Re: [Out-of-Thread] Re: [RFC] Org syntax (draft)

[Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com>]

On 3/18/13, W. Greenhouse <wgreenhouse@riseup.net> wrote:
> Perhaps a compromise could be reached on variables such as
> `org-emphasis-alist' and others possibly slated for the defconst
> treatment: instead of doing that, let's consider keeping them
> customizable but include the default values in the Org format
> specification.  Org users who are never using Org outside of Emacs will

I think this is a good idea.

===

Here is a brainstorm involving an old idea:

If the problem is external parsers vs. flexibility, I wonder if it
might be possible to have zeltak's cake and eat it too.  This applies
to more than just coloring in the buffer transiently.

In the case of color, $[face :foreground "red"]we can actually color
something in a way that external parsers can understand and export
backends can support$[end].  To some degree, at least.

We can do so $[face :foreground "yellow" :underline t]using a syntax
that will work for other features also and can be upgraded$[end].  Not
only for faces.  Just change "face" to the name of your feature.

Every feature that uses the $[] syntax starts out as experimental or
in the user's .emacs.  Then after we experiment with a feature and
decide it's worth being a default, we add it to the RFC and no longer
call it Emacs-only.

One big win is that Emacs and external parsers need only understand
the $[] notation, and do not need to come up with new parsing
techniques for syntax, because it is a Lisp lambda list.  Even the
user can do this.

All sorts of things then come for free.  For example, quoting,
escaping, nesting, pretty-printing, exporting, hiding, making the $[]
parts look human-friendly by making them invisible or collapsing them,
and so on.  They are all available for new features that need syntax,
including user-defined ones.

A possibility for what it's worth.

Samuel

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