Re: [emacs-humanities] Emacs "Projects" management?

[Alan Davis]

Wow!  Great answers, right away.  Thank you.

I will respond to a couple of things.

First, I have used git, in fact I used to use it to keep a directory tree
synchronized on two or three machines.  Like Dropbox.  But it became a
heavy lift after a month or two, with a variety of different kinds of
files, large and small, and---unfortunately---the entire history.  I did
not learn to use Git in the best way, I did not learn to back track into
the history.  I abandoned the use of git, once it became too confusing to
keep things straight.  The workflow was terrific; it was convoluted,
though, after a while.  I use Dropbox on three devices; it is easy, but I
still end up with "conflicted copies".   I will see whether I can use the
command that Protesilaos suggested, git init, and what happens.  I am
anxious to see the time when the use of the file .emacs-project.

What do I want to do?  I want to keep a large set of "projects," some
larger, some quite small.  One project involves little writing, but some
coding in the gri graphing language, and some work with data on tides.  I
also have been learning to post process digital photographs, including some
that are for a long-time study of reproduction of a coral, microscope
photographs, as well as collections of PDFs and various outlines and
writing.  Other projects include articles, and---importantly---the
beginnings of collections of notes about various topics.  Some of these
involved greater or lesser amounts of background information, graphics,
PDFs, notes, bibliographic notes, etc.

These are scattered all over a 250+GB home directory, with a synchronized
Dropbox.  I connect to my main machine by ssh and upload or download files
to my laptop.   So there is a geographically (if one will, in terms of
separate machines and work areas) scattering of information to account
for.   I see a project as a way to bring order to these scattered
collections of material.

In addition, particularly for PDFs, drafts, my various projects overlap
significantly.  I stumble into this all the time: I want to use links to
coordinate various components.  I tried to link directories across
filesystems; this was too ephemeral, and required too much attention and
maintenance.

I have been on the lookout for something on GNU/Linux, akin to the
wonderful "virtual folders" of Apple.  I hope a project can overcome
hardware incompatibilities in a similar way.

I don't think I have answered the questions, but I have said too much.

Thank you again for your thoughtful contributions.

Alan Davis

On Tue, Oct 5, 2021 at 5:18 AM Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

> > From: Alan Davis <alan3davis@gmail.com>
> > Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2021 18:24:29 -0700
> >
> > I am using Emacs for almost everything, as I have done for decades.  I
> use
> > Org-Mode, though I do not take advantage of too many bells and whistles.
> > Various tools offer to help organize "Projects;" but here's the problem
> for
> > me: they seem to cater to the programmer, for programming projects.
> >
> > The very word "Project" is fuzzy, imprecise in usage: I have seen it used
> > in the sense of a writing project, or without boundaries; yet in the
> > tutorials and guides for, for example, "projectile" project manager
> > package, it seems to focus on programming projects.
> >
> > I would like to ask about how others, in the "emacs-humanities"
> community,
> > use such project managers for various kinds of projects (in the loose
> > sense), and whether such as "projectile" have been useful, and what
> > modifications were useful.
>
> Good questions, thanks.
>
> I think to have a useful discussion of that, it would help if you
> could list the main tasks that "project management" entails, for the
> kind of projects that you have in mind.
>


-- 
<http://documentally.com/2011/12/07/richard-stallman-talks/>
  "When the Last Tree has been cut down, the Last Fish caught,
   the Last River poisoned, only then will we realize
   that One Cannot Eat Money." (Native American Saying)

  “Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
  Nor whence, like water willy-nilly flowing;
  And out of it, as wind along the Waste;
  I know not whither, willy nilly blowing.”
       (Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám )