Re: [Hyperbole-users] Hyperbole vs. Org-mode outlining

[Robert Weiner]

​The numbered items below are things that Hyperbole has that I wondered whether Org-mode had anything like them.  -- Bob​

On Thu, Aug 4, 2016 at 5:33 PM, aditya siram <address@hidden> wrote:

1. Multi-level, auto-updated outline numbering, like 1.3.8.2 or 1c82.

You won't see this in the buffer itself but outline numbering is visible after exporting. Also org-mode lists support incrementing number. You do, for example,
    20.

and C-c RET and the next line will be:
    21.

​Yes, so it has one level of numbering rather than the much more difficult and useful hierarchical numbering that the Koutliner has.  Every Koutline node automatically has both a relative and a permanent identifier so you can refer to it uniquely from anywhere (together with its filename).  This seems like a big obvious difference but I don't think a lot of people are realizing yet, so having these discussions is very useful.

2. ​Per outline node attribute lists.
   Here's what org-mode offers: http://orgmode.org/guide/Properties.html#Properties. It also has tags: http://orgmode.org/manual/Setting-tags.html#Setting-tags. You can also search multiple org-mode files using a tag(s) query.

​Org has very useful facilities there.  I would say that Koutliner's properties are much more lisp-like and separate from the visible buffer text​, so you maintain a cleaner view of what you are working on, though I understand the properties can be collapsed in Org-mode.

3. Per node persistent ids and hypertext anchors.

   In org-mode you can refer and link to any named thing, node, source block, anything that is a headline or has a #+NAME property.

​How do you reference a headline without including much of its text?

Adding names with special syntax again visually litters the buffer.  

Koutlines have built-in link anchors​

 

​with no extra effort.

​

4. Persistent node links (klinks).

   See above. The difference and the advantage of Hyperbole is that Org links can only be followed from Org files. Presumably with Hyperbole they're available everywhere.

​If I have 100 nodes in a list, imagine how long it would take to create all the named references and hyperlinks in Org-mode versus pointing and clicking to generate the links only in the Koutliner.  Conversely, Org-mode can do a lot of other things quickly that Hyperbole can't.​

 

5. Function mapping across all nodes in a tree.

   See the function `org-map-tree`.

​Good.

​

 

The reason I asked about cloning before is that org-mode does not have this and I think it would be a great feature but it would probably be too complicated to add this to org-mode now.

I'm a huge fan of literate programming and that is pretty much what I use org-mode for now. I'm trying to assess Hyperbole from that use-case.

​Hyperbole is certainly good for embedding explicit and implicit links within comments of programming languages and also giving you implicit links within the code.  As we make Hyperbole and Org-mode work even better together, we'll have the best of both worlds.

Bob

​