From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Nicolas Goaziou Subject: Re: Feature request: lists with letters Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:55:21 +0100 Message-ID: <87tw8ccwae.fsf@nicolasgoaziou.fr> References: <87shnwbiyx.fsf@posteo.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:56519) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cZLbU-0004PR-TP for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 02 Feb 2017 12:55:29 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cZLbR-0004ZE-2t for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 02 Feb 2017 12:55:29 -0500 Received: from relay3-d.mail.gandi.net ([217.70.183.195]:42822) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cZLbQ-0004YA-Rs for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 02 Feb 2017 12:55:24 -0500 In-Reply-To: <87shnwbiyx.fsf@posteo.de> (Titus von der Malsburg's message of "Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:28:22 +0100") 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@gnu.org Sender: "Emacs-orgmode" To: Titus von der Malsburg Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Hello, Titus von der Malsburg writes: > Items in lists can start with -, +, N), or N. (with N being an > integer). It=E2=80=99s currently not possible, to use letters as in the > following examples: > > a. First item > b. Second item > > or > > a) First item > b) Second item > > I believe it would make sense to allow letters in org-mode because > that=E2=80=99s a very common way to label items in lists. I know that th= is has > been discussed previously but to my knowledge there was no > resolution. The counter argument against letters was that we wouldn=E2= =80=99t > know what labels to use when there are more items than letters, but I > think this shouldn=E2=80=99t stop us. Reasons: > > a) Most lists have fewer items and cases where more than 26 labels are > needed are rare. > b) If a list has more than 26 items, the user is free to switch to > bullet points or numbers. > c) The limited number of letters hasn=E2=80=99t stopped people from using > letters in many other contexts. For example, LaTeX offers letters > and people think it=E2=80=99s useful. > d) Similarly, people often use Roman numerals (e.g., iv.) although > they also quickly become impractical (999 =3D CMXCIX). > e) In some (academic) contexts, e.g. in linguistics, letters are > conventionally used to label items in lists. > f) Letters worked perfectly fine in this list. > > As to the question what org mode should do if a list is two long for > letters: Here are two possible solutions: > > a) Label all items beyond the 26th with z, to make it visually very > salient that there are not enough letters. > b) Start over from letter a after z. > c) Count in base 26 using letters as digits: a =E2=80=A6 z aa =E2=80=A6 a= z ba =E2=80=A6 bz =E2=80=A6 > > Personally, I would prefer solution c because it gives each item a > unique label to which we can refer. But solutions a and b would be ok, > too. It doesn=E2=80=99t really matter because this is just an uninterest= ing > edge case and we shouldn=E2=80=99t obsess about it when the default case = (<=3D26 > items) is complete unproblematic. > > Thanks for considering this proposal. This proposal was implemented exactly 6 years ago. See `org-list-allow-alphabetical'. They introduce false positives, so they are not allowed by default. Also, they probably should be implemented visually (i.e., with overlays, =C3=A0 la `org-bullets') not syntactically. Anyway, here they are. Regards, --=20 Nicolas Goaziou