From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Alex Ott Subject: Re: DocBook exporter code (version 1.0) Date: Sun, 08 Mar 2009 10:43:37 +0100 Message-ID: References: <52A4D4D6-E4BB-4ACF-9438-EB69E71ABEA8@uva.nl> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LgFXb-0002dR-0h for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:43:27 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LgFXY-0002Zi-IZ for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:43:25 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=60853 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LgFXX-0002ZG-Jw for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:43:24 -0400 Received: from mail-fx0-f172.google.com ([209.85.220.172]:45247) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LgFXX-0002ix-6Z for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:43:23 -0400 Received: by fxm20 with SMTP id 20so812009fxm.42 for ; Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:43:21 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <52A4D4D6-E4BB-4ACF-9438-EB69E71ABEA8@uva.nl> (Carsten Dominik's message of "Sun, 8 Mar 2009 08:22:08 +0100") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Hello >>>>> "CD" == Carsten Dominik writes: .... CD> One of the really weak features in Org's design is that exporting is CD> not implemented in a generic way. All exporters share a preprocessing CD> step that turns Org format into something a little more sane and CD> consistent. Then each exporter goes its own way. This setup makes CD> maintenance sort of a nightmare, because each change to Org syntax CD> needs to be implemented in all exporters separately. Maybe you have CD> read my swearing when I was trying to fix the LaTeX exporter which I CD> did not understand completely at first - it was written by Bastien. CD> I had really hoped that the next step in exporting Org would be to CD> rewrite the exporter from scratch, in a generic way, that will then CD> make supporting different formatters more stable and easy. Adding a CD> new exporter does not get us closer to that idea. I think, that instead of parsing text directly, we need to write generic exporter, that will export all data as a tree, consisting from header + list of the entries, and inside these entries provide all needed information about text (markup, url information, etc.). And for new export format, author will define only small piece of code -- mostly header generation, and replacement tables for formatting tags, urls decorations, etc. What do you think about this? I can try to define basic API and we'll see what we can do CD> And I had feared that your exporter would be a badly hacked attempt CD> reinventing lots of wheels, that could never become a really complete CD> export. -- With best wishes, Alex Ott, MBA http://alexott.blogspot.com/ http://xtalk.msk.su/~ott/ http://alexott-ru.blogspot.com/