|||
Non-alcoholic pen sketch by me
There are two ways to format digital text: let an app do it for you (e.g. select the text, then choose Bold from a menu), or do it yourself.
When people are discussing the merits of Markdown, Emacs (Org mode) or Vim, the three main contenders for DIY text editing/formatting, I sometimes imagine geeks fighting it out with an arm wrestling competition or Paper, Scissors, Rock! Then I remember that, much like folders and tags they’re tools, not a debate.
Now why would you even want to wrest the formatting sceptre from the likes of Word or Pages? Because your data is too important to lock away behind a door you don’t own, that’s why.
Last week I asked the nicest group of geeks I know (they live on Mastodon; you’d like them) to complete a clean joke that begins, “Markdown, Emacs, and Vim walked into a bar…”. Clever was to be a higher priority than funny.
Answers ranged from short and pithy to a full article. I loved them all! Even someone who’s never heard of any of these bad boys will get a sense of what they’re best known for.
Here are four:
Markdown, Emacs, and Vim Walked Into a Bar…
If you’re just wetting your toes in techie waters, all this talk of ditching what you know for the wild, wild west might feel a bit much.
As always, please remember that all you really need to start on the path to personal knowledge management (PKM) enlightenment is a simple notebook and / or the generic notes app that came with your computer (likely TextEdit on Mac, and Notepad or WordPad on Windows).
Write something that means something to you, link it somehow (any how) to something else worth reading, repeat. DIY formatting can come later.
My Mastodon-friend, Hyde (@[email protected]) invited me to take part in a series he’s running on whether Moleskine, Obsidian Sync, Markdown, Vim, and Pizza are overrated or underrated. For most of these items it’s been a solid “Both”! Hard as it was, I’ve made my choice based on which side of the line the both leans.
You can read the full post on Hyde’s site (along with his take on whether these items are over or underrated), as well as here, on my blog.
When Markdown, Emacs, and Vim
were lifting some weights in the gym,
the first two conspired to get poor Vim fired
by hiding the exits from him!
To be clear, I really don’t care which format you use. I’m more interested in how much a person enjoys the work they do with their chosen tools.
A hybrid approach suits me. Markdown is my daily driver (it’s how I format every post on this site), Org (in Beorg, not Emacs) is how I track my tasks, and Vim is firmly on my list of things to learn. Maybe in Novimber (said in a New Zealand accent)?
💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com or message me on Mastodon or Bluesky.
If you get value from my work I invite you to share this post with someone you think will like it and / or contribute to my support jar. Every gift helps to keep me an independent creator and makes me do a happy dance! You may also like to check out the resources on my productivity themed Gumroad store, many of which are free.
You can follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive posts in your inbox
