Turning a link into a non-link

Turning a link into a non-link

[François Pinard]

Hi, Org mode people.

I sometimes want to turn [[POINTER][COMMENT]] into COMMENT.  That is, I
want to remove the clickability, but retain the text.

To do so, I try `C-c C-l', empty the pointer, type RET, leave the
comment as it is, and type RET.  Org mode reacts by writing "Empty link"
in the minibuffer, and removing the COMMENT from the text.

Could it keep COMMENT in the text, instead of deleting it?

François

P.S. The converse operation is easier! :-) For adding a POINTER to an
already existing COMMENT text, I first do `C-c l' somewhere, than select
COMMENT with the mouse, and complete with `C-c C-l RET RET'.

Re: Turning a link into a non-link

[Nick Dokos]

François Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

> Hi, Org mode people.
> 
> I sometimes want to turn [[POINTER][COMMENT]] into COMMENT.  That is, I
> want to remove the clickability, but retain the text.
> 
> To do so, I try `C-c C-l', empty the pointer, type RET, leave the
> comment as it is, and type RET.  Org mode reacts by writing "Empty link"
> in the minibuffer, and removing the COMMENT from the text.
> 

This is done by org-make-link-string: it considers an empty link to
be an error. If you toggle-debug-on-error, you will get a backtrace.

> Could it keep COMMENT in the text, instead of deleting it?
> 

IMO, that'd be bad programming practice: you should write a separate
function that unlinks the link.

Nick

Re: Turning a link into a non-link

[François Pinard]

Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com> writes:

> François Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

>> I sometimes want to turn [[POINTER][COMMENT]] into COMMENT.

> This is done by org-make-link-string: it considers an empty link to be
> an error.  If you toggle-debug-on-error, you will get a backtrace.

>> Could it [`C-c C-l' given an empty link] keep COMMENT in the text,
>> instead of deleting it?

> [...] you should write a separate function that unlinks the link.

OK, should easily be done on my side.  I perceived `C-c C-l' as a little
tool for editing links in various ways.  As it can already create a link
out of no link, it already "communicates with the void" enough, so I
thought it could delete a link as well as part of its general function.

May I guess that, given a dangling link, Org mode does not offer a way
for cleaning the link part without losing its text?  Shouldn't it?

François

Re: Turning a link into a non-link

[François Pinard]

pinard@iro.umontreal.ca (François Pinard) writes:

>>> I sometimes want to turn [[POINTER][COMMENT]] into COMMENT.

>> [...] you should write a separate function that unlinks the link.

> OK, should easily be done on my side.

Just in case useful to others, I did it this way:


(defun fp-org-kill-link ()
  (interactive)
  (when (org-in-regexp org-bracket-link-regexp 1)
    (replace-match (match-string 3))))


François