All of this is possible in markdown. None of that is specific to the text format, it's all in the tooling, of which Markdown is unrivaled. Sorry, Org is not that popular in the grand scheme of things, just with Emacs people.
The problem is neorg is neither Markdown nor Org and I'm not bothering to use a one-off format for this one tool.
Yes, indeed, many of these individual features I listed, are available in other tools. For example:
- Literate programming can be done in Jupyter Notebooks, R Markdown, and other computational notebooks.
- Advanced to-do tracking, agenda views, and tagging are available in productivity tools like Asana, Trello, and Todoist.
- Customizable exports can be done in many document preparation systems like LaTeX or pandoc.
- Spreadsheets and calculations are, of course, native to Excel and Google Sheets.
However, the real power of org-mode - and what makes it stand out - lies in the integration and synergy of all these components in one place, inside a powerful text editor (Emacs). This tight integration is harder to achieve when you're using various separate tools to accomplish the same tasks.
It not only makes org-mode a versatile tool for many text-related tasks (note-taking, programming, writing papers, planning projects, managing to-dos), but also allows these tasks to naturally intertwine and interact. For example, you could extract to-dos directly from your code comments, or include executable code snippets in your project plan.
Moreover, as a component of Emacs, org-mode can tap into the vast ecosystem of Emacs plugins and extensions, meaning you can further extend its capabilities to suit your particular needs.
So, while it's true that many of these individual features can be found elsewhere, the unique combination and integration offered by org-mode give it a singular and valuable position in the tools landscape.
> Markdown is unrivaled.
Respectfully, I disagree. Yes, Markdown is more popular. Yet, in the hands of an experienced Emacs user, things that are possible to do with Org-mode can sometimes be on another level of awesome. You just probably haven't seen it.
> it's all in the tooling, of which Markdown is unrivaled.
The tooling for Emacs is unrivaled. Markdown is, honestly, pretty cool: it’s probably the best thing the John Gruber has ever done. I think that it’s arguable that Markdown will survive everyone now alive on Earth.
But I believe that Emacs will last longer still, because Emacs is not a text format but a powerful user-extensible environment. As long as general-purpose computers are legal, folks will use something recognisable as an Emacs.
The problem is neorg is neither Markdown nor Org and I'm not bothering to use a one-off format for this one tool.