Re: Org mode and Emacs

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

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  > FWIW, I think it is good to improve the .org format and Org tools
  > so that they are as good as .texi and Texinfo tools when it comes
  > to writing and publishing technical documentation.

The term "as good as" may suggest, incorrectly, that this is a matter
of comparing the two formats over some sense of _quality_.  But that's
not what this is about.  The improvements I've proposed for Org format
are a matter of _supporting the range of necessary constructs_.

Texinfo supports them all because I implemented them all in Texinfo.
As a result, you can express in Texinfo everything that has proved
necessary (so far, at least) in GNU documentation.

At present, that is not the case with Org format.  There are
situations in which Org format provides no way to express what needs
to be said.

  > Let's simply try to improve Org in general, and see if more GNU
  > maintainers want to use it as their native documentat format (the
  > example of Org's documentation shows it's already possible.)

We need to be careful here.  What does the existence of Org mode
documentation written in Org format actually show -- given that the
format doesn't support all the constructs that are needed in general?

It might show that the Org mode documentation doesn't make all the
textual distinctions properly -- that it fails to follow our style
guide.  If so, then it is "possible" but only with flawed output.

But not necesarily.  Perhaps it shows that the Org mode documentation
needs only a limited subset of those constructs, and those are all
implemened in Ogr format.  If so, that could mean that Org format is
fine for the Org mode manual in prticular, but is not adequate for the
whole range of our documentation.

Either way, to make Org format adequate for that whole range of
constructs, in all the output formats, will require working
specifically towards that goal.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)