Re: org-mode without stars

[brian powell <briangpowellms@gmail.com>]

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The original "outline-mode" in EMACS which predates "org-mode" used stars.

Using stars "*" is the best way to do it; the reasons are many--OrgMode
files are flat text files and this is great too--but keep this in mind
here--think about searches, etc.

PYTHON uses indentation (and thats great); LISP silly/wonderful parens,
etc.--for EMACS use stars!  They look great!  They are the best thing to use
here:

Stars "*" are also used as the symbol for "regular-expressions"--based on
neurology/neurons/dendrites/trees/outline-trees/etc. and the "Kleene
Closure" (i.e. the mathematician Kleene)--the study of neurology and
regular-expressions and the stars "*" are intertwined--the history dates at
least back to the 1930s--and LISP/lambda calculus/Alonso Church/Kleene--the
1950s.

A star "*" @is@ a "Kleene Closure"--math.

A star "*" is easily recognized as a symbol for a note: From
http://Wiktionary.com: "  "*"== "Used at the beginning of a footnote ,
especially if it is the only one on the page, and after a word, phrase, or
sentence that this ..."

"So, why should I care"!? (you might have been thinking)

Well, howsabout this: Say you are searching for a string and/or regular
expression in a flat text file--you wouldn't search for "*"--you would
usually be search for a string (maybe an indentation level of stars "*")
using EMACS--which is by the way the fastest way to find such things --if
you are typing in real-time--emacs will highlight a search as you type
it--this function is very fast--Suggest you try these 2 examples: Cs
blah-search-string "***"--and maybe Mx search-for-regexp "***"---they have
different uses/meanings--when searching in EMACS) since emacs is the fastest
regular expression engine (for 1st-character(s)-recoginition (the engine is
optimized for this) so for this case/this type of search there is @nothing
faster@ (BTW check out QEMACS if you're working with a huge/gigabyte size
files--its fun to edit huge files with QEMACS--written by the same guy that
calculated PI with a desktop computer--to the longest # he also wrote QEMU
(Fabrice Bellard: http://bellard.org) for this type of regular-expression
search (many other engines are faster and use different algorithms--for the
purposes they were built for--and so they should be used then--each regexp
engine seems to have a niche.)

Use EMACS OrgMode and use stars "*", they really are the best for this case;
my brain is overheating thinking of the many good reasons.  But, "How do
they look when you print them out!?", etc.; well, I suggest you tailor that
with PERL, thats what I use--I quickly change doc formats to TeX--TeX is the
only thing that @really@ looks pretty!

Please "leave well enough alone"! That said, I hope you do whatever you want
and don't listen to me or anyone else on such matters--EMACS is infinitely
extensible, have fun!

;-)

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 11:57 AM, Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Bayle,
>
> On 2011-01-22, Bayle Shanks <bshanks3@gmail.com> wrote:
> > get new laptop
> >
> > organize interstellar dust meeting
> >  book the meeting room
> >  organize LOC
> >  Invited speakers
> >   - Draine
> >   - Tielens
> >   - Hollenbach
> >  1st announcement
> >
> > fix the bell in the hall
>
> I indent by spaces by 2 a lot to save typing.  c-c - and c-c * will
> convert.  They do not handle indentation, but that might be a very
> useful feature (I would use it too).
>
> This does handle indentation.  I wrote it a very long time ago for a
> different, 8-space indentation.
>
> (defun alpha-orgify ()
>  "quick hack.  create org format from my indented outline
> format, which consists of 8-space indentation.  operate on the
> region.  assume a certain number of stars and odd levels."
>  (interactive)
>  (let ((b (region-beginning))
>        (e (region-end))
>        ;;manually mod for now.  headline vs. bullet.
>        (bulletp nil))
>    (loop
>       while
>         (progn
>           (save-excursion
>             ;;use (re-)search-forward and replace-match when no query?  i'd
>             ;;prefer without the pattern (i.e. just ^) but you might be
>             ;;re-orgifying an already-orgified region.  btw match-string is
>             ;;how you get the string.
>             (perform-replace "^\\([^*]\\)"
>                              (if bulletp
>                                  "  \\1"
>                                "*** \\1")
>                              t         ;interactive
>                              t nil nil nil
>                              b
>                              e))
>           (save-excursion
>             (perform-replace "        "
>                              (if bulletp
>                                  "  "
>                                "**")
>                              t         ;interactive
>                              t nil nil nil
>                              b
>                              e))
>           (when bulletp
>             (progn
>               ;;how to make it greedy?
>               (perform-replace "^\\( +\\)\\([^ ]\\)" "\\1- \\2"
>                                t         ;interactive
>                                t nil nil nil)))))))
>
> Samuel
>
> --
> The Kafka Pandemic:
>
> http://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com/2010/12/welcome-to-kafka-pandemic-two-forces_9182.html
> I support the Whittemore-Peterson Institute (WPI)
> ===
> I want to see the original (pre-hold) Lo et al. 2010 NIH/FDA/Harvard MLV
> paper.
>
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