From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Eddward DeVilla" Subject: definition lists in org-mode Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 17:01:51 -0500 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I6ZOg-0004jO-3u for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:01:58 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I6ZOf-0004in-Fl for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:01:57 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I6ZOf-0004ik-Bv for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:01:57 -0400 Received: from nz-out-0506.google.com ([64.233.162.229]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I6ZOe-000514-Qo for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:01:57 -0400 Received: by nz-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id f1so20675nzc for ; Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:01:55 -0700 (PDT) Content-Disposition: inline List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: org-mode Hi all, I was wondering if anyone has a good way to embed definition list into a plain list? I think they'd be nifty. OK, to be honest, I'm trying to solve a problem specific to the way I do things and try to make the solution seem more general. Specifically, I'm using a checkbox list to represent questions and little research items for projects, like so: * WORKING project *** Investigate - [X] Can we do this -- Yes Bob say it's OK. - [ ] Do we need to do that What I'm after here is a short statement of the question, possibly a short statement of the answer, and the details under it so I can hide the detail with visibility cycling on plain lists. I already kind of do this, but it goes horribly wrong when every I try to use ESC-Q to re-wrap the item. Don't get me wrong, I'd use a plain definition list too if it were there. This is just the nit that triggered all this. Now first off, I know I could get most of what I want if I were to switch to use outline entries instead of a plain list. Heading don't wrap. That just seems wrong though. It's a list. I'd have to replace the simple checkboxes with TODO keyword (which isn't so unreasonable now that we can have multiple sequences) and I've been using the outline entries to represent document sections, projects and project sub headings. If I start using todo items here, then I'll have to start using something more complicated that the agenda-todo list to get my projects and not the sub steps under them. I could just be I have to change how I do things. That's not always bad. I also know I could make the answer a sub-bullet. I do it when I need to, but it's not visually appealing. It looks like a sub list when it just being used to prevent word-wrap. Likewise I sometimes use ':' if the answer is one line. This isn't so bad, if the answer is one line. If I ever become an avid user of the publishing feature, my thought might change on that. Getting back to definition lists, I recently saw rst (reStructuredText) and found it interesting. I like it's feature set in general and I like that most of the features I like were already in org-mode though maybe with a different syntax. Two features that that jump out at me were the definition lists and and the fields lists. (I also like the options list, but its obviously only for parameter lists. I guess I'm list oriented.) Interestingly, the field lists look like multi-live versions of org-mode's properties. The definition list just looked like a nice way to represent my outstanding/answered questions. I've always thought that, but I didn't realize they could solve my question formatting problem before now. They also looks like another great way to organize miscellaneous info. The rst definition list provide the term, the definition and and optional list of classifiers on the term. I didn't ever think of having classifiers but I like them. I guess this gets me to my question(s)? Would anyone else find definition lists useful? Is there already a good way to do definition list and/or my question lists that I'm just missing? If having definition lists is a good feature to add, how should it be added? I'd like to see it be something that can be embedded in a plain list but I could get by with it if that isn't reasonable. I think we need to be able to have regular text, sub-lists, tables, etc in the definition though. What syntax would work? I was inspired by rst, but I think rst is too different from org-mode to adopter their syntax. Sorry to bring this up right on the heels of properties. That is going to need to settle down some I'm sure. Things just clicked when I was reading upon rst and I figured I'd forget about it shortly. For those who are curious about what rst is, it looks like a plain text readable mark that can be processed into other pretty print markups. Seems, kind of like html, but comfortably readable in source form. I put links to it (and it's definition lists) below. Edd http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickstart.html http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickref.html#definition-lists http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#definition-lists