Re: Some orgtbl doc issues

[Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com>]

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Well clearly the radio tables section reads better now. Further comments
inline.
Before that some general comments.

The Python list thread starting here
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2013-July/653164.html

As you will see some python programmers (including emacsers!) seem to have
a need for something like this and dont seem to know about org. And by
extension one may assume other languages than python also. In short this
seems to be a general need.

So what is written below should be taken less from my own pov -- I am
hardly an org power-user but still a user -- than from the pov of a general
emacser -- a programmer who uses emacs and knows next to nothing about org


On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 10:16 PM, Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com
> wrote:

> Hi Rustom,
>
> thanks for this.
>
> On 16.8.2013, at 16:30, Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Ive recently been poking around in orgtbl mode and encountered some
> > issues.  Not sure how much is my own lack of understanding and how
> > much there are some little doc issues.
> >
> > 1 Option names dont match
> > =========================
> >
> >  - Its orgtbl-radio-table-templates in emacs
> >  - Its orgtbl-radio-tables in doc Appendix A.6.2
>
> Fixed, thanks.
>
> >
> >
> > 2 Receiving string
> > ==================
> >
> >  - Seems to be "RECEIVE ORGTBL"
>
> It is BEGIN RECEIVE ORGTBL followed by a table name.  As the example in
> the manual shows.  Does this have to be more explicit?
>
> >  - String seems to be hardwired. Which may be ok if its by design.
>
> Yes, hardwired by design.
>

Not a problem in itself.

It becomes a problem in connection with the dfault value of
org-radio-table-templates which contains many instances of

BEGIN RECEIVE ORGTBL %n

and thereby suggests that that is changeable


> >  - Not clear what is the relation of this string and
> >    orgtbl-radio-templates
>
> The templates insert a BEGIN RECEIVE/END RECEIVE table template with
> *proper commenting* around it in different programming modes.
> I improved this in the docs.
>
> >  - I find 1 space is fixed between RECEIVE and ORGTBL. Multiple
> > allowed between ORGTBL and table-name
>
> OK, I have removed this restriction.
>
> >  - Its not clear from the doc whether its "RECEIVE ORGTBL" or
> >  "/* RECEIVE ORGTBL"
>
> That depends on the programming mode.  The documentation says that the
> lines must be comments in the current mode, I would think that this is
> clear enough.
>

Some languages (eg Python) have no multiline comment but have a multiline
string which is also ok to use


>
> >  - Subtle interaction between # in org and host mode comment char -- #
> >    in python, shell etc -- could do with some elaboration
>
> Can you propose something for the documentation?
>
> >
> >
> > 3 hook system
> > =============
> >
> >  - What are the hooks for orgtbl?
> >  - How do the org hooks relate to the orgtbl hooks?
> >  - Note: orgtbl is for those who are not otherwise using orgmode
>
> What to you mean?  Mode hooks, or hooks for specific functionality of the
> table?  If table commands run hooks, the corresponding orgtbl commands will
> do so as well, because they simply call the table functions in an
> environment where the proper keys bindings are not accessible.
>

As I said at start of this mail, we are looking at orgtbl for otherwise
non-org users.
For that audience I was exploring whether vanilla org would work OTB
ie without any of my org-settings
also not the latest but one bundled with emacs

Since at that point I really could not understand
orgtbl-radio-table-templates and thought it had to be set I asked. As it
appears now, it works without any customization so the point is moot.
Nevertheless the general question is: If a non-org user of orgtbl needs to
set up minor-mode specific customization where is it to be done?


> orgtbl-mode is a standard minor mode and has `orgtbl-mode-hook', similar
> to all other minor modes.  See the documentation of define-minor-mode.  Do
> you feel the manual should say so?  It does not document many other hooks
> in org either, because there are too many.
>
>
> >
> > 4 Long header line
> > ==================
> >
> >  I could not figure out how to split a long
> >  :#+ORGTBL: SEND...  line
>
> It cannot be split.
>

There are programming related organizations for which something like
80-char lines is really not negotiable!
So I hope this can be considered as a feature request of course a very
minor one

Regards
>
> - Carsten
>


Speaking generally, maybe someone should respond to that python list thread.
It can be me however someone more org-knowledgeable may be more appropriate
:-)

Thanks and regards
Rusi

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