TAB from within a text

TAB from within a text

[François Pinard]

Hi, everybody.

Writing a longish text for my coworkers this morning, I notice that I do
not know a quick way for collapsing the whole set of paragraphs I'm
currently writing, when their header happens to be many screenfuls above
point.  I have to first return to that header and do TAB there.  Even
this return was not evident to me at first.  I wrongly thought that `C-c
C-u' would do it, but it jumps far too much and lands one level higher
than I expected.  Then, /(org)Motion node/ taught me that I could use
`C-c C-j <up>' to this purpose; which is slightly convoluted to me, as I
always perceived `C-c C-j' as a kind of sophisticated "reveal".

Is it unreasonable for me to hope that, instead of `C-c C-j <up> TAB', a
mere TAB from within a long text would quickly do what I wanted?

François

Re: TAB from within a text

[Alan Schmitt]

On 3 Feb 2012, at 15:36, François Pinard wrote:

> Hi, everybody.
>
> Writing a longish text for my coworkers this morning, I notice that I 
> do
> not know a quick way for collapsing the whole set of paragraphs I'm
> currently writing, when their header happens to be many screenfuls 
> above
> point.  I have to first return to that header and do TAB there.  Even
> this return was not evident to me at first.  I wrongly thought that 
> `C-c
> C-u' would do it, but it jumps far too much and lands one level higher
> than I expected.  Then, /(org)Motion node/ taught me that I could use
> `C-c C-j <up>' to this purpose; which is slightly convoluted to me, as 
> I
> always perceived `C-c C-j' as a kind of sophisticated "reveal".
>
> Is it unreasonable for me to hope that, instead of `C-c C-j <up> TAB', 
> a
> mere TAB from within a long text would quickly do what I wanted?

I have this in my .emacs:

;; From 
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8607656/emacs-org-mode-how-to-fold-block-without-going-to-block-header, 
how to fold a block from inside
(defun zin/org-cycle-current-headline ()
   (interactive)
   (outline-previous-heading)
   (org-cycle))

(add-hook 'org-mode-hook
	  (lambda ()
	    (define-key org-mode-map (kbd "C-c t") 
'zin/org-cycle-current-headline)
	    ))

Hope this helps,

Alan

Re: TAB from within a text

[François Pinard]

"Alan Schmitt" <alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org> writes:

> On 3 Feb 2012, at 15:36, François Pinard wrote:

>> Is it unreasonable for me to hope that, instead of `C-c C-j <up>
>> TAB', a mere TAB from within a long text would quickly do what I
>> wanted?

> I have this in my .emacs:

> ;; From
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8607656/emacs-org-mode-how-to-fold-block-without-going-to-block-header,
> how to fold a block from inside
> (defun zin/org-cycle-current-headline ()
>   (interactive)
>   (outline-previous-heading)
>   (org-cycle))

> (add-hook 'org-mode-hook
> 	  (lambda ()
> 	    (define-key org-mode-map (kbd "C-c t")
> zin/org-cycle-current-headline)
> 	    ))

> Hope this helps,

Hello, Alan, and gang.

Yes, it does, yet a bit unexpectedly.  I see your usage of "/" to
control the "my" name space.  I also saw ":" and "::".  Maybe I should
change my habits, as I prepend "fp-", which is a bit dumb.  I wonder if
some common wisdom developed in that area, which I should follow.

It also helps as telling that I'm abusing of global-set-key for my Org
mode key bindings, while I should be more particular, as you do. :-)

As for the real problem, my suggestion was really that TAB (and not `C-c
t') be used for such a purpose, in Org mode proper, as it seems to me as
the natural thing to do, and might be generally useful.  However, I'm
not fully sure the suggestion is necessarily a good one, as TAB also has
special meaning here and there (I'm thinking of tables).  Maybe TAB
would be good enough nevertheless to be worth amending?

François

Re: TAB from within a text

[Nick Dokos]

François Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

> Hi, everybody.
> 
> Writing a longish text for my coworkers this morning, I notice that I do
> not know a quick way for collapsing the whole set of paragraphs I'm
> currently writing, when their header happens to be many screenfuls above
> point.  I have to first return to that header and do TAB there.  Even
> this return was not evident to me at first.  I wrongly thought that `C-c
> C-u' would do it, but it jumps far too much and lands one level higher
> than I expected.  Then, /(org)Motion node/ taught me that I could use
> `C-c C-j <up>' to this purpose; which is slightly convoluted to me, as I
> always perceived `C-c C-j' as a kind of sophisticated "reveal".
> 

Checking the navigation menu, I thought that

C-c C-p == outline-previous-visible-heading
C-c C-b == org-backward-same-level
C-c C-u == outline-up-heading

(in particular, C-c C-p in this case) would be the more natural choices for
navigation.

C-c C-j == org-goto does a lot more than that - in particular, it is modal
and you have to get out of the mode, e.g. by selecting a location and pressing
<RET>.

> Is it unreasonable for me to hope that, instead of `C-c C-j <up> TAB', a
> mere TAB from within a long text would quickly do what I wanted?
> 

It does seem unreasonable to me, looking from the outside in: TAB is
overworked, overloaded and much too smart for its own good, and you are
asking it to be smarter and do more :-) But I wouldn't dismiss it as
impossible: org itself came about from a similar idea applied to outline.el
Whether it's worth it, I don't know: C-c C-p TAB has worked for me and has
seemed painless enough to me so as not to go looking for something "better".

Nick

Re: TAB from within a text

[François Pinard]

Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com> writes:

> [Your suggestion of overloading TAB] does seem unreasonable to me, TAB
> is overworked, overloaded and much too smart for its own good [...]
> C-c C-p TAB [...] has seemed painless enough to me so as not to go
> looking for something "better".

Sold! :-)  Thanks, Nick, for your wise comments.

François