On Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 2:09 AM, Nicolas Goaziou <mail@nicolasgoaziou.fr>
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Is the "* on column 0 is a headline" convention a consequence of the
> > dependence on outline.el? Or is it just historical baggage? I cannot
> > remember the grammar rules, but I'm wondering if the parser could be
> > made to say "not a headline" in this situation, and if so, what the
> > consequences might be (particularly, the bad consequences).
> > ...
>
> This is inherent on how the syntax is defined, and how the parser is
> implemented. As an outliner, the main syntactic element in an Org
> document is the headline. Everything else has a lower priority.
> Therefore, a block will not be parsed before a headline.
>
> ...


That's interesting.  Thanks for the explanation.

What does the parser do with a drawer?  How is that different from a
block?  It seems that one can put text that looks like a headline in a
drawer and it won't be interpreted as a headline.  Why couldn't blocks be
parsed the same way?