Mastodawn

Lukas C. Bossert

Resilient technologies aren’t retro—they’re ROOT: Robust, Open, Ongoing, Time-tested. In RDM, text-first + small, composable tools beat opaque stacks. Emacs/Org(-babel) for literate workflows & provenance; Makefiles declare rebuilds; CLI atoms—curl, sed, awk, grep, diff, tar, rsync, cron, SQLite—keep steps inspectable, portable, rebuildable. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17157588 — Feedback welcome!

#ROOT #ResilientTech #Emacs
#OrgMode #RDM #NFDI
#FAIR
#Reproducibility
#literateprogramming
#BoostOK

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 21, 2025

Main poster maps long-lived tools to the research-data life cycle (Plan → Produce → Analyze → Archive → Access → Re-use). Emacs/Org for provenance, Make for rebuilds, curl/sed/grep/diff for intake & checks, awk for tables, cron for timing, tar/rsync for packaging/sync, plus SQLite/LaTeX/find. Pipelines you can re-run years later. Feedback welcome! #ROOT #ResilientTech #RDM #NFDI #Emacs #orgmode #literateprogramming #OpenScience #tools #researchdatamanagement
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17157588

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 21, 2025

The meta poster frames the concept: clarity + openness → resilience. It traces the lineage from Knuth’s Literate Programming to Org-mode and NFDI practice, and introduces the ROOT badge as a compact signal for robust, open, ongoing, time-tested tools. It also spotlights resilient stalwarts often hiding in plain sight—find, LaTeX, perl, rsync, SQLite—showing why they remain reliable RDM building blocks.
#ResilientTech #LiterateProgramming #OrgMode #RDM #NFDI #FAIR https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17157588

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 21, 2025

The source poster shows the guts: Emacs/Org-babel + LaTeX; noweb tangling; minted listings; multi-column layout. The complete source code! The poster is both publication and working research object. Example flow: query Zenodo via curl, download dataset, compute checksum, compare, then proceed with scripted transforms—transparent steps you can re-run. Everything is fully specified, so you can regenerate all of it from source. #Emacs #OrgBabel #TeXLaTeX #orgmode
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17157588

SReyCoyrehourcq Oct 21, 2025

@lukascbossert poke @khinsen @raphaellek

raphaellek Oct 21, 2025

@lukascbossert poke @mc2

Marc Chantreux Oct 22, 2025

@raphaellek @lukascbossert thanks for the link but I probably don't get the message. I know emacs can the things I do with vim (mixing sources to get unique input) but I really hated both the emacs and latex experience.

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 22, 2025

@mc2 @raphaellek I don’t want to say that you should use exclusivly #Emacs. Personally I am also fine with #Vim, it’s just not my tool. and I wanted to stress the #orgmode/#orgbabel use with source-blocks and tangling/weave.

Marc Chantreux Oct 22, 2025

@lukascbossert @raphaellek I cloned the repo. and finally think that Raph. just pointed out the link because our practices are really close even if we chose different tools.

I'm still waiting for an official org-mode grammar so we could have an editor independant implementation. bzg resigned as maintainer so I have no fresh news about it.

SReyCoyrehourcq Oct 22, 2025

@mc2 @lukascbossert @raphaellek i think we're are very close of official with tecosaur org.jl https://code.tecosaur.net/ work folowing https://orgmode.org/worg/org-syntax.html

Marc Chantreux Oct 22, 2025

@SReyCoyrehourcq @lukascbossert @raphaellek if there is a test suite somewhere, I'll be delighted to give org-mode a try as a raku grammar exercice (let's run an hackathon?)

SReyCoyrehourcq Oct 22, 2025

@mc2 @lukascbossert @raphaellek one of test suite actually in prod and works well to test org conversion to compatible markdown is probably the ox-hugo test site https://ox-hugo.scripter.co/test/ Perhaps @khinsen know another ?

Home page Branch Bundle with image

Test site for ox-hugo package for Emacs/Org-mode.

Marc Chantreux Oct 23, 2025

@SReyCoyrehourcq @lukascbossert @raphaellek @khinsen thx. meanwhile I found this page and related links: already has org-mode and jupyter capabilities I have to dive in at some point because when low tech is a price too high to pay, raku is the way f https://raku.land/github:AlexDaniel/App::OrgSleep

Raku Land - App::OrgSleep

Use Emacs Org-mode to graph your sleep pattern

Marc Chantreux Oct 23, 2025

@SReyCoyrehourcq @lukascbossert @raphaellek @khinsen the most interesting orgmode related link was this one https://raku.land/cpan:ANTONOV/Text::CodeProcessing

Raku Land - Text::CodeProcessing

A package with functions for processing of code chunks in documents of different types (like Markdown, Org-mode, Pod6.)

Konrad Hinsen Oct 23, 2025

@SReyCoyrehourcq I didn't even know that one!

There are various parsers for org-mode, mostly in Python and JavaScript. Some of them have test suites, but of course their authors' idea of what correct org-mode syntax is doesn't really matter.

@mc2 @lukascbossert @raphaellek

Marc Chantreux Oct 23, 2025

@khinsen @SReyCoyrehourcq @lukascbossert @raphaellek orgmode homepage should be vocal about that: "orgmode became YA wikisyntax with a growing adooption outside of the emacs word"

Marc Chantreux Oct 23, 2025

@khinsen @SReyCoyrehourcq @lukascbossert @raphaellek I should have looked better https://orgmode.org/tools.html

Org Mode

Org-mode. Complex so you don't have to be. A versatile organisational system with immense capabilities.

Konrad Hinsen Oct 23, 2025

@mc2 There even is an AI assistant now!

@SReyCoyrehourcq @lukascbossert @raphaellek

Marc Chantreux Oct 23, 2025

@khinsen @SReyCoyrehourcq @lukascbossert @raphaellek cool! I didn' t know what to do with all this power left unused by my current workflow :)

Mattia Bunel Oct 23, 2025

@SReyCoyrehourcq @mc2 @lukascbossert @raphaellek There is also the work of @publicvoit on orgdown (https://karl-voit.at/2021/11/27/orgdown/)

Orgdown - a New Lightweight Markup Standard for Text Documents

Orgdown - a New Lightweight Markup Standard for Text Documents

public voit - Web-page of Karl Voit

@mattiabunel @SReyCoyrehourcq @mc2 @lukascbossert @raphaellek Thanks for mentioning #orgdown. 🙇

However, the org community still lacks a formal definition of the (whole) syntax.

From orgdown perspective, #od1 specification would be a promising low hanging fruit but as long as the #orgmode community does not embrace the "syntax separate from implementation" idea I tried to coin, this isn't going to happen, I'm afraid.

Maybe from outside of the #Emacs/org community because orgdown as a syntax has many advantages IMO: https://karl-voit.at/2025/08/17/Markdown-disaster/

Markdown Is a Disaster: Why and What to Do Instead

Markdown Is a Disaster: Why and What to Do Instead

public voit - Web-page of Karl Voit

Omar Antolín Oct 23, 2025

@publicvoit I think the name might be holding the idea back? I don't feel down about Org nor do I want to take Org down. It seems negative to me. Markdown has "down" in its name because of a pun: it's in opposition to markup. Without that context I don't see why you'd want "down" in the name. I think "Orgmark" would have been clearer, or "OrgML" (for markup language), which also had the advantage that someone might mistake it for machine learning and give you money.

@oantolin If that would actually be the reason, then the #orgmode community would have changed its name but embraced the idea. Didn't happen.

I personally do find the name helpful because the main target group is not Org users but normal users, who do know what "Markdown" is and they get some idea transfer to "Orgdown" because of "down".

Nobody I've came across ever said that "Markdown" is negative because of "down". 🤷

To me, "down" symbolizes a "simpler version syntax" according to Lightweight Markup Language (LML) in contrast to complex markup languages like HTML, tex, ...

That said: as long as the org community does not even start to embrace the idea, its name choice is more than irrelevant.

I started #orgdown not as a personal project in the sense that it stays this way. I was hoping for the community to take it away from me and follow the basic idea such that OD is becoming a tool-independent and much better alternative to #Markdown as explained on https://karl-voit.at/2025/08/17/Markdown-disaster/

Markdown Is a Disaster: Why and What to Do Instead

Markdown Is a Disaster: Why and What to Do Instead

public voit - Web-page of Karl Voit

@oantolin Your OrgML suggestion would tick similar boxes, I agree.

However, that name was already taken when I looked for name suggestions: https://inria.hal.science/hal-03434654/document

Omar Antolín Oct 23, 2025

@publicvoit The title of that paper is almost one of the things I use org for, I'd tweak it to "A Domain Specific Language for Organisation & Decision-Making". 🙂

Omar Antolín Oct 23, 2025

@publicvoit «Nobody I've came across ever said that "Markdown" is negative because of "down".» It isn't negative in the word "Markdown"! As I explained, in that case it is a play on words. I don't think you can make the same argument without the "mark" there.

Marco Bresciani Oct 23, 2025

@publicvoit
I agree with you: I've moved from Markdown to OrgMode after many years using the lovely QOwnNotes (and translating 90%+ of it in Italian) because of the different flavours of Markdown.
But just like Mercurial is way simpler than Git, but the world is using Git or Betamax was better than VHS, ... well, usually it's a mix of things not helping a technology.
Codeberg is great, but project README in OrgMode breaks up, so I have to forward people to the GitHub mirror;
@oantolin

Marco Bresciani Oct 23, 2025

@publicvoit
OrgMode plugin(s) in IntelliJ are not so good; Notepad ones are even worse (if any).

I do know OrgMode is better than Markdown (and the fact that I've always wanted to learn Emacs helped me), but if the technology is not supported is difficult.

(Then there's also the problem of xkcd 927: why inventing a partial language like Markdown, when there were already gazillion other things, including OrgMode?)
@oantolin

@AAMfP @oantolin

You're mixing up "orgmode as an Elisp implementation" and "orgmode as a LML". 😉

That's why I still think that we need a separate name for the LML.

@mc2 @lukascbossert @raphaellek The #orgmode/#orgdown syntax definition topics I could find were documented on https://gitlab.com/publicvoit/orgdown/-/blob/master/doc/Formal-Syntax-Definition.org?ref_type=heads

HTH

doc/Formal-Syntax-Definition.org · master · Karl Voit / Orgdown · GitLab

Orgdown (in short “OD) is a lightweight markup language similar to Markdown but it’s consistent, easy to learn, simple to type even without tool-support, and it is based...

GitLab

Mattia Bunel Oct 23, 2025

@publicvoit @mc2 @lukascbossert @raphaellek I see that someone recently wrote an EBNF grammar for org-mode, which is quite encouraging.

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 23, 2025

For the upcoming Emacs News (cc @sacha ) Org-mode + literate programming = transparent methodology, executable analyses, and durable research artifacts. Still underused in scholarly practice—let’s change that.
#Emacs #OrgMode #OpenMethods

Sacha Chua Oct 23, 2025

@lukascbossert oooh, will include, thanks for sharing!

@lukascbossert In 2012, I presented a paper at #iKNOW2012 where I demoed the workflow to generate an ACM whitepaper from one single #Orgmode file + Org-babel + raw data files in CSV format.

Template used: https://github.com/novoid/orgmode-ACM-template together with Tom Dye.

This might be irrelevant implementation-wise because it would need an update but the workflow idea is still awesome!

The people at the session back then mostly did not get it. I probably failed to transmit the idea because they asked specific questions about the demo example data which was just lorem ipsum to me. 😉

#ReproducibleResearch #Emacs #research #literateprogramming

GitHub - novoid/orgmode-ACM-template: Using new Emacs Org-mode LaTeX exporter to generate LaTeX/PDF files that meet the requirements of ACM (unmaintained!)

Using new Emacs Org-mode LaTeX exporter to generate LaTeX/PDF files that meet the requirements of ACM (unmaintained!) - novoid/orgmode-ACM-template

GitHub

Konrad Hinsen Oct 23, 2025

@publicvoit In our MOOC on reproducible research practices (https://www.fun-mooc.fr/en/courses/reproducible-research-methodological-principles-transparent-scie/), we have a track for doing the practical exercises (basic data analysis) with Emacs + org-mode. We also show an example for producing a paper this way. The Emacs track is followed by 20% of the participants, which is way more than we expected (the other tracks use Jupyter and RStudio).

Reproducible research: methodological principles for transparent…

This Mooc proposes methodological principles for open and transparent science. It deals in a practical way with note-taking, computational documentation, replicability of analyses.

FUN MOOC

Konrad Hinsen Oct 24, 2025

@lukascbossert This work is very much in line with my much more theoretical take on these issues:

https://osf.io/preprints/metaarxiv/nt96q_v2

OSF

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 24, 2025

@khinsen I was not aware of that paper. thank you for pointing out! i am sure I can reference it in my poster. in the current version I reference your blog post about this topic . It is great that your blog posts have DOIs!

Konrad Hinsen Oct 24, 2025

@lukascbossert Yes, thanks to @rogue_scholar

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 22, 2025

You can now get your #ROOT sticker to show your support of this approach (or just for fun). The use case is from the @NFDI and more explicit about #NFDIMatWerk Btw, the sticker is the same size as those of all the other #NFDIrocks consortia. These poster as been created also within the @dkz2r and will be premiered at the @fdm_nrw Forschungsdating.nrw next week. Stop by for your sticker and a chat about #resilienttechnologies.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17157587

fdm.nrw Oct 22, 2025

@lukascbossert @NFDI @dkz2r

Wir freuen uns auf die Premiere bei uns und bring auf jeden Fall Sticker mit. Wir lieben Sticker. 🐿️

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 22, 2025

@fdm_nrw @NFDI @dkz2r auf jeden Fall!! die müssen unter die Leute und können eine nette Ergänzung des HexagonStickerPortfolio sein

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 23, 2025

I just created a project on osf.io to promote and discuss #ROOT further:
ROOT – #Robust . #Open . #Ongoing . #Time-Tested

https://osf.io/we4fn

It is not bound to any specific #tool but can be applied to a wide range of (#CLI) tools and platforms.

OSF

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 27, 2025

I had good intention when I put the #ROOT idea on osf.io but somehow they deleted the node and blocked my account . This was my first attempt to use osf.io – and my last one. Very sad.
So, to refer to the #ROOT idea regarding #resilienttechnologies you still can use the DOI on #Zenodo : https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17157587

Konrad Hinsen Oct 23, 2025

@lukascbossert What exactly do you expect to happen in this OSF project?

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 23, 2025

@khinsen I thought that the ROOT idea belongs better to OSF than to e.g. Zenodo since it might be an ongoing process and is rather a framework than a publication. I don’t expect much but wanted to provide a place to discuss the idea

Konrad Hinsen Oct 24, 2025

@lukascbossert Sounds good, but I have never seen a discussion happen on OSF so far!

Lukas C. Bossert Oct 27, 2025

Thanks for all the feedback to the #resilienttechnologies poster and the #ROOT framework. There is now a new version 1.0.0 published https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17451199

It features a new poster version "FOCUS" that has the main, meta and source poster combined with featuree section of all the highlights. Thanks to #TeXLaTeX it looks great and thanks to #Emacs and #orgmode the poster processing is awesome.

Come and see the poster at the "Forschungsdating" (https://www.fdm.nrw/forschungsdating) of @fdm_nrw tomorrow!

Konrad Hinsen Oct 21, 2025

@lukascbossert Excellent! If I ever get bored by all the Boring Technology I use (https://boringtechnology.club/), I'll switch to ROOT!

Choose Boring Technology

How to be old, for young people.

James Endres Howell Oct 21, 2025

@lukascbossert Everything about this is beautiful!