Re: Emulating Scrivener's binder feature

[Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl>]

On 2019-04-01, at 10:09, Paul W. Rankin <hello@paulwrankin.com> wrote:

> Hello Emaczens,
>
> I've started a new Emacs package to try and emulate the behaviour of Scrivener's
> binder feature.
>
> A buffer in a side window would display the current project not unlike
> dired-sidebar -- each file in the project occupying a single line. The ordering
> of these files should be arbitrary (i.e. the user may reorder the files) and
> this project structure should be persistent across sessions. Global keybindings
> should allow navigation from a file in the current project to the next/previous
> file in this structure. The user should (eventually) be able to mark a selection
> of files and concatenate/export these into a master output.
>
> The idea would be to have a .binder file in the top directory of the project.
> This file should be human-readable. Each line in this file should be a file path
> relative to the .binder file. Metadata relating to each file is stored below the
> file, terminating at the next file or EOF.
>
> Metadata could be: Tags beginning with ":" e.g. :tag1 :tag2 :toast :piglet.
> Multi-line notes prefixed with ">" like Markdown blockquotes. Comments start
> with "#". Blank lines are ignored.
>
> An example .binder file might look like this:
>
>     # This is a comment
>
>     The Problem of Space.txt
>     :kirin
>     First Attempt.txt
>     :noomi
>     > Intro to Noomi.
>     An Angry Driver.txt
>     :cameo
>
>     > Uncle Bob could do this?
>
>     Archive/Other Options.txt
>     Working Together.txt
>     :act3 :revised
>     > Putting ego aside, Kirin puts all his faith in Noomi's ability to judge
>     > the space from outside the truck. Little by little, they make it in.

Quick question: why not use Org-mode syntax for the binder file?  I.e.,
make each file a headline, and metadata its properties.  You'd get
reordering for free, and maybe other stuff could be useful, like column
view maybe.  Also, it would be usable outside Emacs, since there are
many Org syntax parsers out there.

Just my 2 cents,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl