Re: [emacs-wiki-discuss] New faces =)

[Charles Hachten]

Sacha Chua <address@hidden> writes:

> Hello, everyone!
>
> I notice a number of new e-mail addresses on the mailing list, and I'd
> like to encourage newbies to join the discussion. ^_^ Don't worry, you
> can ask silly questions without being answered with "RTFM".


> A good start would probably be a short description of what you're doing
> with emacs-wiki, planner and/or remember, and what you would like to be
> able to do with those tools. =)

I was planning to write a careful review of how I use planner, but
I'll probably never get to that, so here is a rough review of how I
use planner.  

To start off, I should write what I use planner for.  I am finishing a
dissertation in Russian history (writing in emacs, latex, and
desperately in search of a bibtex format for writing citations in
American humanities footnote style).

I have used planner now for about three months.  It took me about two
months to figure out that planner is really not a schedular or a
calendar (in fact it would be nice to make planner a front-end for the
calendar but that is not really that important for me).  It also took
me those three months to figure out that I don't want to use TaskPool
at all. Now I write my own plan pages and bring tasks forward to the
day page once I know when I want to do something (and press C-c C-c
all the time to move it forward because I never listen to my plans
anyway).

For my writing, I use planner as a way of organizing my ideas.  I have
a plan, e.g., called DissPlan, under which I have DissChapters[1-8]
linking to notes for each chapter.  The `DissChapter' plans have lots
of random notes as well as tasks (e.g., fix footnote re this...).
about what I want to do and how I want to say it.  Sometimes I need to
branch one level further, because my notes get so big.

I also use planner to keep track of notes re my job search, bills I
have questions about, conferences I'm attending, courses I need to
prepare for, etc.

I love planner and I thank you guys for it (I wish I could help with
the coding, but I only know enough lisp to keep my .emacs in an ugly
state).  But here is my wish list:

1. I get annoyed by all the windows that come up and I wish I could
   just close them all like I close vm or gnus (i.e., just by pressing
   q).  What I currently do is have F8 mapped to quit-window, which
   allows me to get rid of the windows quickly.

2. These days, I'm doing everything in one window (i.e., work, news,
   mail, planner, etc).  But I use ratpoison, and for a while I had
   mail on window 1, planner on window 2, work on 3, and gnus on 4.
   And when I typed remember into a work or mail document, I got an
   error "not a planner page.'  I realize that the planner pages are
   already open in a different emacs window and that this is probably
   why I'm getting that error, but it would be nice to find a fix for
   this.

3. I want to put my planner on the web, but I sometimes put personal
   information on my plan pages and I can't figure out (though I
   haven't tried too hard) how to stop this stuff from getting
   published.  I've looked into gpg, but I can't figure out how to
   link my personal keys to planner (if that makes any sense).  But I
   admit that I haven't RTFM very closely, but if anyone has any quick
   advice that would be great.

Well this has stopped me from doing my real work for the day, but I
knew if I didn't write this now, I never would.

Thanks a lot for a great program.  I find this all very inspiring.

Charles