From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: John Tait Subject: Thesauri to manage tags ("Tag taxonomies") -- feature request Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:52:39 +0100 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:48700) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QhR1h-0007ig-IM for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:52:49 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QhR1d-0005ix-QG for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:52:45 -0400 Received: from mail-ey0-f169.google.com ([209.85.215.169]:46690) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QhR1d-0005ir-Kj for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:52:41 -0400 Received: by eyd9 with SMTP id 9so399768eyd.0 for ; Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:52:39 -0700 (PDT) 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-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode Dear all Some time ago I floated a "tag hierarchy" idea for org-mode. It didn't gain much interest (through I received some very kind replies). http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2011-03/msg01393.html There are other similar ideas here by others. http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2010-10/msg01171.html http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2010-10/msg00611.html What I've discovered since then is that what we are all maybe trying to re-invent is a thesaurus concept, including a controlled vocabulary concept. Thesauri seem to be well understood, and are standardised by ISO 2788. I use selective export using tags a lot. If I can re-phrase my original request using better language, what I am looking for is a way of managing org tags using simple thesauri terms -- inside an org file. There's software out there to manage thesauri, but I think it would be fantastic to instead build taxonomies inside org-mode and use these to drive org exports. The problem I'm trying to solve is that, in big publishing projects, the number of tags can grow and might eventually need to be managed outside org-mode. (I'm already keeping lists of my tags inside org-mode tables.) What I would love to do is build a simple taxonomy of tags from a controlled vocabulary -- that I can manage entirely inside org-mode. Then we could: a) have an orderly list of tags (using the thesaurus "USE" concept, etc. to help) to restrict tag bloat, and in fact have a controlled list of tags/terms. b) allow nesting of tags (using the thesuaris Broader Term (BT) and Narrower Term (NT) concepts). This would allow export of, say, :colour: to export :red: :green: and :blue:. It would also allow publishing project to be managed by arranging NT/BT in one place in the org file, rather than micromanaging tags in headings. Additionally, tags could belong to more than one taxonomy in the same publishing project. (The dreaded DITA 1.2 spec now has something like this in the guise of Subject Scheme maps. But I never want to look at DITA again.) http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/cs01/spec/common/subjectScheme.html I hope you know what I am on about...thanks again for your time. John