[[!meta title="Gardening in Emacs: A Windows user's tale of tending, tweaking, and triumph"]] [[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2025 Marco Bresciani"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2025/info/gardening-nav)" raw="yes"]] # Gardening in Emacs: A Windows user's tale of tending, tweaking, and triumph Marco Bresciani - Pronunciation: [mˈarko breʃˈanɪ](https://unalengua.com/ipa-translate?hl=en&ttsLocale=it-IT&voiceId=Giorgio&sl=it&text=Marco%20Bresciani&ttsMode=word&speed=3), [Delta Chat](https://i.delta.chat/#F4A07D3A629AC049257C7D02271C8AB34DA36085&i=BzsU0ErXsb1QHvQVnkVpKC3N&s=8DaaDMCc1_yNnJOTv9OO5AFD&a=26sjhl7dn%40nine.testrun.org&n=MB), [@AAMfP@fosstodon.org](https://fosstodon.org/@AAMfP), [marcoxbresciani.codeberg.page](https://marcoxbresciani.codeberg.page/) [[!inline pages="internal(2025/info/gardening-before)" raw="yes"]] I'm a not-ashamed Windows user, both at work and at home, since forever. I also like portable applications, to bring everything I need, everywhere, on my tiny USB thumb drive. And now also Emacs is there, on my USB! I'm also not the blogger type of person: I've tried, for a time. I stopped at entry ~8 of a "100 days blogging" saga. But I actually immediately fell in love with the (possibly slower pace) digital garden concept and since I wanted to try Emacs, I decided to catch two pigeons with one stone. This is the story of how I learned the very basics of Emacs and Org Mode, from how to save and exit to how to change letters case of a whole region or the (long searched for) fill-paragraph feature. This is the story of how I learned Org Mode publishing configuration and tricks, to create my digital garden, give it a structure and make it freely available for anyone to read (and hopefully enjoy) in HTML format. This is the story of how I added Japanese furigana and PlantUML diagrams and a one few clicks-away "go to market" strategy. This is the story of my digital garden, how I tend to it while learning the tool(s) I'm using to care of my garden, Emacs and Org Mode. And this is the story of how I ask for your help, to continue learning Emacs and Org Mode. About the speaker: 20+ years software developer and Vi user during university life, now moved to the dark side of agile coaching as Scrum Master. Started learning Emacs by chance since I wanted to try it since ages. ## Discussion / notes - Q: Have you faced any major problems while using emacs in Windows? - A: Hello, thank you for the message and sorry for the delay, messy days... No major issues till now, but I'm basically using it just like any other text editor, mainly for my Org Mode garden. - Q: What do you run when you want to publish content from your org files to your web page on codeberg? - A: Hello, thank you for the message and sorry for the delay, messy days... Basically, as I wrote here [https://marcoxbresciani.codeberg.page/digital-garden.html#garden-my-garden](https://marcoxbresciani.codeberg.page/digital-garden.html#garden-my-garden) I open my publish.el file and evaluate it (M-x ev-b). Then I usually (but it's just an habit) switch to the index.org file and run the export-publish-project command (C-x C-e P p) that will automagically generate all the needed HTML files for the org files that have been updated or changed since last time. - [https://marcoxbresciani.codeberg.page/](https://marcoxbresciani.codeberg.page/) - [https://codeberg.org/marcoXbresciani/pages](https://codeberg.org/marcoXbresciani/pages) - Lovely talk, thanks! =) - Ok, loved the humour in this, and yes an `outlook' email in this day and age, SIN!! :P - It is fine, the way to freedom is a ladder. - Nice talk - Thank you every one. Hope this message will reach you. Sorry messy days... - I'm loving this talk. I admit that I was influenced by his accent, but the ideas are great - i like his philosophy on customization/configuration. (make it your own) [[!inline pages="internal(2025/info/gardening-after)" raw="yes"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2025/info/gardening-nav)" raw="yes"]]