blog.lazkani.io/content/posts/welcome-back-to-the-old-world.md

+++
title = "Welcome back to the old world"
author = ["Elia el Lazkani"]
date = 2020-08-31
lastmod = 2020-09-01
tags = ["blog", "org-mode", "emacs", "rst"]
categories = ["nikola"]
draft = false
+++

I have recently blogged about moving to _emacs_ and the reasons behind it.

Since then, I have used _Orgmode_ a lot more. And I have begun to like it even more. I had a plan to move the blog to _[Hugo](https://gohugo.io/)_. After giving it a try, I had inconsistent results. I must've been doing something wrong. I've spend a lot more time than I anticipated on it. At some point, it becomes an endeavor with diminishing returns. So I ditched that idea.

But why did I want to move to _Hugo_ in the first place ?

<!--more-->


## Why _Hugo_ you may ask {#why-hugo-you-may-ask}

Well, the answer to that question is very simple; _Orgmode_.

The long answer is that the default _Nikola_ markup language and the most worked on is _reStructuredText_. It can support other formats. _Orgmode_ also seems widely supported and can be easily manipulated. So I want to move to _Orgmode_ instead of _rst_.

But what are the odds ?

Damn... It has plugins and you can find an [orgmode](https://plugins.getnikola.com/v8/orgmode/) page where you find

```text
 $ nikola plugin -i orgmode
```

Where the heck did that come from ? Okay that was easy.

Turns out _Nikola_ supports _Orgmode_.


## Nikola _Orgmode_ plugin installation {#nikola-orgmode-plugin-installation}

The page suggests running.

```text
 $ nikola plugin -i orgmode
```

Followed by

```python
# NOTE: Needs additional configuration in init.el file.

# Add the orgmode compiler to your COMPILERS dict.
COMPILERS["orgmode"] = ['.org']

# Add org files to your POSTS, PAGES
POSTS = POSTS + (("posts/*.org", "posts", "post.tmpl"),)
PAGES = PAGES + (("pages/*.org", "pages", "page.tmpl"),)
```

Okay, that's not too bad. Next step.


## Alright, let's run our first org post {#alright-let-s-run-our-first-org-post}

The installation was easy, running it should be just as easy.

```text
$ nikola auto
[2020-08-31 23:16:17] INFO: auto: Rebuilding the site...
Scanning posts..........done!
.  render_taxonomies:output/archive.html
.  render_taxonomies:output/categories/index.html

...

.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/index.css
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/index.css.map
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/index.js.map
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/index.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/rst_base.css
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/ipython.min.css
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/html4css1.css
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/nikola_rst.css
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/baguetteBox.min.css
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/nikola_ipython.css
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/rst.css
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/theme.css
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/justified-layout.min.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/html5.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/gallery.min.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/fancydates.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/baguetteBox.min.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/gallery.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/html5shiv-printshiv.min.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/luxon.min.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/js/fancydates.min.js
.  copy_assets:output/assets/xml/rss.xsl
.  copy_assets:output/assets/xml/atom.xsl
.  copy_assets:output/assets/css/code.css
.  render_posts:cache/posts/text-editors/emacs-and-org-mode.html
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/00debian.el (source)...
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...
Loading debian-ispell...
Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-default.el (source)...
Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-dicts.el (source)...
Created img-url link.
Created file link.
Please install htmlize from https://github.com/hniksic/emacs-htmlize
TaskError - taskid:render_posts:cache/posts/text-editors/emacs-and-org-mode.html
PythonAction Error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/user/blog.lazkani.io/plugins/orgmode/orgmode.py", line 75, in compile
    subprocess.check_call(command)
  File "/home/user/anaconda3/envs/nikola/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 364, in check_call
    raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd)
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['emacs', '--batch', '-l', '/home/user/blog.lazkani.io/plugins/orgmode/init.el', '--eval', '(nikola-html-export "/home/user/blog.lazkani.io/posts/text-editors/emacs-and-org-mode.org" "/home/user/blog.lazkani.io/cache/posts/text-editors/emacs-and-org-mode.html")']' returned non-zero exit status 255.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/user/anaconda3/envs/nikola/lib/python3.8/site-packages/doit/action.py", line 437, in execute
    returned_value = self.py_callable(*self.args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/user/anaconda3/envs/nikola/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nikola/post.py", line 711, in compile
    self.compile_html(
  File "/home/user/blog.lazkani.io/plugins/orgmode/orgmode.py", line 94, in compile
    raise Exception('''Cannot compile {0} -- bad org-mode configuration (return code {1})
Exception: Cannot compile posts/text-editors/emacs-and-org-mode.org -- bad org-mode configuration (return code 255)
The command is emacs --batch -l /home/user/blog.lazkani.io/plugins/orgmode/init.el --eval '(nikola-html-export "/home/user/blog.lazkani.io/posts/text-editors/emacs-and-org-mode.org" "/home/user/blog.lazkani.io/cache/posts/text-editors/emacs-and-org-mode.html")'

########################################
render_posts:cache/posts/text-editors/emacs-and-org-mode.html <stdout>:

[2020-08-31 23:16:29] INFO: auto: Serving on http://127.0.0.1:8000/ ...
[2020-08-31 23:16:36] INFO: auto: Server is shutting down.
```

I knew there was a catch !

You might be looking for the error message and it might take you a while. It took me a bit to find out what was wrong. The error is actually the following.

```text
Please install htmlize from https://github.com/hniksic/emacs-htmlize
```

It turns out that the plugin is a _python_ script that calls _emacs_ with a configuration `init.el`. I know I have _htmlize_ installed on my _doom_ system but _Nikola_ does not see it.

After looking around the internet, I found the `init.el` file I'm looking for. It's in `plugins/orgmode/init.el` and it has the following few lines at the top.

```emacs-lisp
(require 'package)
(setq package-load-list '((htmlize t)))
(package-initialize)
```

Okay, that's what's trying to load _htmlize_. Let's try to add it to the `load-path` as follows.

```emacs-lisp
(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/.local/straight/build/htmlize")
(setq package-load-list '((htmlize t)))
(package-initialize)
```

<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>

In my case, the path to `htmlize` is `~/.emacs.d/.local/straight/build/htmlize`.

If you don't have it installed, simply `git clone` the repository in a directory and `load-path` that path.

</div>

Now, let's try _Nikola_.

```text
$ nikola auto
[2020-08-31 23:30:32] INFO: auto: Rebuilding the site...
Scanning posts..........done!
[2020-08-31 23:30:36] INFO: auto: Serving on http://127.0.0.1:8000/ ...
```

Woohoo ! It works. Now let's move to the next steps. Writing our first blog post.


## First _Org_ post {#first-org-post}

Let's create this blog post.

<div class="admonition warning">
<p class="admonition-title">warning</p>

It is very important to use the `nikola` command line interface to create the post. I spent too much time trying to figure out the _header_ settings.

</div>

```text
$ nikola new_post -1 -f orgmode -t orgmode posts/misc/welcome-back-to-the-old-world.org
```

Now edit the _org_ file and save it. _Nikola_ should pick it up and render it.


## Yes, I have made more changes {#yes-i-have-made-more-changes}


### Theme {#theme}

I have moved the blog to the _[willy-theme](https://themes.getnikola.com/v8/willy-theme/)_ which offers _light_ and **dark** modes and good code highlighting.


### Blog post format {#blog-post-format}

You might have also noticed that there were big changes to the repository. All the blog posts have been converted to _Orgmode_ now, both _pages_ and _posts_.

I used [pandoc](https://pandoc.org/) to do the initial conversion from _rst_ to _Orgmode_ as follows.

```text
$ pandoc --from rst --to org /path/to/file.rst > /path/to/file.org
```

I know, I know. It does a pretty good initial job but you will need to touch up the posts. Fortunately, I did not have a lot of blog posts yet. Unfortunately, I had enough for the task to take a few days. For me, it was worth it.


## Conclusion {#conclusion}

This was a long overdue project, I am happy to finally put it behind me and move foward with something simple that works with my current flow.