Hrothehun · 2022-05-07 19:00
pailanderCO · 2022-05-08 14:35
Nice and thanks. But why? What's in Logseq that you don't find in Emacs + Org Roam? This is a sincere question. I've been watching some videos on Logseq, and there seems to be such a fuzz regarding its overwhelming "work flow possibilities"---I simply don't get it.
Hrothehun · 2022-05-08 15:33
I'm gonna copy my answer from the crosspost, if you don't mind :)
"I wouldn't say I switched away completely from it, since I've been using it for just two days, but the main reasons would be:
## mobile access
It is possible to view org mode files with some apps, but they are mostly concerned with just task management, rather than note taking and knowledge management. With Logseq I can access my files in a very similar manner to the desktop app.
## polished features
Since Logseq is just concerned with knowledge and task management, rather than being an Elisp based quasi operating system, it can afford fundamental design choices which would make it less suitable for other tasks, like programming etc. Navigating multiple files in org-roam straight up sucks sometimes, with buffers opening in other windows than expected, not having a dedicated reading mode, etc.Logseq also seems to have some really cool features like its advanced query language and embedding YouTube videos, or highlighting PDF documents or embedding Zotero. The latter two i have also configured in Emacs, it just felt... hacky.
Emacs is a really cool environment for recording information, but it was painful to me to benefit from sad information. Right know it's weird and annoying for me that I have to use the mouse a lot of times when using Logseq. So I might write a script which reintegrates the notes in Org-Roam format so I might edit them in Emacs, but that's a little bit in the future."
pailanderCO · 2022-05-08 16:43
Thanks for you answer. Why "sad information" (perhaps a typo)?
AuroraDraco · 2022-05-08 17:39
Not trying to say you shouldn't use Logseq, I am actually really interested in what Logseq does to imporve your note-taking workflow so that I can get ideas of what to write in Emacs to enhance my note-taking (I like writing elisp to make me more efficient) but a lot of these you mention are already available in Emacs.
There is a tiling window manager for emacs (I think its callled edwina) which gives you full control over where things open, there is a dedicated reading mode, olivetti-mode, org has a query language, org-ql, pdf-tools has by default the ability to highlight PDF documents, even though in my opinion org-noter does this job better. For embedding Zotero, I am not certain what you mean and what is to be gained by it. I export my Zotero library to .bib format and Emacs can manipulate it very easily with packages such as Ivy-bibtex, org-roam-bibtex or org-ref. Zotero is to me an easier way to capture information, but weak in regards of manipulating it (compared to what emacs can do). And you can't embed yt videos but you can add links to the website and frankly I don't really mind that personally. I will give you mobile, its definitely a big annoyance in Emacs which I would love to be better, but besides that I can't say I see a great advantage in using Logseq over Emacs.
As I said above, I am not trying to change your opinion, just interested in stuff that Logseq does and Emacs doesn't to see if I can try and do any of those in Emacs out of interest
Hrothehun · 2022-05-08 18:27
I'm still in the experimentation phase myself, and I definitely didn't intend this post as an anti-Emacs or "I'm leaving Emacs" type of post, quite the contrary. :))
My main reason for trying out Logseq is to have a curated experience without the need for spending much time of perfecting my Emacs workflow, and if the Logseq-workflow works, I'll probably try to replicate it in Emacs as well.
I made this script and posted it here because I haven't found a solution on the internet for easily converting Org-roam backlinks to Logseq compatible (it wasn't that hard in the end) and if somebody wants to try out this different app, than they can easily do it, without giving up their existing notes.
To be honest, the biggest con of Logseq for me right now is it's lack of baked in Agenda, but I will have to see if this con give me more headache than the enjoyment I get from having a dedicated, fully compatible mobile experience.
Right now the biggest benefit which I get from Emacs is in it's ability to be a software development tool, it's LSP integration, DAP-mode, Projectile and Magit have made coding an almost uniform experience in EVERY programming language I've had to work with in university namely: C, C++, Python, JavaScript, GNU Octave, bash, Prolog, Haskell and even Java.
So no, I definitely won't leave Emacs, I'm just trying to learn from other tools as well, and if they stick I haven't wasted my time with them and if they don't, I'll draw my conclusions about what was great in them then I'll just write another script to convert my notes back to be Org-roam compatible and I'll post that as well. :))
AuroraDraco · 2022-05-08 21:36
Yeah, I see. Good luck in your endeavours