summaryrefslogblamecommitdiffstats
path: root/2023/talks/unentangling.md
blob: 04b6487da50f8a200f147f05faeaa420349f19b2 (plain) (tree)






































































                                                                                                    
























































































                                                                                             





                                                                    
[[!meta title="(Un)entangling projects and repos"]]
[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2023 Alexey Bochkarev"]]
[[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/unentangling-nav)" raw="yes"]]

<!-- Initially generated with emacsconf-publish-talk-page and then left alone for manual editing -->
<!-- You can manually edit this file to update the abstract, add links, etc. --->


# (Un)entangling projects and repos
Alexey Bochkarev (he/him) - <https://www.bochkarev.io>, @bochkarev@qoto.org (Mastodon)

[[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/unentangling-before)" raw="yes"]]

Emacs provides a few excellent tools for working on projects through
all their key stages. Orgmode is great for brainstorming, structuring
and maintaining TODO lists, tracking time, organizing notes, and
writing memos or reports. Many major modes help writing code, magit
makes version control almost frictionless, and projectile helps with
project management and navigation. However, I found a few situations
when I wanted to separate the concepts of "project" and "source
storage" (say, having a few version control repositories associated
with a single "generalized project").

In this talk, I would like:

1.  to describe a specific example of such situation,

2.  discuss a workflow aimed at managing such "generalized" projects
and present my solution, based on a very simple ELisp "glue" on top of
the functionality provided by package projectile.

For example, consider a research project (think: applied mathematics with
a heavy part of computational experiments). It might consist of:

-   The \`\`paper'' draft: some sort of final report source, usually in
    LaTeX format, or orgmode exported to PDF via LaTeX. Version controlled
    by git.

-   Numerical experiments: a separate folder, or even a separate git
    repo. Contains the source code for numerical experiments and the
    related technical documentation. Will be published along with the
    paper.

-   A collection of intermediate memos (notes) sent to collaborators.

-   A collection of "raw" notes (lab journal), regarding what did I try
    and especially what did NOT work and in which ways.

This setting raises a few problems that all boil down to the necessity
of having an easily accessible private notes file(s) associated with a
few repositories at the same time outside of these repos. This way one
can:

-   Maintain more granular project structure and TODOs while still having
more concise TODO lists for the colleagues on a per-repository basis.

-   Maintain (project-specific) private technical notes, and maybe a full
    lab journal both describing the "big picture" of the project and
    containing the technical information.

-   Keep time tracking data private and outside of the source repositories,

-   Capture thoughts and TODOs to a single place from across a few
    specific repositories.

I propose to solve this problem by associating a single "notes folder"
and a main `.org` file to each repository using the standard mechanism
of directory-local variables on top of what is already provided by
projectile package.


# Discussion

## Questions and answers

-   Q: Do you use these unentangling techniques in a blog or hosting a
    zettelkasten?
    -   A: Well, I try to keep my \"private notes\" in something that
        might qualify as a Zettelkasten, yes. I wouldn\'t say I \'host\'
        it \-\-- it\'s not online. But yes, the whole point is that
        these \"private\" notes are interconnected in a Zettelkasten-y
        way (using org-roam package)
        -   Denote notes Silo features might be useful with your
            workflow
            -   <https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:e43baf95-f201-4fec-8620-c0eb5eaa1c85>
                -   oh, thanks \-\-- I\'ll have a look!
-   Q: What is the biggest unhappiness you haven\'t figured out for your
    current workflow?
    -   A: Maybe I am still on the fence re: where do I structure my
        TODOs and clock time. I tried to play around with the idea that
        I structure the work in a repo, and then when I \"clock in\" it
        saves time to a separate notes file instead\... but it seemed a
        little too complicated, to my taste.
        -   I feel that the time tracking also kind of annoying,
            especially you forgot to clock on and all the things mess
            up. So right now I\'m just using a Pomodoro technique, 25
            minutes, done, rest, 25 minutes, rest, and kind of repeating
            that. And I\'m quite happy with that.
            -   wait, what\'s that? \'org-pomodoro\'?. sounds
                interesting\...
                -   It\'s not, you know, special for Org Mode. It\'s
                    kind of a general technique which you focus on a
                    small task for just 25 minutes, but at the time
                    you\'re super focused, 100% focused, and after that
                    five minutes you rest, and you\'re kind of repeating
                    these patterns over long sections. You can do four,
                    five, six of those sections, and it helps me to
                    focus over relateive long time.
                    -   I also feel this might be something really
                        useful. Just haven\'t found a way to incorporate
                        it into my workflow
                        -   for me it\'s quite simple is I can just use
                            a simple stopwatch that every 25 minutes
                            stop and reminde me  a rest. I believe
                            there\'s a lot of fancy clock specialized on
                            this this type of technique it\'s at the
                            core of this concept is really not a complex
                            idea.
                            -   wait, I\'m confused. So, that\'s outside
                                Emacs right? :-)
                                -   Yes, the concept is outside of
                                    Emacs, but I saw people using this
                                    package. Let me search,:
                                    <https://github.com/marcinkoziej/org-pomodoro>
                                    \<\-- yeah, that one. Maybe I\'ll
                                    have a look, thanks!
                                    -   Yeah, it\'s, again, if you\'re
                                        familiar with the sports, it\'s
                                        kind of making your long hard
                                        working, breaking into a small
                                        section, but I feel it\'s, you
                                        have more kind of energy over a
                                        long term, yeah.
        -   I like Using a weekly GTD log files for my TODO. That way I
            can look back at them and not have my GTD to big. I like to
            pull daily tasks from agenda
            -   and what do you do to transfer stuff between the weeks
                \-\-- a manual review? 
-   Q: Do you use project.el features as well, or just projectile.el
    ones?
    -   A: Ugh. OK, I am at that point where I am not sure any more ;)
        it is pretty well integrated to my Doom Emacs, so I am not sure
        which one is that\...

## Notes

-   GNU Hyperbole already supports this with directory-specific quick
    access button files (which can be Org files).  These can connect to
    any number and type of document artifacts, including projects,
    repos, directories, etc.  You don\'t need to put any code in
    dir-locals either.  The directory/project-specific tags jumping
    (automatically selecting appropriate TAGS files) is also built-in.
    Have a look.
    -   Yes, there\'s clearly a few ways to achieve this. I have a
        feeling Hyperbole achieves this, and much more. I wanted to have
        something simpler, somehow.   (Yes, you seem to have some very
        efficient techniques down; maybe you could utilize both). 
        Thanks for the talk, it was good. Thanks for the suggestion,
        tho!


[[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/unentangling-after)" raw="yes"]]

[[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/unentangling-nav)" raw="yes"]]