Gardening in Emacs: A Windows user's tale of tending, tweaking, and triumph
Marco Bresciani - Pronunciation: mˈarko breʃˈanɪ, Delta Chat: marco.530@outlook.it, @AAMfP@fosstodon.org, marcoxbresciani.codeberg.page
The following image shows where the talk is in the schedule for Sun 2025-12-07. Solid lines show talks with Q&A via BigBlueButton. Dashed lines show talks with Q&A via IRC or Etherpad.
Format: 18-min talk ; Q&A: ask questions via Etherpad/IRC; we'll e-mail the speaker and post answers on this wiki page after the conference
Discuss on IRC: #emacsconf
Status: Waiting for a caption volunteer
Sunday, Dec 7 2025, ~12:10 PM - 12:20 PM MST (US/Mountain)
Sunday, Dec 7 2025, ~11:10 AM - 11:20 AM PST (US/Pacific)
Sunday, Dec 7 2025, ~7:10 PM - 7:20 PM UTC
Sunday, Dec 7 2025, ~8:10 PM - 8:20 PM CET (Europe/Paris)
Sunday, Dec 7 2025, ~9:10 PM - 9:20 PM EET (Europe/Athens)
Monday, Dec 8 2025, ~12:40 AM - 12:50 AM IST (Asia/Kolkata)
Monday, Dec 8 2025, ~3:10 AM - 3:20 AM +08 (Asia/Singapore)
Monday, Dec 8 2025, ~4:10 AM - 4:20 AM JST (Asia/Tokyo)
Description
I'm a not-ashamed Windows user, both at work and at home, since forever. I also like portable applications, to bring everything I need, everywhere, on my tiny USB thumb drive. And now also Emacs is there, on my USB!
I'm also not the blogger type of person: I've tried, for a time. I stopped at entry ~8 of a "100 days blogging" saga.
But I actually immediately fell in love with the (possibly slower pace) digital garden concept and since I wanted to try Emacs, I decided to catch two pigeons with one stone.
This is the story of how I learned the very basics of Emacs and Org Mode, from how to save and exit to how to change letters case of a whole region or the (long searched for) fill-paragraph feature.
This is the story of how I learned Org Mode publishing configuration and
tricks, to create my digital garden, give it a structure and make it
freely available for anyone to read (and hopefully enjoy) in HTML format.
This is the story of how I added Japanese furigana and PlantUML diagrams
and a one few clicks-away "go to market" strategy.
This is the story of my digital garden, how I tend to it while learning the tool(s) I'm using to care of my garden, Emacs and Org Mode. And this is the story of how I ask for your help, to continue learning Emacs and Org Mode.
About the speaker:
20+ years software developer and Vi user during university life, now moved to the dark side of agile coaching as Scrum Master. Started learning Emacs by chance since I wanted to try it since ages.
Questions or comments? Please e-mail emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org