Re: Org mode and Emacs

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net>
> Cc: rms@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2023 16:12:57 +0000
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> >> > Not the output format, but the language: new directives and sometimes
> >> > markup are added with every release of Texinfo.  Just read their NEWS
> >> > file.
> >> 
> >> The way I see Org markup extension would make it easy to users add new
> >> custom markup, as needed. Then, no frequent changes to the base markup
> >> will be necessary to accommodate for less common use cases.
> >
> > You missed the "new directives" part.  I do recommend reading their
> > NEWS to get the idea of the rate at which new features are added to
> > Texinfo.
> 
> There is a single word "directives" in
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/texinfo.git/plain/NEWS:
> 
>     . #line directives are recognized.

Look for changes whose heading is "Language:".

> >> In other words, I do not see why Org should support every single Texinfo
> >> markup. We just need to provide enough support to be on par in terms of
> >> the needs of manual authors.
> >
> > GNU Manuals use a large portion of what Texinfo provides, and limiting
> > what they could use when they write in Org would mean some Texinfo
> > features cannot be used that way, which is a disadvantage.  People
> > will have to think twice before they switch to Org, because at some
> > point they might want to use a feature you decided not to support.
> 
> I understand. However, new features are added to Texinfo for a reason.
> If the same reason is valid for Org, equivalent features may be added.

The reason why features are added to Texinfo is that those features
are useful for writing software documentation.  After all, this is the
main purpose of Texinfo.  So I cannot see how the same reasons could
not be valid for Org -- assuming that Org wants to support writing
software documentation, not just the Emacs manuals in their current
form.

> Similarly, we may add features to Org that have no equivalent in
> Texinfo.

When you add features to Org, no one needs to catch up with them.  But
when Texinfo adds new features, users of Org who use Org for writing
software documentation will expect those features to be supported,
since Org will (AFAIU) claim that it can be used for that.

> >> Why so?
> >
> > Because the production rules are much more complex.  I suggest to take
> > a look at the Perl source code of texi2any to see what it entails.
> 
> AFAIU, the conversion is done in
> /usr/share/texinfo/Texinfo/Convert/Info.pm
> I do not see anything extraordinary. Org uses similar approach - working
> with parse tree.

Fine, then I guess you are all set and can simply forget what I said.