Talking Org Mode

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GranthinmBlog on Open source, Digital humanities, and Sanskrit philology

Talking Org-modeDaniel Stender Monday, February 27th, 2012

One of the advantages of the Emacs1 editor is that there are much great extensions

available2. Among them, one of the true gems is definitely Org-mode (thanks Manuel

for pointer!). The developers of Org are proud that their extension actually brought

many people to deal with the Emacs, and thereafter to discover its ingenuity. Emacs

high availability and expandability through Elisp is certainly of its advantages, and it

acts like a cross-OS virtual machine for applications which have been putted on this

Editor as a platform.

Whats Org-mode?

Org-mode3 (stable: 7.8.03) is a Emacs major mode which basically is a ultra versatile

plain text outliner for taking notes. If one likes to gain an overview of Org, the huge

capabilities are confusing at first. A reason for this is that Org is pretty much open inits scope, and people are using it for different tasks, as note taker, organizer,

scheduler, for to-do-lists, project management, etc. etc. But in this post, I would like to

focus mainly on Org as a publishing platform. Some features of Org are capable of

achieving fancy things, even if Org is seen as a mere frontend to HTML or LaTeX, and

even for your blog with Org2blog (see below).

Radio tables within LaTeX

A remarkable feature of Org is the build-in table editor which provides

auto-alignment-as-you-write, easy rearrangement and also spreadsheet capabilities.

The table mode is setted up as a minor mode (orgtbl-mode) and therefore it could be

also employed for any non-Org documents (e.g. HTML or LaTeX source files) through

its create-within-comment facility (radio tables)4. Tables within LaTeX are a real

pain to create without any helpers, and orgtbl comes pretty handy for that: in a

random LaTeX document, a radio table skeleton could be inserted through M-x

orgtbl-insert-radio-table (a comment.styenvironment is used to wrap the source

table). After that, activate the minor mode through M-x orgtbl-mode and start writing

the table source within the comment environment. When its time, push C-c C-c within

the Org table to create resp. refresh the corresponding LaTeX table isnt that justmarvellous?5

A basic sample document would look like this:

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\documentclass{scrartcl}

\usepackage{comment}

\begin{document}

Hello, world!

% BEGIN RECEIVE ORGTBL foo\begin{tabular}{lllll}

Monday & Tuesday & Wednesday & Thursday & Friday \\

Rain & Rain & Rain & Rain & Rain \\

\end{tabular}

% END RECEIVE ORGTBL foo

\begin{comment}

#+ORGTBL: SEND foo orgtbl-to-latex :splice nil :skip 0

| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |

| Rain | Rain | Rain | Rain | Rain |

\end{comment}

\end{document}

Babel

Org-mode has several outstanding features, and among them its environment for

literate programming, Babel, could be emphazised to demonstrate Org-modes

incredible functionality. Within an Org document, source code could be written

directly into to literal environments or even hot-included from external files into code

blocks. From these it could be included to and excluded from into the same document

to do really fancy things like to hot-create diagrams for example (this is comparable to

what Aditya Mahajan achieves with his Filter module for ConTeXt). Any code could be

executed interactively or on-publish-time, it could be tangled (extracted) in a

structured way into individual source code files and woven (exported) into the

exported document in the same process. A feature likes this comes pretty useful e.g.

when you are writing about code for a journal article, but it all goes much further like

into reproducible research papers. Thus, even as a publishing frontend Org-mode

develops an enormous potential.

For a little demonstration, please check out the following setup:

a Python source block puts out a list of 300 random integer pairs,q

a Gnuplot code block takes them over and puts out an graph from these,q

both code blocks get executed when the export happens,q

the Python source is printed out,q

while the Gnuplot source block gets replaced by the resulting image:6q

Heres a Python script prints out a random tabular of integer pairs:

import random

out="| %s | %s |"

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for x inrange(0, 300):

pair=(random.randrange(1000), random.randrange(1000))

print out % pair

An heres the resulting graph:

By the way, here are the preceeding lines of the Org source:7

Here's a Python script prints out a random tabular of integer pairs:

#+srcname: foo

#+begin_src python :results output raw :exports code

import random

out="| %s | %s |"

for x in range(0, 300):

pair=(random.randrange(1000), random.randrange(1000))

print out % pair

#+end_src

An here's the resulting graph:

#+begin_src gnuplot :var data=foo :file gnuplot.png :exports results

reset

set terminal png size 500,375

plot data u 1:2 notitle

#+end_src

By the way, here are the preceeding lines of the Org source:[7]

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Org2blog

Furthermore, I would like to point right further to the extension Org2blog, which

provides export to WordPress directly from the running Org mode. It might not be so

interesting to publish your checkboxed todo-lists on your blog, but when it comes to

how elegant Org handles features like sections, links, footnotes, etc. it really makes up

a deluxe editing frontend for WordPress, plus, of course the features which have beendiscussed here so far could be forwarded directly to your blog easily with that

extension.

Unfortunately, Org2blog isnt available through the package management so far (see

here), so it must be installed manually. Basically, there are three ways to do so,

you could clone the repositories of Org2blog (and the needed Elisp implementation of1.

XML-RPC) somewhere into the Emacs search path 8,

you could get the ELPA extension retrieval package.el into charge 9,2.

and finally, you could use el-get for retrieving the add-ons

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.3.

After Org2blog has been got and proper configured 11, you can publish from the

running Org file directly with M-x org2blog/wp-post-buffer-and-publish12. Actually,

this post was created with Org-mode and Org2blog.

Footnotes:

1 The current stable release is 23.4, but Emacs 24 is just around the corner. If you

cant wait to run one of its additional features (see here), there are unofficial snapshot

packages available. Many stuff Ive came across (like the Emacs Starter Kit) is alreadymade up for Emacs 24.

2 For working with Emacs of course the manual is essential. Within a running Emacs,

press C-h t to open the build-in tutorial. The classic introduction is OReillysLearning

GNU Emacs (currently 3rd edition), and theres also a title in Sams Teach Yourself

series, a complete Howto from the Linux guys, and a tutorial at IBM Developer Works.

Very brief Ive found is the tutorial at the University of Chicago Library, and very

useful also is thePocketReference. PeepCode features a great screencast on Emacs,

which gives a great overview even over the advanced stuff.

3 Among the Org documentation there is a compact guide next to the much more

detailed manual. Very useful also the the Refcard. There are several introductions,

tutorials and screencasts available (see here), among them the talk of Carsten

Dominik at Google Tech Talks provides a great overview of the different functions of

Org. A fine German article could be found inDas freie Magazin 10 of 2009 (p. 18 sq.),

and another very easy written English article could be found in theLinux Journal of

2007. Everything within Emacs is documented out, so you just have to M-x org-info to

reach the build-in documentation. By the way, current Pandoc features Org as output

format.

4 Theres a nice tutorial on Org tables, and a demonstration in Dominiks talk at

Google Tech Talks (00:29:00 sq.), The radio table feature is demonstrated in this

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https://github.com/punchagan/org2bloghttp://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=650576https://launchpad.net/xml-rpc-elhttps://launchpad.net/xml-rpc-elhttp://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs23_features.htmlhttp://www.masteringemacs.org/articles/2011/12/06/what-is-new-in-emacs-24-part-1/http://emacs.naquadah.org/http://emacs.naquadah.org/https://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kithttp://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/emacs.htmlhttp://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/operating-systems-and-server-administration/emacs/0596006489http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/operating-systems-and-server-administration/emacs/0596006489http://www.emacs.uniyar.ac.ru/doc/em24h/http://www.emacs.uniyar.ac.ru/doc/em24h/http://www.emacs.uniyar.ac.ru/doc/em24h/http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Emacs-Beginner-HOWTO.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/developerworks/views/aix/libraryview.jsp?search_by=emacs+editing+environmenthttp://www2.lib.uchicago.edu/keith/tcl-course/emacs-tutorial.htmlhttp://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/operating-systems-and-server-administration/emacs/1565924967http://peepcode.com/products/meet-emacshttp://orgmode.org/org-mode-documentation.htmlhttp://orgmode.org/guide/index.htmlhttp://orgmode.org/manual/index.htmlhttp://orgmode.org/org-mode-documentation.htmlhttp://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMMftp://ftp.freiesmagazin.de/2009/freiesMagazin-2009-10.pdfftp://ftp.freiesmagazin.de/2009/freiesMagazin-2009-10.pdfhttp://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9116?page=0,0http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9116?page=0,0http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9116?page=0,0http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandochttp://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/tables.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQAd41VAXWohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQAd41VAXWohttp://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/tables.htmlhttp://johnmacfarlane.net/pandochttp://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9116?page=0,0http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9116?page=0,0http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9116?page=0,0ftp://ftp.freiesmagazin.de/2009/freiesMagazin-2009-10.pdfftp://ftp.freiesmagazin.de/2009/freiesMagazin-2009-10.pdfhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMMhttp://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.htmlhttp://orgmode.org/org-mode-documentation.htmlhttp://orgmode.org/manual/index.htmlhttp://orgmode.org/guide/index.htmlhttp://orgmode.org/org-mode-documentation.htmlhttp://peepcode.com/products/meet-emacshttp://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/operating-systems-and-server-administration/emacs/1565924967http://www2.lib.uchicago.edu/keith/tcl-course/emacs-tutorial.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/developerworks/views/aix/libraryview.jsp?search_by=emacs+editing+environmenthttp://tldp.org/HOWTO/Emacs-Beginner-HOWTO.htmlhttp://www.emacs.uniyar.ac.ru/doc/em24h/http://www.emacs.uniyar.ac.ru/doc/em24h/http://www.emacs.uniyar.ac.ru/doc/em24h/http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/operating-systems-and-server-administration/emacs/0596006489http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/operating-systems-and-server-administration/emacs/0596006489http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/emacs.htmlhttps://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kithttp://emacs.naquadah.org/http://emacs.naquadah.org/http://www.masteringemacs.org/articles/2011/12/06/what-is-new-in-emacs-24-part-1/http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs23_features.htmlhttps://launchpad.net/xml-rpc-elhttps://launchpad.net/xml-rpc-elhttp://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=650576https://github.com/punchagan/org2blog


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screencast here for an HTML document.

5 The table source can be placed anywhere in the same document, and this feature has

some further options like splicing if you have your own table headers (see here). By

the way, the same is also possible for lists.

6 Gnuplot must be added to the default support for Elisp by altering the variable

org-babel-load-languages in your .emacs file, please see this page here (the package of

Gnuplot as well as gnuplot-mode must be installed). Orgs support for Gnuplot is well

documented, see here. By the way, the Org feature Org-Plot is capable of running

Gnuplot on any tabular data with a single preceding #+PLOT: line.

7 Please remark that Ive hot-re-included the same document, just giving a line range.

Ive got that idea from this blogposting here.

8 First, save xml-rpc.el into ~/.emacs.d/, or better /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/.

A f ter tha t , c lone the G i t repos i tory o f Org2b log w i th g it c lo ne

http://github.com/punchagan/org2blog.git into the same folder (to expand also the

subdir, copy also /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/subdirs.elhere). Then, both extensions

must be activated by putting (require 'xml-rpc) and (require 'org2blog-autoloads)

into ~/.emacs/ . When there isnt any error message when Emacs starts up it all runs

properly. But much more convenient is of course to get them via el-get.

9 Of course its more convenient to retrieve Elisp extensions through a build-in

management. Actually, the add-on manager package.el, which queries the Emacs Lisp

Package Archive (ELPA) and other repositories is going to be included into Emacs 24.

On the ELPA package management, see this blog posting here.

10 el-get is capable to recognize individual code repositories. It is available as a

package for current Ubuntu, but the current stable (3.1) brings some new features

like l ist-packages (see here) s o t h e b es t i d ea w ou ld b e t o git clone

https://github.com/dimitri/el-get into /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/ instead.

After that, (require 'el-get) and (el-get 'sync) (for automatic inits) must be added to

~/.emacs/. Retrieval information (recipes) for both extensions, xml-rpc-el as well as

org2blog, are already included, so all you have to do within Emacs is to do M-x

el-get-install for each package to retrieve it (BTW, they go into ~/.emacs.d/el-get/)

thats the way we like it!

11 The contact information about your blog(s) have to be given to the variable

org2blog/wp-blog-alist with at least url and username, and a good place would be also

to store that into ~/.emacs/. The outline of this variable could be checked through C-h

v org2blog/wp-blog-alist. For an example configuration, please check out the

Org2blog README.

1 2 O n t he s i d e o f W o r d P r e s s , R e mo t e p u b l i s h i n g : X ML -R P C i n

wp-admin/options-writing.php must be checkboxed. There are meta tags like #+TITLE:

and #+CATEGORY: available for your postings, please see the Org2blog README.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2012 at 1:00 am and is filed under

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