Re: syntax for blocks that the exporter should not render?

[Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com>]

On Sep 5, 2013, at 1:43 PM, Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Carsten,
> 
> On Thu, Sep 05, 2013 at 01:27:57PM +0200, Carsten Dominik wrote:
>> 
>> On Sep 5, 2013, at 12:09 PM, Nicolas Goaziou <n.goaziou@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>>>> #+/home/matt/Matt_headshots/Matt Price/IMG_9367_.jpg
>>>>> http://2013.hackinghistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/wpid-IMG_9367_2.jpg
>>>> 
>>>> I don't think this is the right behavior, such lines should not be rendered.
>>>> Suvayu is right, with a space after the # they are treated as commendt, but I think
>>>> they should also be ignored with the plus.
>>>> 
>>>> Nicolas, what is the reasoning behind rendering them?
>>> 
>>> Because this isn't valid Org syntax, so it is treated as regular text
>>> (i.e. a paragraph). Something similar happens for unbalanced blocks:
>> 
>> So in a way this is a "syntax error" message. :)
>> 
>> OK, I get that point.  Is that behaviour documented?
> 
> I think it is more of a "I don't recognise this as special syntax; it
> must be text".  In that case, I'm not sure what can be documented, one
> can have infinitely many text blurbs which look very similar to valid
> Org syntax but isn't.
> 
> I have noticed quite a few posts on the list with this kind of
> misunderstanding.  I think the confusion arises from thinking of special
> keywords like "#+options:", "#+attr_latex:", etc as comments.  AFAIU,
> they are not.  Lines starting with "#+" are possible keywords, whereas
> lines starting with "# " are comments.

Yes, and I just checked what we have in the manual:

Lines starting with zero or more whitespace characters followed by one
@samp{#} and a whitespace are treated as comments and will never be exported.

So indeed, the white space after the # is in the manual.  I had forgotten about this.

> 
> I can see how that can be confusing, but can't think of a way to resolve
> this.  I have two possibilities in mind:
> 1. change "# " to something more distict like: "//", or "##",
> 2. use different faces for the two.

Another way to do this would be that every line starting with "#" (no space) is a comment line, except when it is starting with "#+".  This was how I used to think about lines starting with "#".  BUt it is not bad the way it is now - we just need to be aware and tell people - we just did.

Thanks

- Carsten

> 
> (1) is probably too big a change, whereas (2) might be feasible.
> 
> Nicolas will probably have a better feeling about what is more
> appropriate here.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -- 
> Suvayu
> 
> Open source is the future. It sets us free.
>