um-mode/README.md

um-mode

Um is an (U)ltralight zettelkasten for (M)arkdown composition.

• um-mode is the emacs mode for managing *.um files.
• um-minor-mode is an emacs minor mode meant to enhance markdown-mode.

um is a zettelkasten specification, a CLI for creating compositions, and an emacs toolkit. It uses unique filenames, plaintext tags, the builtin emacs project package, and simple commandline conventions.

install

(use-package um-mode
  :vc (:url "https://git.bth.moi/bth/um-mode" :rev :newest)
  :mode ("\\.um\\'" . um-mode)
  :hook (markdown-mode-hook . um-minor-mode)

  :custom (um-root-glob ".*/writing/journal")

  :bind
  ("M-s t" . um-tag-grep)
  ("M-r t" . um-tag-dwim)

  :config
  (advice-add 'embark-target-file-at-point :around 'um-target-file-at-point-advice)
)

um-mode

This:

  :mode ("\\.um\\'" . um-mode)

Enables um-mode for *.um files, which are treated as lists of Markdown content files.

um-minor-mode

This:

  :hook (markdown-mode-hook . um-minor-mode)

Hooks um-minor-mode into markdown-mode to get um-minor-mode-map bindings and font locking for the header fields.

embark-dwim

This:

  :config (advice-add 'embark-target-file-at-point :around 'um-target-file-at-point-advice)

Sets up embark-dwim to find files intelligently, explained below.

ultralight "database"

What I consider the killer feature of um is the ability to jump to files from filenames listed in any "child" project back to the "source" project, defined via um-root-glob. This means that child projects can be initially defined as simple lists of *.um filenames, which I do to compose larger pieces. A simple filename anywhere can also serve as a "link".

There are a few ways this is accessed:

1. um-find-file-at-point is hooked into find-file by default via next-history-element, which will work as C-x C-f M-n out of the box.

2. um-target-file-at-point-advice via emark-dwim on any filename. Requires embark and the advice-add shown above.