path: root/2023/captions/emacsconf-2023-unentangling--unentangling-projects-and-repos--alexey-bochkarev--main.vtt

WEBVTT captioned by sachac

NOTE Introduction

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Hello, I'm Alexey Bochkarev,

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and I'm talking about unentangling projects

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and repositories, or maybe entangling them,

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depending on how you look at that.

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So there's going to be a short workflow note.

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I work as a researcher,

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So there are 3 main components to my work,

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I guess. First, I think,

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so I try to come up with a new ideas that

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usually results in some collection of notes I

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have. Second, I try things out.

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So it usually means that I write code.

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And third, I communicate.

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So I prepare papers, presentations,

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memos, and so on and so forth.

NOTE The problem

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The workflow problem I had is

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sometimes all this does not really fit into a

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concept of a single repository per project.

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So I might want to have,

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for example, a source code in one repository

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and then I would like to have a paper in

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another one, and then I want to have a

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collection of notes somewhere unrelated to

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those two. Emacs is pretty good at supporting

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your workflows and I figured I should share

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what I used and what works for me.

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From the technical perspective,

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things are pretty easy.

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I use a collection of pretty standard

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components of Emacs. So it's projectile, org

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mode with this capture templates, and other

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things. Then I sustained a collection of

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nodes in something that is called org-roam,

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which is essentially it's a glorified

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collection of org mode files.

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Then I used directory-local variables,

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maybe a ctags to jump through the source

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code and very, very little elisp glue to

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make this all work, but that's not really

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rocket science. So that's the workflow I

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would like to talk about today.

NOTE Jumping around

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So what I mean by all that,

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it's pretty straightforward to make Emacs,

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to make it easy to jump around a single

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repository in Emacs. So if I...

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Now I have Doom Emacs,

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but that's not really specific to a Doom

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that'll work in any Emacs configuration.

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Well, key bindings might be different,

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but that's not the point,

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I guess, for the workflow.

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So if I hit space 2 times,

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I have all the list of files within my

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project, right? So if I create a couple of

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custom shortcuts, so if I press a magic

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button, Hyper+o p... don't worry about

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hyper-key. So I want it to have a modifier

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key all to myself, so that would,

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no program on my computer would use that

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except Emacs. Emacs would use that only when

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I tell it to, so I have a hyper key instead

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of caps lock. That's pretty easy to do in GNU

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Linux system. So when I press this magic

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keys, I have a menu that's a normal key

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binding. Yeah, essentially an Emacs.

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And if I hit, for example,

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r, I end up in a README file within this

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specific repository I was sitting in,

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right? So if I want to document something

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real quick, I go to the README file.

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Then I could go to a change log file,

NOTE Capturing

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right? So I have a list of changes and the

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way it works usually, for example,

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if I'm working in some code,

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I created a couple of dummy files in there,

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so I'm working in some code and then I

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implemented something and I can just use the

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org mode capture mechanisms to keep track of

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what I want to discuss with colleagues next

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time. For example, I could just hit capture

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repo specific changelog entry and I

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implemented a feature and I can continue

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working without this context switching.

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And then if I want to go to the change log,

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well, it is there. And next time I talk to

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the colleagues about the source code,

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I can open the change log and go through

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entries 1 by 1 and discuss what I haven't

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implemented last time.

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I could go to project-specific,

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sorry, to repo-specific to-do list.

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And I have list of to-dos that would leave

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within a repository. And for example,

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I could have a high level structure here,

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work distribution between team members and

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other things that sort of face outer world,

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so to speak. And of course,

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there are very many ways to jump through the

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source code conveniently.

NOTE Ctags

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I ended up not using language servers. I use a

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special program called ctags and so the way

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it works is just I call projectile regenerate

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tags and it creates the special tags file

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within the repository and then I can again

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run it I usually just hit a single keystroke

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and here is all the symbols that are there in

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my source code, regardless of the language,

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right? So I can jump to the main function and

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that'll be a C++ file.

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Or I could go to the super function,

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which I had in my Python file.

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And this comes in pretty convenient if I have

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a mixture of languages.

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Sometimes I can have some algorithm specific

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code in Julia, and then I can have some

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Python glue within the same source code

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repository, it makes it really convenient to

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jump between all of those.

NOTE Org Roam

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But I have a few problems here.

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So just to give you a little bit of context,

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for example, here is a real project that

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corresponds to real paper.

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I have a single note about that project where

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I keep all the things related to that project

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here, but that's a private note.

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So for example, again,

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I hit a special key that invokes my org-roam

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function that gives me a menu of my notes.

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And so here is the paper,

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essentially. And I can have a paper timeline,

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and I can have a list of all the dates what

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happened to the paper with links to my email,

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right? So for example if I hit this link that

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will open a specific email and that doesn't

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work outside of my computer,

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doesn't make any sense to keep it in the

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outer world facing repository,

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for example. So that's something to myself,

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right? Sometimes I want to have like this

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list of working notes,

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right, that contain like,

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for example, yeah, I might produce this kind

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of things for internal discussion,

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right? It has some marks,

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it has some margin notes and things like

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that. Maybe again, health-based ideas that

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may or may not end up in a repository,

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in the final paper or in a source code,

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but still I want to have it somewhere.

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And well, long story short,

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I need a project folder that would be

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unrelated to the source code or to the source

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code repository or to the paper itself or a

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final report, right? And 1 way,

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as usual, there are multiple ways to achieve

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that, I suppose. And 1 way to do that is,

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so I create a special folder within my

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org-roam storage. So it's a special folder

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outside of any repositories that got backed up

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to my hard drive with certain redundancy,

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but I don't really need version control,

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full blown version control for that.

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I'm okay with just having a couple of

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backups, right? So this is the folder you see

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here. So PKB stands for personal knowledge

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base, and I have a folder project notes in

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there, right?

NOTE How does it work?

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How does it work?

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So I have a folder per project in there,

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essentially. And here I can have all the

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stuff that kind of belongs to me and I do not

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publish it anywhere. And then,

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For example, a source code repository knows

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about that folder and a paper repository

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knows about that folder.

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And anything else that might leave in

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separate places all over my system can know

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about that folder. How do I achieve that?

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Well, essentially this is 1 of the use cases

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for the directory local variables,

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right? So for example,

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how does it work from the user perspective?

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So if I hit a special key,

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oh, sorry, if I hit a special key,

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that would be open project.

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And then for example, org mode file,

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right? So this is my personal notes about

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EmacsConf, not specifically about this very

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talk, but I can have, you know,

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the house baked ideas here again,

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presentation tools and things like that.

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And how does that happen?

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If we try to like look at the code,

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the elisp magic here,

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what is happening is it's just a couple of

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lines of code, in fact,

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so let me just press Control,

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help key. And so the key I was pressing is

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open project or my file.

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And so what we see here,

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there is a single, so it's just a call to a

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find file function. So I opened that file and

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there is a special function that figures out

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what is the like umbrella project nose file

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and that's, again, that's very easy.

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So essentially if a variable describing this,

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the name for that project is defined,

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then I use that as my project folder name.

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If not, I take the project name from the

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project tile. Well, that's pretty much it.

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And how do I define this variable?

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Is essentially there is this magical file in

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a folder called .dir-locals.el. And I just put it there.

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And then whenever I go into that folder or

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any of its children folders,

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I get this variable defined.

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And that's pretty much it.

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That's how it works for me.

NOTE Time tracking

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I guess 1 thing that I wanted to emphasize

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specifically about that is of course,

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it is a time tracking,

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right? So what is I find especially important

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when I work in something and I want to clock

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time, I usually do not want this information

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to be in a source code repository or in a

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paper repository because other people I work

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with will not be particularly happy about

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that, especially if most of them do not use

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Emacs and they'll see this long list of org

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clocked data and that doesn't look nice in a

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plain text format. So what I usually do if I

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want to clock in some time and then later

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analyze what I've been spending time on,

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so I go to my org mode file and I go to the,

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my current project to-dos and I clock in

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there. And that's how it works.

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So again, what comes in handy,

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if I hit C-o, I just go back to the

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file I jumped in into and that's I jumped

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from so that's also pretty handy.

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So again no no rocket science in there.

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So I create a directory local variable that

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helps me to figure out what umbrella project

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does this particular folder belongs to.

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And this way I make Emacs aware of,

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for example, facts like,

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so this source code belongs to that project.

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And this paper, this repository with a paper

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also belongs to that project.

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And I can have capture templates that would

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save my notes into the my private notes file

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and my to-dos and go to my private note files

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and so on and so forth.

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So I find it pretty simple but that really

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helps to reduce this context switching.

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And I don't believe it allows me to save

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time, but that probably helps me to stay

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focused. And this is what is really

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important, I believe. So thank you very much.

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And if you have any comments or suggestions

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to that, please do jump into the discussion.

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Yeah, after the talk, thank you.