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Assumption: Most teams which use a kanban system would work just as efficiently with a couple of org-mode files.


That's what I use for my personal stuff that I do. I like being able to cut and paste to reprioritise, etc. Also, when planning, having a real editor makes things go so much more smoothly. However, for people who are consumers rather than producers of the plan, I have found considerable friction about removing their drag and drop, table oriented UI.

I've often thought about writing a trello-like whose backend was simply markdown or org-mode files that was versioned in a real version control system. There is nothing in the Trello UI that really precludes it (and in fact, there was at one point a program that allowed you to talk to the trello API and grab/push org-mode oriented data from Emacs -- I never found it worked particularly well, though).



Org-mode and other text files have the problem that they can only present content in a linear way. Which is fine in a lot of cases and for text documents, but can't hold a candle to a simple Kanban board where you have everything at a glance and nicely structured without scrolling back and forth all the time.

I use org-mode files every day and it's a limitation I feel more and more.


Kanban relies on sensory intuition. Org-mode requires you to build up a whole new epistemological relationship to the elements of an outline. They are pretty different, and Org-mode requires a _lot_ of time investment.


It depends on what you're used to use. "Kanban" systems escape my intuitions.


I'm talking about physically moving cards from one column to another. The skeuomorphism is preserved there.


I would go further and say that plain text (yes, I know org-mode is plain text too) would work just as well.

Each board is a directory. Each column in a board is a file. Each task is a line in the file. Open up the directory in the text editor of your choice. Move tasks with your normal cut & paste commands that you use for everything else. Keep the whole thing in version control.


We use images/diagrams/LaTex/etc to communicate a number of tasks that are inherently visual, not to mention needing somewhere on the cloud to access it centrally.

As a casual org-mode user, I fail to see how org-mode is really relevant for a team-centric tool.


What stops you from using graphics in shared org files?


... Can't tell if you're being facetious or not, but here's a sample trello board that mimics our workflow:

https://trello.com/b/TTAVI7Ny/ue4-roadmap

This is not a good fit for org-mode, despite what any number of org-mode zealots say.


I think from a casual user perspective, knowing how to do it ;-)


I'm not a casual user. The inline images functionality of org-mode sucks in comparison.


What are org-mode files?


Basically, structured text files. See orgmode.org.


org-mode is personal organization "application* that runs inside the emacs text editor.

Some, including me, swear by it as the ultimate personal organizer, note taking, mind dumping application




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