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diff --git a/2021/talks/babel.md b/2021/talks/babel.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cd28d54b --- /dev/null +++ b/2021/talks/babel.md @@ -0,0 +1,114 @@ +[[!meta title="Babel for academics"]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2021 Asilata Bapat"]] +[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/babel-nav)" raw="yes"]] + +<!-- You can manually edit this file to update the abstract, add links, etc. ---> + +# Babel for academics +Asilata Bapat + +[[!taglink CategoryOrgMode]] + +[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/babel-schedule)" raw="yes"]] + +Plain org-mode is already an extremely powerful and +customisable tool for task and time management, note-taking, calendar +and agenda management, and much more. Babel takes org a step further +by letting you write, evaluate, and export code in different languages +from within a single file. In this talk, I will highlight some +features of babel that I find exciting and extremely useful, +particularly for an academic workflow. + +Getting started with babel can be intimidating, but it's hard to stop +using it once you start. As an academic, I typically don't manage +large coding projects. My primary purpose is writing lecture notes, +assignments, and papers, and managing related admin. Typically, I want +to try and automate the boring portions of my workflow without extra +overhead. I also tend to find various tasks easier in some programming +languages and harder in others, and prefer to mix and match languages +as the task dictates. Babel makes this process seamless. + +A basic use case is writing a document in org-mode and exporting it to +LaTeX or HTML. Org-mode even lets you write multiple documents in a +single org file, which can be convenient. Babel lets you add all sorts +of enhancements to the same file. For example, suppose we have a +single org document with all the problem sets for a course. Within +this single file, we could now: + +- draw pictures in ditaa, graphviz, or python instead of LaTeX, +- use python to do complex calculations and then output the result as LaTeX, +- define skeletons to quickly draw up assignment templates, +- toggle exporting of assignments with or without solutions based on tags, +- locally change export settings or run a post-export hook, +- automatically export to LaTeX after saving, +- tangle code blocks from some or all of the languages to external files. + +I will try to showcase features of babel that academics could find +helpful, by presenting some ways in which I have tried to use babel. I +would also like to be inspired by other people's babel workflows! + +# Links +- Course webpage: <https://asilata.github.io/ggm/2021/> +- Code: <https://github.com/asilata/emacsconf2021> +- Code (gitlab mirror): <https://gitlab.com/asilata/emacsconf2021> + +# Discussion + +IRC nick: asilata + +Pad: + +- Q1: The talk was amazing thanks! I show the img inline in the Org + file with org-toggle-inline-images, maybe useful to others too. + - A: Thanks! I do that if I want to look at previews, too, but + sometimes it slows down my document. Any tips for that? +- Q2: I always tried to use Tikz for showing diagrams in Org Mode + documents, but dot code blocks definitively make drawing graphics + easier! Thanks for sharing! + - Remark by Karl: In my personal workflows, I love the abstraction + layer of <https://plantuml.com/> + +From BBB: + +- Don't have a question, just to say inspiring to see how you use org-mode + babel. Thx! +- Ha, a question, is your setup online somewhere? +- Asilata Bapat: <https://github.com/asilata/emacsconf2021> +- thanks so much for the presentation and sharing the details of your workflow +- I particularly appreciated your "causal use" of skel :D + +IRC: + +- the export-setup block is a great use case for orgstrap :) + - asilata: I was just thinking that after the orgstrap presentation :) +- Man I was just wondering how to write LateX in Emacs this is incredible. +- I really liked the resulting LaTeX output file -- looked gorgeous :) +- Yeah seriously. I am pleasantly surprised. I think I'll have to switch over to using Emacs and LateX +- Theme: zenburn +- wait ... does elisp support unicode lambda like racket? + - I mean... you can make it, but not out of the box. + - asilata: I think it's just an org prettification + - prettify-symbols-mode +- do you use latex preview in the org buffer too? + - asilata: no, I usually don't, I find it slows down my system a bit. +- some very nice examples of wicked-cool org stuff there :) +- I also use python to generate latex from babel so that I don't mess things up + +From [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ooi4KAd2FM&feature=em-comments): + +- Cool talk! I suggest to export your diagrams to some vector format (PDF, SVG, etc.) if you (as you say) embed it in LaTeX/PDF later. Otherwise, you can see blur on a large enough scale. + + +Links: + +- <https://asilata.github.io/ggm/2021/> +- <https://github.com/asilata/emacsconf2021/> + +# Speaker information +- Name pronunciation: /ˈəsɪʟət̪ɑ ˈbɑpəʈ/ UH-si-luh-tah BAH-putt +- Pronouns: she/her +- Homepage: <https://asilata.github.io> +- Email: <mailto:asilata.bapat@anu.edu.au> + +[[!inline pages="internal(2021/captions/babel)" raw="yes"]] + +[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/babel-nav)" raw="yes"]] |