bug#48580: Outline Mode using Phylogenetic Tree Nomenclature

[pietru@caramail.com]

> Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 8:10 PM
> From: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@gnu.org>
> To: pietru@caramail.com
> Cc: 48580@debbugs.gnu.org
> Subject: bug#48580: Outline Mode using Phylogenetic Tree Nomenclature
>
> > From: pietru@caramail.com
> > Date: Sat, 22 May 2021 09:56:15 +0200
> > Sensitivity: Normal
> >
> > I advise and lay out a system based on a formal Phylogenetic Tree that implement
> > Show-Hide Options.
> >
> > Show All (currently: Show All [unchanged])
> > Show Offsprings (currently: Show Children)
> > Show Descendants  (currently: Show Branches)
> > Show Sub-Tree (currently: Show Subtree [unchanged])
> > Show Common Level (currently: Hide Sublevels)
> >
> > Hide Sub-Branches (currently: Hide Leaves - meaning Hide Body after heading)
> > Hide Branches (currently: Hide Body, leaves all headings visible)
> > Hide Current Branch (currently: Hide Entry - hide body of this heading)
> > Hide Sub-Tree (currently: Hide Subtree [unchanged])
> > Hide Other (currently: Hide Other [unchanged])
>
> FWIW, if I were presented with the menu labels as you suggest, I'd be
> mightily confused by the unfamiliar terminology.  "Branches",
> "Levels", "Children", and "Tree" are familiar terms when dealing with
> tree structures, whereas "Offsprings", "Descendants" and
> "Sub-branches" aren't.

The problem is not much about Levels, Children, and Tree.

Things got problematic when people required additional words for showing and hiding
structures that go beyond Children, Levels and Tree.  My focus is mostly about "Entry"
and Leaves.

Leaves are always end-nodes, not related to the body ("hide leaves" means "hide bodies"
in outline.el [in addition to not being related to end-nodes either]).  In outline, leaves
are expected to be the bodies of headlines.  And even in standard tree nomenclature, branches
are not nodes (but "show branches means" "show nodes" in outline.el).

Regards
Peter


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