From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Sebastien Vauban" Subject: Syntax of Org Babel results Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2013 12:55:47 +0100 Message-ID: <86li9v1nb0.fsf@somewhere.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org-mXXj517/zsQ@public.gmane.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org-mXXj517/zsQ@public.gmane.org To: emacs-orgmode-mXXj517/zsQ@public.gmane.org Hello, Before Org 8 is out, I'm willing to put light on some last syntax which I find counter-intuitive and not along the lines of the rest: it concerns the `results' parameter. Let's sum up first the list of all parameters: 1. Collection - :results value - :results output 2. Type of results (when :results is set to `value'): - Result types + :results vector + :results scalar + :results list + :results file - Result wrappers + :results raw + :results drawer + :results org (removed, right?) + :results html + :results code + :results latex + :results pp 3. Handling - :results replace - :results silent - :results none - :results append - :results prepend As you see (by the shown structure), the different values answer different questions: - How the results should be collected from the source code block? - How they will be inserted into the Org mode buffer? - How to interpret/wrap the results? - How the results should be handled? And answering many of these questions at the same time means giving a *multi-value* to the parameter, such as: :results list append Wouldn't it make more sense (and be more easily parsed by the machine and be cleaner and less error-prone for us, poor humans) if `results' would be split in different parameters for the different questions they answer, each of those parameters getting at most one value? Something along the lines of: :results_type file :results_insertion append (those names may be ugly, it just for the purpose of explaining my idea). I know that it's the ultimate moment to discuss such a change, would there be consensus, before Org 8 is out. Best regards, Seb -- Sebastien Vauban