Re: [ELPA] New package: SachaC-news

[Adam Porter <adam@alphapapa.net>]

On 12/31/23 13:32, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2023 12:13:24 -0600
>> Cc: cnngimenez@disroot.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org
>> From: Adam Porter <adam@alphapapa.net>
>>
>>> Org format is text with its own kind of markup -- it is not plain text.
>>
>> Many users would disagree.
> 
> How can users disagree with something that is a plain fact?

A fact?  Org's own web site, as I said, proclaims, "Your life in plain 
text."  It would seem there is at least room for interpretation.

>> If you look up promotional and educational
>> content about Org, you'll find that cited as one of its chief benefits:
>> that it's essentially plain text.
> 
> "Essentially plain text" means it's not plain text.

What is "plain text"?  Is the following block "plain text"?

   To-do list:

   - Walk dog
   - Feed cat
   - Reply to email

I would say so, as I've written many such lists in ".txt" files before I 
discovered Org mode, yet it has Org syntax that would cause it to be 
parsed as a paragraph followed by a bulleted list.  If it is not "plain 
text," then what would make it so?  Shall we remove the hyphens?

   To-do list:

   Walk dog
   Feed cat
   Reply to email

Is that now "plain text"?  Does that now qualify it for inclusion in an 
Emacs package since it technically lacks Org syntax?  (Or does it?  Org 
will parse that block as two paragraphs of Org-formatted text.)  Is it 
now easier to read outside of org-mode's font-locking?

> Do you deny that Org files have their own specialized markup?  Because
> that's all that Richard said above.  If you do agree that Org has its
> own markup, then where are you going with your objections and
> arguments?

He said that the package in question should have the output of one of 
its commands changed to not output Org syntax.  With Org being 
"essentially" plain text, and intended to be readable as plain-text in 
any software, without any special fontification, that raises the 
question of what would be changed to qualify the command's output as 
non-Org "plain text", and what the benefit would be to the user.