Re: block quotes in prose?

[John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 6:13 PM, Peter Salazar <cycleofsong@gmail.com> wrote:
> 1. What's the best way to demarcate block quotes in org-mode? I'd like a way
> to demarcate them that makes it visually clear at a glance that it's a block
> quote and not regular text.
>
> I would prefer not to have to put them inside #+BEGIN_QUOTE and #+END_QUOTE
> references, because I'd rather not have any content in my buffer that
> distracts me from my actual writing.
>
> In Markdown-Mode, for instance, I just prefix a block quote with a > and the
> line automatically changes color:
>
> http://i.imgur.com/AUsYJ.png
>
> Org-mode is infinitely more powerful than Markdown-Mode, so I'd just like a
> way to work with lots of prose and block quotes in org-mode that will be
> easy and visually pleasing. I'm primarily concerned about how it appears in
> the org-mode editor, not in export.
>

Looking around, at least some of this appears defined in
/path/to/org-src/lisp/org-faces.el.

I don't know enough elisp to tell you how to make Org treat ">
text..." the same as #+begin_quote.

Perhaps you could figure out where the face change is for lines like
#+latex: and #+begin_src, as they both change the face of the text
immediately after (no need for an #+end_ command to tell Org to go
back to the default face). You might be able to add "^> text" to the
list of face-sensitive regexps to look for (using ^ as symbol for
beginning of line).

ETA: after some more grepping, it looks like you could add something
in two places:

1) org-faces.el

Search the file for "defface" and make a new face. I've not done this,
but you can definitely copy/yank some existing definitions and tweak
to your liking.

2) org.el

Find a matching fontify function to see how the fontification is done.
They look pretty complicated... but perhaps it's possible to tweak one
to fontify "^> text...".

Perhaps the easiest would be to find a face you like and just add "^>
text..." to the existing list of things org already fontifies with
that style. In other words, add "^> text" regexp to the existing hunt
for lines that start with #+ in order to get src code fontification
applied.

> 2. It would also be cool to find a way to make bulleted lists appear in a
> different color if possible, or a workaround to simulate this.

As in?
- item 1
- item 2

I'm sure that's possible, too. Can't imagine this will become global,
but you could surely create your own git branch if you figure out how
or someone tells you how.


Good luck!
John


>
> Thanks!
>
>