another org-export request regarding links

another org-export request regarding links

[Austin Frank]

Hi again!

Org-exort-as-ascii describes itself as being Markdown-like.  I think 
that the ascii export is excellent and very readable, but I'd like to 
push for it to be just a little bit more Markdown-like.

Markdown supports two ways of including links in a text file-- inline 
links and reference links.  See the bottom of this note for examples of 
reference-style links in Markdown.

It would be really nice if it were possible to export to reference-style 
links in org-export-as-ascii.  Ideally, you could specify what level the 
link definitions appeared at:  bottom of the current level of the 
outline, bottom of the top level of the outline, or bottom of the file.

This is not a high-priority feature for me, just something that would be 
nice to have, and would in some cases make the ascii files exported from 
org easier to read.

Thanks for considering it,
/au


All of the indented examples are from 
http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax -- check there for 
more on Markdown:

General example of inline links:

     This is [an example](http://example.com/ "Title") inline link.
     [This link](http://example.net/) has no title attribute.

General example of reference links:

     This is [an example] [id] reference-style link.
     [id]: http://example.com/  "Optional Title Here"

Inline links:

     I get 10 times more traffic from [Google](http://google.com/
     "Google") than from [Yahoo](http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search")
     or [MSN](http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search").

Reference links with IDs:

     I get 10 times more traffic from [Google] [1] than from
     [Yahoo] [2] or [MSN] [3].

     [1]: http://google.com/        "Google"
     [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/  "Yahoo Search"
     [3]: http://search.msn.com/    "MSN Search"

Reference links without IDs:

     I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][] than from
     [Yahoo][] or [MSN][].

     [google]: http://google.com/        "Google"
     [yahoo]:  http://search.yahoo.com/  "Yahoo Search"
     [msn]:    http://search.msn.com/    "MSN Search"

Re: another org-export request regarding links

[Carsten Dominik]

Are jou suggesting that *all* links should be exported as reference 
style, or only some?  Which ones?

This is going on my list of things to remember, but I don't know yet 
if/when I will get to this.

- Carsten

On May 19, 2006, at 21:53, Austin Frank wrote:

> Hi again!
>
> Org-exort-as-ascii describes itself as being Markdown-like.  I think 
> that the ascii export is excellent and very readable, but I'd like to 
> push for it to be just a little bit more Markdown-like.
>
> Markdown supports two ways of including links in a text file-- inline 
> links and reference links.  See the bottom of this note for examples 
> of reference-style links in Markdown.
>
> It would be really nice if it were possible to export to 
> reference-style links in org-export-as-ascii.  Ideally, you could 
> specify what level the link definitions appeared at:  bottom of the 
> current level of the outline, bottom of the top level of the outline, 
> or bottom of the file.
>
> This is not a high-priority feature for me, just something that would 
> be nice to have, and would in some cases make the ascii files exported 
> from org easier to read.
>
> Thanks for considering it,
> /au
>
>
> All of the indented examples are from 
> http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax -- check there for 
> more on Markdown:
>
> General example of inline links:
>
>     This is [an example](http://example.com/ "Title") inline link.
>     [This link](http://example.net/) has no title attribute.
>
> General example of reference links:
>
>     This is [an example] [id] reference-style link.
>     [id]: http://example.com/  "Optional Title Here"
>
> Inline links:
>
>     I get 10 times more traffic from [Google](http://google.com/
>     "Google") than from [Yahoo](http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo 
> Search")
>     or [MSN](http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search").
>
> Reference links with IDs:
>
>     I get 10 times more traffic from [Google] [1] than from
>     [Yahoo] [2] or [MSN] [3].
>
>     [1]: http://google.com/        "Google"
>     [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/  "Yahoo Search"
>     [3]: http://search.msn.com/    "MSN Search"
>
> Reference links without IDs:
>
>     I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][] than from
>     [Yahoo][] or [MSN][].
>
>     [google]: http://google.com/        "Google"
>     [yahoo]:  http://search.yahoo.com/  "Yahoo Search"
>     [msn]:    http://search.msn.com/    "MSN Search"
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
>
>

--
Carsten Dominik
Sterrenkundig Instituut "Anton Pannekoek"
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kruislaan 403
NL-1098SJ Amsterdam
phone: +31 20 525 7477

Re: another org-export request regarding links

[Austin Frank]

Carsten Dominik wrote:
> Are jou suggesting that *all* links should be exported as reference
> style, or only some?  Which ones?

There are a few different ways I can see it working.

First, and probably simplest, would be to set a flag in #+OPTIONS: that
applied to all of the links in the file on ascii export.

Another idea would be to introduce a new function with an embellished
linking markup for adding an ID and title to links-- something like

    [[http://www.example.com][description][optional id][optional title]]

In this case, any link created with org-insert-reference-link (or
whatever the new function was called) would be exported in reference
style during org-export-as-ascii.  To clarify:

    I use [[http://www.yahoo.com][Yahoo search][][]].
    I use [[http://www.google.com][Google search][1][]].
    I use [[http://www.ask.com][Ask search][2][formerly Ask Jeeves]].
    I use [[http://www.altavista.com][Alta Vista search][][not really]].

might be exported as

    I use [Yahoo search].
    I use [Google search] [1].
    I use [Ask search] [2].
    I use [Alta Vista search].

    [Yahoo search]: http://www.yahoo.com
    [1]: http://www.google.com
    [2]: http://www.ask.com    "formerly Ask Jeeves"
    [Alta Vista search]: http://www.altavista.com    "not really"

I could also imagine that reference-style links might be exported
differently in org-export-as-html as well-- they would still be
functioning hyperlinks at the point where they were inserted, but they
could automatically be gathered into a list of links at the bottom of
the html file, as is common in many tech articles.


> This is going on my list of things to remember, but I don't know yet
> if/when I will get to this.

Like I said, this one is in the "would be nice to have" category for me,
too.  I'm definitely not missing it in my day-to-day use of org.

Thanks,
/au