.
>
> > Another problem was in trying to use an inactive org timestamp.  It was
> not
> > straightforward to add or subtract N hours (say, 08:00).
> >
>
> You probably need to use the ort-timestamp-to-time and
> org-timestmap-from-time to convert the timestamp to a 'time' value (I
> suspect it uses either ms or sec since epoch as the base).  Convert to
> time, add/subtract offset, convert back to inactive timestamp.
>
> > This it a thornier problem than I had envisioned, anyway, because in
> locale
> > with time zones, the conversion factor will change at some point DURING
> the
> > month.
> >
> > Perhaps there is a calc procedure to convert time zones that will take
> into
> > account the system's knowledge of the timezones as well as changes
> to/from
> > Daylight Time.
> >
> > For now,
> >
>
> The big pain with working on time and timezones is the daylight savings
> complication. This is really tricky because the start and end date tend
> to be influenced by politics (I've seen DST change because of some
> event, like Olympic games or to coincide with easter holiday etc) and
> some states/geographies may decide not to use DST while others do (for
> example, in Australia, some states have DST and some don't - so for half
> the year, all the eastern states have the same timezone, but then for
> half the year, 3 are the same and one is different).
>
> There is some information in the calendar section of the emacs manual
> which might be useful and it does have a section on working with DST
> (I've not read it). In addition to the org mode functions to manipulate
> dates and times, there are also various elisp functions you can also
> use.
>
> It is a thorny problem because of the edge cases, but the basic
> functions are all there. Your best bet is to probably write a function
> which accepts a full date+time and UTC offset in minutes which returns a
> new date+time value and then call that function in your table formula.
> --
> Tim Cross
>


-- 
  "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
   pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
   of polluting substances."
   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
<https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/publishing/meadows/ltg/>.
(p. 81)

Re: org-table change time from UTC to other timezones

[Alan E. Davis]

I am close to throwing in the towel.

Thank you for the suggestion.  Several problems have been encountered.  I
wonder whether I understand this tool at all.   If I subtract 10:00 from
08:46, the answer given is -01:14.  I used #+TBLFM: $6=$4+$5;U, as follows
(please forgive the formatting):

| Phenom |   Date | DoW |   UTC |Hrs |   ChST |   |
|++-+---+++---|
| ApoG   | 22 | Fr  | 06:44 | -10:00 | -03:16 |   |
|++-+---+++---|
  #+TBLFM: $6=$4+$5;U

When I add 10:00, I think the values are sensible: 21:45 + 10:00 = 31:45.

Another problem was in trying to use an inactive org timestamp.  It was not
straightforward to add or subtract N hours (say, 08:00).

This it a thornier problem than I had envisioned, anyway, because in locale
with time zones, the conversion factor will change at some point DURING the
month.

Perhaps there is a calc procedure to convert time zones that will take into
account the system's knowledge of the timezones as well as changes to/from
Daylight Time.

For now,

On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 3:40 AM Tim Cross  wrote:

>
> Alan E. Davis  writes:
>
> > I have been pleased to learn that I can add / subtract hours in org-table
> > to shift time zones.  I am making tables of  lunar/solar parameters
> > relevant to tides.  Org-table is a convenient way to enter data in a
> > tabular format that can be printed via LaTeX.  So each year, for several
> > time zones, I enter these times by hand.
> >
> > It's very, very easy, I have learned, to collect all of these times (at
> > most, maybe 12 per month) for UTC, and add or subtract to generate a
> column
> > of times for a new time zone.  Very Slick!
> >
> > Except that when I add, for example. 09:00 to 23:33, I guess it is pretty
> > obvious what is going to happen: it would be the same day, but at 32:33
> !!
> >
> > I have tripped up on trying to test for whether the sum is greater than
> or
> > equal to 24:00, and then doing something interesting with it.  It's
> > actually pretty easy to go through all the months and find the
> exceptions,
> > and make manual changes.  But, as I usually have done, I would rather
> spend
> > a few hours coming up with some programmatic method for making this work
> > automatically!
> >
> > The other problem is the change of the day.  I suppose I could use 0, 1,
> > 2... for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...  (I am living in the United States).
> >
> > Has someone solved this problem?
> >
>
> Org tables support formulas which use the Emacs 'calc' program. Calc has
> pretty good support for adding, subtracting, multiplying and otherwise
> manipulating dates and times (this is how the org clocktable works). It
> should be pretty straight forward to have a column of date + time
> values, a time offset representing a timezone and a 3rd column which is
> the new date/time after applying the offset. Have a look at the secton
> in the org manual on table formulas and the calc manual in info.
>
> --
> Tim Cross
>
>

-- 
  "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
   pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
   of polluting substances."
   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
<https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/publishing/meadows/ltg/>.
(p. 81)

org-table change time from UTC to other timezones

[Alan E. Davis]

I have been pleased to learn that I can add / subtract hours in org-table
to shift time zones.  I am making tables of  lunar/solar parameters
relevant to tides.  Org-table is a convenient way to enter data in a
tabular format that can be printed via LaTeX.  So each year, for several
time zones, I enter these times by hand.

It's very, very easy, I have learned, to collect all of these times (at
most, maybe 12 per month) for UTC, and add or subtract to generate a column
of times for a new time zone.  Very Slick!

Except that when I add, for example. 09:00 to 23:33, I guess it is pretty
obvious what is going to happen: it would be the same day, but at 32:33 !!

I have tripped up on trying to test for whether the sum is greater than or
equal to 24:00, and then doing something interesting with it.  It's
actually pretty easy to go through all the months and find the exceptions,
and make manual changes.  But, as I usually have done, I would rather spend
a few hours coming up with some programmatic method for making this work
automatically!

The other problem is the change of the day.  I suppose I could use 0, 1,
2... for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...  (I am living in the United States).

Has someone solved this problem?

Thank you,

Alan Davis

-- 
  "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
   pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
   of polluting substances."
   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
.
(p. 81)

Re: Browse Org files through capture mechanism?

[Alan E. Davis]

Yes, it seems to do what I have in mind.   Very nice!

All I have had in mind, up to now, is a way to visit the file directly from
Capture, without needing to use org-agenda.

Thank you,

Alan

On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 2:38 PM Kyle Meyer  wrote:

> Alan E. Davis writes:
>
> > It surely must be possible to use the capture mechanism to browse the
> > captured material.
> >
> > I use Org-Mode almost every day, usually in capturing notes to a large
> > number of dedicated files.  My capture templates many---too many,
> perhaps.
> >  It would be really useful to be able to browse the files associated with
> > these templates directly through the capture mechanism.
> >
> > Has this been implemented?
>
> I'm not sure I have a clear picture of what you have in mind, but
> perhaps org-capture's GOTO prefix argument does at least some of what
> you're after.
>


-- 
  "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
   pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
   of polluting substances."
   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
<https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/publishing/meadows/ltg/>.
(p. 81)

Browse Org files through capture mechanism?

[Alan E. Davis]

It surely must be possible to use the capture mechanism to browse the
captured material.

I use Org-Mode almost every day, usually in capturing notes to a large
number of dedicated files.  My capture templates many---too many, perhaps.
 It would be really useful to be able to browse the files associated with
these templates directly through the capture mechanism.

Has this been implemented?

Alan Davis

-- 
  "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
   pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
   of polluting substances."
   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
.
(p. 81)

Re: Publish to PDF on Linux: An impossible task?

[Alan E. Davis]

Arch linux has a package, aside from any arch directly installed
individualized texlive packages, that just installs the texlive network
install script, and directs the user to run the script that is located in
/opt .

This piece of magic is "texlive-installer",   available in the Arch Users
Repository (AUR), makes it easier to use texlive from upstream sources, by
doing the necessary work of handling dependencies.   Debian based distros
require to install a dummy package to accomplish this, and some kind of
tweaking may be necessary on other distros.  Once AUR is set up, I have run
"yay -S texlive-installer" or one may use other AUR helpers.   I think it's
not possible to install this with pacman.

As far as this problem of the OP, I cannot help.

Alan Davis

On Mon, Nov 11, 2019 at 12:13 PM Jack Kamm  wrote:

> John Hendy  writes:
>
> > By "LaTeX" I mean "that which is necessary to have a functioning latex
> > system." If by lower-level you mean the ecosystem itself vs. compiling
> > errors, completely agree. Clearly some core components are missing.
> > For example, the texmf.cnf file is provided by the arch package
> > texlive-core (assuming a package was used), so that's potentially not
> > even installed.
> > - https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/texlive-core/
>
> I would also suggest referring to
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TeX_Live#Installation for the
> packages to install on Arch. I myself am using Archlinux-packaged TeX
> Live without any issues. I believe I installed "texlive-most",
> "texlive-lang", and "biber", which are the 3 main packages/groups
> recommended by the wiki.
>
>

-- 
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)

Re: [O] Is there any orgmode ChangeLog workalike (with enhancements)?

[Alan E. Davis]

I am using org-mode installed by the emacs package system:
org-plus-contrib.  I just updated it this morning:

Org mode version 9.2.6 (9.2.6-elpaplus @ /usr/share/emacs/27.0.50/lisp/org/)

I have no trouble, so far, running this template.  If it is of interest, I
am using this also in directories in my Dropbox folder, from my laptop and
a desktop machine.  I will investigate changes in the template parameters.

I am already thinking of another one,  to capture a file listing and
perhaps enable commenting.  That last bit will stymy me.  In fact it's all
pretty much beyond me, for the moment.   I saw a contributed org function
to do something similar.

Anyway, for now, this template shows promise.  It's already easier to save
quick notes about an ongoing project.  Before org-mode, I used steno.el, to
good effect; org-mode, however, is lightyears beyond steno.

Thank you for the comments.

Alan Davis

On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 6:51 AM Uwe Brauer  wrote:

> >>> "AED" == Alan E Davis  writes:
>
>> I have come up with something simple that works:
>> ("X" "ChangeLog README" entry (file+datetree "./00_README.org")
> "* %?
>> \n   %U \n %f" :prepend t)
>
> Thanks I tried this and I obtain
>
> Deprecated date/weektree capture templates changed to ‘file+olp+datetree’.
> org-datetree--find-create: Buffer is read-only: #>
>
>
>
> That is why I have only absolute paths in my capture templates, but I
> find them no appropriate in certain circumstances.
>
> Any idea what is wrong here?
>
> Uwe Brauer
>


-- 
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)

Re: [O] Is there any orgmode ChangeLog workalike (with enhancements)?

[Alan E. Davis]

I have come up with something simple that works:

("X" "ChangeLog README" entry (file+datetree "./00_README.org") "* %?
\n   %U \n %f" :prepend t)

It looks like it will grow quickly into a long file, with four lines for
each entry.  For now, it's exactly what I needed.  Proof of my instinct
that 95% of the time, when I reach out for help, I almost immediately find
a solution on my own.

I apology for wasted space and time.

Alan Davis

On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 11:06 AM Alan E. Davis  wrote:

> [I posted almost this exact message to emacs-help by mistake.]
>
> Many times I have envisioned having an org-mode function that works
> similarly to ChangeLog, to save notes as something like a 00_README.org
> file in-place, in any directory in which I am working.   Maybe my
> imagination has just escaped me, and something either already exists or is
> so trivial as to have escaped my notice.
>
> I almost laughed when I saw a ChangeLog exists for the latest org release,
> but then thought that ChangeLog is so perfect and ubiquitous as it should
> not be replaced.
>
> However, for my  plethora of little projects, scattered all over my home
> directory tree, it would be excellent to have a capture template to do this
> sort of thing, and store to any existing such file in the current
> directory, and be picked up readily by some simple keystroke.   As an
> example, I might be working on a graph of today's tides, in a new folder,
> and work away, and when all is said and done, make a note and add it to the
> 00_README.org file.  These would be convenient to find without digging
> through a lot of cruft  (and I have a lot of cruft).
>
> It seems ChangeLog may sometimes save to a directory a the head of a tree
> of directories, though I'm not sure.  Perhaps an option would enable this
> to be done for a limited number of levels.
>
> Certainly  something like this must have been implemented.  I think the
> main trick might be to use the current directory, and use many files with
> the same filename scattered around all over the place.
>
> I turn to the list out of a sense that I have already wasted enough time
> on trying to search for something of this nature.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Alan Davis
> --
> [Fill in the blanks]
>
> The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
> outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
> alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
> disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
> view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.
>
>   Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)
>
>
>


-- 
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)

[O] Is there any orgmode ChangeLog workalike (with enhancements)?

[Alan E. Davis]

[I posted almost this exact message to emacs-help by mistake.]

Many times I have envisioned having an org-mode function that works
similarly to ChangeLog, to save notes as something like a 00_README.org
file in-place, in any directory in which I am working.   Maybe my
imagination has just escaped me, and something either already exists or is
so trivial as to have escaped my notice.

I almost laughed when I saw a ChangeLog exists for the latest org release,
but then thought that ChangeLog is so perfect and ubiquitous as it should
not be replaced.

However, for my  plethora of little projects, scattered all over my home
directory tree, it would be excellent to have a capture template to do this
sort of thing, and store to any existing such file in the current
directory, and be picked up readily by some simple keystroke.   As an
example, I might be working on a graph of today's tides, in a new folder,
and work away, and when all is said and done, make a note and add it to the
00_README.org file.  These would be convenient to find without digging
through a lot of cruft  (and I have a lot of cruft).

It seems ChangeLog may sometimes save to a directory a the head of a tree
of directories, though I'm not sure.  Perhaps an option would enable this
to be done for a limited number of levels.

Certainly  something like this must have been implemented.  I think the
main trick might be to use the current directory, and use many files with
the same filename scattered around all over the place.

I turn to the list out of a sense that I have already wasted enough time on
trying to search for something of this nature.

Thank you,

Alan Davis
--
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)

[O] Make up headline from first part of a paragraph, when writing

[Alan E. Davis]

I am certain this is a silly thought, one of those I could spend enough
hours on to complete several projects!

I just realized that my process for making up headlines gets clumsy when
I'm actually trying to write a narrative.

A related "problem" or issue is the need to extract headlines from a
several page essay when rewriting or reorganizing.

It occurs to me that a function is needed, maybe two: one to take the
current headline (while typing it) and duplicate it in a new paragraph in
the body.  Perhaps it would, at some point of absurdity, be possible to
also automatically set a tag to not export the headline.

The second function would be to duplicate the first few words of a line and
make a headline above.

I think I can easily make an elisp function to do these things. Does
something smarter already exist?

Thank you,

Alan Davis

Re: [O] Solar orbit statistics and your agenda

[Alan E. Davis]

Eric:

I was able to access the API docs (requiring, with my Firefox, to accept a
security exception.)

https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/api.php

I have to move on.  I have found that XEphem's Moon declination output is
excellent, so I only have to convert the time format.

Thank you for your help,

Alan

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 11:04 AM Alan E. Davis  wrote:

> Hello, Eric:
>
> Since I don't need to automate anything or directly pipe the data into any
> other processes, I have taken a leap of faith and used the JPL Horizons
> Ephemeris Web interface to generate an ephemeris for the Moon's (they say
> "Luna"---nice!) declination.  This I can edit wtih Emacs to get the data I
> need.
>
> Had I time enough, it would be cool to interface that in a more
> interesting way.
>
> Thank you for the advice.
>
> Alan
>
> On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 2:55 AM Eric S Fraga  wrote:
>
>> On Wednesday, 21 Nov 2018 at 01:24, Alan E. Davis wrote:
>> > Meanwhile, I was able to use a part of the script to get sun
>> information,
>> > but nothing for the moon?
>>
>> I did not see anything related to lunar data.  Maybe elsewhere on the
>> site?
>> --
>> Eric S Fraga via Emacs 27.0.50, Org release_9.1.14-1034-gafcb1d
>>
>
>
> --
> [Fill in the blanks]
>
> The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
> outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
> alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
> disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
> view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.
>
>   Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)
>
>
>


-- 
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)

Re: [O] Solar orbit statistics and your agenda

[Alan E. Davis]

Hello, Eric:

Since I don't need to automate anything or directly pipe the data into any
other processes, I have taken a leap of faith and used the JPL Horizons
Ephemeris Web interface to generate an ephemeris for the Moon's (they say
"Luna"---nice!) declination.  This I can edit wtih Emacs to get the data I
need.

Had I time enough, it would be cool to interface that in a more interesting
way.

Thank you for the advice.

Alan

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 2:55 AM Eric S Fraga  wrote:

> On Wednesday, 21 Nov 2018 at 01:24, Alan E. Davis wrote:
> > Meanwhile, I was able to use a part of the script to get sun information,
> > but nothing for the moon?
>
> I did not see anything related to lunar data.  Maybe elsewhere on the site?
> --
> Eric S Fraga via Emacs 27.0.50, Org release_9.1.14-1034-gafcb1d
>


-- 
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)

Re: [O] Solar orbit statistics and your agenda

[Alan E. Davis]

I will search for the API page later.  It seems to me that the site was not
behaving normally today, and I struggled to find that page.  I may have
printed it!

Meanwhile, I was able to use a part of the script to get sun information,
but nothing for the moon?   I wanted to get series of declinations through
the month.  Attached is the test script I used, and it worked even when I
could not locate the pages any other way!

The same thing for :erigee" did not work.

Alan Davis

On Tue, Nov 20, 2018 at 10:41 PM Eric S Fraga  wrote:

> On Tuesday, 20 Nov 2018 at 11:12, Alan E. Davis wrote:
> > Eric:
> >
> > This is extremely useful.
>
> Glad you liked it.  Strangely enough, they seem to have changed the
> format of output (now sending json) so the script no longer works.
>
> > I found some documentation on the site, re the API.
>
> What is the link for the API information?  With that, I may be able to
> help answer your question about getting lunar declination data off the
> server.
>
> --
> Eric S Fraga via Emacs 27.0.50, Org release_9.1.14-1035-gfeb442
>


-- 
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)


Perihelion-test-info.sh
Description: application/shellscript

Re: [O] Solar orbit statistics and your agenda

[Alan E. Davis]

Eric:

This is extremely useful.   I found some documentation on the site, re the
API.  I am way over my head here, but I need (for one) data on Lunar
Declination over, say, a year, but really month-by-month.  Is there a "for
Dummies" to get this data off of this server?  A cookbook?  Can I do
something like this?

grep -E 'oon&' >${tmpfile}

?

Thank you again.





On Wed, Nov 7, 2018 at 5:59 AM Eric S Fraga  wrote:

> Time for a very geeky post...
>
> Recently, on the remind (diary tool I used to use) mailing list,
> somebody posted a script for converting solar data (perihelion, equinox,
> ...) to remind input.  I've done the same for org so if you're
> interested in that kind of information and want your agenda to show
> this, here is the script:
>
> #+begin_src shell :results output raw
>   tmpfile=$(mktemp /tmp/date.XX)
>   for year in $(seq 2018 2068)
>   do
>   links http://aa.usno.navy.mil/seasons?year=${year} -dump | \
>   grep -E 'helion|quinox|olstice' > ${tmpfile}
>   while read -r line
>   do
>   item=$(echo $line | awk '{print $1}')
>   date="$(echo $line | awk '{print $5 " " $4 " " $3}') ${year}"
>   isodate=$(date --date="${date}" +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M")
>   echo "** <${isodate}> $item"
>   done < ${tmpfile}
>   done
>   rm ${tmpfile}
> #+end_src
>
> Notes:
>
> 1. this is for Linux and assumes bash as the shell.
> 2. the default is UTC (and this is where I wish org supported time
>zones...).
> 3. I believe the URL for the US Naval Observatory in the code above
>accepts "?tz=N?dst=M" for different time zones (some index N) and
>daylight savings options (M set to 0 or 1 maybe?) but I haven't
>played with these options.
> 4. you will need to install "links".
>
> Enjoy but use at own risk etc. ;-)
>
> --
> Eric S Fraga via Emacs 27.0.50, Org release_9.1.11-620-ga548e4
>
>

-- 
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)

Re: [O] Key binding popup interface

[Alan E. Davis]

I discovered accidentally some years ago, when I had been using a popup
help function that I cobbled together myself with a hot key, that
-F1 loads a list of bindings under that prefix.  It's an awesome
feature of GNU/Emacs.

Alan Davis

On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 10:56 AM, Kaushal Modi 
wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 1:48 PM Eric S Fraga  wrote:
>
>> On Tuesday, 12 Dec 2017 at 14:02, Kaushal Modi wrote:
>> > Copying this on both Emacs devel and Org mode list. Hopefully this
>> > discussion is eligible for that.
>> >
>> > Problem statement: Need to have a pretty interface that shows the
>> available
>> > valid key bindings.
>>
>> which-key-mode works well for me.
>>
>
> I use which-key too, but that serves a different purpose.
>
> which-key shows *all* bindings that begin with a prefix.
>
> hydra creates a quick keymap that can be bound to any key of user's
> choice. Then the user needs to just set that main binding, and all the
> sub-bindings in that keymap stay the same.
>
> - Hydra basics[1]
> - Projectile hydra example[2]
> - Rectangle operations[3]
>
> (See many more examples in that wiki.)
>
> Very vaguely speaking, which-key is a read-only utility, hydra is a create
> + read utility. We need the "create" portion for the org stucture template
> replacement discussed on the Org thread. I understand that while hydra
> cannot be integrated in emacs 26 and so Org cannot immediately start using
> it, it will be very much useful to many packages in future if first hydra
> is baked into the emacs core.
>
> [1]: https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra/wiki/Basics
> [2]: https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra/wiki/Projectile
> [3]: https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra/wiki/Rectangle-Operations
> --
>
> Kaushal Modi
>



-- 
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)

Re: [O] `fill-paragraph' on headings

[Alan E. Davis]

I don't know anything about this, but there are certain times when I have
liked to use \paragraph{   } in generating a document.  The first part of
the paragraph is emboldened, but it's still a paragraph.  I stumbled over
this idea when I first encountered Org-Mode, and never was satisfied with
the answer that it's not possible to wrap a headline.  On the other hand, I
do understand that concept and a little bit about why it isn't ordinarily a
great idea.  We are not talking about exporting though, and it's entirely
possible that this is possible to do when exporting.

FWIW.

Alan Davis

On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 1:50 AM, Eric S Fraga  wrote:

> On Wednesday, 25 Oct 2017 at 14:03, Tor wrote:
> > this is a feature request for having the ability to use
> > `fill-paragraph' on headings.  An example from Emacs news:
>
> Semantically, this makes no sense?  How would org know that the line
> that follows a headline is part of the headline or not part of the
> headline?
>
> I appreciate that your example from Emacs news in that it mis-uses
> (abuses) outline headlines...
>
> --
> : Eric S Fraga via Emacs 27.0.50, Org release_9.1.2-117-g5b2b8f
>



-- 
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

  Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)

[O] Enhance changelog with org formatting?

[Alan E. Davis]

Changelog is a great tool, but with some org-mode love, it could be even
better.  Or, perhaps better yet, has anyone implemented something like
changelog in org-mode?

I've wondered about this for years.  Perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Alan Davis

-- 
[I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily
available in books. …The value of a college education is not the
learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.
  ---Albert Einstein



"Sweet instruments hung up in cases. . . keep their sounds to themselves."

 ---Shakespeare, _Timon of Athens_

Re: [O] org-annotate/collaboration?

[Alan E. Davis]

Im using GNU/Linux, Ubutu and/or Arch.

In bot cases I am using Ext4 filesystems, although i do use Fat
filesystem(s)for compatibiliy with OS/X,  that i infrequently use.


On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 1:19 PM Cook, Malcolm  wrote:

> Alan, just wondering, what operating system and file system are you using
> now?
>
>
>
-- 
[I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily
available in books. …The value of a college education is not the
learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.
  ---Albert Einstein



"Sweet instruments hung up in cases. . . keep their sounds to themselves."

 ---Shakespeare, _Timon of Athens_

Re: [O] org-annotate/collaboration?

[Alan E. Davis]

Your thoughtful, incisive responses are appreciated.  It's hard to imagine
why that simple expedient---a directory listing with a comment field---has
failed to catch hold.  It was incredibly useful.

Thanks

Alan Davis

On Thu, Feb 9, 2017 at 2:07 PM, Eric Abrahamsen <e...@ericabrahamsen.net>
wrote:

> "Alan E. Davis" <lngn...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > I am looking for something a little different than this: annotated ls
> > listings.  I have been searching blindly for years for this.
> >
> > Back in the 90s was a Dos clone called 4dos, which featured directory
> > listings with annotations, such that typing whatever the command was
> > (dir?), gave a listing with the file name just like "dir" but also a
> > description of the file.
> >
> > It was exceedingly useful for me, in keeping track of a large number
> > of files.  I have never seen anything like it.
> >
> > Could org-annotate fulfill at least part of this requirement?  (I have
> > posted to this list a similar question quite some years ago.)
>
> org-annotate could do the annotation part of it, but really that part
> pales compared to the challenge of creating and maintaining directory
> listings in Org. Doing it once would be easy, but tracking
> additions/deletions/renames in the directory sounds like a *lot* of
> work, not to mention making sure the annotations follow the correct
> entry.
>
> I suppose if you *only* edited the directory listing through custom
> commands you implement from Org mode you could keep it under control,
> but still... Some challenges energize you when you start imaging how to
> solve them. Others make you exhausted just thinking about them!
>
> Eric
>
>
>


-- 
[I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily
available in books. …The value of a college education is not the
learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.
  ---Albert Einstein



"Sweet instruments hung up in cases. . . keep their sounds to themselves."

 ---Shakespeare, _Timon of Athens_

Re: [O] org-annotate/collaboration?

[Alan E. Davis]

I am looking for something a little different than this: annotated ls
listings.  I have been searching blindly for years for this.

Back in the 90s was a Dos clone called 4dos, which featured directory
listings with annotations, such that typing whatever the command was
(dir?), gave a listing with the file name just like "dir" but also a
description of the file.

It was exceedingly useful for me, in keeping track of a large number of
files.  I have never seen anything like it.

Could org-annotate fulfill at least part of this requirement?  (I have
posted to this list a similar question quite some years ago.)

Alan Davis

On Wed, Feb 8, 2017 at 9:21 PM, Eric Abrahamsen 
wrote:

> Matt Price  writes:
>
> > Does anyone use org-annotate actively? I'm wondering what your
> > workflow is, how you incorporate comments, etc.
>
> I wrote it, and I don't use it that much. I do use it for quick
> notes-to-self when writing, but footnotes do the job just as well.
>
> > I'm hoping to embark on a book project with a colleague. I would like
> > to use org-mode if I can, but I need to get a sense of the
> > collaboration workflow. When you work on projects together, do you use
> > annotations? Or git pull requests? If the latter, od you use any
> > filters, or any magit tricks, to approve or modify suggested changes
> > chunk by chunk?
>
> It's a huge problem, and one that org-annotate isn't going to solve. I
> do a lot of manuscript editing, and passing files around, and have only
> barely gotten some people to accept my "weird" workflow, which is to
> send them a clean version of an edited file, and along with that an HTML
> file containing htmlized word-diff output, where the insertions and
> deletions are colorized. They make further edits on the clean copy, and
> I do another go-around. It's a huge pain.
>
> > My colleague is familiar with markdown but for major projects has only
> > ever used word. I'm trying to figure out how best to help her move to
> > a text--based mode of production; the markdown ecosystem seems a lot
> > larger, and I don't want the transition to be too painful. But OTOH I
> > really want to stay in org if I can!
>
> I wish there were better solutions out there!
>
> Eric
>
>
>


-- 
[I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily
available in books. …The value of a college education is not the
learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.
  ---Albert Einstein



"Sweet instruments hung up in cases. . . keep their sounds to themselves."

 ---Shakespeare, _Timon of Athens_

Re: [O] Yet another question about email and org-mode

[Alan E. Davis]

I appreciate the input, but did not understand how to make my case work.
Thank you to those who responded so unselfishly.   I thought I would now
dredge up the thread to redirect this, and a couple of other questions
about email.

All I want it a copy of my outgoing email and threads thereof (I use Gmail)
to be present on my system, so I can search easily.   I discovered the
variable message-send-rename function which should make it relatively
easy to set something up.  I envision recovering the name of the recipient
from the first lines of the message, or else just using the email address
as a postfix to save the message in a certain directory, easily accessible
from org-mode.

Incidentally, the function oog was useful to me for a long time, but for
a long while I have been unable to use it.  Everytime the following message
is typed out in the minibuffer:  Wrong type argument: markerp, nil.

Another recent issue for me was that my message buffer wasn't saved, when
an unusual event happend on my Arch Linux box, using openbox window
manager: emacs locked up, when I was editing a message.  It was a long
letter related to an employment application, and, as far as I've been able
to discover, it was not autosaved at any time duirng the editing of this
message (an your or two.)   Unusual, especially when I not that an autosave
directory has been enabled for messages, by default.

I would like to ask whether someone who understands email can give some
advice about these three issues?

Alan



On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 9:05 AM, Eric S Fraga e.fr...@ucl.ac.uk wrote:

 Suvayu Ali fatkasuvayu+li...@gmail.com writes:

  On Wed, Oct 02, 2013 at 11:24:18AM -0700, Josiah Schwab wrote:
  Hi Alan,
 
 
   I am happy to use native emacs mail, for sending email.  What I want
 to be
   able to do is keep a copy of my email in an org-mode file.
 
  Taking a step back, is there a reason that you want to keep a copy of
  the email contents in the org file, as opposed to including a link to
  the email message?
 
  I would ask the same question.  Specially when Org supports so many URI
  schemes for emails: gnus, mhe, rmail, notmuch, vm, vm-imap, wl.  Even
  simple file links to maildirs would work too.  If you like the Gmail web
  interface, linking to that is also possible!

 or, to turn it around completely, what about defining an org backend
 for gnus, i.e. nnorg, which stores emails using org format, modelled
 along the nnmbox backend [[info:(gnus) Unix Mail Box]]?  You could then
 use the GCC gnus header.

 only partly in jest... ;-)

 --
 : Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 24.3.50.1, Org release_8.1.1-7-gaecdf5

[O] Error using capture: Capture abort: (wrong-type-argument stringp |)

[Alan E. Davis]

I have made only minor changes to my capture-templates variable, which is
admittedly quite convoluted.  Recently, this error pops up whenever I run
C-cC and any of the keys for templates:

 Capture abort: (wrong-type-argument stringp |)

Does this ring a bell for anyone?  Does this mean that | is encountered
in a template, as a string, and shouldn't be?

Thank you,

Alan

[O] make doc fails at PDF: pdftex exited with bad status

[Alan E. Davis]

On my Archlinux box with up to date texlive, and a newly cloned org-mode
installation, make doc fails with the following messages:

Output written on org.pdf (257 pages, 974386 bytes).
Transcript written on org.log.
/usr/bin/texi2dvi: pdftex exited with bad status, quitting.
make[1]: *** [org.pdf] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/doc/WB/Elisp/org-mode.git/doc'
make: *** [pdf] Error 2

This is a recent happening, within approxiately 2 to 3 weeks.  I downgraded
emacs (also relevant to another recent problem), and re-cloned the git
repo.

Should I run text2pdf on org.texi, in the doc/ directory, the pdf file is
generated cleanly.   I assume there is an issue in doc/Makefile.

One suspects this issue may involve a recent update of the texlive packages
on this system.  In doc/Makefile, is a workaround due to a bug in
texi2dvi.  When I deleted the two lines from doc/Makefile, the same issue
seems to exist, but making of org.pdf is skipped, since it already exists:
the failure is for orgguide.pdf, in this case.

I do not understand makefiles well enough to go any further with this.

Alan Davis

[O] Yet another question about email and org-mode

[Alan E. Davis]

I am happy to use native emacs mail, for sending email.  What I want to be
able to do is keep a copy of my email in an org-mode file.  This file could
be in datebook format, or just a  list, especially if I can tag each email
using org-mode tags.

The solutions I have seen for using org-mode for email seem convoluted,
complicated. I don't need any complicated html mail, just to start up a
mail buffer from org-mode---say, from a todo item, write the email, and
automatically leave a copy of the email behind when I am done.  Perhaps a
capture method would be useful, referring to bbdb for a lookup, although
that's another layer of complexity.

The beauty of org-mode is simplicity: simple text files.

Am I missing something?

Alan

Re: [O] Org Tutorials need more structure

[Alan E. Davis]

To be brief, the tutorials and other parts of the worg webpages could do
with some updating.   Org-mode has been through a good amount of evolution.


One isolated example is the remember tutorials.  These could, at the
least, be marked with a paragraph inset at the top of the file: a statement
that this feature has been supplanted by the Capture feature, but that
the tutorial is still useful for basic usage ideas.

IMHO

Alan


On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 6:10 PM, M elwood...@web.de wrote:

 Hi Carsten  all,

 thanks for this good idea and the resulting discussion here!

 my 2 cents about the tutorials page:
 yes, I agree, that especially for absolute beginners (new to Emacs and new
 to org-mode) it would be helpful to have a very basic step by step
 tutorial.
 The list of General introductions is very long and quite confusing.

 How I came to using org-mode?

 I am a newby (at least I still feel like one, although I'm working with
 Emacs org-mode now for more than 1.5 years), so maybe my experience might
 help here.

 I was a GTD user at first using other GUI oriented GTD software like
 Thinking Rock, iGTD. iGTD had some problems and was not updated any more,
 so
 I started searching for a new tool  and found Charles Cave's GTD tutorials
 [1] (nearly 3 years ago, it seems!) and then started using org-mode since
 Jan 2012.
 I then found Bernt Hansen's excellent site and used his setup [2] for my
 first steps with org-mode, but it was very hard to adapt the agendas and
 settings to my needs (and I'm still struggling).
 Furthermore, Sacha Chua's blog is very interesting and I'm often looking at
 the worg tutorials page.

 So my first interest was todo/task/project management, but I quickly became
 interested in note-taking, exporting, attachments, dired, bookmarks,
 linking, ...

 My problems were (and still are):
 a) I am one of those users, which have never been really working with Emacs
 before, so at the beginning, it's very hard to understand the concept and
 basic commands.
 Many tutorials take for granted a lot of knowledge.

 b) I'm using two different OS's (Windows 7 at work and OS X 10.6 at home),
 each one has its own problems when setting up advanced features.
 It is especially difficult, to set up an efficient workflow to integrate MS
 Outlook (Mails/Calendar) and Emacs org-mode...

 c) I'm only an engineer, not a professional programmer. My knowledge about
 programming in general and elisp and Emacs configuration is still very
 limited, unfortunately. see a)

 [1] http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/GTD/gtd_workflow.html
 [2] http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html

 Nevertheless thank you for this great tool and all the work you all put in
 maintaining, extending, documenting and helping!
 Org-mode changed my way of working and I never was so close to having a
 good
 and efficient system as I am now with org-mode. (as soon as long as I don't
 have to search for the solution of a problem :( )

 Kind regards

 Martin


 Carsten Dominik carsten.dominik at gmail.com writes:

  and came away with the feeling that that this page has become
  somewhat useless for people who are really new to Org.
 
  Can we have a discussion here on how this path should look like?
  When you came to Org-mode as a newby, what were the three resources
  that really made an impression on by being accessible and
  providing feel and promise for digging deeper?

Re: [O] return does not follow link

[Alan E. Davis]

By the way, even C-cC-o returns this same problem on my system.

Alan


On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 11:03 AM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

 My setup is extremely convoluted, I fear, so I will not submit this as a
 bug report.

 When I type return at a link to an org-mode link (it is in another
 file), the following is seen in the minibuffer:

 Running less path/filename...done

 I updated org-mode from git, and reset org-return-follows-path by
 customization, and this situation persists.

 Can anyone suggest where to look?

 Thank you,

 Alan Davis

[O] return does not follow link

[Alan E. Davis]

My setup is extremely convoluted, I fear, so I will not submit this as a
bug report.

When I type return at a link to an org-mode link (it is in another file),
the following is seen in the minibuffer:

Running less path/filename...done

I updated org-mode from git, and reset org-return-follows-path by
customization, and this situation persists.

Can anyone suggest where to look?

Thank you,

Alan Davis

Re: [O] return does not follow link

[Alan E. Davis]

I did as you suggested, and C-cC-o did go to the link, so the problem is
with my setup.

Thank you, Bastien,

Alan


On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Bastien b...@altern.org wrote:

 Hi Alan,

 Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com writes:

  By the way, even C-cC-o returns this same problem on my system.

 (It looks like your first message didn't make it to the list...
 or maybe the server had a hiccup.)

  On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 11:03 AM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com
  wrote:
 
  My setup is extremely convoluted, I fear, so I will not submit
  this as a bug report.
 
  When I type return at a link to an org-mode link (it is in
  another file), the following is seen in the minibuffer:
 
  Running less path/filename...done
 
  I updated org-mode from git, and reset org-return-follows-path by
  customization, and this situation persists.
 
  Can anyone suggest where to look?

 Where does Running less come from?

 Can you just send a minimal.org with produces the error with emacs -Q?

 Thanks!

 --
  Bastien

Re: [O] return does not follow link

[Alan E. Davis]

Once again, I can add to the description of my problem.

Running M-x org-open-at-point also returns Running less ...

When using Mouse-2, a small menu appears that gives a few choices:

   Open   C-cC-o
   Open in Emacs
   Copy link
   Cut link
   Grep for TODOs

Clicking on Open in Emacs does the right thing.



Alan







On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

 By the way, even C-cC-o returns this same problem on my system.

 Alan


 On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 11:03 AM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

 My setup is extremely convoluted, I fear, so I will not submit this as a
 bug report.

 When I type return at a link to an org-mode link (it is in another
 file), the following is seen in the minibuffer:

 Running less path/filename...done

 I updated org-mode from git, and reset org-return-follows-path by
 customization, and this situation persists.

 Can anyone suggest where to look?

 Thank you,

 Alan Davis

[O] Capture template --- :empty-lines 1 results in error

[Alan E. Davis]

This may be a bug?

I have this template in my list of templates, to open the file with my
templates, so I could edit it:

   (i Edit ~/org/capture-templates.2.el plain (file
~/org/capture-templates.2.el)  :empty-lines 1 :unnarrowed t)

I started to get an error when running this template, and a few others.
This started somewhat recently, but I don't know exactly when.

When I removed the :empty-lines 1 part, the template worked fine.

(i Edit ~/org/capture-templates.2.el plain (file
~/org/capture-templates.2.el):unnarrowed t)

I am pretty sure that this is not only from the empty-lines 1 part.
Another template with this option does work ok, but has :prepend t.

Alan Davis

Re: [O] problems with LaTex/BibTex

[Alan E. Davis]

I would have a use for this.  I am curious, though...

Suppose I use this as a standard init-file declaration for
org-latex-to-pdf-process .  Does that mean that bibtex will always be run,
every time, during the generation of PDFs via LaTex export?

Alan

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 4:54 AM, Julian Burgos jul...@hafro.is wrote:

 Yes! That was it.  Thanks!!


 On fös 30.mar 2012 08:05, suvayu ali wrote:

 Hey Julian,

 On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 03:41, Julian Burgosjul...@hafro.is  wrote:

 The References.bib is a BibTex file in the same folder as the test
 file.
  The citations were entered using RefTex with no problem.  But when
 exporting to pdf, I get the following message in the minibuffer:
 Exporting to PDF...done, with some errors: [undefined citations].  The
 pdf produced had, of course, question marks where the citations should
 be.

 Did you customise your org-latex-to-pdf-process to include bibtex? I use
 something like this:

 (setq org-latex-to-pdf-process '(pdflatex -interaction nonstopmode %b
 /usr/bin/bibtex %b
 pdflatex -interaction nonstopmode %b
 pdflatex -interaction nonstopmode %b))



 --
 Julian Mariano Burgos, PhD
 Hafrannsóknastofnunin/Marine Research Institute
 Skúlagata 4, 121 Reykjavík, Iceland
 Sími/Telephone : +354-5752037
 Bréfsími/Telefax:  +354-5752001
 Netfang/Email: jul...@hafro.is

[O] Mail composed using emacs --- saving a copy in an org file.

[Alan E. Davis]

I am partial to just opening a mail buffer and writing email in Emacs.
Just that.  However, it would be great to save a copy in an org file.

An emacs FAQ suggests sending a BCC or FCC to oneself.  What I want is a
copy stored in an org-mode subtree, with a convenient headline indicating
the name of the recipient and the date.

So far, I haven't gotten my head around the idea of using BABEL, and I
still like text for email. My experiments with GNUS have not been very
successful.  So far.

I apologize for the naive level of this and some of my other questions.
Though I may not be getting the maximum usefulness of all of org-mode's
features, those features I do use are awesome.   Thank you.

Alan Davis

[O] Push a dependent TODO item on top of a depending one

[Alan E. Davis]

It just occurred to me to try to implement a method of pushing a TODO item
on top of another, in the manner of a Stack.  The item on top of the stack
is a task upon which performance of some other task depends.


I need to call someone, so I have a task that appears on my agenda, to call
him.  However,  I have just discovered that the phone number I have for
this person is not working.  I new need to find his phone number, so I can
write a new TODO task.  It would be fantastic to be able to push a TODO on
top of the dependant TODO, the task that is held up until one finds the
phone number.

Once  I have found the number, and pop the number finding task off the
agenda, the dependant task would appear as a high priority, active task.
rendering the TODO to CALL invisible, perhaps as a subtask,

I think there are many ways to do this.   Is it a nightmare to implement in
the fashion I have suggested?   Is it already easy to do?  The crux of the
matter is a dependent TODO is rendered invisible until some subtask TODO is
completed.

Thank you for all the ideas,

Alan Davis

Re: [O] Agenda TODO sorting by date

[Alan E. Davis]

I am definitely not a programmer, and for sure not the one who could guide
you on writing a sort function.  HOWEVER, emacs has a really nice facility
for doing so, if you decide you want to try that.

I had to write a program to alphabetize a lexical list in Chuukese, in an
arbitrary order other than standard english alphabetical order.  I had to
have guidance, but it was certainly possible, even for me.

Just some encouragement, but it's been many years, and i am unable to offer
more than that.

http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Sorting.html

Alan

On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 8:23 AM, James Harkins jamshar...@gmail.com wrote:

 At Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:48:42 -0500,
 Bernt Hansen wrote:
  You could write a custom sorting function that parses out the date from
  the heading and compares them.  There may be a better way to do this
  that I'm not aware of for this.
 
  Set this function up in org-agenda-cmp-user-defined and
  org-agenda-sorting-strategy to get the results you want.

 OK, thanks. I was starting to think it would come to that. Kind of
 surprising this isn't offered out of the box.

 I think I need a bit more guidance, from you or someone else.

  parses out the date from the heading

 Is there already an org function to do this? C-h a searches on the
 following yielded nothing that seemed interesting.

 org.*date.*
 org.*timestamp.*

  compares them

 I was about to make that more complicated, but actually string comparison
 should be fine for this. No worries there.

 I have done rather little with emacs-lisp so... this is uphill for me.
 Thanks.

 James


 --
 James Harkins /// dewdrop world
 jamshar...@dewdrop-world.net
 http://www.dewdrop-world.net

 Come said the Muse,
 Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted,
 Sing me the universal.  -- Whitman

 blog: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/words
 audio clips: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/audio
 more audio: http://soundcloud.com/dewdrop_world/tracks

Re: [O] Emacs/Org-mode configs spread over multiple accounts/machines (was: Variable settings in .emacs VS cross device portability.)

[Alan E. Davis]

My setup, while far from ideal, is working pretty well.  It does require a
modicum of manual oversight.

I have a directory, ~/WorkBench , in which all of my going work is
located.  Dozens of subdirectories including every project I have worked on
or am working on, with PDFs, etc.  In ~/WorkBench/org are some setup files:

   org-init-settings.el
   org-local-init-settings.el (included in .gitignore)
   emacs-common-settings.el   (all machines)
   emacs-local-settings.el (local machine --- included in
.gitignore)
   emacs-frame-setup-magic.el

The directory ~/WorkBench and all subdirectories are under git supervision,
so long as it stays smaller than about 3 GB.  In that case, it can be
carried around on an 8GB flash drive, and cloned on other machines, though
I've had to delete and reclone, once the repo got too large.   It could be
cloned to Dropbox if I wanted to spend money on it, and trusted it.

I really like this setup, the use of git.  However, I am using git at the
most trivial level, and perhaps there are more direct ways to do this.

The next step is to encrypt the whole thing.  I have encrypted a couple of
sensitive files using bcrypt.

Alan



On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 5:59 AM, Karl Voit devn...@karl-voit.at wrote:

 * Yu yu_...@gmx.at wrote:
  Hello!
 
  I was wondering if there is a possibility to make org-files fully
  portable in behaviour (especially when exporting) between different
  emacs installations.

 The Tread has turned into BIND and local variables only.  I wanted
 to add my current solution which uses a different approach.

 My ~/.emacs is a symlink to ~/hosts/${HOSTNAME}/emacs where
 host-specific or platform-specific configuration is stored. The
 directory ~/hosts is synchronized[1] on all of my machines and
 accounts.

 In ~/hosts/all/emacs.d/* I have got myorgmode.el, mycommon.el,
 myauctex.el, myedit-server.el, mypython.el, and so forth.

 As you can imagine, the ~/hosts/${HOSTNAME}/emacs contains a load
 command for mycommon.el which refers to all the other el files.

 Therefore mycommon.el and all the others are identical on all my
 machines whereas ~/.emacs contains (only few) platform-specific
 things.

 Maybe this is a possible attempt to overcome your problems when
 using Org-mode on different machines.

  1. I am currently using Unison File Synchronizer[2] in combination
 with crond/LaunchCtl but git or something like dvcs-autosync[3]
 or even Dropbox will work too.
  2. http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
  3. http://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/dvcs-autosync
 --
 Karl Voit

Re: [O] Emacs/Org-mode configs spread over multiple accounts/machines (was: Variable settings in .emacs VS cross device portability.)

[Alan E. Davis]

By the way, all of these are called from .emacs.el .   Another point, I
have elected not to byte-compile the loaded elisp files in
~/WorkBench/Emacs , so they will load ok on multiple versions of emacs.

On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 7:16 AM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

 My setup, while far from ideal, is working pretty well.  It does require a
 modicum of manual oversight.

 I have a directory, ~/WorkBench , in which all of my going work is
 located.  Dozens of subdirectories including every project I have worked on
 or am working on, with PDFs, etc.  In ~/WorkBench/org are some setup files:

org-init-settings.el
org-local-init-settings.el (included in .gitignore)
emacs-common-settings.el   (all machines)
emacs-local-settings.el (local machine --- included in
 .gitignore)
emacs-frame-setup-magic.el

 The directory ~/WorkBench and all subdirectories are under git
 supervision, so long as it stays smaller than about 3 GB.  In that case, it
 can be carried around on an 8GB flash drive, and cloned on other machines,
 though I've had to delete and reclone, once the repo got too large.   It
 could be cloned to Dropbox if I wanted to spend money on it, and trusted
 it.

 I really like this setup, the use of git.  However, I am using git at the
 most trivial level, and perhaps there are more direct ways to do this.

 The next step is to encrypt the whole thing.  I have encrypted a couple of
 sensitive files using bcrypt.

 Alan




 On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 5:59 AM, Karl Voit devn...@karl-voit.at wrote:

 * Yu yu_...@gmx.at wrote:
  Hello!
 
  I was wondering if there is a possibility to make org-files fully
  portable in behaviour (especially when exporting) between different
  emacs installations.

 The Tread has turned into BIND and local variables only.  I wanted
 to add my current solution which uses a different approach.

 My ~/.emacs is a symlink to ~/hosts/${HOSTNAME}/emacs where
 host-specific or platform-specific configuration is stored. The
 directory ~/hosts is synchronized[1] on all of my machines and
 accounts.

 In ~/hosts/all/emacs.d/* I have got myorgmode.el, mycommon.el,
 myauctex.el, myedit-server.el, mypython.el, and so forth.

 As you can imagine, the ~/hosts/${HOSTNAME}/emacs contains a load
 command for mycommon.el which refers to all the other el files.

 Therefore mycommon.el and all the others are identical on all my
 machines whereas ~/.emacs contains (only few) platform-specific
 things.

 Maybe this is a possible attempt to overcome your problems when
 using Org-mode on different machines.

  1. I am currently using Unison File Synchronizer[2] in combination
 with crond/LaunchCtl but git or something like dvcs-autosync[3]
 or even Dropbox will work too.
  2. http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
  3. http://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/dvcs-autosync
 --
 Karl Voit

Re: [O] How do teachers use org-mode

[Alan E. Davis]

I recently retired from teaching (perhaps temporarily).  I was a high
school science teacher, for the most part.   I was the odd man out in my
school district, perhaps the only one who used GNU/Linux, and on the island
where I was working/living the only computer course in the public schools
was comptuer literacy---a term which meant able to use M$ Office.   [I
did present an install fest workshop, where about 15 teachers were able to
install Ubuntu GNU/Linux on their laptops, and a few may still use it, four
years or so later, for personal issues.

Given this environment, I used Free Software tools to do everything,
bucking the trend, and eventually org mode became a central tool, though
mainly in the support of teaching.   Here are a few things I have done:

  - used org-mode to collect notes and readings to output using latex
export, for handouts.
  - kept daily notes as the days went on, on student progress or issues.  I
had developed capture templates to enable the rapid capture of notes on the
fly.  Tagging made it possible for those notes to be recovered by period or
subject.   I could print a report for a meeting with a parent in about two
minutes.
  -  to capture outlines of the day to day work.   This function could have
benefited by better organization.  I could clone a date tree to write
lesson plans or outlines.
  - twice I used org-mode spread sheets to keep grade records and calculate
grades.  It worked fine.   Graphs could be generated.
  - Carsten's relative timer has been useful in developing notes about
videos to facilitate instruction / discussion.  It was possible to sit in
class as the videos were playing, and make notes indexed to the elapsed
time of the video.   Then, since I had often had copies of DVDs on my
computer, or showed them using a computer, I could rapidly / randomly
access any sequence by referring to my outline and time marks.  I also used
these to edit chopped up versions of a video for class review at a later
time, for which I found the tool avidemux2 a perfect one.   (I took a
course in Fellini many years ago.   The professor had a whole print, and a
chopped up one.  This is an extremely useful tool, and one for which the
relative timer is uniquely helpful.)
   - Write tests and output using latex export.  This wasn't as useful to
me as examdesign.sty formated tests in straight LaTeX.  I was not able to
put together a work flow for doing this using org-mode latex export, though
I imagine it is possible.   I could, however, make up short quizzes,
sometimes projected as beamer presentation, and the various org-mode tools
allow one to keep notes on student progress.  Again, capture templates are
the key, and tags help to search and find.  Probably the most useful here
was the ability to write questions (capture again), but I had to tweak them
by hand during export.
  - use latex export to make up rapid handouts with illustrations.
Org-mode makes this extremely easy and fast.   Too bad others in the school
district didn't seem to have time for the learning curve.
  - Rapidly prepare decently presented readings from Project Gutenberg text
of chapters of books for student reading, and, when desireable, make them
available for students as a PDF.
   - In fact, rapidly format anything textual for LaTeX output, including
outline notes for lecture.
- Rapidly produce tables of student generated data for immediate output
and feedback.  For example, we counted as a class the chirp rate of a
cricket that happened to be in the room and correclated the temperatures,
on the board.  In three minutes I could produce output for students on a
laser printer, for further discussion, and for a response assignment.
   - todo lists with capture templates to make notes on student questions
or needs for addressing later.
   - One thing that was not directly related to instruction was the ability
to take notes on student conduct and progress using a capture template.
Although this was not my favorite activity, I was required to do so, and
using org-mode I could print out a report for the school administration in
three minutes.  This was not my favorite activity.
- I developed a template to generate a memo in one minute, or less,
that wrapped selected text in a memo header, and generated a PDF.


  This doesn't seem much related to pedagogy, I'm afraid.   Mostly it
reflects my teaching style, and is pretty much focused on efficiency,  not
including the more sophisticated usages of org-mode that you will want to
incorporate into your IT courses.  I came to org-mode through my need for
an outliner.   This is by far the greatest outliner I have ever seen.


Alan Davis

[O] elisp: link type isn't working

[Alan E. Davis]

I've been using an elisp function to open an encrypted file.  I borrowed
this setup from, I think, Sacha Chua's blog.  It's worked unfailingly for
at least a couple of years, until tonight.   I keep some sensitive
information in a file, junk.org.  when encrypted using bcrypt, the file
is renamed junk.org.bfe.

In my init files is a little function that runs bcrypt on the file,
prompting for the password:

(defun open-encrypted-file (fname)
  (interactive FFind file: \n)
  (let ((buf (create-file-buffer fname)))
(shell-command
 (concat echo  (read-passwd Decrypt password: )  | bcrypt -o 
fname)
 buf)
(set-buffer buf)
(kill-line)(kill-line)
(toggle-read-only)
(not-modified)b)
  )

I use a file of links as a directory to some of my projects.   In this file
is a headling that stores this link (an org file):

[[elisp:(open-encrypted-file ~/WB/org/junk.org.bfe)][PassWord]]

Anymore, as of today, when I try to run this link, the following is
received:

 Symbol's function definition is void: org-in-clocktable-p

I don't do anything with clocks.

Can someone suggest what might be going on?

Alan Davis

Re: [O] How to get numbered lists (1), (2), … ?

[Alan E. Davis]

Without diving into how to set it up in org-mode, the paralist package for
LaTeX enables inline numbered lists, as in

%% In preamble
\usepackage{paralist}


%% In document
\begin{inparaenum}
   \item first element
  \item second element
\end{inparaenum}

As to how to organize this to be an option for org-mode without
incorporating above into the setup, I would also be interested.

Alan

On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 12:10 PM, Nick Dokos nicholas.do...@hp.com wrote:


 [ I started this earlier but I guess I didn't send it out. Suvayu has
  replied in the meantime with a pointer to a better solution than this
  one, but this might be of some minor interest to some people as well -
  besides, I spent a whole 20 minutes on it, half of it trying to figure
  out why my mail was not working :-( : why let that effort go to
  waste?:-) ]


 Marius Hofert marius.hof...@math.ethz.ch wrote:

  Dear Suvayu,
 
  thanks.
  It would be good to know how latex export can be customized to achieve
 this.
 

 Depends on how much customization you are willing to go through: there is
 an
 enumerate.sty package in LaTeX that can do that:

 --8---cut here---start-8---
 ...
 \usepackage{enumerate}
 ...
 \begin{enumerate}[(1)]
 \item foo
 \item bar
 \end{enumerate}
 ...
 --8---cut here---start-8---

 Inserting the \usepackage from the org file is no problem:

 --8---cut here---end---8---
 #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{enumerate}
 ...
 --8---cut here---end---8---


 Getting the argument to the enumerate environment in the right place is
 another matter. I think the only way is to redefine
 org-list-generic-to-latex
 like this (add this to your initialization file, .emacs or whatever, after
 you
 load org):

 --8---cut here---start-8---
 (require 'org-list)

 (defun org-list-to-latex (list optional params)
  Convert LIST into a LaTeX list.
 LIST is as returned by `org-list-parse-list'.  PARAMS is a property list
 with overruling parameters for `org-list-to-generic'.
  (org-list-to-generic
   list
   (org-combine-plists
'(:splice nil :ostart \\begin{enumerate}[(1)]\n :oend
 \\end{enumerate}
   :ustart \\begin{itemize}\n :uend \\end{itemize}
   :dstart \\begin{description}\n :dend \\end{description}
   :dtstart [ :dtend ] 
   :istart \\item  :iend \n
   :icount (let ((enum (nth depth '(i ii iii iv
 (if enum
 ;; LaTeX increments counter just before
 ;; using it, so set it to the desired
 ;; value, minus one.
 (format \\setcounter{enum%s}{%s}\n\\item 
 enum (1- counter))
   \\item ))
   :csep \n
   :cbon \\texttt{[X]} :cboff \\texttt{[ ]}
   :cbtrans $\\boxminus$)
params)))
 --8---cut here---end---8---

 The only change is the definition of :ostart. Not a very flexible method,
 but it will serve in a pinch. ngz et al. might have better ideas.

 I should say that there are other ways to customize enumeration labels
 in LaTeX - see e.g.
 http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=enumerate -
 but afaict they would all require some rewiring of the above function,
 similar
 to the above.

 Nick

  Cheers,
 
  Marius
 
  On 2011-10-13, at 11:37 , suvayu ali wrote:
 
   On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 11:11 AM, Marius Hofert
   marius.hof...@math.ethz.ch wrote:
   Dear all,
  
   In the manual, I found that numbered lists can be created with 1), 2),
 ... or 1., 2., ...
   How can I get numbered lists like this: (1), (2),...?
   I found org-list-demote-modify-bullet, but the help (and a google
 search) did not help me in finding a solution to this.
  
  
   I don't think you can. But you can customise latex export (maybe even
   html export, but I don't know) to show lists like that in the exported
   file.
  
   I hope this helps.
  
   Cheers,
  
   Marius
  
  
  
  
   --
   Suvayu
  
   Open source is the future. It sets us free.
 
 
 

Re: [O] Overall organization/setup for org mode: Projects and Tasks

[Alan E. Davis]

 TODO's first over any
 computer related ones. Get that physical. Update/re-balance those
 investments Deposit them checks and pay them bills. Switch to online bill
 payment for everything, and synchronize your bill cycle dates, so that
 you can pay all your bills in 30 minutes once a month.. If company
 offers automatic billing feature, use it.

 I have a Pay bills monthly recurring TODO, with 7 checkboxes. Of
 which 4 pay themselves with automatic bill pay, and are checked
 when I receive saying your bill had been paid, and it takes me 10
 minutes to pay the rest.

 My stats if you want to compare:

 Number of projects: 37
 Number of hold projects 31
 Number lines in all .org files: 16000
 Number lines in all .org_archive files: 2+
 Number of TODO: 350
 Number of #A todos: 8
 Number of #B todos: 21
 Number of #C todos: 30
 Number of #F todos: 100 or so

 Most important tags I have:

  focus   - set on projects i should be working _right_now_, kind of
 opposite of hold.

  emacs   - stuff to configure/fix in emacs

  hold- projects on hold

  bind- todos bind some key to do whatever which I have a lot of

  browse  - todos check out X, or research X on the web. Use this
 when you feel like browsing the web, can just as well
 make web browsing useful, instead of going to waste your
 time sites like reddit.

  health  - any health / fitness related stuff

  finance - investemnts, payroll, salary, bills

 Plus private tags for various projects, which only make sense in the
 context of the project

 At Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:43:28 -0700,
 Alan E. Davis wrote:
 
  I've been using org-mode for a few years.  My agenda is cluttered with
 tasks that are weeks and
  even months past due.  I am this close to declaring orgmode
 bankruptcy and starting from
  scratch, except my current setup works so well for other things.   Might
 still do that, but I want
  to ask for ideas.
 
  I stumble consistently over the distinction between projects and tasks.
 I think there is not
  clear distinction, but I need to find a way to organize them so that, at
 least, agenda displays
  the day to day TODO tasks separated in a meaningful way from the long
 term projects that I need to
  remind myself of (and there are dozens of these).
 
  PROJECTS: I can define projects as
 - an overall series of tasks related to a single purpose
 - a recurring task (monthly calendars that I need to remind myself
 to make each month)
 - an actual project I am working on (writing a proposal, or a
 research project about a
  coral, or a recipe database, or reconstructing a LaTeX file tree for a
 publication ten years ago)
 
  TODOS: perhaps tasks could be anything,
- bills (marked by tag bill
   - phone calls to make
 
   I am starting to understand how I TODOS can be scattered through all
 my other files.
  However, the greater the number of agenda files, the greater the clutter.
   And, as a recent
  thread called to mind, there are times when the list of agenda files
 prevents me from searching
  for tags or todos.  SO where is the happy medium?
 
  Some thoughts:
   -  I tried to write a custom agenda command that defined the agenda
 files to encompass all
  *org files in a directory.  This actually set the agenda-files variable
 to all files for the rest
  of the session, so I gave that idea upalthough I know it's possible
 to do it.
   -  Again, the number of agenda files seems to be constraining.
   -  There seem to be issues between defining the agenda files
 explicitly, or adding them one
  at a time.
   -  It would be useful if agenda searches automatically picked up the
 recent files I had
  worked on during the session,
  however, in as streamlined a way as possible.
Â
  I don't need to be reminded everyday that I have to organize
 bibliographic references for my next
  trip to the library, but I have to have a way to keep these organized to
 jog my memory in planning
  my time in some loose sense.
 
  I do need to have a list of bills that I can access without having to
 sort through the list of
  projects that are 3 months overdue.
 
  Almost every week I have new insights into how to use tags, so perhaps I
 need to junk alot of the
  tags I set up long ago.
 
  These thoughts are somewhat disconnected, and I apologize for this.
 
  And I would be grateful for any comments that would shed light on how to
 solve these issues.
 
  Alan Davis
 
 

[O] Overall organization/setup for org mode: Projects and Tasks

[Alan E. Davis]

I've been using org-mode for a few years.  My agenda is cluttered with tasks
that are weeks and even months past due.  I am this close to declaring
orgmode bankruptcy and starting from scratch, except my current setup
works so well for other things.   Might still do that, but I want to ask for
ideas.

I stumble consistently over the distinction between projects and tasks.  I
think there is not clear distinction, but I need to find a way to organize
them so that, at least, agenda displays the day to day TODO tasks separated
in a meaningful way from the long term projects that I need to remind myself
of (and there are dozens of these).

PROJECTS: I can define projects as
   - an overall series of tasks related to a single purpose
   - a recurring task (monthly calendars that I need to remind myself to
make each month)
   - an actual project I am working on (writing a proposal, or a
research project about a coral, or a recipe database, or reconstructing a
LaTeX file tree for a publication ten years ago)


TODOS: perhaps tasks could be anything,
  - bills (marked by tag bill
 - phone calls to make

 I am starting to understand how I TODOS can be scattered through all my
other files.   However, the greater the number of agenda files, the greater
the clutter.   And, as a recent thread called to mind, there are times when
the list of agenda files prevents me from searching for tags or todos.  SO
where is the happy medium?

Some thoughts:
 -  I tried to write a custom agenda command that defined the agenda
files to encompass all *org files in a directory.  This actually set the
agenda-files variable to all files for the rest of the session, so I gave
that idea upalthough I know it's possible to do it.
 -  Again, the number of agenda files seems to be constraining.
 -  There seem to be issues between defining the agenda files
explicitly, or adding them one at a time.
 -  It would be useful if agenda searches automatically picked up the
recent files I had worked on during the session,
however, in as streamlined a way as possible.


I don't need to be reminded everyday that I have to organize bibliographic
references for my next trip to the library, but I have to have a way to keep
these organized to jog my memory in planning my time in some loose sense.

I do need to have a list of bills that I can access without having to sort
through the list of projects that are 3 months overdue.

Almost every week I have new insights into how to use tags, so perhaps I
need to junk alot of the tags I set up long ago.

These thoughts are somewhat disconnected, and I apologize for this.

And I would be grateful for any comments that would shed light on how to
solve these issues.

Alan Davis

[O] Fwd: Commenting a diary sexp line??

[Alan E. Davis]

I finally Archived this subheading.  I am trying to get
org-mobile/mobile-org running on my new Android phone, and org-mobile-push
choked on three sexps.

Alan


On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 2:54 AM, suvayu ali fatkasuvayu+li...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hi,

 On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 7:48 AM, Michael Markert
 markert.mich...@googlemail.com wrote:
  :| * APPT Daily Scrum
  :| %%(let ((dayname (calendar-day-of-week date))(day (car (cdr
 date(memq dayname '(1 2 3 4 5)))
  :|[2009-07-01 Wed]
  :`
  #+END_EXAMPLE
 
  Anyway: Begin the org-sexp line with a `#' - the usual org comment
 character.
 

 I also faced this once and was expecting using the COMMENT keyword on
 the headline will do the trick but it doesn't. I had to use # before
 the sexp.

 So my question is, should org be ignoring the COMMENT keyword on
 headlines when a sexp is present. I would be inclined to call this a
 bug as a scheduled headline would be ignored in the presence of
 COMMENT.

  Michael

 --
 Suvayu

 Open source is the future. It sets us free.

[O] Commenting a diary sexp line??

[Alan E. Davis]

The following is in one of my Agenda files, I guess.  Is there any way to
comment it out, so that it is not evaluated and displayed in the agenda.
This seems to be displayed for every day.  I wanted to start a list of
various functions, but this one seems to be preeminent.

Thank you,

Alan Davis

Re: [O] Commenting a diary sexp line??

[Alan E. Davis]

Here's the attempt to comment, and the line:


** [2011-05-24 Tue 10:23] Sexp for an Org-mode reocurring appointment, only
on weekdays
   Published in: Emacs Lisp, [[
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Sexp-Diary-Entries.html][here
]]
#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
:,
:| * APPT Daily Scrum
:| %%(let ((dayname (calendar-day-of-week date))(day (car (cdr
date(memq dayname '(1 2 3 4 5)))
:|[2009-07-01 Wed]
:`
#+END_EXAMPLE

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 10:11 PM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

 The following is in one of my Agenda files, I guess.  Is there any way to
 comment it out, so that it is not evaluated and displayed in the agenda.
 This seems to be displayed for every day.  I wanted to start a list of
 various functions, but this one seems to be preeminent.

 Thank you,

 Alan Davis

Re: [O] Long table, landscape or sideways, LaTeX PDF

[Alan E. Davis]

This is what worked TO AN EXTENT (no page breaks in table):


  (At top of org file:)
#+ATTR_LaTeX: longtable align=l|lp{3cm}r|l
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{pdflscape}

 #+LaTeX: \begin{center} \begin{landscape}
#+LaTeX: {}\begin{sidewaystable}\footnotesize

[ORG TABLE HERE]

#+LaTeX:\end{landscape} \end{center}
#+LaTeX: \end{sidewaystable}

-

No such thing as breaking across the page happened.  Neither was I able to
use longtable to do so.

Alan

Re: [O] Long table, landscape or sideways, LaTeX PDF

[Alan E. Davis]

This works.  My table was quite wide: about two landscape sheets wide, so I
was looking for a solution for width.  Technically, I guess it's only a long
table, if it's printed sideways?  Don't know if that makes sense.

Thank you for this.  Good example.

Alan

2011/6/15 Suvayu Ali fatkasuvayu+li...@gmail.com

 Hi Nick and Alan,

 On Wed, 15 Jun 2011 01:00:11 -0400
 Nick Dokos nicholas.do...@hp.com wrote:

  suvayu ali fatkasuvayu+li...@gmail.com wrote:
 
   On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 7:50 PM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com
   wrote:
(I would
like to use the \footnotesize feature also).
   ...
  
   For the use of \footnotesize, you can look at the following Worg
   page: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.html#sec-1_6_1
 
  Actually, I don't think the trick works with longtable - at least, I
  can't see any difference (checking the tex file shows no evidence of
  the attributes.) And fwiw, the other trick of resetting the size
  (http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/42196/focus=42785)
  doesn't seem to work either - the commands are probably very
  different. In fact, trying to place a \footnotesize or \scriptsize
  into the tex file was a bust - I tried a few places and either got
  errors or no changes in size. So I don't know how to change the size
  in LaTeX, let alone in org.
 

 It works for me very smoothly. I have attached an example org file and
 the exported tex and pdf files.

  Nick
 



 --
 Suvayu

 Open source is the future. It sets us free.

[O] Long table, landscape or sideways, LaTeX PDF

[Alan E. Davis]

I have to apologize first, as I had this working at home, to some extent.
Not well.  I have to submit a printout of   grades, today, if possible, and
I've been struggling with it.   Can't find the cookbook formula!   (I would
like to use the \footnotesize feature also).  So far I've had to go through
each table, deleting long words, and deleting some fields.  WOuld rather
have some way to do it as is.

How to do this?  The table should break over two pages.  It would seem to me
that some combination of sidewaystable and longtable might do it.

Thanks in advance.  And sorry for the bandwidth.

Alan Davis

Re: [O] Audio/video file playback in org mode

[Alan E. Davis]

I'll jump in and mention a solution to an at least similar problem I hacked,
albeit incompletely, some time ago.  I baldly stole code from
dired-mplayer at http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/EMMS#toc10 , and
have been using the result, dired-vlc ever since.   The main point of this
was to play videos asynchronously, so I could continue editing, taking notes
using the relative timer of org-mode.

Two more things would make this process work better, at least for me:

   1. write a few lines into this that would open another buffer, possibly
through capture, starting the relative timer automagically.
   2. figure out how to pause the video and the timer simultaneously.

Here is the code to dired-vlc.  I am not interested in making this work for
windows, have no idea whether it would, or how to make it do so.

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
;;  -*- mode: elisp -*-
;; Time-stamp: 2009-01-13 14:27:47 orm
;; AED 05 January 2009
;

(require 'org)


(defvar dired-vlc-program /usr/bin/vlc)


(defun dired-vlc (optional timer)
  Asynchronously start vlc on file through dired.  If an optional
argument is given (C-u), the org relative timer is started.  This
function purports to start vlc in rc mode, to leave open the
possibility of remote control.
  (interactive P)
  (let ((file (expand-file-name (dired-get-filename)))
ext files basename dir curr-file ;idx-file sub-file srt-file
command options)
(setq basename (file-name-nondirectory
(file-name-sans-extension file)))
(setq dir (file-name-directory file))
(setq files (directory-files dir t basename))
(delete file files)
(setq command (format \%s\ \%s dired-vlc-program --intf rc))
(if (y-or-n-p (format Run command %s? command))
(start-process junk nil dired-vlc-program file)))
  (if (equal timer '(4)) (org-timer-start))
)


;; end dired-vlc.el
#+END_EXAMPLE

I am interested in what you are doing, also, and I will try it out in a
month or two, after I retire and relocate.

Alan Davis

On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 12:00 AM, Memnon Anon 
gegendosenflei...@googlemail.com wrote:

 Paul Sexton psex...@xnet.co.nz writes:

  brian powell briangpowellms at gmail.com writes:
 
 
  * Something like this; respectively!?:
 
  [[shell:mplayer -ss 00:03:21 -endpos 00:06:54 ~/some_podcast.mp3 ]]
  [[shell:mplayer -ss 00:03:21 ~/some_podcast.mp3 ]]
  [[shell:mplayer ~/some_podcast.mp3 ]]
 
  The troubles with using shell commands in hyperlinks:
  1. Only works in the operating system and directory structure where
 you were when you wrote the link;
  2. No ability to stop playback, pause, etc, unless you run the
 program as a GUI, which means (horror!) doing something outside
 Emacs.

 If you are using different setups on different operating systems, 1)
 should probably be solved in some general fashion, like setting some
 vars to important locations depending on environmentearly in your .emacs.

 2.)
[[elisp:(emms-play-file ~/tmp/video/magit.flv)]]
 or
[[elisp:(emms-play-file (concat MYSCREENCASTSDIR magit.flv))]]
 or
 [[elisp:(emms-play-file (concat MYSCREENCASTSDIR magit.flv))][View magit
 demo]]

 Of course, there is no problem with setting up org to treat file links to
 mediafiles special. But given the power of org hyperlinks, I think using
 elisp: solves your 1.) and 2.) sufficiently.

 Memnon

Re: [O] Keeping an advanced dictionary in Org-mode?

[Alan E. Davis]

Thank you for the link.

On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 4:08 AM, Christian Moe m...@christianmoe.com wrote:

 Hi,

 Thanks, these pointers were really helpful -- whether I end up doing
 something similar, or using them to work out how I want to do this in Org,
 or using other tools I was able to discover in five minutes after you'd
 pointed me to the right search keywords!


 Thank you for that link.

I would be interested in anything you come up with.

Alan

Re: [O] Keeping an advanced dictionary in Org-mode?

[Alan E. Davis]

FWIW:

I won't get into it much for now, but I have used a band format for
lexical data.  There are other names for this type of free form database.  I
wrote a crude elisp routine to recover entries into LaTeX formatted files.

A band is a record, so to speak.  I am not very well qualified in this,
but was able to use it to record lexical data.  You may find some linguists'
websites where this or similar formats are elucidated.  A record starts with
a double dotted key, and information categories may be made up on the fly,
as marked by  single-dotted keys, preceded by at least two spaces.   I think
it's convenient for a record to be delineated by a line feed, as well.

..HW headword  .D local dialectZ   .GE English gloss   .NS scientific
name  .NCE  Common Name   .NCs Spanish Common Name  .R  remark  .RC
Remark on Cultural Signficance

This is just a made up case, but perhaps you can catch the drift.

Here are a couple of simple cases from my files:

..hw tutubi   ,lang vis  .nce dragonfly.source FSD
..HW sigai.lang vis .ge (mollusc) shell, when empty
..hw soksok  .ec gecko  .cg  .la ilo  .src hanna .n
..hw locus  .ec octopus  .cg  .la ilongo  .src hannah .n see nucus [vis];
kuus [chuukese]
..hw tikling  .ec heron  .cg  .la vis  .from fsd
..hw nucus  .ec octopus  .cg  .la vis  .src fsd, hannah  .n related to
chuukese kuus

Fairly straightforward elisp would scan a record and wrapping each item in a
particular typeface.

To get an idea of the output.  Each line was output as an \item in a list.
This got to be a LITTLE cumbersome, perhaps, and someone good at coding
would do it differently.  The idea is that a lisp routine scans the records
and spits out list items.  This could be any kind of output, and perhaps org
mode would be a good way to rig a routine to scan list items and output
different band types as slanted (\sl), roman, or italicized components.

\item [{\sl k\'{u}\'{u}s\/}$_{3}$]   \index{k\'{u}\'{u}s} \quad Small,
night-time octopus.   HADJ  E\'{e}t.

\item [{\sl k\'{u}\'{u}s\/}$_{4}$]   \index{k\'{u}\'{u}s} \quad Daytime
octopus.   {\sc syn\/}:\ {\sl  nippach}.{\sc alt\/}:\ {\sl
k\'{u}\'{u}h}.\HADJ  F\'{o}n\'{o}.

\item [{\sl k\'{u}\'{u}sen neepwin\/}]   \index{k\'{u}\'{u}sen neepwin}
\quad{\sc see\/}:\ {\sl nippachin neepwin}.Even though this is not
said, it would be the correct way to say it. \HADJ  Wonip.


This may not be an appealing approach.  I am still pleased with the ability
to flexibly add band keys on the fly, during data entry, and the potential
to use LaTeX as a frontend.  HTML would also be useful, depending on how you
wish to read your dictionary.

Not a perfect system.  Linguists have done better.  Robert Hsu of the
University of Hawaii built a system around SPITBOL and maybe SNOBOL4.  I was
hopelessly lost trying to use those, but elisp did what little I needed.  I
think that it may be possible to organize a database using org-mode.

For now, I have a capture template for data entry, such as it is:

(= lex entry (file+headline lexicon.org Unsorted) * ..hw
%^{Headword}  .gs %^{Scientific Name}  .ge %^{English Gloss}  .ec %^{English
Common Name}  .cg %^{Category}  .la %^{Language}  .src %^{Informant} .n
%^{Note} %?  .dt %u  :prepend t :immediate-finish t)

Again, FWIW.  To me, a great deal.  Maybe to others, not so great of a
deal.

Alan


On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 7:38 PM, Christian Moe m...@christianmoe.com wrote:

 Hi,

 Is anybody using Org-mode to build an advanced dictionary with sub-entries,
 tags etc.? Would you be willing to share a setup?

 For example, the obvious way to build a dictionary would be to use a
 dictionary list (I borrow a few English-French lines from the wonderful
 WordReference.com site):

 - pine ::
  (/paɪn/)
  1. /m noun/ [bot.] pin; *stripped ~* pin décapé.
  2. /intr verb/ languir (*for* après; *to do* de faire)

 This looks nice, but unfortunately, you cannot set tags or properties on
 dictionary terms, so it's not particularly amenable to fancy searching,
 mapping etc.

 On the other hand, you could do something like this:

 * pine
  :PROPERTIES:
  :Pronunciation: /paɪn/
  :END:
 ** pin  :bot:
   :PROPERTIES:
   :Word_class: noun
   :Gender:   m
   :END:
   *stripped ~* pin décapé.
 ** languir
   :PROPERTIES:
   :Word_class: verb
   :Transitivity: intr
   :END:
   (*for* après; *to do* de faire)

 It's a pain to do, and because of outline folding, it could be a pain to
 look up meanings, and you might need to do some serious post-processing on
 the export to make it look anything like a dictionary. But when you're done,
 you could extract a list of all botanical terms (:bot:), or of words and
 pronunciations only... etc.

 So for my growing pile of translation notes, I might like to keep that kind
 of thing. But there are so many ways it could be organized - what do you put
 in subheadings? what in entry text below subheadings? what in tags, what in
 properties? etc. So if someone 

Re: [O] [ANN] org-bibtex.el --- convert between Org headings and bibtex entries

[Alan E. Davis]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 12:29 AM, Eric Schulte schulte.e...@gmail.comwrote:


 It sounds like asking the cb2bib developers to either automatically copy
 completed entries to the clipboard, or to add a button implementing this
 behavior would be ideal.


Indeed, this is about what cb2Bib does, to a good extent, depending on the
nature of the reference.  A simple text reference, like

 S J Hickson. On the Sexual Cells and the Early Stages in the Development of
Millepora plicata. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of
London. B 179, 193 - 204 (1888).

may not completely be resolved (not sure in this case): the template on
cb2Bib will be partially filled in, and it may require a couple of quick
steps to complete the template and save.  Unplugging, one may then enter the
abstract or other fields, then save.




   cat ~/references.bib |xclip -selection clipboard

 will copy the entirety of the references.bib file to the clipboard.

 This is good.  Thank you.  This will certainly be helpful in some cases.

The case for cb2Bib is somewhat different, as once the template is filled
in, one may save it to .bib file, and one may select which file.  If one
were able to use a pipe, xclip, or a fifo file, perhaps this could be made
immediately available to org-bibtex-read.

Alan

Re: [O] [ANN] org-bibtex.el --- convert between Org headings and bibtex entries

[Alan E. Davis]

Comments below

On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 10:52 AM, Eric Schulte schulte.e...@gmail.comwrote:


 Is there a more natural way that this could integrate with external
 tools like cb2bib?  I've just now installed cb2bib, and I'm not sure I
 fully grasp its usage.

  I also found cb2Bib pretty opaque when I first installed it.  It's not
hard to understand the basics, though.

Anything in your clipboard is queued up to import into cb2Bib.  The easiest
way, for example, to import a bibtex database entry from Google Scholar is
to highlight the entire entry in the browser with a mouse, and it's parts
are already displayed in cb2Bib.

If, for example, one is trying to save from a text-based bibliography entry,
it may be copied to the clipboard.  Highlight, for example, the title, and
right click, then select title.  And so on.  This is the automagical part
that I have found so very useful.

It is important to 'unplug' cb2Bib if the entry needs to be edited.  If not,
any action in the fields and displayed will be lost.  Then save using the
save icons.

I have to say, though, that a little explanation would go a long way, when
trying to use it.



Once this process is complete, I can see that being able to, in turn copy
this entry to the clipboard would indeed be useful with org-bibtex .  I
wonder if it's possible to set a pipe or one of those cryptic file types
(fifo?) I cannot remember would either work, or whether the developers would
agree to enabling this ability.

Alan

Re: [O] Re: zotero (or mendeley) integration with org

[Alan E. Davis]

I have been enlightened.  This closes a loop for my handling of literature.

Thank you both.

alan

Re: [O] Re: zotero (or mendeley) integration with org

[Alan E. Davis]

Is it possible to use org babel to extract bibtex entries from file of notes
to a *.bib file?

The stumbling point for me in saving bibtex sources is I don't see a way to
use the file as a bibtex *.bib file so as to use that as the direct source
for the publication.  Perhaps this could be automated with babel?

Alan

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 6:13 AM, Matt Lundin m...@imapmail.org wrote:

 Stephen Eglen s.j.eg...@damtp.cam.ac.uk writes:

  Agreed. Google Scholar citations need very close proofreading, as they
  can be erroneous or poorly formatted.
 
  Thanks Matt - I'd agree with this, having seen oddities from google
  scholar.  I emailed them ages ago about one problem (formatting of
  initials in author names), but never heard back... it is a pity that
  there is no mechanism for tidying up their references, as it seems to be
  the best thing out there that covers all the fields.
 
  Having said that, if google scholar can save me some typing, I'll
  happilyuse it as a starting point for a bibtex entry.  I've just started
  using pdfmeat -- this is nice, as given a pdf, it outputs the
  corresponding bibtex entry from google scholar.  Probably works similar
  to the way zotero does it, but can be used straight from the command
  line:
 
http://code.google.com/p/pdfmeat/
 

 Thanks for the link! That looks like a useful tool.

  accessed by bibsnarf are limited to math and sciences. Since I use
  biblatex together with the Chicago Manual of Style, any bibtex entry I
  clip has to be edited and tweaked substantially. (Indeed, manual editing
  is unavoidable when using biblatex.)
 
  If its not too tangential, why do you use biblatex -- is it the future
  for bibtex?

 I use biblatex because I use citation styles in the humanities
 (especially the Chicago Manual of Style). Biblatex and the chicago-notes
 package (both now part of TeXLive) handle Chicago Style footnotes and
 bibliographies beautifully, with an astounding number of options and
 flawless formatting -- but the bibtex entries are a bit fussier than
 standard bibtex.

 Best,
 Matt

Re: [O] Re: zotero (or mendeley) integration with org

[Alan E. Davis]

It's in my mind to find a way to use orgmode for organizing pdfs and BibTex
data.  I haven't untangled storage of PDFs and linking to BibTeX, and I
haven't found a solution to organizing it all through orgmode.

An important piece of the puzzle, though, needs mention: cb2bib helps
semi-automate making a BibTeX entry from a citation, or Google Scholar
BibTeX output.

I wonder if it would help to use orgmode for bibtex *.bib files.  I think
comments can be included in those files.  Or does it also work the other way
around, that any file can be used as a bibtex source database?

Matt's workflow makes sense.

Alan Davis

Re: [O] Defining capture-templates: custom and init file

[Alan E. Davis]

Very revealing.  However, that post was written in 2005, and the following
statement is found at the tail end:

The good news

The behaviour of custom due to more than one custom-set-... statement will
be changed in Emacs 21.xx. I've been told that
 Multiple calls to custom-set-variables should work in Emacs 21;
 if you customize, all the variables go into the first one,
 and the rest are deleted.

I can still dream.  I have to say, though, thank you very, very much.  This
certainly clarifies the issue well.

Alan

On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 4:33 PM, Suvayu Ali fatkasuvayu+li...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hi Alan,

 On Tue, 8 Mar 2011 16:13:34 +1000
 Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

  I have noticed the message from within the customization interface
  that some variable or another was set outside of customization, and
  there may be unpredictable results.  Wonder what that really means,
  though.   It's still a variable, isn't it?
 

 Say you customise the templates outside your custom-set-variables
 block. Now if you use the customise your templates with customize and
 save them, it will be saved in the custom-set-variables block. For the
 current session of emacs you might not experience any problems, but
 when you restart emacs depending on which comes first the setq or the
 custom-set-variables your templates will be set accordingly. It is
 difficult to predict for me which will be the case. For more on this
 you can look here[1].

 Hope this helps you understand the issue with what you are attempting.

 [1] http://www.dotemacs.de/custbuffer.html

  Alan

 --
 Suvayu

 Open source is the future. It sets us free.

[O] Defining capture-templates: custom and init file

[Alan E. Davis]

I would like to request advice, on how can I set up so most of my capture
templates are loaded from a file (~/org/capture-templates.el in my case) and
still retain the ability to define new capture templates on the fly.  I want
the best of both worlds:

   - capture-templates.el is easier for me to tweak by hand, and I can
alphabetize the templates in various ways as needed.

   - the capture custom feature is a fantastic way to deine one off
templates on the fly.

One imagines there must be a way to do this by loading one or the other of
the methods first, perhaps ~/org/capture-templates.el, and then load the
custom-file afterwards.

My understanding of the system does not enable me to understand the
underlying nuts and bolts of the system well enough to  know if either of
these methods will work, or run aground.

Thank you

Alan Davis

Re: [O] Defining capture-templates: custom and init file

[Alan E. Davis]

Hello: Suvayu:

I have set the variable custom-file outside of the init file to
~/org/custom-local.el or some such, so there wouldn't be a conflict within
the same file.  I can delay loading of that file until after the hand-made
capture templates have been loaded from ~/org/capture-templates.el .

Alternately, one could load the custom-file first, then the other.  What I
am thinking/hoping/dreaming is that one could add to the capture-templates
variable, in the same way one adds to, say load-path by saying

   (setq load-path (append load-path (list /home/olaf/Emacs)))

I have noticed the message from within the customization interface that some
variable or another was set outside of customization, and there may be
unpredictable results.  Wonder what that really means, though.   It's still
a variable, isn't it?

Alan

On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 3:39 PM, Suvayu Ali fatkasuvayu+li...@gmail.comwrote:

 On Tue, 8 Mar 2011 12:17:58 +1000
 Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

  I would like to request advice, on how can I set up so most of my
  capture templates are loaded from a file (~/org/capture-templates.el
  in my case) and still retain the ability to define new capture
  templates on the fly.  I want the best of both worlds:

 Sorry, can't be done. The customize interface stores the
 (custom-set-variables ... ) block in the init file. Having more than
 one such code block might lead to unpredictable Emacs behaviour. Your
 only two choices are:

 1. Use customize. Then your capture templates are stored with your other
   emacs customisations in your init file (e.g. ~/.emacs,
   ~/.emacs.d/init.el or whatever).

 2. Use setq to define your templates outside of customize. If you choose
   this, you lose the ability to define templates using customize and
   save it. You can still however save a template temporarily `C-c C-c'.

 I hope this answers your query.

 --
 Suvayu

 Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: [Orgmode] Easily go to some frequently accessed heading (narrowed to region)

[Alan E. Davis]

I adapted something from Sacha Chua: a file with links to my most
frequently accessed links.  I too have been seeking some way to make
this automatic, but even as it is, it works great.

I call the file Pointers.org.

It is just an org-mode file, each headline is a  link.

Then, in my init file (.emacs) is the following:

,
| (defun pointers ()
|   (interactive)
|   (find-file ~/org/Pointers.org))
| (define-key global-map \C-c0 'pointers)
`

It's not too hard to install a new link at the top of the file.  I guess
it would also be easy to write a function or use a capture template to
do this.

Alan


 Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow
them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

   --- R. Buckminster Fuller



On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 1:52 AM, Eric S Fraga e.fr...@ucl.ac.uk wrote:

 Darlan Cavalcante Moreira darc...@gmail.com writes:

  Thanks Eric
 
  I tried org-goto before, but I needed something that I could bind to a

 [...]

  A custom agenda view is is good to see the tasks associated with a
 project
  and I already tag each project as you suggested, but besides the tasks
  there are some subheadings in each project that have only information
  without tasks or schedule/deadline dates. That is what motivated me to
  search for a way to quickly access the project contents and not only its
  tasks.

 Okay, let's try a third suggestion (in case it's 3rd time lucky ;-):

 3. what about a sparse tree view (org-sparse-tree, C-c /, followed by
   'm' for match on a tag of choice) of your projects file?

 But again, this isn't necessarily something you can program, although
 maybe you can as org-sparse-tree invokes org-match-sparse-tree which
 looks definitely viable as a candidate for programmatic use:

 ,
 | org-match-sparse-tree is an interactive compiled Lisp function in
 | `org.el'.
 |
 | (org-match-sparse-tree optional TODO-ONLY MATCH)
 |
 | Create a sparse tree according to tags string MATCH.
 | MATCH can contain positive and negative selection of tags, like
 | +WORK+URGENT-WITHBOSS.
 | If optional argument TODO-ONLY is non-nil, only select lines that are
 | also TODO lines.
 `

 so you could definitely write specific a function to use this, with a
 specific match string, followed by a narrow to subtree?

 --
 : Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1
 : using Org-mode version 7.4 (release_7.4.298.g16b40)

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[Orgmode] Re: Feature Request: Assort a subtree randomly ?

[Alan E. Davis]

That is excellent.  Not too late, at all.  This ability to sort by a
function is excellent: presumably one could use a soundex algorithm!

Thank you,

Alan
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[Orgmode] Feature Request: Assort a subtree randomly ?

[Alan E. Davis]

Let's say I have a subtree, of review materials, for example.  I would like
to randomize the order of the elements.  I would like to have the option to
randomize the subtree in some different ways:

1.  sort the members of one subtree that is a list, randomly.
2.  sort all the headlines, randomly.
3.  sort the subtrees randomly, and the lists within each sub-subtree
also randomly, ad nauseum.

I have written a sort routine in elisp.  It's been many long years ago, but
I remember that the basis support for writing sorts is pretty general.

Suppose I had time to do this.  What would I need to look at?

Of course, my need is today, to sort review materials for my students in
random order.

Alan Davis


 Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow
them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

   --- R. Buckminster Fuller
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Re: [Orgmode] Re: Worg needs some reorganizing

[Alan E. Davis]

I would like to add a comment about the sidebar concept.  If I understand
correctly, there is something like a sidebar already, or an index.  There
are links, but they jump to the SAME PAGE.   It would be helpful, at least
to me, were these links to point to the pages already pointed to at their
targets.

My 2¢ worth.

Alan


 Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow
them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

   --- R. Buckminster Fuller
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[Orgmode] Re: Page numbering in manual

[Alan E. Davis]

Updating this to, I hope, clarify my request.  I see that to convert to
LaTeX is a chore, and don't know whether the file would be amenable to
tweaks, like using the chappg LaTeX package.

Texinfo is a black box for me.  I am guessing that the best way to do this
is to convert the Texinfo source into LaTeX.

 The numbering scheme I am proposing would be at a highest section, or
chapter, level:

A-1; C-26 , etc.

OR

1.1
4.5
etc.

Then if one had the manual as hardcopy, in a binder, he could print out the
chapter in question, and the TOC.  Maybe some manner of dictionary

Alan
 Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow
them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

   --- R. Buckminster Fuller



On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 6:54 AM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

 Is it possible to tweak page numbering in the manual, with each chapter
 having it's separate sequence?

 The manual is fairly extensive.  If a chapter has changed even in a minor
 way, the numbering of subsequent chapters is also affected.  With
 chapter-by-chapter page numbering, once could keep the manual in a binder,
 and swap out chapters one by one, as needed.

 Is there a way to do this with a simple latex tweak?  I can't remember
 this.

 Alan Davis


  Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow
 them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

--- R. Buckminster Fuller


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[Orgmode] Page numbering in manual

[Alan E. Davis]

Is it possible to tweak page numbering in the manual, with each chapter
having it's separate sequence?

The manual is fairly extensive.  If a chapter has changed even in a minor
way, the numbering of subsequent chapters is also affected.  With
chapter-by-chapter page numbering, once could keep the manual in a binder,
and swap out chapters one by one, as needed.

Is there a way to do this with a simple latex tweak?  I can't remember this.

Alan Davis


 Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow
them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

   --- R. Buckminster Fuller
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[Orgmode] Cryptic error message(s)

[Alan E. Davis]

I have stumbled over error messages in org mode a few times.  The following
message, or permutations thereof, comes up frequently, but each time I am
confused about what it means (albeit I have solved it again today):

  The kill is not a (set of) tree(s) - please use S-insertchar to yank
anyway.

In each case this message was received because of a nit, in creating a
capture template.  Each time, I am consternated for a while, before I
realize this.  And each time, I am still consternated until I figure out
what the error is.

What does this mean, use S-insertchar to yank anyway. ?   I haven't been
able to do anything of the kind.  I think.

What does it mean, the kill is not a (set of) tree(s) ?

I have sometimes noticed that the problem is a missing asterisk at the start
of a line in the template string.  Not sure, though, whether that is what is
meant.

May I humbly request that these error messages be rewritten to reflect the
nature of the error in a manner that is understandable by a user?  If I
understood them well, I would be willing to suggest other text.  On the
other hand, I must say that I don't know how all the non-ENglish speaking
programmers do it.  Amazing.


This is not the only error message I have tripped over.  Perhaps one could
develop a list of error messages, with explanations for each...  How could I
grep for error messages in the lisp source, to at least get a list of
messages?  Is this something useful to do?

Thank you very much,

Alan Davis

 Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow
them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

   --- R. Buckminster Fuller
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Re: [Orgmode] Cryptic error message(s)

[Alan E. Davis]

 Thank you again, Carsten.

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 1:53 AM, Carsten Dominik
carsten.domi...@gmail.comwrote:

 S-insertkey is an unfortunate result of a key lookup for the
 command yank, which is normally bound to `C-y', but in your setup
 also to a key S-insertkey.

 This doesn't look like any set up I have specifically made.  I don't even
know what S-insertkey means.


  Does this help?  I have just pushed a change which should
 be give a better error message in this case.  Now it should say:

 Template is not a valid Org entry or tree

 Better?


I think so.  I don't think it would be fair to expect a self-diagnostic
message here.

Thank you yet again!

Alan
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[Orgmode] Re: Questions about org-capture templates and usage

[Alan E. Davis]

I am at much greater ease due to these two messages.  They solve several of
my befuddlements about capture.

On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Bernt Hansen be...@norang.ca wrote:

 I visit newly captured items all the time.  If you capture something (I
 have C-M-r bound to org-capture) and store it with C-c C-c you can visit
 it immediately with a double prefix  C-u C-u C-M-r as stated in the
 org-capture docstring:


This is exactly what I was looking for in the manual.  In fact, I think my
comment about the manual was partly a response to being unable to find this
item in the   manual, when I know I had seen reference to it somewhere.
Maybe in my request for items to be included in the manual, the docstrings
in org-capture.el would be scanned.  I missed this on my cursory search of
that file.  I will search for it myself, and work on (believe it or not)
org-help.org, that I use as a helpmate.

I have org-capture assigned to C-c, so C-u C-u C-c c goes straight to the
last stored item.  Perfect.


 |
 | (org-capture optional GOTO KEYS)
 |

I THINK I understand that GOTO here refers to the prefix C-u ?  And C-u C-u
circumvents this?


 | When called interactively with a C-u prefix argument GOTO, don't capture
 | anything, just go to the file/headline where the selected template
 | stores its notes.  With a double prefix argument C-u C-u, go to the last
 note

 ^^
 | stored.
  ^^


This is it! What I was looking for.

I think, thought it may seem crazy, I would like to still have a way to
specify in the template that one would remain with the newly captured item
in its environment, after finalizing.   Just the same, thinking about that
it's an indirect buffer, it makes more sense how it works now...

Awe, heck, these two methods solve my problem well enough...

|
 | When called with a `C-0' (zero) prefix, insert a template at point.
 |


This is a great feature...


 | Lisp programs can set KEYS to a string associated with a template in
 | `org-capture-templates'.  In this case, interactive selection will be
 | bypassed.
 `


This is something I'd like to see an example of.

Thank you again, and again,

Alan Davis

 Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow
 them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

--- R. Buckminster Fuller

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Re: [Orgmode] Re: Bastien is going to become the maintainer of Org mode in January

[Alan E. Davis]

I am a keen user of org-mode, whose uses for which seem never to become well
defined: as soon as I think I understand it, it morphs, or the horizons of
my understanding recede from view.   No amount of praise can adequately pay
tribute to the massively ingenious organic entity that is org-mode.  This
has been the work conceived of a rare intellect with unusually broad and
creative vision, and well executed.  One such as myself, who dabbles
unafraid in the world of minds far better schooled and far more brilliant
than my own, finds the use for such tools as this an expedient, towards his
own purposes, as he tries almost hopelessly to fathom its mysteries--and
Carsten Dominick, seemingly a man of uncommon intellectual clarity and
humanity, the renaissance man, perhaps has from time to time led me both
willingly and patiently through it's brambles and tangles and lighted the
way.  How you have done this remains a humbling mystery.

For both the personal advice and assistance, and the broad vision that has
nurtured this system, I would offer my humble thanks.   I for one felt
relieved that you intend to stay involved.

And to Bastien, who has also on a number of occasions patiently offered his
insights, I also offer a thank you, and a kind hope for your stewardship
of this project.

Would that I could offer some more substantial to org-mode that mostly a
spectator's praise and appreciation.   Perhaps in time.


Alan Davis
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[Orgmode] How to handle titles for latex export, multiple subtrees in a single file?

[Alan E. Davis]

I am keeping large files, with multiple subtrees, in accordance with
recommendations/suggestions.  A common roadblock for he has been that a
#+TITLE directive in a file is not local to a subtree, at least so far as I
have figured out.

What is a best practice for keeping multiple subtrees with individual titles
for export?

Thank you for any suggestions,

Alan
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[Orgmode] How to use capture to start relative timer? And some other capture issues...

[Alan E. Davis]

Org Capture is better than remember in almost all respects.  I have made
some notes on confusing differences, and other issues, for later.  Today,
I'll be more specific about something I'd like to do: it seems to me that
the capture interface would be useful for starting a relative timer,
immediately putting one into the buffer to start entering notes from the
get-go.

I thought about using the notion of a function to open the file and start
the timer; however, I haven't gotten my head around the idea of using a
function as a target for capture.  Are there any example functions around
for study?

Another issue, maybe a difference from org-remember, catches me off guard
almost every time I use capture: the subtle, or maybe not-so-subtle
difference that since one is already in the file---and with the relevant
parameter, the file is not even narrowed---is it even possible to capture to
a file, and leave that file open normally, and not as a capture buffer?
Probably I am missing something here...

I like alot the arrangement of the initial capture screen, with multiple key
entrypoints to culusters of functions: I use it for several template
groups.  Is it possible to sort the templates in the *Org Select* capture
menu buffer, by key strokes in alphabetical order?  I know if I did not use
the customize interface to do this, it was easy to sort them in the .emacs
file.   WIth the ease of entry from Capture directly, though, the customize
approach is really convenient.  I do notice I cannot enter line breaks into
the Template section of a customize entry, though.

Thank you for this tool.  I use it all the time.

Alan Davis
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Re: [Orgmode] LaTeX export: Skip headline lines? Paragraph sectioning?

[Alan E. Davis]

Yes, I want (in some cases) to use headlines for purposes of organization.
 I want at least some of them to disappear in the output.

I could turn in a request for a feature, here:

#+OPTIONS: H:1 lower:nil

Or something else that would give the option that instead of automatically
converting all lower order headlines into list elements, to ignore them
entirely.  Of course, the case may exist where one wishes to actually have a
list converted as is, but lower level headings to disappear.

Thanks for the information about configuring converstion to \section{},
\subsection{}, \paragraph{}, etc.

Aloha,

Alan
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Re: [Orgmode] LaTeX export: Skip headline lines? Paragraph sectioning?

[Alan E. Davis]

 C-h v org-export-latex-low-levels


Cool.  Especially it's configurable on a case by case basis.  I looked at
customization of export/latex, but overlooked this.

Thank you.

Alan
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Re: [Orgmode] LaTeX export: Skip headline lines? Paragraph sectioning?

[Alan E. Davis]

Scot:

I see what you mean

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 3:14 PM, Scot Becker scot.bec...@gmail.com wrote:


 As you'll see org-mode's latex export is currently designed to use org for
 basic document structuring and only allows for a limited set of mappings
 between org's structure and latex structure.  But you'll see in the latex
 configuration documentation that it is possible to define what kind of
 \section{}, \chapter{}, or \subsubparagraph{} is exported for each level of
 org's headlines.

 One imagines it would be possible to define alternate use cases for a
class, for example the article class.  I can see it is possible to define
the article class to use

  \\section{%s}   for the first headline level
and
 \\paragraph{%s} for second levels

This would be useful to me.   However, the ordinary article structure with
subsection, subsubsection, etc., is good enough for much of what I do.   I
can imagine copying the article class file into my org directory, and
renaming it to article2.cls, and adding it to org-export-latex-classes, with
the section - paragraph structure.

Is there an easier or canonical way to do this?

Thank you for your interest and help.

Alan








 On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 5:06 AM, Nick Dokos nicholas.do...@hp.com wrote:

 Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

  Sometimes, I have used outliners, like ThinkTank, to organize my
  thoughts, and reorganize the structure of a document of whatever kind.
  I don't need headings or sectioning in some cases.
 
  I have not found a way to exclude heading lines from
  LaTeX output in Orgmode, nor have I found a
  tag to say, omit this headline.  I do see the variables
  org-export-exclude-tags, and org-export-select tags; as well as an
  option to include a specific number of headings as LaTeX sections.  In
  the later case, other  headings are exported as plain list items, not
  what I have in mind.
 
  A related issue perhaps: what would it take to export, say list items,
  as paragraph and subparagraph sections in LaTeX.
 
  The ability to export a pdf almost automatically through LaTeX, even
  with images, is magical.  Many thanks for this.
 

 Some examples might help. I may be particularly dense tonight but I have
 read your mail a few times and I still have no idea what you are asking
 (or rather I have multiple ideas, none of which make much sense to me.)

 Thanks,
 Nick



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Re: [Orgmode] LaTeX export: Skip headline lines? Paragraph sectioning?

[Alan E. Davis]

Perhaps I can get this done, but I have one important question.

When I define a new class in org-export-latex-classes, does it make sense
to add a new class that calls the same /documentclass{article} class?  I
could name this class article2, and define the section structure as I will.

Hope this is not a silly question.  MY head feels dense today,

Alan

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

 Scot:

 I see what you mean

 On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 3:14 PM, Scot Becker scot.bec...@gmail.comwrote:


 As you'll see org-mode's latex export is currently designed to use org for
 basic document structuring and only allows for a limited set of mappings
 between org's structure and latex structure.  But you'll see in the latex
 configuration documentation that it is possible to define what kind of
 \section{}, \chapter{}, or \subsubparagraph{} is exported for each level of
 org's headlines.

 One imagines it would be possible to define alternate use cases for a
 class, for example the article class.  I can see it is possible to define
 the article class to use

   \\section{%s}   for the first headline level
 and
  \\paragraph{%s} for second levels

 This would be useful to me.   However, the ordinary article structure with
 subsection, subsubsection, etc., is good enough for much of what I do.   I
 can imagine copying the article class file into my org directory, and
 renaming it to article2.cls, and adding it to org-export-latex-classes, with
 the section - paragraph structure.

 Is there an easier or canonical way to do this?

 Thank you for your interest and help.

 Alan








 On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 5:06 AM, Nick Dokos nicholas.do...@hp.comwrote:

 Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

  Sometimes, I have used outliners, like ThinkTank, to organize my
  thoughts, and reorganize the structure of a document of whatever kind.

  I don't need headings or sectioning in some cases.
 
  I have not found a way to exclude heading lines from
  LaTeX output in Orgmode, nor have I found a
  tag to say, omit this headline.  I do see the variables
  org-export-exclude-tags, and org-export-select tags; as well as an
  option to include a specific number of headings as LaTeX sections.  In
  the later case, other  headings are exported as plain list items, not
  what I have in mind.
 
  A related issue perhaps: what would it take to export, say list items,
  as paragraph and subparagraph sections in LaTeX.
 
  The ability to export a pdf almost automatically through LaTeX, even
  with images, is magical.  Many thanks for this.
 

 Some examples might help. I may be particularly dense tonight but I have
 read your mail a few times and I still have no idea what you are asking
 (or rather I have multiple ideas, none of which make much sense to me.)

 Thanks,
 Nick



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[Orgmode] LaTeX export: Skip headline lines? Paragraph sectioning?

[Alan E. Davis]

Sometimes, I have used outliners, like ThinkTank, to organize my
thoughts, and reorganize the structure of a document of whatever kind.
I don't need headings or sectioning in some cases.

I have not found a way to exclude heading lines from
LaTeX output in Orgmode, nor have I found a
tag to say, omit this headline.  I do see the variables
org-export-exclude-tags, and org-export-select tags; as well as an
option to include a specific number of headings as LaTeX sections.  In
the later case, other  headings are exported as plain list items, not
what I have in mind.

A related issue perhaps: what would it take to export, say list items,
as paragraph and subparagraph sections in LaTeX.

The ability to export a pdf almost automatically through LaTeX, even
with images, is magical.  Many thanks for this.

Alan Davis
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[Orgmode] Re: LaTeX calendar from org-mode agenda?

[Alan E. Davis]

It seems possible that at least one of the LaTeX / org gurus on this
list has used LaTeX monthly calendars.  I have had some problems with
LaTeX calendars, but they look really nice, and it would seem not
unlikely to use that format as an output from Org-agenda.

I found LaTeX monthly calendars pretty ridiculous when they are
bloated with dozens of repeated tasks from the diary file.  A well
sorted list of events would seem to me to suite this nice-looking hard
copy calendar nicely.  To be sure, I'm not sure how well supported the
cal-tex-* series is at this point.  I had trouble printing them at
some point, even with help from the developer, Edward Reingold.

C'mon, doesn't anyone know something about LaTeX calendars that would help?

I am offline until my phone is transferred to my new residence.  Later
this summer, I'll find time to sift through this problem myself.

I apologize for repeatedly cluttering this list with often clueless
questions.   I like org-mode a lot and use it for all kinds of tasks,
but I've lost track of some of the more arcane features over the past
several months.  Summer looks a good time to start catching up.  The
ability to print out a nice, concise hardcopy checklist from
org-agenda would make a world of difference.

Alan Davis

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:
 I wonder whether anyone has worked up a solution to printing LaTeX
 monthly or weekly calendars from an org-mode setup?

 LaTeX calendars can get pretty cluttered up when printed from a diary
 file, but perhaps tags would help.  I was able at some point to print
 a LaTeX monthly calendar with entries listed in a separate file.
 Perhaps later this summer I will look into this, but thought someone
 might have solved this problem already.

 Thanks,

 Alan Davis


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[Orgmode] LaTeX calendar from org-mode agenda?

[Alan E. Davis]

I wonder whether anyone has worked up a solution to printing LaTeX
monthly or weekly calendars from an org-mode setup?

LaTeX calendars can get pretty cluttered up when printed from a diary
file, but perhaps tags would help.  I was able at some point to print
a LaTeX monthly calendar with entries listed in a separate file.
Perhaps later this summer I will look into this, but thought someone
might have solved this problem already.

Thanks,

Alan Davis

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Re: [babel] Re: [Orgmode] Re: [OT] gnuplot quality

[Alan E. Davis]

Hello Eric:

On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 1:35 PM, Eric S Fraga ucec...@ucl.ac.uk wrote:

 I am surprised, however, at this comment:

 Gnuplot was ok when I didn't need quailty graphs.

 in what way does gnuplot fall short in terms of quality?  (but keep
 this part of the conversatino off-list please to avoid annoying others)

I don't have a great deal to say about this, so I will keep my remarks
on the list.

I needed/wanted a tool to produce publication quality graphs.  Gnuplot
is great, and I have used it in the past, to make tide graphs.  In my
experience, controls of the details of the graph were less accessible
to me, and the graphs I produced were pretty rough edged.  GRI has
worked very well for me for monthly tide graph calendars, with good
control of parameters.  GNUPLOT is fantastic for quick, and what I
felt were rough and ready plots.

GRI is easily installed on Ubuntu installs, and a gri mode for emacs
makes it easier.

I will try the suggestions you made to work out a babel solution for gri plots.

Thanks for the suggestions,

Alan

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Re: [Orgmode] Re: [OT] gnuplot quality

[Alan E. Davis]

I use the gri plotting language to make plots.  Does anyone here use this?



I am over my head in trying to use babel as a literate programming tool; yet
that's exactly what I need to do, else at least have a method for
coordinating better comments / notes with the code.

Gnuplot was ok when I didn't need quailty graphs.

I also need to learn to make a number of other types of plots, including
polar plots.  I understand that it is possible with gri, but haven't set
down to try to get my head around the process.

Alan Davis

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 6:16 AM, Eric S Fraga ucec...@ucl.ac.uk wrote:

 On Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:23:44 -0700, Eric Schulte schulte.e...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
  Eric S Fraga ucec...@ucl.ac.uk writes:
 
   On Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:35:52 -0700, Eric Schulte 
 schulte.e...@gmail.com wrote:
  
   [...]
  
   WRT: the ugliness of gnuplot to file, I've wrestled with this myself
 and
   I know exactly what you mean.  Currently I try to use svg or png
 images
   when exporting to html, and for pdf I use the gnuplot tikz terminal
 [2].
  
   John  Eric,
  
   Another approach, which I use and which doesn't require using the
   development version of gnuplot for the tikz support, is to generate
   encapsulated postscript files:
  
 set terminal postscript eps enhanced 20
 set output graph.eps
  
 
  Thanks!
 
  I just tried the above (well technically the below [1]) and it does look
  great and scales well.  It's nice to have a light-weight alternative to
  tikz -- a great addition to my plotting toolbox.
 
  Best -- Eric

 [...]

  Footnotes:
  [1]
  --8---cut here---start-8---
  #+begin_src gnuplot
set terminal postscript eps enhanced 20 color
set output ~/Desktop/graph.eps
set isosample 30,30
set title 'bumpy'
set xrange[-4:4]
set yrange[-4:4]
splot sin(x) + sin(y) notitle
  #+end_src
  --8---cut here---end---8---
 
 

 You're very welcome.  I use a number of methods to generate graphs and
 diagrams and gnuplot is definitely one of my favourites.  For the
 adventurous, there's a great blog:

 http://gnuplot-tricks.blogspot.com/

 Put gnuplot together with org-mode and org-babel and it's yet another
 piece in the puzzle that leads to an incredibly powerful desktop
 analysis and publishing system!

 --
 Eric S Fraga
 GnuPG: 8F5C 279D 3907 E14A 5C29  570D C891 93D8 FFFC F67D

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[Orgmode] Relative timer: failure to reset times in active region

[Alan E. Davis]

I took some notes on a video this morning, using a relative timer.  I
wasn't able to start until several minutes into the video.  Then,
later, I went back and started from the beginning, starting the timer
pretty much on time.  Now I have to reset all the times in the
original notes from this morning.

I found this in the documentation for the relative timer:

`C-c C-x 0'
 Reset the timer without inserting anything into the buffer.  By
 default, the timer is reset to 0.  When called with a `C-u'
 prefix, reset the timer to specific starting offset.  The user is
 prompted for the offset, with a default taken from a timer string
 at point, if any, So this can be used to restart taking notes
 after a break in the process.  When called with a double prefix
 argument `C-c C-u', change all timer strings in the active region
 by a certain amount.  This can be used to fix timer strings if the
 timer was not started at exactly the right moment.

When I tried this on the original notes, the function
outline-up-heading is invoked.  Is there a typo in the docs?

Alan


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Re: [Orgmode] Re: possible bug: TAB after elipsis

[Alan E. Davis]

Not sure whether I'm talking about the same phenomenon, but I have
started almost routinely adding a tag at the end of every headline
inserted by my remember templates.  Without the tag, it'seems it's
hard to move past the end of the line cleanly to edit the contents.
With a tag, using the custom \C-a/e behavior alluded to above, its a
cinch.

I am annoyed by this.  It seems wrong, and I assumed there is a
workaround somewhere, if I looked hard enough.  Again, maybe this is
another problem.

Alan


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Re: [Orgmode] Re: possible bug: TAB after elipsis

[Alan E. Davis]

Hello, Carsten:

I have to admit you are right, at least to the extent I cannot now
reproduce this behavior. I also have to admit that I haven't been
aware of that behavior for a while.

I will attempt to reproduce it for a day or two, and see if I can send
you a working example.

With apologies,

Alan

On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 9:58 PM, Carsten Dominik
carsten.domi...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Alan,

 On Mar 28, 2010, at 1:45 PM, Alan E. Davis wrote:

 Not sure whether I'm talking about the same phenomenon, but I have
 started almost routinely adding a tag at the end of every headline
 inserted by my remember templates.  Without the tag, it'seems it's
 hard to move past the end of the line cleanly to edit the contents.
 With a tag, using the custom \C-a/e behavior alluded to above, its a
 cinch.

 I don't think I can reproduce this.

 Can you please make your explanation more detailed, with an example, with
 your setting for org-special-control-a/e, and with a step by step guide on
 how to hit any problems?


 Thanks

 - Carsten


 I am annoyed by this.  It seems wrong, and I assumed there is a
 workaround somewhere, if I looked hard enough.  Again, maybe this is
 another problem.

 Alan


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 - Carsten






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[Orgmode] Scheduling an event of uncertain date within a month

[Alan E. Davis]

I am beginning to understand how to use scheduling.  However I ran across a
problem I didn't know how to solve: I know that in early March an event will
take place on a Friday, but I don't remember the date.

Can anyone make a suggestion how to handle this?

Thank you, again and again, for org-mode, the swiss-army-toolbox.

Alan Davis
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Re: [Orgmode] Re: How to combine the analogue (Moleskine) world with digital (org-mode) world ?

[Alan E. Davis]

On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 4:39 AM, Austin Frank austin.fr...@gmail.comwrote:

 On Sun, Jan 24 2010, Torsten Wagner wrote:
 notebook as I process them.  Nowadays I keep a cheaper flimsier notebook
 in my back pocket at all times [1].  In addition to letting me
 guiltlessly destroy the thing, it's also more comfortable to sit on.


I can't offer much in the way of suggestions for syncing org-mode with
meat-space (notebooks).  I do know something about field notebooks,
however.  I am used to carrying around a notebook in a waist pouch (some of
the locals call them thunder bags), and have been doing so for years.  The
best notebooks I have found for general use are those I have cut from marble
covered composition books.  At the printer's I pay a couple of dollars to
have a stack of three or four notebooks cut into convenient sizes.  These
books are about 19 x 25 CM.  Whatever works.  I have them cut into sizes
convenient for whichever brand of pouch I am carrying, usually about 7.5 x
4.5 inches (11 x 19 cm, or so), sometimes smaller.  As a side benefit,
leftovers forml smaller notebooks of various sizes.   They are sewn, so no
metal to rust, and the thick cardboard covers are ideal.  They hold up much
better than the little mini-marble notebooks.   Printers use Guillotine
knives, and can easily trim a stack of notebooks to any desired size.  Cheap
and available almost anywhere (?).

After a typhoon destroyed my home some years ago, the only notebooks that
were salvable were these comp books.  Pencil notes are generally readable,
but  not always.  Some people use ball point pens in the tropics.  Duing
three years of undergraduate work, when I was taking notes constantly, I
experimented with many types of fountain pens, for water proof, india and
drawing inks.  I found a Mont Blanc fountain pen in about 1985 that was
fairly cheap at the time (not anymore, I'm afraid) that held up better than
any other, and never clogged, even with India Ink.  Eventually I even used
these pens as a laboratory pen, for writing labels and lab notes.   I don't
know whether Mont Blanc manufactures them anymore, but the pens I have seen
in duty free shops are far too expensive for me.

In my case, field notes were eventually typed into a sort of free-form
database in what linguists refer to as band format.   I now have a
remember template for transcribing notes into this format.

More than anyone wanted or needed to know, for what it's worth.

Alan Davis
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[Orgmode] Isolate export parameters in file from currently exporting subtree

[Alan E. Davis]

In one large file, I would like to keep a large number of individual
subtrees, each for independent export to LaTeX.  Is it possible to isolate
the extra parameters needed for a subtree isolated from the rest of the
file?

For example:
* Handouts
** Plants
#+TITLE: 125 General Principles of Plant Reproduction
#+AUTHOR:
#+DATE:
#+LaTeX_HEADER: \usepackage{fullpage}

I will have to either archive each subtree or delete these parameters if
they are not to influence the export of another subtree.

I am thinking about Selective Export.  To make things simpler, can I put
these items into a property drawer?

Thank you once again for Org-Mode.  In the last many, many months I have
become more and more dependent upon Org Mode for a diverse range of work.


Alan Davis
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[Orgmode] Request for guidance: Export ONLY headlines matching occur search?

[Alan E. Davis]

   I am keeping notes in a single file about several topics.  I can
   isolate headlines about these topics/products, by an agenda occur
   search: C-a a / key phrase .   I have made a template to print a
   memo about these products, but it seems I must copy the headlines
   by hand to a register or file, then massage them into shape.

   I would like to do something like export a PDF of all
   entries/subtrees within the region that have the product's key
   phrase in the heading.   Is it possible to selectively export only
   the subtrees identified by the Occur agenda search, automagically?
   Since my notes start with an inactive time stamp, I would like to
   strip these out as well.  I think I can easily write an elisp
   function to do this, but perhaps org-mode already has such
   capabilities built in, a regexp for an inactive time stamp.

   Perhaps I'll spend some time over Christmas break on this.  It's
   nice to easily make a memo, but it would be a big help to make it
   less laborious.

In case there is interest, here are the template and the fragments
   for the head and tail of the memo.

   Remember template:
 (Memo   ?Z %[~/org/MEMO/Top.2.memo]  %?\n %i  %
%[~/org/MEMO/Bot.memo]
   ~/or/MEMO/Memo.tex top)

   The required files Top.2.memo and Bot.memo are attached.  Top.2.memo can
be edited with any hard wired recipient and from lines.  The class file,
also included, is edited to change the header on the memo.  All three must
be in the directory ~/org/MEMO.  I am using the sloppy approach of
running LaTeX on the long Memo.tex file to which the current memo has been
pre-pended.  Only the topmost memo is printed.

This approach works but it is currently a kluge, unpolished. The
enhancements I have requested would make it possible to instantly fire off a
memo about a specific product.
  *

*

Alan Davis
%% 
%% This is file `memo.cls',
%% \CharacterTable
%%  {Upper-case\A\B\C\D\E\F\G\H\I\J\K\L\M\N\O\P\Q\R\S\T\U\V\W\X\Y\Z
%%   Lower-case\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\l\m\n\o\p\q\r\s\t\u\v\w\x\y\z
%%   Digits\0\1\2\3\4\5\6\7\8\9
%%   Exclamation   \! Double quote  \ Hash (number) \#
%%   Dollar\$ Percent   \% Ampersand \
%%   Acute accent  \' Left paren\( Right paren   \)
%%   Asterisk  \* Plus  \+ Comma \,
%%   Minus \- Point \. Solidus   \/
%%   Colon \: Semicolon \; Less than \
%%   Equals\= Greater than  \ Question mark \?
%%   Commercial at \@ Left bracket  \[ Backslash \\
%%   Right bracket \] Circumflex\^ Underscore\_
%%   Grave accent  \` Left brace\{ Vertical bar  \|
%%   Right brace   \} Tilde \~}
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}[1996/06/01]
\ProvidesClass{memo}
  [1999/02/09 v1.2z
   Standard LaTeX document class]
\typeout{Document Class `memo' by Ray Seyfarth based on letter style, 9/2000. }
\typeout{  }

\newcomma...@ptsize{}
\DeclareOption{a4paper}
   {\setlength\paperheight {297mm}%
\setlength\paperwidth  {210mm}}
\DeclareOption{a5paper}
   {\setlength\paperheight {210mm}%
\setlength\paperwidth  {148mm}}
\DeclareOption{b5paper}
   {\setlength\paperheight {250mm}%
\setlength\paperwidth  {176mm}}
\DeclareOption{letterpaper}
   {\setlength\paperheight {11in}%
\setlength\paperwidth  {8.5in}}
\DeclareOption{legalpaper}
   {\setlength\paperheight {14in}%
\setlength\paperwidth  {8.5in}}
\DeclareOption{executivepaper}
   {\setlength\paperheight {10.5in}%
\setlength\paperwidth  {7.25in}}
\DeclareOption{landscape}
   {\setleng...@tempdima   {\paperheight}%
\setlength\paperheight {\paperwidth}%
\setlength\paperwidth  {...@tempdima}}
\declareoption{10pt}{\renewcomma...@ptsize{0}}
\declareoption{11pt}{\renewcomma...@ptsize{1}}
\declareoption{12pt}{\renewcomma...@ptsize{2}}
\...@compatibility
  \declareoption{twoside...@latexerr{no `twoside' layout for memo}%
   \...@eha}
\else
  \declareoption{twoside...@twosidetrue  \...@mparswitchtrue}
\fi
\declareoption{oneside...@twosidefalse \...@mparswitchfalse}
\DeclareOption{draft}{\setlength\overfullrule{5pt}}
\DeclareOption{final}{\setlength\overfullrule{0pt}}
\DeclareOption{leqno}{\input{leqno.clo}}
\DeclareOption{fleqn}{\input{fleqn.clo}}
\ExecuteOptions{letterpaper,10pt,oneside,onecolumn,final}
\ProcessOptions
\input{siz...@ptsize.clo}
\setlength\lineskip{...@}
\setlength\normallineskip{...@}
\renewcommand\baselinestretch{}
\setlength\parskip{0.7em}
\setlength\parindent{...@}
\...@lowpenalty   51
\...@medpenalty  151
\...@highpenalty 301
\setlength\headheight{1...@}
\setlength\headsep   {4...@}
\setlength\footskip{2...@}
\...@compatibility
  \setlength\textwidth{36...@}
  \setlength\textheight{50...@}
\fi
\...@compatibility
  \setlength\oddsidemargin{53pt}
  \setlength\evensidemargin{53pt}
  

[Orgmode] Re: Request for guidance: Export ONLY headlines matching occur search?

[Alan E. Davis]

For what it's worth, I forgot to attach one of the files.  In case this is
of interest to others, it is attached herewith.

All I really need to know is how to export ONLY the headlines that are
returned by an agenda occur search (C-a / ) as a PDF.

With apologies.

Alan

On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

I am keeping notes in a single file about several topics.  I can
isolate headlines about these topics/products, by an agenda occur
search: C-a a / key phrase .   I have made a template to print a
memo about these products, but it seems I must copy the headlines
by hand to a register or file, then massage them into shape.

I would like to do something like export a PDF of all
entries/subtrees within the region that have the product's key
phrase in the heading.   Is it possible to selectively export only
the subtrees identified by the Occur agenda search, automagically?
Since my notes start with an inactive time stamp, I would like to
strip these out as well.  I think I can easily write an elisp
function to do this, but perhaps org-mode already has such
capabilities built in, a regexp for an inactive time stamp.

Perhaps I'll spend some time over Christmas break on this.  It's
nice to easily make a memo, but it would be a big help to make it
less laborious.

 In case there is interest, here are the template and the fragments
for the head and tail of the memo.

Remember template:
  (Memo   ?Z %[~/org/MEMO/Top.2.memo]  %?\n %i  %
 %[~/org/MEMO/Bot.memo]
~/or/MEMO/Memo.tex top)

The required files Top.2.memo and Bot.memo are attached.  Top.2.memo can
 be edited with any hard wired recipient and from lines.  The class file,
 also included, is edited to change the header on the memo.  All three must
 be in the directory ~/org/MEMO.  I am using the sloppy approach of
 running LaTeX on the long Memo.tex file to which the current memo has been
 pre-pended.  Only the topmost memo is printed.

 This approach works but it is currently a kluge, unpolished. The
 enhancements I have requested would make it possible to instantly fire off a
 memo about a specific product.
   *

 *

 Alan Davis




Top.2.memo
Description: Binary data
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[Orgmode] Re: Request for guidance: Export ONLY headlines matching occur search?

[Alan E. Davis]

Another error, this time to the memo generating remember template.  With yet
another apology:


 (Memo   ?Z %[~/org/MEMO/Top.2.memo]  %?\n %i  %
%[~/org/MEMO/Bot.memo]
   ~/org/MEMO/Memo.tex top)
   

Alan

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 9:39 AM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

 For what it's worth, I forgot to attach one of the files.  In case this is
 of interest to others, it is attached herewith.

 All I really need to know is how to export ONLY the headlines that are
 returned by an agenda occur search (C-a / ) as a PDF.

 With apologies.

 Alan

 On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Alan E. Davis lngn...@gmail.com wrote:

I am keeping notes in a single file about several topics.  I can
isolate headlines about these topics/products, by an agenda occur
search: C-a a / key phrase .   I have made a template to print a
memo about these products, but it seems I must copy the headlines
by hand to a register or file, then massage them into shape.

I would like to do something like export a PDF of all
entries/subtrees within the region that have the product's key
phrase in the heading.   Is it possible to selectively export only
the subtrees identified by the Occur agenda search, automagically?
Since my notes start with an inactive time stamp, I would like to
strip these out as well.  I think I can easily write an elisp
function to do this, but perhaps org-mode already has such
capabilities built in, a regexp for an inactive time stamp.

Perhaps I'll spend some time over Christmas break on this.  It's
nice to easily make a memo, but it would be a big help to make it
less laborious.

 In case there is interest, here are the template and the fragments
for the head and tail of the memo.

Remember template:
  (Memo   ?Z %[~/org/MEMO/Top.2.memo]  %?\n %i  %
 %[~/org/MEMO/Bot.memo]
~/or/MEMO/Memo.tex top)

The required files Top.2.memo and Bot.memo are attached.  Top.2.memo
 can be edited with any hard wired recipient and from lines.  The class file,
 also included, is edited to change the header on the memo.  All three must
 be in the directory ~/org/MEMO.  I am using the sloppy approach of
 running LaTeX on the long Memo.tex file to which the current memo has been
 pre-pended.  Only the topmost memo is printed.

 This approach works but it is currently a kluge, unpolished. The
 enhancements I have requested would make it possible to instantly fire off a
 memo about a specific product.
   *

 *

 Alan Davis



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[Orgmode] Different behavior of elipses depends on whether file is open

[Alan E. Davis]

   I just inserted a headline using this template:
   (System ?s * %U %(system-name):: %?%
   ~/org/System.Journal.org Incoming)

   I typed a long headline, and thought Oh, well, I'll just go to the
   end of the line with my special Ctl-e (stops before elipses/tags.)
   Then I hit enter, expecting to bypass the elipses.  Had I not
   been schooled in the elipses issue of org-mode, I would have
   deleted the elipses, as extraneous text.

   But point PASSED the elipses on the same line, to the end of the
   line.

   This seems wrong to me.  Not sure what should happen.  If I enter a
   tab, enter at the same place would indeed pass on to the next
   line.

Now, I tried it again, with several conditions: short line, long
headline, text below, no text entered beyond the headline (no
enter while editing the remember buffer).  Now I don't get this
at all.  No elipses at all.

Is this because the file is already open?  How can I achieve
consistency in this behavior?  I tried this.  The first time I enter a
headline, this behavior is observed.  The second time, again a long line,
there are no elipses.
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Re: [Orgmode] How to add entries to an org file, not diary

[Alan E. Davis]

 At Mon, 9 Nov 2009 22:09:23 +0100,
 Carsten Dominik carsten.domi...@gmail.com wrote:

  Right now I have implemented
 
  i d   for day entries,
  i b   for blocks,
  i a   for anniversaries (which will be collected under a special
 heading Anniversaries in your `diary.org'
  i j   To jump to the cursor date in the date tree
 
  What else would be useful?


Thank you for this:

I don't remember how this came to pass.  I think after writing email to Ed
Reingold, author of the various emacs calendar tools, and eventually, this
came about.  I've thought ever since, that it needed polishing, but I used
it innumerable times over the years.  Perhaps this would be useful for what
you are implementing, or something like it.  I'd like to have it.  This was
certainly  done up by Ed Reingold originally, but I've lost track (it was in
the pre-org-mode time).

The polishing part comes from the inconvenience of typing individually the
numbers of days ahead of time one wanted to be reminded.  I don't know how
to make it better.  Maybe org-agenda already does this pretty well.  Out of
laziness, I used to type something like this, for numbers of days to remind:
30 27 25 22 20 17 14 12 9 7 5 4 3 2 1.  Possibly a hard-coded sequence
would be just as good, and it could skip weekends, or other inconvenient
days, be sure to hit fridays, or whatever.

Possibly this is all redundant in the context of org-mode.  I guess it is,
but I'll send it along anyway.

Anyway, here it is.  I have it bound to i e in the calendar map.


;;;Begin
diary-insert-event-with-reminder;;;8;;
;; Trivially, this function is covered by the GPL.  It borrows liberally
(TM)
;; from the diary-lib package of Ed Reingold.
;; Alan Davis   15 May 1998.  Saipan, NMI.
;;
;; When  invoked,  this function prompts for  a string of numbers
;; representing the number of days in advance you would like to be
;; reminded.  Enter a sequence of numbers, like '1 2 3 4 7 8 20'.
;; Subsequently, the function will query for a description of the event.
;; You may optionally type a description of the event; whether or not
;; you do not do so, after you type ENTER,  will find yourself in
;; your .diary file at the newly inserted line.
;;
;; You may wish to place the following line in your .emacs:
;;  (require 'diary-insert-event-with-reminder)

(defun diary-insert-event-with-reminder (daylist event arg)
  Insert a unique event, on a single date as given by point.  A
prefix arg will make the entry nonmarking.  When invoked, this
function will interactively ask for the number of days in advance that
you'd like to be reminded, and a name for the event.
  (interactive sDays in advance to remind: \nsWhat's the event? \nP)
  (require 'diary-lib)
  (let* ((calendar-date-display-form
  (if european-calendar-style
  '(day   month   year)
'(month   day   year
(make-diary-entry
 (format %s(diary-remind '(diary-date %s) '(%s)) %s
 sexp-diary-entry-symbol
 (calendar-date-string (calendar-cursor-to-date t) nil t) daylist
event)
 arg)))
;;;END8;

To bind to keys ie in calendar-mode-map:

(setq calendar-load-hook
 '(lambda ()
;; Keybinding
(define-key calendar-mode-map
  ie
  'diary-insert-event-with-reminder)
))
;;;

I haven't gotten my feet wet with this new implementation, but will be doing
so,  I'm not sure how this would fit in with what you have implemented.

Alan Davis
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[Orgmode] Best way to implement Keywords feature

[Alan E. Davis]

In some cases, a single headword entry can relate to a large number of
topics.  I have tried dealing with longer tag lists: automatic adjustment of
tags column (on this list a little utility was posted:
org-adjust-tags-column-reset-tags.  I THINK that a keyword list may allow
more freedom to cross-index, especially if it is easy to use.

Can someone suggest a way to implement a keywording system, perhaps with a
custom agenda search?  Or have others dealt with this issue in innovative
ways?

I would appreciate any ideas.

Alan Davis
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Re: [Orgmode] Best way to implement Keywords feature

[Alan E. Davis]

On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 10:58 PM, Samuel Wales samolog...@gmail.com wrote:



 One such solution is to use header-line-format to display olpath.

 I don't understand this.

In scientific/academic publications, one often sees a list of Keywords in
the topmatter.  That being said, I am not certain how people use them.
There are often a dozen or more.

I have had to throttle back my use of tags, to avoid long header lines.
Also, tags are limited to head lines, only.

I would like to implement a secondary list of keywords, that might be
searched in an agenda search.  I don't know whether properties would be
appropriate, although I understand properties can slow the system down.
Don't know.   Probably something similar to properties.

So, for example, if I am taking notes and indexing video clips or PDFs, a
larger number of keywords would enable me to retrieve them in a less
structured, free form manner.  A custom agenda search would be perfect.

Probably barking up a tree.  Probably just better use of tags would solve
this problem.   Keywords, though, could be implemented outside of
headlines.  Maybe I should just use more headlines.

Thanks.

Alan
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Re: [Orgmode] Re: contact management in org-mode?

[Alan E. Davis]

I'll mention EDB, emacs data base, here, even though I haven't used it for
several years.

http://gnuvola.org/software/edb/

It's available on many GNU/Linux distros, as a package.  It is for Gentoo,
and perhaps for Debian/Ubuntu as well.

It is extensible/programmable, so that various interfaces could perhaps be
possible.  I spent a little time years ago setting up an Addresses database,
with output formats to automatically set up a LaTeX header for each marked
address.  It was a bit klunky, to be sure, but it worked REALLY well, and it
worked the way I wanted it to.

It's an old piece of software.  I tried it lately with my address DB, with
Emacs 23, so it may just still work fine.

In the examples directory, above, are a rolodex database, possibly somewhat
similar to what I had going, and some other examples.   There has been some
relatively recent effort into maintaining EDB.

I write this not as a programmer, but a user, just to point to something
that has worked well for me in the past.

Alan Davis
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