[emacs-wiki-discuss] Re: Before I start on the learning curve, is planner mode for me?

[Leon]

Paul,

What you write here is of very interest for newcomer to planner. I
started using emacs about 6 months ago. I knew nothing about elisp but
it doesn't prevent me from using planner.

Paul Lussier <address@hidden> writes:

> ( Sorry for a response to such an old posts.  I'm a little behind the
> time on this list :)
>
> Jim Ottaway <address@hidden> writes:
>
>>>>>>> Geraldine  <address@hidden> writes:
>>
>>> The thing is, you see, I am new to emacs, I am a windows user, and
>>> I've only done the tiniest bit of what you might call scripting. My
>>> learning curve will be enormous.
>>
>> I don't think the learning curve from 'knowing nothing' to 'knowing
>> enough to find Emacs useful' will be as steep as you might think.
>
> First, Welcome to the wonderful world of emacs.  Prepare for a
> lifetime of addiction :)
>
> As Jim said, the learning curve for Emacs just to get to the point
> where it's "useful" isn't that bad.  Becoming a master Emacs hacker,
> that takes a few more weeks :)
>
> As a point of reference, my journey with Emacs began in 1994.  Someone
> told me I'd do better with emacs than with vi.  I fired up emacs,
> typed in C-h t and began the tutorial.  I spent about 45 minutes doing
> this, got bored, moved on, and never looked at the tutorial again.
> For the next 10 years or so I used Emacs as nothing more than a basic
> text editor.  My .emacs file was composed of snippets begged,
> borrowed, or stolen from others.  I had no idea what they did or meant
> other than they tweaked some knob or tuned something just enough to
> make my life a little easier.  I learned a few things along the way,
> but was mostly ignorant of how to do things in emacs other than
> editing text.
>
> One day, about 2 years ago now (Holy Cow!  Sacha, has it been *that*
> long? :) I stumbled upon this thing called emacs-wiki and
> planner-mode.  I fired off an e-mail to the maintainer asking a couple
> of questions.  Someone named Sacha answered back and had such
> enthusiasm for my e-mail and my questions that i immediately joined
> the list and started playing with planner and emacs-wiki.
>
> My life now revolves around planner and emacs.  A few of the things I
> do with emacs now, that used to be scattered around in several
> different locations are:
>
>  - e-mail
>  - daily planning (I never actually did this before :)
>  - Time tracking (I never actually did this before either!)
>  - Documentation (used to be either text docs in various places, or html
>                   now it's muse docs in one place)
>
>  - Finances      (used to use GnuCash, now I use ledger, which has an emacs
>                   mode)
>  - Web browsing  (occasional use for stuff which is mostly text)
>  - URL bookmarking (johnsu01 wrote a great emacs interface to del.icio.us)
>                    (unfortunately, it seems to hate me, and has been broken
>                     (only for me!) for far too long :(
>  - IRC           (yes, I chat on IRC in emacs!)
>  - database access (emacs has a great interface to postgres and MySql, etc.)
>  - shell command line
>  - calendar/appointments
>  - address book
>  - misc. notes
>
> And the amazing thing is, all of these activities are either already
> an integral part of planner, or can easily be linked to from my
> planner pages!
>
> So, to answer your questions, "yes, you can do all that with emacs!" :)
>
>> Emacs is so large, that one "picks things up as one goes along" forever!
>
> And once you start picking things up, you rapidly become addicted to
> it :) I work with a bunch of MIT grads at a small start-up in
> Cambridge, MA.  Someone here, whom I consider way smarter than I am,
> recently commented on "how he know a lot about emacs, and there's
> nothing he can't do with it!"  Ironically, all the stuff this person
> was talking about, I *just* learned within the past 2 years and all as
> a result of starting to use planner :)
>
>>> And will planner mode allow me to:
>>> associate todo's with "projects", ala GTD, with links in both directions
>>> give contexts, tags or labels to the todo's and/or the projects
>>> date the todo's as necessary
>
> I recently saw a great response to someone asking for a "wishlist" of
> things to be added to planner:
>
>   "This is Emacs.  There's no wish.  Only how."
>
> Yes, you can do that with emacs :)
>
> So, don't be afraid of the water, we've all learned to swim, some
> faster, some slower than others.  Some of us use water wings, others
> do the backstroke.  Figure out what your style is, ask for help, and
> we'll help you get settled :)

-- 
Leon