[[!meta title="Extending the "model" of Emacs to other applications"]] [[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2021 Laszlo Krajnikovszkij"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/model-nav)" raw="yes"]] # Extending the "model" of Emacs to other applications Laszlo Krajnikovszkij Emacs is a great operating environment in a sense that it provides consistency across different tools and applications within the Emacs ecosystem, as well as external apps that can be integrated into it. It is also the most truly malleable environment, each element of which can be adjusted or extended, therefore providing the user with more power and freedom in personal computing. Emacs definitely can be considered one of greatest software products in existence. As a non-programmer, having had the chance to stumble upon Emacs a couple of years ago, the only regret to have is that it didn't happen earlier. The definite killer feature of Emacs - Org-mode, is what draws many of the less technical folks to join the party and gradually start to use Emacs for writing documents, whether personal or work related, manage tasks, emails and potentially everything else. The learning curve and difference in approach, however, leaves some potential users too scared of the arcane interface even with all it's quirks and features because it requires at least some technical skills to understand and use properly, and does not have an easy way to connect with external tools that most people are forced to use for work. This talk proposes some ideas about how the model of Emacs, it's focus on consistency, extensibility, as well as it's powerful interaction model can be carried over to make modern interfaces, whether desktop or web applications, that would be designed with a goal of reflecting the spirit of Emacs in terms of the aforementioned features it possesses, and therefore enhance the capabilities of the Emacs, while at the same time utilizing it as a backend for text-processing and editing to a large extent. It would be really great to have a personal web-interface for using modern task management tools, chats, emails and such, but from a UI defined by the user. The goal is to use it on a desktop or mobile, locally or self-hosted on a server, with support for touch and gesture-based workflows, while preserving the Emacs philosophy and allowing to seamlessly switch between Emacs and its web extension The proposed solution is to integrate more of the modern tools with Emacs, utilize Org-mode as a way to define application-specific parameters for these tools through Org properties, and then utilize these parameters for making a modern local frontend that would enhance Emacs UI while allowing to use external tools in a more personal and freedom respecting way (making the originals obsolete over time). The talk serves the purpose of inviting community members to a discussion about how Emacs can become more modern, more approachable by people who don't possess the neccessarry technical skills to adjust it themselves, but are keen to learn it, and potentially how to attract more users to greater productivity, computer literacy and the ideas of free software. # Outline - 5-10 minutes - Introduction - Issues with most modern tools for work - Issues with Emacs as a tool for work - In search for a hybrid approach - User controlled web-apps - Opinions encouraged - Contacts [[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/model-schedule)" raw="yes"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/model-nav)" raw="yes"]]