Re: Org mode and Emacs

[Ihor Radchenko]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> I was hoping to see that same smoothness with Org mode -- that you
> specify the contents and Org mode owuld give youa manual with that
> contents.  But instead, it seems that Org mode for a manual would
> specify Texinfo text to "export", and Org would generate Texinfo source
> to export which Texinfo could then convert convert into manuals as output.

I think I need to clarify. This is how export to info works _now_.
However, nothing stops us from implementing direct export org->info
without intermediate org->texi step. Someone just needs to do this job.

> Could it be it possible to make Org mode generate the manual output
> formats using contructs that are semantic in meaning, that specify
> semantic markup for the contents of the manual -- and have Org mode
> generate the output formats to represent the semantics of the manual
> contents?  That would be a good replacement for Texinfo.

> I think this from Bastien Guerry
>
>     Yes, that's the idea behind using one-char constructs for basic inline
>     markup (eg ~code~, /emphasis/, etc.) and two-chars constructs for more
>     specific inline markup (eg ~~defn~~, =~defvar~=, etc.).
>
> Is a sort of thing that might be smooth in this sense.  It would specify
> semantics of the contents, rather than "what to export".
>
> It might bot be the best way (as Po Lu says), but at least it is
> semantic markup.

Sorry, but I am lost here.

Currently, Org mode does not support all the markup supported by
texinfo. But we will change that.

Meanwhile, Org implements info/manual export by ad-hoc extension
allowing to add texinfo-specific markup. This is not ideal, and it does
not need to be done after we do add the missing markup (Org equivalents
of @kbd, @var, and other)

>   > One of the ideas was to follow TeXinfo markup closely, extending with
>   > some Org-specific needs:
>
>   > Simple case:
>   > @name{<contents>}
>
>   > If we need to escape { or } inside:
>   > @name{{<contents}}
>
>   > Extra configuration:
>   > @name[:key value ...]{<contents>}
>
> This describes a syntax, but not the semantics.
>
> For
>
>   > Simple case:
>   > @name{<contents>}
>
> what's an example of what _name_ might be, and what would it mean?

For example, @kbd{C-c C-x C-c} or @var{org-export-backends}.

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>