From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Samuel Wales Subject: Re: About commit named "Allow multi-line properties to be specified in property blocks" Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 14:05:27 -0700 Message-ID: References: <87vcr5c76e.fsf@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:46385) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RLi02-0000JH-D4 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:05:31 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RLi01-0003zM-Ca for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:05:30 -0400 Received: from mail-iy0-f169.google.com ([209.85.210.169]:47156) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RLi01-0003yg-5c for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:05:29 -0400 Received: by iagf6 with SMTP id f6so740185iag.0 for ; Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:05:27 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <87vcr5c76e.fsf@gmail.com> List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Nicolas Goaziou Cc: Org Mode List Something that has not been mentioned yet, as a possible background. One nice thing about subtrees (the properties drawer) for control is that they are nicely (essentially lexically) scoped and nested as in many programming languages. One issue with blocks for control is that they are ambiguously scoped. - It isn't immediately clear whether they apply to the whole file or below the block. + If they apply to the whole file, it can be confusing to have them hidden in some subtree but have global effect. Moving a subtree into the file can surprisingly change state for all other subtrees. + If they apply below the block, and you sort subtrees, those that used to be above or below surprisingly change state. Of course those who work on a file basis still need some way of specifying control for the file. And that can be at the top of the file. I am not saying there should be no way to do that. Just pointing out something not yet mentioned in these threads. Maybe scoping is one reason underlying the unease some have with using blocks for control where there is no equivalent subtree option. I avoid file-level operations partly for that reason. === One interesting possibility is to have a dedicated top-level entry for all file-level control purposes. Then it's clear where everything should go, and syntax can even follow the subtree syntax. However, that might be too radical for this discussion. Samuel -- The Kafka Pandemic: http://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com === Bigotry against people with serious diseases is still bigotry.