[RFC] Org version of the Org manual

[tsd@tsdye.com (Thomas S. Dye)]

Aloha all,

An experiment to see if it is possible to convert the Org manual to Org
is now (hopefully) at the "proof of concept" stage and I would like to
determine whether or not the approach is viable. The experiment is here:

https://github.com/tsdye/orgmanual.git

The file orgmanual.org has a heading, * Instructions for use, that
explains how to set up asynchronous export with the new exporter. The
repo also contains orgmanual.info in case you don't want to hassle with
exporting the org file and just want to see what it looks like in info.
I'm able to generate an info file without makeinfo raising any errors or
warnings. 

There is also a heading, * Improvements and fixes, that includes a list
of problems that either need to be fixed or are in the process of being
fixed. Obviously, the file is not perfect, but I do believe it is good
enough to judge whether success will be possible. At any rate, I need to
pull myself away from this project for a week or so to do other things
and can't get caught up making editorial changes or working on the (to
me) thorny issues that remain.

Sections with problems have been given FIXME keywords. In some cases,
problem text (especially in macros) has been replaced with `XXX'.
Proposed fixes for these nagging issues will be greatly appreciated.

By way of background, my initial goal was to replicate the Org manual
precisely. This goal was abandoned when I realized that the various
contributors to the manual (including me a few years ago) had different
ideas about what a .texi file should look like and had created a somewhat
eclectic product.  The goal now is to have a "functional equivalent" of
the manual.

The ultimate goal is to maintain the Org manual in Org, rather than
.texi, and to have the infrastructure in place in time to support the
major revisions required by the forthcoming release of version 8.0.

Many thanks to Nicolas Goaziou and to Jonathan Leech-Pepin for their
excellent work on the new exporter framework and the texinfo exporter,
and for their patience with my sometimes exasperated (and exasperating)
queries.  Jonathan showed me the way forward at an early stage and
devised most of the macros.

I look forward to picking this project up again in a week or so, or
learning from my Org colleagues that the project ought to be scuttled.

All the best,
Tom

-- 
T.S. Dye & Colleagues, Archaeologists
735 Bishop St, Suite 315, Honolulu, HI 96813
Tel: 808-529-0866, Fax: 808-529-0884
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