Zettelkasten Forum


org-mode vs taskpaper

I reviewed taskpaper and I have a weak moment. Should I go back to task paper? It looks nicer. It has a better feel. But, as every app -- perhaps even any entity -- on this planet, it cannot do as much as emacs can.

If you are using taskpaper, can you share your workflow with us?

I am a Zettler

Comments

  • Well, you may also use the taskpaper function in emacs.
    Taskpaper Mode

    Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Greetings
    Maria

    Ich bin ein Westfale, und zwar ein Stockwestfale, nämlich ein Münsterländer – Gott sei Dank! füge ich hinzu...

  • I think he was lured by the superficial qualities of graphical user interfaces. *hissss*

    Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/

  • @msel said:
    Well, you may also use the taskpaper function in emacs.
    Taskpaper Mode

    Thanks, I considered it but I think the truth is that I want to reduce complexity. :smile:

    I am a Zettler

  • I think the truth is that you're afraid.

    Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/

  • edited June 2020

    I think it is time for you to start to sleep with an open eye, baby. Egregious!

    I am a Zettler

  • Have you tried TaskWarrior? It is an interesting terminal application. Very geeky, but powerful. It is like OmniFocus without GUI. :)

    Im Zettelkasten ist ein Zettel, der das Argument enthält, das die Behauptungen auf allen anderen Zetteln widerlegt. Aber dieser Zettel verschwindet, sobald man den Zettelkasten aufzieht. D.h. er nimmt eine andere Nummer an, verstellt sich und ist dann nicht zu finden. Ein Joker.

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  • edited June 2020

    Ironic I admit Mr Fast, some of your posts have sorely tempted me into the emacs learning curve. I avoid going all-in with org-mode because I already have tools that do what I need them to do and they work just fine. One of these tools is Taskpaper. I use it like a swiss army knife, but oddly enough not for daily todo management. The power of taskpaper for me lies in the format and that it's open source. That said, I'm not a particularly powerful power-user, as it were.

    A few ideas:

    Mostly, I use it as a central hub for writing projects – to track story ideas, questions, stuff to fix, changes to track, edit, whatever needs attention. (I'm a screenwriter by trade). I have clickable links at the top of the file that open the different software I use for a given project (usually Curio, Scrivener, Devonthink, and Sublime Text). It's also a fine outliner. I have a different taskpaper file for each project. If I have an idea for a different project than what I'm working on, I use Alfred to launch into the file for the project, dump the idea and return to work. I then ruminate on these ideas away from my computer by reading the taskpaper file using 'Editorial' on the iPhone. Though I just remembered reading somewhere on here that you don't use a mobile phone, perhaps? Can't recall, but if so that last bit is moot.

    I also edit and brainstorm in taskpaper files in Sublime using the 'PlainTasks' plugin. If ideas start coming too fast and I need to write more expansively in straight up Markdown, I use the Command Palette to temporarily switch the syntax highlighting.

    I track my time - work and some other stuff - from the command line using Mr Terpstra's 'doing' script: https://github.com/ttscoff/doing/

    While the cli editing and reporting options are excellent, I also edit, add notes and tags, change start and stop times etc by opening the file in Taskpaper.

    Anyway, that's a few rudimentary ideas. I'm sure others are leveraging the power and scriptability of Taskpaper much more thoroughly than I. All the same, I do hope these reflections prove useful.

  • Oh I don't believe @Sascha will adopt a CLI script now that he was introduced to clickable buttons and non-monospaced fonts ... ... ...

    Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/

  • Aha! Too funny!

    Despite my better judgement, I find myself going the other direction, caught within the accretion disk of the black hole that is org-mode and emacs. Just lost a day trying to get my config just right to work with Fountain syntax for screenwriting. The single best implementation for plaintext screenwriting I've found is without a doubt... emacs.

    The allure of the possibility one program to rule them all is too much to refuse.

    As Mr Vonnegut writes... So it goes.

  • edited June 2020

    @Sascha I'm very happy with TaskPaper. After having tried OmniFocus, Things and 2Do I really appreciate its flexibility and simplicity. What makes you doubt it's the right choice for you? What features do you miss compared to emacs?

    The only thing I miss is a decent way to work with TaskPaper files on iOS, but I guess with emacs you'd have the same problem...

  • Regarding iOS: https://beorgapp.com/ is an excellent org-mode app for iOS. Writing outlines is less useful in there, but it's great at managing tasks and displaying notifications.

    Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/

  • @ctietze Oh no – that might be a really good reason for me to switch apps then. Not really keen on learning how to use emacs, though... The user interface always put me off quite quickly when I started to try...

  • @Vinho said:
    @Sascha I'm very happy with TaskPaper. After having tried OmniFocus, Things and 2Do I really appreciate its flexibility and simplicity. What makes you doubt it's the right choice for you? What features do you miss compared to emacs?

    1. Emacs has a biiiig margin of safety when it comes to functionality. In fact, I trust Emacs 100% that I can make a feature happen if I want it.
    2. org-agenda.
    3. The ability to store and manage information. I use org-table a lot for example for investing but also other things.
    4. The keyboard-centricism

    I am the kind of person who just works a lot and trusts his work ethic to get things done. Often, I digress to non-urgent tasks. Part of my personal motivation to use a Zettelkasten stems from this (bad) habit: I can't read and research more broadly and still manage a high output of text. But I am slowly working to a more focussed working style and then org-agenda (or something like that) will be more crucial.

    I am a Zettler

  • Update: I am switching to TaskPaper with a super simple setup. A little blogpost is in preparation (but not very urgent)

    I am a Zettler

  • On iOS, I have found Taskmator 5.46 to be a worthy companion to TaskPaper.

  • @Sascha said:
    Update: I am switching to TaskPaper with a super simple setup. A little blogpost is in preparation (but not very urgent)

    Congratulations and welcome back ;)

  • In case anyone is, like me, using SetApp - Taskpaper is one of the included apps.

  • @Sukhovskii said:
    Have you tried TaskWarrior? It is an interesting terminal application. Very geeky, but powerful. It is like OmniFocus without GUI. :)

    Know your post is from quite some time ago....but it caught my eye as I used TaskWarrior some years ago. It is a great little program. Actually, pretty easy to use, especially after watching the help video.

    I should check it out again.....

    :)

  • @ArchiMark said:
    Know your post is from quite some time ago....but it caught my eye as I used TaskWarrior some years ago. It is a great little program. Actually, pretty easy to use, especially after watching the help video.

    I should check it out again.....

    Team of developers updated this app recently (2021-10-19). So it is the right time to check :)

    Im Zettelkasten ist ein Zettel, der das Argument enthält, das die Behauptungen auf allen anderen Zetteln widerlegt. Aber dieser Zettel verschwindet, sobald man den Zettelkasten aufzieht. D.h. er nimmt eine andere Nummer an, verstellt sich und ist dann nicht zu finden. Ein Joker.

    🗄 My blog on substack

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