{"slug": "org-babel", "name": "org-babel", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.903, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-12-07", "latest": "2026-10-01", "why": "I heavily used org-babel. I used it to put code for data wrangling, plots, and notes into a single document.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I heavily used org-babel. I used it to put code for data wrangling, plots, and notes into a single document.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["org-babel", "Org Babel"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 798700785, "item_id": 49918799, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918799", "by": "mfld", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I heavily used org-babel. I used it to put code for data wrangling, plots, and notes into a single document.", "excerpt": "Great idea! During my time as a researcher, I heavily used org-babel. I used it to put code for data wrangling, plots, and notes into a single document. The notes would often contain formulas to describe what was done. I would regularly export that to PDF using pdflatex to send it to collaborators. Maybe this is an avenue worth considering for Ledge.", "context": "former researcher", "use_case": "literate programming for research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Ledge.sh \u2013 Runnable Markdown Notes"}, {"id": 775488465, "item_id": 48468029, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48468029", "by": "toxmeister", "date": "2026-06-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "which I found an incredible amplifier for my work", "excerpt": "Author here. The move to TypeScript was due to multiple reasons, one of them as you mentioned. In these early years, there were very few people in the Clojure community which had an interest in these topics (general visualization/geometry related), and which wasn't just about art btw. Still, I managed to teach a dozen or so workshops from 2011-2017 and form a small community. In hindsight, Clojure/ClojureScript took ", "context": "Author of thi.ng", "use_case": "literate programming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thi.ng \u2013 open-source building blocks for computational design and art"}, {"id": 738941137, "item_id": 46183821, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46183821", "by": "Jtsummers", "date": "2025-12-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "org-mode and org-babel are what I use", "excerpt": "Perhaps the most prominent example of literate programming missed by the author: https://www.pbrt.org/ Physically Based Rendering by Pharr, Jakob, and Humphreys. Responding directly to a couple things the author wrote: > When programming, it\u2019s not uncommon to write a function that\u2019s \u201cgood enough for now\u201d, and revise it later. This is impossible to adequately do in literate programming. It's not impossible in literate", "context": "", "use_case": "literate programming, tangling tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "What is \u201cliterate programming\u201d? (2024)"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "mfld", "context": "former researcher", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918799", "date": "2026-10-01"}, {"by": "toxmeister", "context": "Author of thi.ng", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48468029", "date": "2026-06-09"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["runnable notebooks", "literate programming for research", "literate programming", "literate programming, tangling tests"], "compared": [{"slug": "ledge-sh", "name": "Ledge.sh", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49902382", "title": "Show HN: Ledge.sh \u2013 Runnable Markdown Notes", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48437743", "title": "Thi.ng \u2013 open-source building blocks for computational design and art", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46125963", "title": "What is \u201cliterate programming\u201d? (2024)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "compare": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 798758434, "item_id": 49922402, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49922402", "by": "theCodeStig", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "compare", "quote": "the Achilles heel is that it's tied to Emacs", "excerpt": "Yes, exactly that. Org predates Markdown, however the Achilles heel is that it's tied to Emacs. I love Emacs, but I can't (ethically and pragmatically) force any editor/IDE on anyone. And as soon as a lone emacser commits an org file to a repo, it creates a disconnect. Markdown (although it doesn't adhere to a strict standard) is ubiquitous, and support for Ledge notebooks degrades gracefully. If one doesn't have Led", "context": "", "use_case": "runnable notebooks", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Ledge.sh \u2013 Runnable Markdown Notes"}, {"id": 798700785, "item_id": 49918799, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918799", "by": "mfld", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I heavily used org-babel. I used it to put code for data wrangling, plots, and notes into a single document.", "excerpt": "Great idea! During my time as a researcher, I heavily used org-babel. I used it to put code for data wrangling, plots, and notes into a single document. The notes would often contain formulas to describe what was done. I would regularly export that to PDF using pdflatex to send it to collaborators. Maybe this is an avenue worth considering for Ledge.", "context": "former researcher", "use_case": "literate programming for research", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Ledge.sh \u2013 Runnable Markdown Notes"}, {"id": 775488465, "item_id": 48468029, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48468029", "by": "toxmeister", "date": "2026-06-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "which I found an incredible amplifier for my work", "excerpt": "Author here. The move to TypeScript was due to multiple reasons, one of them as you mentioned. In these early years, there were very few people in the Clojure community which had an interest in these topics (general visualization/geometry related), and which wasn't just about art btw. Still, I managed to teach a dozen or so workshops from 2011-2017 and form a small community. In hindsight, Clojure/ClojureScript took ", "context": "Author of thi.ng", "use_case": "literate programming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thi.ng \u2013 open-source building blocks for computational design and art"}, {"id": 738941137, "item_id": 46183821, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46183821", "by": "Jtsummers", "date": "2025-12-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "org-mode and org-babel are what I use", "excerpt": "Perhaps the most prominent example of literate programming missed by the author: https://www.pbrt.org/ Physically Based Rendering by Pharr, Jakob, and Humphreys. Responding directly to a couple things the author wrote: > When programming, it\u2019s not uncommon to write a function that\u2019s \u201cgood enough for now\u201d, and revise it later. This is impossible to adequately do in literate programming. It's not impossible in literate", "context": "", "use_case": "literate programming, tangling tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "What is \u201cliterate programming\u201d? (2024)"}]}