Re: proposal for a tool to translate orgmode outlines into programs

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

Aloha Isaac,

This sounds to me a lot like literate programming, which can be
accomplished in Org with very many languages, including ruby and python
(but not lua, yet).  See
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/languages.html. An advantage
of literate programming is that it generates documentation in addition
to the program code.

hth,
Tom

Isaac <isaacpei@gmail.com> writes:

> proposal for a tool to translate orgmode outlines into programs
>
> Idea: 
>     a program to translate orgmode note into script/programs which can be 
> used as a template/starting point for a real program after debugging, 
> refactoring. 
>
> Background and reasons: 
>     As I am accumulating more orgmode notes for problem solving, task 
> planning, project coordination,  I think it would be nice if a tool can 
> translate the orgmode (especially those problem solving ones) into programs 
> (as much as it can)- at least a program skeleton, where after 
> ideas(outlines) are done, we can generate a corresponding program which can 
> be quickly edited/debugged/re factored/tightened up to be useful running 
> programs - to facilitate problem solving and task repetition in the future.
>
>
> Questions and Discussions:
>     1. whether this would be a worthwhile idea, or such idea has been tried 
> before?
>
>     2. do we have alternative solutions?
>
>     3. if indeed this idea is interesting, what programming language it 
> would e worthwhile to translate to?  
>         currently I am thinking more along of the line of python, as its 
> indenting structure more or less resemble outlines. (though my personal take 
> for writing script is in ruby, lua is another interesting choice). this 3rd 
> question is what I don't know for sure, I found for me ruby is more 
> productive for scripting, and python has better supports ... 
>         ruby could be another attractive choice - level 1 headlines maybe 
> translated to a class, while other levels translate to methods ...
>         
>
>     Welcome your comments and ideas
>
>     thanks, Isaac
>
>     (while I am doing some search, found 
>     1. the reverse direction of this is: https://github.com/bjonnh/PyOrgMode 
> - python reading and writing orgmode, but would I would prefer is orgmode => 
> python/ruby instead.
>     2. another candidate is tangle - but idea here is different, not to 
> export codes written in orgmode, but to translate/turn orgmode text directly 
> into codes.
>     3. an interesting node.js parser for orgmode: 
> https://github.com/daitangio/org-mode-parser
>
>     Some further elaboration:
>         1. say if a headline is an action:
>             translate to def ... a function
>         2. say if a headline is some description:
>             translate to class ...
>         3. some long lines can be simply turned to comments/docstring
>         4. ... maybe ... some NLP can be used to decide what actions to 
> take?
>
>
>
>

-- 
Thomas S. Dye
http://www.tsdye.com