Utility of description lists

Utility of description lists

[Cletip Cletip]

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Hello to all,
The question is the same as the object, but it can be more detailed with
this question: what are the differences between description lists and other
lists?
After many researches, I can't understand the fundamental difference.
I can see two advantages to using this type of list:
- they are made implicitly to make a "key :: value" couple, which can be
convenient
- they can be useful when exporting: they have a different style than other
lists and can be used for some other things.

For example, with the use of org-roam (or even org-normal), if I want to
export a note with properties containing a link, I can't (the link is badly
exported). You can try with the following document :

:PROPERTIES:
:ID: 20220617115633324937
:SOURCE: [[id:20220617105453042719][Emacs]]
:CITE: [cite:@DifferenceSemantiqueEntre2022]
:END:
#+title: Test Page
#+OPTIONS: prop:t


- cite :: [cite:@DifferenceSemantiqueEntre2022]
- source :: [[id:20220617105453042719][Emacs]]

* Title and some content after here



Morehover, this type of data can be exploited by the Vulpea library (
https://github.com/d12frosted/vulpea), which could allow to add other
information to each note.

Final question : why do you use description lists and not another ?

PS : Thank you very much in advance for your future response, I discover
this original system to ask questions and I hope not to abuse it by asking
this type of questions ^^

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Re: Utility of description lists

[William Denton]

On 17 June 2022, Cletip Cletip wrote:

> Final question : why do you use description lists and not another ?

When I have a list of things I want to briefly descibe!  That's all.  It's just 
a way of formatting a list of things where there's a term (a word, a name, a 
title) that has some descriptive text.  Sometimes I use them when there's an 
obvious term/description pairing, and sometimes when I have a text-heavy list of 
things and I want to have a brief summary of each to make it easier to read.


Bill

--
William Denton
https://www.miskatonic.org/
Librarian, artist and licensed private investigator.
Toronto, Canada

Re: Utility of description lists

[George Mauer]

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It is not quite true that it's just a way of formatting, there is a
semantic element to it as well where someone parsing your document
programmatically can now know that what you have is a list of terms paired
with their descriptions. In fact, when exporting to html you get a
description list
<https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/dl> which is one
of the most underused-yet-everyone-should-use-it-more html elements.

On Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 8:37 AM William Denton <wtd@pobox.com> wrote:

> On 17 June 2022, Cletip Cletip wrote:
>
> > Final question : why do you use description lists and not another ?
>
> When I have a list of things I want to briefly descibe!  That's all.  It's
> just
> a way of formatting a list of things where there's a term (a word, a name,
> a
> title) that has some descriptive text.  Sometimes I use them when there's
> an
> obvious term/description pairing, and sometimes when I have a text-heavy
> list of
> things and I want to have a brief summary of each to make it easier to
> read.
>
>
> Bill
>
> --
> William Denton
> https://www.miskatonic.org/
> Librarian, artist and licensed private investigator.
> Toronto, Canada
>
>

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Re: Utility of description lists

[Fraga, Eric]

On Friday, 17 Jun 2022 at 09:35, William Denton wrote:
> When I have a list of things I want to briefly descibe!  

And where the leading bullet or number would simple add clutter.
-- 
: Eric S Fraga, with org release_9.5.4-535-ged6f8d in Emacs 29.0.50

Re: Utility of description lists

[Cletip Cletip]

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Ok clear thanks!

Le ven. 17 juin 2022 à 15:43, Fraga, Eric <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> a écrit :

> On Friday, 17 Jun 2022 at 09:35, William Denton wrote:
> > When I have a list of things I want to briefly descibe!
>
> And where the leading bullet or number would simple add clutter.
> --
> : Eric S Fraga, with org release_9.5.4-535-ged6f8d in Emacs 29.0.50

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Re: Utility of description lists

[Cletip Cletip]

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Simple and efficient, thanks for your answer!


Le ven. 17 juin 2022 à 15:36, William Denton <wtd@pobox.com> a écrit :

> On 17 June 2022, Cletip Cletip wrote:
>
> > Final question : why do you use description lists and not another ?
>
> When I have a list of things I want to briefly descibe!  That's all.  It's
> just
> a way of formatting a list of things where there's a term (a word, a name,
> a
> title) that has some descriptive text.  Sometimes I use them when there's
> an
> obvious term/description pairing, and sometimes when I have a text-heavy
> list of
> things and I want to have a brief summary of each to make it easier to
> read.
>
>
> Bill
>
> --
> William Denton
> https://www.miskatonic.org/
> Librarian, artist and licensed private investigator.
> Toronto, Canada
>

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Re: Utility of description lists

[Kaushal Modi]

On Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 8:50 AM Cletip Cletip <clement020302@gmail.com> wrote:

> Final question : why do you use description lists and not another ?

I use description lists *heavily*.

1. For description lists of course.. where the "description" part is a
bit verbose and plain lists don't look at that elegant

For example, this in Org

=====
****** Customizing ~local.mk~ (Optional)
Here are few variables that you might like to change in the ~local.mk~:
- ~prefix~ :: Org installation directory
  #+begin_src makefile
  prefix = /dir/where/you/want/to/install/org # Default: /usr/share
  #+end_src
  The ~.el~ files will go to ~$(prefix)/emacs/site-lisp/org~ by
  default. If you'd like to change that, change the ~lispdir~
  variable too.
- ~infodir~ :: Org Info installation directory. I like to keep the
  Info file for development version of Org in a separate directory.
  #+begin_src makefile
  infodir = $(prefix)/org/info # Default: $(prefix)/info
  #+end_src
- ~ORG_MAKE_DOC~ :: Types of Org documentation you'd like to build by
  default.  Setting below generates only the Org Info manual.
  #+begin_src makefile
  ORG_MAKE_DOC = info # Default: html pdf
  #+end_src
=====

exports to https://scripter.co/building-org-development-version/#customizing-local-dot-mk--optional

2. Where something would belong in a sub-heading, but not quite
exactly? I can only describe that using one of my examples:

=====
***** Using ~pip install~
If you do not want to manually download the ~.jar~, there's a Python
wrapper available to do the same for you:
[[https://github.com/svenkreiss/html5validator][html5validator]].
- Install ::
  #+begin_src shell
  pip install --user html5validator
  #+end_src
- Run ::
  #+begin_src shell
  html5validator --root public/
  #+end_src
  It seems like this Python wrapper implicitly passes ~--skip-non-html
=====

exports to https://scripter.co/offline-html5-validator/#using-pip-install

3. Sometimes I also use it for adding Notes to a section

=====
- Note :: While the =%.1f= format is handy for those who are used to
          =printf()= syntax, note that Calc unlimited precision
          numbers are converted to double floats before applying
          =%.1f=. Whereas =f1= operates on Calc numbers without
          conversion.
=====

exports to the Note in
https://scripter.co/field-formatters-in-org-table/#using-calc-f1-formatter

Re: Utility of description lists

[Cletip Cletip]

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Ok I understand, it's really nice (the rendering on your site too).
Thanks for your answer

Le ven. 17 juin 2022 à 16:05, Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi@gmail.com> a
écrit :

> On Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 8:50 AM Cletip Cletip <clement020302@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Final question : why do you use description lists and not another ?
>
> I use description lists *heavily*.
>
> 1. For description lists of course.. where the "description" part is a
> bit verbose and plain lists don't look at that elegant
>
> For example, this in Org
>
> =====
> ****** Customizing ~local.mk~ (Optional)
> Here are few variables that you might like to change in the ~local.mk~:
> - ~prefix~ :: Org installation directory
>   #+begin_src makefile
>   prefix = /dir/where/you/want/to/install/org # Default: /usr/share
>   #+end_src
>   The ~.el~ files will go to ~$(prefix)/emacs/site-lisp/org~ by
>   default. If you'd like to change that, change the ~lispdir~
>   variable too.
> - ~infodir~ :: Org Info installation directory. I like to keep the
>   Info file for development version of Org in a separate directory.
>   #+begin_src makefile
>   infodir = $(prefix)/org/info # Default: $(prefix)/info
>   #+end_src
> - ~ORG_MAKE_DOC~ :: Types of Org documentation you'd like to build by
>   default.  Setting below generates only the Org Info manual.
>   #+begin_src makefile
>   ORG_MAKE_DOC = info # Default: html pdf
>   #+end_src
> =====
>
> exports to
> https://scripter.co/building-org-development-version/#customizing-local-dot-mk--optional
>
> 2. Where something would belong in a sub-heading, but not quite
> exactly? I can only describe that using one of my examples:
>
> =====
> ***** Using ~pip install~
> If you do not want to manually download the ~.jar~, there's a Python
> wrapper available to do the same for you:
> [[https://github.com/svenkreiss/html5validator][html5validator]].
> - Install ::
>   #+begin_src shell
>   pip install --user html5validator
>   #+end_src
> - Run ::
>   #+begin_src shell
>   html5validator --root public/
>   #+end_src
>   It seems like this Python wrapper implicitly passes ~--skip-non-html
> =====
>
> exports to https://scripter.co/offline-html5-validator/#using-pip-install
>
> 3. Sometimes I also use it for adding Notes to a section
>
> =====
> - Note :: While the =%.1f= format is handy for those who are used to
>           =printf()= syntax, note that Calc unlimited precision
>           numbers are converted to double floats before applying
>           =%.1f=. Whereas =f1= operates on Calc numbers without
>           conversion.
> =====
>
> exports to the Note in
> https://scripter.co/field-formatters-in-org-table/#using-calc-f1-formatter
>

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Re: Utility of description lists

[Juan Manuel Macías]

Hi,

Cletip Cletip writes:

> - they are made implicitly to make a "key :: value" couple, which can
> be convenient

Leaving aside typographical considerations, what LaTeX calls, for
example, "description" (because Org is totally typographic agnostic), I
find this property that you mention very useful. For example, for my
translation (work in progress) of Homer's Odyssey, I am writing a
descriptive list with the Homeric formulas in Greek (key) and how I
translate each specific formula (value), since they are terms that are
repeated a lot in the text. With a bit of Elisp I can later recover
some specific formula from the list.

See: https://list.orgmode.org/87bl5tzof2.fsf@posteo.net/

Then, when I publish the translation (if I ever finish it ;-)), that
list will be translated in typographic terms, into a glossary of
homeric formulas.

Best regards,

Juan Manuel