Re: how to change the headline starter *

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

On 14.7.2011, at 20:01, Nick Dokos wrote:

> harven@free.fr wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> bzh@altern.org writes:
>>> 
>>> harven@free.fr writes:
>>> 
>>>> (setq outline-regexp "[-\f]+")
>>>> so as to use - as the headline starter character in outline mode.
>>>> Switch to another buffer, enter the text
>>>> 
>>>> - first heading
>>>> -- second heading
>>>>   some stuff here
>>>> 
>>>> Activate org-mode. M-x org-mode.
>>> 
>>> You should not do this.  org-mode lists start with a "-", using
>>> this character for headlines will just confuse things.
>> 
>> Let me rephrase my message then.
>> 
>> BUG. How to reproduce.
>> Starting with emacs -Q (this is emacs 23.2 together with org-mode 6.33),
>> execute in the scratch buffer
>> (setq outline-regexp "[•\f]+")
>> so as to use a bullet as the headline starter character in outline mode.
>> Switch to another buffer, enter the text
>> 
>> • first heading
>> •• second heading
>>   some stuff here
>> 
>> Activate org-mode. M-x org-mode.
>> 
>> Then go to the first heading. TAB folds the text as expected.
>> Go to the second heading. TAB inserts a TAB instead of folding
>> the second heading.
>> 
>>> Can't you live with the "*" as the headline character?
>> 
>> That's a pretty rude answer, I must say. I don't know a single
> 
> No, it's not. It is as clear an indication as anybody can give you that
> asterisks are pretty much embedded into org structure.
> 
> Patient: "Doctor, it hurts when I do that"
> Doctor: "Don't do that"
> 
> You may not like it but that's the way it is. Trying to change it at a
> superficial level (as you did by changing outline-regexp) is likely to
> land you in a world of pain.

Yes.  While in principle it might be possible
to change the headline character, in practice is would be
very difficult, because it is hard-coded not only in regular
expressions but also in the structure-editing commands and in
many other places.

Org-mocde has many syntax elements using many characters, and
any modification of the headline character would likely
lead to conflicts in other areas.  So I do not recommend
even trying to change this.  Outline-mode is a general mode
to do outlining and can change this.  Org-mode is a specific
file format.

BTW, this discussion has happened in the mailing list
before several times - a FAQ entry might indeed be
appropriate.

- Carsten



> 
> Nick
> 
>> language (language as e.g. english, russian, spanish...) that
>> uses * as an headline character. BTW, I know that bugs should be
>> reported through the bug tracker, I will do that asap, and
>> no, I don't have a patch, I don't understand how org-mode
>> works.
>> 
>