> On 2019-Apr-24, at 23:57, Damon Permezel <permezel@me.com> wrote:
> 
> Just noticed a bug as I was reading my post.  Just if argument-prefix is applied, it will keep trying a line with no tabs (or less than 2) and not advance the line.  I’m sure there are more….
> 

This version is somewhat better.  It skips comment lines and org headers lines, plus fixes a few bugs, while introducing an equal measure of new ones + 1.

(defun txt-to-TSV ()
  "turn a tab-separated text line into TSV"
  (interactive)
  (save-mark-and-excursion
    (save-restriction
      (let ((beg (progn (beginning-of-line) (point)))
	    (end (progn (end-of-line) (point)))
	    (tsv (vector))
	    (prev nil))

	(narrow-to-region beg end)
	(goto-char beg)
	(when (and (not (= (following-char) ?#))
		   (not (= (following-char) ?*)))
	  (setq prev beg)
	  (while (< (point) end)
	    (when (looking-at "\t")
	      (setq tsv  (vconcat tsv (vector (buffer-substring prev (point)))))
	      (setq prev (+ 1 (point))))
	    (forward-word))

	  (setq tsv (vconcat tsv (vector (buffer-substring prev (point))))))
	tsv
    ))))

(defun txt-to-drill (arg)
  "convert TSV to drill"
  (interactive "p")

  (let ((query (concat
		"*** Query	:drill:\n"
		"    :PROPERTIES:\n"
		"    :END:\n"))
	(answer (concat
		 "**** Answer\n")))
    (while (> arg 0)
      (setq arg (- arg 1))
      (let ((tsv (txt-to-TSV)))
	(if (> (length tsv) 1)
	    (progn
	      (beginning-of-line)
	      (insert "\n" query (aref tsv 0))
	      (insert "\n" answer (aref tsv 1))
	      (let ((i 2))
		(while (< i (length tsv))
		  (insert "\n" (aref tsv i))
		  (setq i (+ 1 i))))
	      (insert "\n")
	      (insert "# ")
	      (beginning-of-line))))
      (forward-line))))