Re: Proposal: 'executable' org-capture-templaes

[Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com>]

On 20/06/2022 19:10, Ihor Radchenko wrote:
> Max Nikulin writes:
> 
> Sure. I was hinting about such functionality in the new library we are
> discussing. Multiple capture menus are not possible now anyway, so it
> will be a new feature if we decide that we need it (I am not 100% sure
> if having multiple menus is not going to be confusing).

In my opinion application logic should be consistent with UI. Do you 
think current behavior of help buffers has no problems? If so I have no 
chance to convince you that upgrade of menu should be accompanied by 
changes in org-capture.

Consider the following case. A user has 2 virtual desktops dedicated to 
rather independent tasks and an Emacs frame on each desktop. On desktop 
1 she opens help for some function with aim to evaluate if it is 
appropriate for some particular purpose. Next she has to switch to 
another task and applications for it reside on virtual desktop 2. To 
proceed further she has to read several help pages relevant for task 2. 
After completion of this task it is time to resume task 1 and to switch 
to virtual desktop 1. Does a window with the help buffer still display 
the same content as before switching to task 2? No, context on desktop 1 
lost due to some actions in the Emacs frame on desktop 2.

Such synchronization is against multitasking and I do not like the idea 
to get it for org-capture as well. Currently read-key and modal prompt 
is a kind of excuse, but the idea of new menu library is non-blocking 
keymap-based selection.

>> Currently several capture menu instances may be requested though
>> org-protocol (or calling org-capture from emacsclient). The behavior is
>> rather confusing. New menu may help to fix the issue, that is why I
>> raised the question about parallel captures.
> 
> I am not sure which behavior you have in mind.

try the following commands without selecting a template in an Emacs 
frame in between

     emacsclient 'org-protocol:/capture?url=url-A&title=title-A&body=body=A'
     emacsclient 'org-protocol:/capture?url=url-B&title=title-B&body=body=B'

> What I was thinking as a conservative implementation that would not
> introduce any new features is replacing the old menu with the new one
> every time the same menu is called. So, every time the user calls menu
> (e.g. capture menu), only the last capture environment is preserved. The
> previous, potentially unfinished, capture menus will be destroyed.

Causing loss of user data. Currently it is hard to start new capture 
before selecting a template.