Re: Survey: changing a few default settings for Org 9.4

[Matthew Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org>]

Bastien <bzg@gnu.org> writes:

> - org-fontify-done-headline => t
>
>   This is useful to visualize done headlines and can be easily turned
>   off, while not being easily discovered for Org newcomers.

I find this a bit visually distracting, but that's likely because I've
used Org mode in the "old school" way for so long. So no strong opinions
on this one.

> - org-hide-emphasis-markers => t
> - org-hide-macro-markers => t
>
>   The two changes proposed above will probably trigger some reactions
>   as they touch something very sensitive: whether Org should try to be
>   "too clever" at making things invisible.  I am all for letting Org
>   newcomers enjoying these visual enhancements, while letting experts
>   turning them off if needed.

I have a few concerns about this. I believe that markup syntax, as a
rule, should be visible. Most markdown editors do not hide markup by
default. I realize that there are some exceptions in Org (e.g., links).
But editing around the invisible boundaries of links can be in Org can
be fussy (sometimes I have to do M-x visible-mode when editing near the
edges of links). So I'd recommend not changing the default here,
especially for emphasis markers.

> - org-allow-promoting-top-level-subtree => t
>
>   With the current default of nil, an error is thrown when the user
>   tries to promote a top level subtree.  The new default setting would
>   let users convert the top level heading to a commented heading.

From my point of view, this is too destructive a default. I think it
makes it too easy accidentally to turn important TODO headlines into
commented lines (which will be buried in another entry). If I wanted to
change a first level headline to a comment, it would only take two
keystrokes (C-d #). Forcing users to type this explicitly seems
preferable to creating a risk that users will accidentally bury/lose
first-level headlines as comments in another entry.

Matt