basiscraft: RSS Feeds for Org Files

Each org mod file is its own RSS channel.

Org Mode Meta-data to RSS Channel Elements

org-mode metadata	RSS Channel element	notes	implemented?
#+TITLE:	title		n
#+DESCRIPTION:	description		n
	link	provided externally	n
#+LANGUAGE	langauge		n
#+COPYRIGHT	copyright		n
#+EDITOR	managingEditor		n
#+ADMIN	webMaster		n
#+PUBDATE	pubDate		n
	lastBuildDate	automatically generated	n
#+CATEGORY	category	only one per file	n
#+GENERATOR	generator		n
	docs	"http:www.rssboard …"	n
	cloud	provided externally	n
	ttl	provided externally	n
	image	provided externally	n
	rating	not yet supported	n
	textInput	not yet supported	n
	skipHours	provided externally	n
	skipDays	provided externally	n

Every org file RSS feed has at least one item and that item stands for the whole file itself.

Org Mode Meta-data to RSS Channel Item for the Whole File

org-mode metadata	RSS Channel element	notes	implemented?
#+TITLE:	title	same as channel	n
#+LINK:	link	defaults to same as guid	n
#+DESCRIPTION:	description	same as channel	n
#+AUTHOR	author		n
#+KEYWORDS	category		n
	comments	provided externally	n
#+UID		unique id within project tree	n
	guid	generated with help from #+UID	n
???	enclosure	???	n TODO
#+PUBDATE	pubdate		n
	source	provided externally	n

The org file as a whole is an "item" but, in addition to that, individual sections of the outline can themselves be items.

This is done using node properties.

Org Mode Meta-data to RSS Channel Item for the Whole File

org-mode metadata	RSS Channel element	notes	implemented?
:TITLE:	title	defaults to node heading	n
:LINK:	link	defaults to guid	n
:DESCRIPTION:	description		n
:AUTHOR:	author	defaults to file author	n
:KEYWORDS:	category	defaults to file keywords	n
	comments	provided externally	n
:ID:		unique id within file	n
	guid	generated with help from #+UID and :ID:	n
???	enclosure	???	n TODO
:PUBDATE:	pubdate		n
	source	provided externally	n

"org mode" is an outline editor for GNU Emacs.

GNU Emacs has had a fancy outline editor for text-based outlines since, pretty much, forever. The very earliest releases of Gnu emacs included an outline editor. That's because versions of Emacs that came long before GNU Emacs had outline editors. And the reason why all those Emacsen have had outline editors is because outline editors are pretty cool and useful.

For roughly two decades the GNU Emacs outline editor was kind of frozen in time. It was the GNU Emacs "cover song" of Emacs-ish outline editors from the 1970s and early 1980s. It was fine for what it did but what it did was not much and it wasn't very interesting. Oh, sure, I'd use it from time to time but it wasn't really all that exciting.

Then some wise guy (Carsten Dominik) decided to write org mode. Org mode is way, way more featureful than traditional outline mode. For example, it can do things like symbolic differentiation of algebraic equations. Sure, sure, that's something one generally expects of any decent outline editor but… in an Emacs outline editor? That's pretty swank. More seriously, it does all kinds of linking, and tables, and so forth.

Org is nicely done. Somehow, for all of its fanciness, org mode neverthless manages to maintain the spirit and simplicity of an emacs-based, text-based outline editor. Basically, it's like an IDE for WIKI-ish syntax for outlines with tables and lists and links etc. Who could ask for more or settle for less?

If you have a whole directory tree full of "org mode" outlines, one of the things that org mode can do is "export" all of them to HTML. So, as outline editors go, org mode is a pretty nice CMS for static web sites!