Re: org-startup-truncated default should be nil [legibility 2/6]

[Texas Cyberthal <texas.cyberthal@gmail.com>]

auto-fill-mode is unsuitable for prose work, and especially for rough
notes which rely on demi paragraphs. Demi-paragraphs are important for
conveying uncertainty. Polished publishable prose can usually be
written with proper syntax and paragraphs separated by blank lines,
but the requisite forethought and certainty are unavailable for raw
notes, which is exactly what a boostrapper needs to write.

When writing for publication in a markup that doesn't recognize single
line breaks as paragraphs, there is no disadvantage to using filled
paragraphs, since demi-paragraphs require ugly markup to survive
refilling. However, raw Org notes aren't written for publication.

The best solution for one's informal notes is truncation off and word
wrapping on. This respects demi-paragraphs, and permits dynamic visual
line length, depending on window width. When I'm composing a longer
document, I often prefer a column width of around 160 chars, or
fullscreen, to see the document overview. However, for close work I
prefer 80 chars, or for comparing two documents with a vertical window
split.

> My question was: what do you mean by paragraph navigation?

In this case, I meant intra-paragraph navigation.

> what is missing in vanilla emacs in this respect?

It's hard for a bootstrapping normie-noob to achieve a
paragraph-editing experience that isn't significantly worse than
Microsoft Word's. Which is basically the same as telling him to leave.

Last month I averaged a daily Org text intake+production of over 4.5k
words, so I have little tolerance for ergonomic friction. Failure to
support demi-paragraphs introduces UI friction right when the brain is
most overloaded, which is unacceptable for a productivity workspace.

On Thu, Feb 6, 2020 at 6:16 PM Fraga, Eric <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> On Thursday,  6 Feb 2020 at 17:46, Texas Cyberthal wrote:
> > auto-fill-mode definitely isn't what I want.
>
> Why not?  Just curious.  Before I switched to visual-line-mode for all
> org documents, I used auto-fill-mode for prose all the time.  Together
> with fill-paragraph (M-q), this did the job very well.
>
> > Beyond that I don't understand your question.
>
> My question was: what do you mean by paragraph navigation?  And,
> supplementary, what is missing in vanilla emacs in this respect?
>
> And, yes, if I had a beard, it would be grey. ;-) But I would be more
> than happy to see new users embrace Emacs & org mode.  They are missing
> out on a fantastic system.  Unfortunately, people are blind to the "it's
> all text" paradigm due to the frills of buttons, mice, and menus which
> paradoxically get in the way of productivity.
>
> The same issues arise in the LaTeX vs Word debate... and having to
> produce technical documents (articles, books, proposals, presentations)
> for a living, LaTeX is the only way to go.  But this is for another
> day. :-)
>
> --
> : Eric S Fraga via Emacs 28.0.50, Org release_9.3.2-233-gc2bc48