GNU OrgaDoc Aims To Make It Easy To Copy/Sync Documents Between Computers

[phoronix]

Phoronix: GNU OrgaDoc Aims To Make It Easy To Copy/Sync Documents Between Computers

The GNU OrgaDoc project has seen its first release in thirteen years...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-OrgaDoc-0.9

[SledgeHammer_999]

(First time login after so many years.)

IMO, syncthing is the best open source sync application ATM.
It uses a DHT to discover IPs of paired devices, so you don't need to input an IP or configure a domain name.
It has fully encrypted communication between devices.
Finally you can set it up to backup changed/ovewritten/deleted files after a sync.

Downsides:
1. It is a console program and doesn't have a good cross-platform UI that doesn't embed a web engine in itself.
2. No builtin support for noticing file/folder changes. Instead it scans the watched folders after a set timeout. Or you can use a 3rd party app that notices the changes and instructs it to scan the particular folder.
3. Written in GO. I would prefer C++. I worry about the viability of GO in the future. (queue the rust people rushing in and commenting).

[starshipeleven]

The amount of sarcasm in the article is.... over 9000.

3. Written in GO. I would prefer C++. I worry about the viability of GO in the future. (queue the rust people rushing in and commenting).

I don't see GO disappearing any time soon, sure it won't take over Java or PHP, but it has its niche. I would prefer C++ too, though.

[Marc.2377]

I agree with what was said about Syncthing. Nowadays it is a firm solution.

In fact I'm willing to "port" (rewrite) it to C++ soon. Will post here when/if that happens.

[grok]

For a geek sync tool for documents and that doesn't require a web server and crap, I suppose people might use a version control system like bazaar, git or other instead?

If you look at GNU OrgaDoc's manual though, it seems to be made for generating (and extracting) XML metadata about your documents. It also converts that XML to html or tex for human consumption ; there's something about bibtex too (maybe you're writing a scholarly paper and you intend to cite or reference many of the documents)
That should be why right in the article it tells you to use rsync or unison for the syncing.

So, you could use Syncthing to sync your document folder hierarchy that you tidied up with OrgaDoc, then open now local .html or .pdf files that serve as a navigational aid or table of contents to your document stash.

[starshipeleven]

For a geek sync tool for documents and that doesn't require a web server and crap, I suppose people might use a version control system like bazaar, git or other instead?

If you write plain text files that works fine, if you use an Office suite then the document/spreadsheet/presentation is actually XML if opened as plain text, or it is zipped up in a compressed archive so it becomes a blob for git and the like.

So yeah, there is no real need for git's features.