[PATCH] Omit file description when :file-desc has nil value

[Huszaghmatt <huszaghmatt@gmail.com>]

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 Kyle Meyer  <kyle@kyleam.com (mailto:kyle@kyleam.com)>  writes:  >  A use case was given in the initial patch:  >   <https://orgmode.org/list/87vclky211.fsf@med.uni-goettingen.de/T/#u>.  >  The test for this behavior mentioned there is  >  test-ob/file-desc-header-argument.  >   >  That thread links to another thread by gmane ID. That's this one:  >   https://orgmode.org/list/87limm4eo2.fsf@med.uni-goettingen.de/T/#u  Thanks for the reply, Kyle, and thanks for pointing me to that thread. I understand that this would break existing functionality, but I think my solution makes more sense. For one, I think that the current implementation is a bit confusing. More importantly though, it makes it impossible to both provide a default value for :file-desc and omit it in some cases. The benefit (as mentioned in that thread) is that in those select cases, the same argument would not need to be provided twice. I think the cost of the current functionality outweighs the benefit. What are your t
houghts? I've got a pending patch (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2020-09/msg00041.html) that allows a user to provide lambdas as default header arguments (evaluated during source block execution or export). This makes the use of defaults much more attractive in my mind because they can provide context aware values. Similarly, it increases the cost of the current implementation because then this facility cannot be used for :file-desc. I guess there are other solutions we could explore, such as an empty string (is an empty file descriptor ever a valid use case?) taking the place of the current functionality, or fully eliminating the file descriptor. However, this is starting to feel like a lot of hacks and would be very confusing to new users. Moreover, it really just pushes the problem down the road rather than fixing it outright.  >  Right, to reflect the current behavior established as a result of the  >  above thread, I think that should be reworded to distinguis
h between an  >  absent :file-desc header and one with no argument. Sorry for not  >  catching that when reviewing your initial patch. No worries, and I agree the documentation should be updated. I'm happy to provide the patch myself, but I'd like to talk through whether the current implementation is the correct one before I do. Best Matt 

 
 
 
 

 
     

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