From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Eric Schulte" Subject: Re: [babel] Future of Org-babel? Date: Thu, 06 May 2010 09:00:05 -0600 Message-ID: <877hnhkrcl.fsf@gmail.com> References: <87pr193i7o.fsf@columbia.edu> 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 1OA2ZB-0003ml-61 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 06 May 2010 11:00:45 -0400 Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=59748 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OA2Z9-0003kq-8V for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 06 May 2010 11:00:44 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OA2Yy-0007HJ-Lz for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 06 May 2010 11:00:41 -0400 Received: from mail-pv0-f169.google.com ([74.125.83.169]:41029) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OA2Yy-0007Gx-Gg for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 06 May 2010 11:00:32 -0400 Received: by pvg3 with SMTP id 3so27861pvg.0 for ; Thu, 06 May 2010 08:00:31 -0700 (PDT) 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 Thanks for the idea! Xiao-Yong Jin writes: [...] > I am thinking of something similar to the 'notebook' > interface in Mathematica. We can present data, code and > analysis results in a consistent and structured way, thanks > to org-mode. Yes, this is a great idea. This has been voiced before in reference to Sage[1] a python mathematical "notebook" which allows for interactive editing. I think of it as the interactive alternative to static code blocks in Org-mode files, sort of a REPL for Org-babel. I'm not sure what the actual interface would look like or feel like, and I'd love to hear suggestions. > And in addition, we can use all kinds of different languages that > org-babel supports, automatically generates tables and graphs on the > fly as we execute different code blocks. This requires a clean and > easy way to propagating information through different languages in > org-babel. Org-babel does have a means for moving information and variables between different languages (with emacs-lisp as the lowest common denominator). I agree this would be exciting. My pie-in-the-sky extension of this dream would be to have Org-babel firmly ground in some virtual machine (maybe Guile's if Emacs is ported to Guile), in such a way that the byte-code of the VM becomes the lowest common denominator of all Org-babel languages. This would allow for seamless integration of languages which compile to run on the VM, and for all other languages this would provide a great speed/efficiency boost over Emacs Lisp. I should disclaim that without having given this much serious though I could be missing some critical road blocks. Cheers -- Eric > In this sense, org-babel can be an advanced interface of comint-mode, > or even replace it. Imagine running several different inferior > interpreters, like shell, python, haskell, gnuplot, (i)maxima, octave > and etc, but variables can be shared between these processes, and all > the code and extra texts are stored in one org-mode file, which is > also the only file you have to work on. > > This is my dream about org-babel. Hope it comes true, > someday. > >> Thanks, >> --Nate > > Thanks, > Xiao-Yong Footnotes: [1] http://www.sagemath.org/