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# An example of a cohesive student workflow in Emacs
Daniel Pinkston (he/him) - IRC: bardman, develop dot bard at-symbol gmail dot com
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Most successful students have a go-to system for staying organized. It
might be Notion, Obsidian, a bullet journal, or a simple paper planner.
The key is finding what fits your personal needs and style. Here's an
interesting option some students might not have considered: Emacs.
It's a tool that's popular with Linux people, but possibly overlooked by
others. For the right person, it could be a game-changer in managing
academic life.
This talk is meant to showcase how different Emacs tools integrate with
each other to create a cohesive work environment for students.
Links:
- Denote <https://github.com/protesilaos/denote> - the keystone package for my preferred note taking method
- Logos <https://github.com/protesilaos/logos> - a focus-mode tool for writing
- PDF-tools <https://github.com/vedang/pdf-tools> - pdf viewer
- Anki-editor <https://github.com/louietan/anki-editor> - my favorite package for making flashcards in Emacs
- Org-fragtog <https://github.com/io12/org-fragtog> - auto toggles LaTeX fragments in my org documents
- Org-download <https://github.com/abo-abo/org-download> - facilitates quick image addition to org documents
- My Emacs configuration <https://github.com/BardofSprites/.emacs.d> - includes not only writing, but programming
About the speaker:
I am Daniel Pinkston, a high school student (grade 12) interested in Emacs,
Linux, programming, and customizable/libre software. I have been using
Emacs since 2022, starting with DOOM Emacs.
# Discussion
## Questions and answers
- Q: I use org-roam for notes and find it very useful - have you
considered it?
- A: I know about it; started with it, actually. Didn't like the
dependancy on an external db, e.g. if using syncthing from a
laptop to a desktop. Fair enough.
- Q: Do you use the Getting Things Done methodology as part of your
Org workflow?
- A: I started with org, and then heard about GTD, so I didn't
exactly design my workflow with that in mind.
- I probably don't do it the exact way.
- audience: I can never Get Things Done :-\\
- \<gs-101\> Personally, I just add checkboxes to TODO
headings. For example. I scheduled to learn scheme today:
- \* TODO Study Scheme \[0/4\]
- \- \[ \] A Scheme Primer
- \- \[ \] Structure and Interpretation of Computer
Programs
- \- \[ \] Video lectures of thre previous book
- \- \[ \] The Scheme Programming Language Fourth Edition
- And each checkbox is a link to a bibliographic note of
the book/video.
- Q:org-fc and org-drill are emacs org mode centric flash card
solutions, have you looked into them?
- A: Looked into org-drill, but wanted to use Anki because I
wanted to use it on my phone, so that demotivated me.
- Q:What do other students think about your approach - and what are
they doing instead (if anything)? And your teachers - what do they
think?
- A: Other students are usually just confused. They know I use
Linux but they don't know what it is, so they assume that
everything I do on my computer is hacking or doing some Linux
thing. I don't usually bother explaining it to them. That's
one of the reasons I made this talk, so I can refer people who
are actually interested in it instead of superficially
interested in it.
- For my teachers, I think\... I showed them this year for the
first time. It didn't really interact where they would see what
happens. Export to LaTeX\... I did that for my physics class. My
teacher was pretty satisfied with the results for the math
programming. I think they don't really have a problem with it.
It's actually more convenient.
- audience: I'm a teacher and I'd be over the moon. And if I
didn't know it yet, I'd be super inspired. I use it with
all my students (some complain but the best ones adopt it
pretty effortlessly).
- Q: What was your biggest source of frustration/friction/confusion
when getting started with Emacs?
- A: I don't really remember; it somehow just clicked one day.
- Q: How did you come across Emacs? What got you into it?+1
- A: I get asked this quite a bit; I have a prepaired answer.
Similar to how I stumbled into Linux. Saw screen-shots on
Reddit, saw video on YouTube (doom cast is what got me really
into it). Chat recommended: SystemCrafters' videos; yes, as
well as prot's videos about completion and embark. i would
watch videos while washing dishes.
- Q: What the situation with respect to "mobile" use (if ever
that's applicable)? (yes, Orgzly\...using that?)
- A: Didn't want to use a paid-app to sync files, didn't need
to look into too much because I carry a notebook and usually a
laptop. I've seen others get started with eink tablets, can't
attest to how good that is.
- Q: Has using emacs led to expanded interest in programming/computer
science? (apologies if I forgot from your presentation) (+1; emacs
configuration seems like a natural entry-point into learning
programming)
- A: Emacs is what got me started with lisp specifically,
otherwise I might not have looked into it that much other than
dabbling with Scheme from the Structures and Interpertations of
Computer Science book. I was into programming before Emacs. I
used vscode then vim, before emacs, but now I've done most of
my programming in Emacs.
- Q:You mentioned exporting notes, essays, etc. for handing them on to
other people. How does interaction with others work in technical
terms? We mostly find workflows centered around Microsoft products.
How do you manage with that? (+1; now that computers are fully
integrated into education, how do you deal with conflicts in terms
of the tools and workflows others expect you to use?)
- A:
## Notes
- Evangelism. We need more of that. Like the quote "Investing in your
future". Going to spread this.
- (This high-schooler is definitely going places!)
- makes note of anki
- For creating flash cards entirely from inside Emacs, there's
Gnosis:
[https://thanosapollo.org/projects/gnosis/](https://thanosapollo.org/projects/gnosis/)
- i started living in emacs around age 13, this talk is
definitely bringing back a lot of memories \^\^
- wow! do you remember how you heard the first
time about emacs back then?
- hearing about some "linux" thing on the
radio and reading some LJ copies -\> my dad bought an old pc
from a grad student -\> reading a bunch of those "learn
everything about gnu/linux" tomes -\> switch todebian and
deciding to try out that Other Editor
- thx for sharing. my dad has been definitely also making an impact to my "computing development", but i encountered unix-y stuff not before my first university contact unfortunately. i though successfully bypassed the "win 3.11" times … :)
- (i was also included in some old-school seemingly MIT-esque educational experiment involving LOGO and robots, back in elementary school)
- i don't think it's a coincidence that my parents are scientists and i was practically raised in a biology laboratory :P i'm not *that* old but i think the first browser i used was ncsa mosaic
- Great talk! Thank you! I'm really going to have to
try out some of those packages 😊
- Yes, 30-40 years back \*sigh\*
- I hope I get praised this much by the professors if I'm
able to join university 😄
- ah bardman is gone, if there are more people with
"learning scheme" on their TODO list, there'll be a sicp reading
group next year (loosely affiliated with
##transgeeks/#guile-emacs/#systemcrafters), i think daviwil of
systemcrafters.net also runs guile scheme courses from time to time
- privmsg or email me if you want a direct notification,
but i'll be mentioning it occasionally in those channels when
they're close to starting
- I can relate, I finished High School just last year. trying to get into college too
- there's some sort of series to be made here. aaron wolf has a series of talks about using free software to ensure his young son has a healthy relationship with computers...
- Reminds me of Eduardo's talk on the dev track yesterday about mathematics students in Brazil
- YouTube comment: When I was a student, I would take notes on paper. They would be messy. I would review, re-write, and organize my notes on paper. Then I would type them into the computer so I can print out nicely formatted notes. I did all this on a 16bit Atari ST and it blew my instructors mind in electronics school when I turned in my ring bound, printed notes for grading / review. I had drawn circuits and did all this desktop publishing work on it. It was very new at the time, only Macs, Atari, Commodore were doing this stuff at the time. Really wish I had today's Emacs back then. Even if I could have obtained a copy of Emacs it would have been lacking a GUI and Org-Mode and most of the popular packages. So today, is the best time to pick up Emacs because it is even more useful today than 40 years ago.
- YouTube comment: Yes emacs is amazing and with latest llm it is easy to learn how to use it. I know the llm will destroy jobs but I do appreciate that it helps me embrace emacs faster
Feedback:
- 👏👏👏 well done!
- 👏
- 👏👏
- 👏👏👏
- 👏👏👏👏
- 👏 (i wish i would have discovered emacs also in my
school time)
- 👏👏👏👏👏
- Fanstastic talk! I will save the link to the talk for
new users of org-mode.
- fantastic talk ty
- Like the moderator, too, very upbeat just what I need on this day
of drizzle.
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