Implementing Org-mode tools in languages other than ELISP (was: Converting org-mode/org-contacts to VCard (importing to Android))

[Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at>]

Executive summary of this rather long email: I am aware that ELISP
is the language of choice for Org-mode features/tools. Here, I
describe my motivation behind using Python instead.


* Rüdiger Sonderfeld <ruediger@c-plusplus.de> wrote:
> On Friday 22 November 2013 18:09:42 Karl Voit wrote:
>
> Org-contacts has an :ICON: property and supports Gravatar.  It doesn't seem to 
> be handled in the VCard export though.

:ICON:, I see. Thanks.

>> You see: I want to have ways to tweak the export process. And as
>> long as I don't know ELISP that well, I stick to the tools I know.
>
> I understand that and it solved your problem for now.  

Exactly.

> But having an external tool in a different programming language is
> usually not a good idea to solve the problem in the long run.  The
> code base of org-contacts and your tool is under the risk of
> diverting quickly.  If it's in org-contacts then it is maintained
> in one piece and easily accessible to other users.

Don't worry: I totally agree. :-)

> So my point is you should take a look at elisp.  It's a lot of fun
> to use and if you are using org-mode and Emacs then you will have
> to learn it sooner or later.

I tried but I could not get a decent progress to implement the
features I want to use. It is a rather high learning effort. I am
not only referring to ELISP as a language. The basics are not that
hard to learn. However, the more important part is to get into the
existing libraries and their feature-set. For me, I could not get
into it or I am not patient any more :-) It might be laziness or my
brain might not be compatible with the world of functional
programming languages.

Therefore, I develop all my Org-mode tools with Python which I am
comfortably with. I have done various things and put it on
http://github.com/novoid

I agree that implementing this stuff in ELISP would have been better
for the community. However, as long as I don't have an ELISP
code-monkey that implements my ideas and wishes, I have to stick to
Python which is doing well to me and I don't have to invest a couple
of weeks/months of not being that productive. You don't have to
forget that I am not a programmer - I am an advanced user who
is tweaking his personal set-up in a small sub-set of his spare
time.

If the features of my tools are implemented in Org-mode as well, I
feel happy about it. I don't want to write "please add this highly
sophisticated feature to Org-mode"-messages on the ML and wait for
somebody to implement it. I can do it on my own (in Python) and I am
able to do it the way I need/want and I am able to *use* it right
away. Works for me.

Additionally, I would never be able to implement Memacs (see sig)
without the help of several students of mine. And here is the next
thing: I could get several students with Python-knowledge and no
one(!) with (E)LISP knowledge. Sad but true. I have the feeling that
ELISP knowledge is found only at a small set of experts.

Therefore: I did it in Python and I am aware that this is not the
best thing to do. However, if somebody finds my stuff handy, she/he
can grab it from github. If somebody re-implements it in ELISP, I am
fine as well.

It is even "worse" than that: I totally insist on writing a complete
stand-alone blog system which parses my Org-mode files and generates
(static) HTML5: https://github.com/novoid/lazyblorg Bam! Worst case
scenario! :-)

I tried to get other people infected with my thoughts [1] on a IMHO
perfect blog system. So far, it seems that everybody is happy with
the blog generating systems we do have now.

When I stick to my current development velocity of lazyblorg, it
will be finished right for the Christmas season ... of 2014 ;-)

> I have to admit the org-contacts format is pretty much ad-hoc and
> not really well designed.  It is documented a bit in the file
> itself (contrib/lisp/contacts.el).  M-x customize-group RET
> org-contacts RET should also tell you more about the options.

Thanks for the pointer.

However, I consider my template a bit more elaborated since I want
to differ things like, e.g., mobile phone, work phone, land-line
phone, and so forth.

> Your format choice is not fully compatible with the existing
> org-contacts.  Right now multiple entries are separated by space
> (which sadly breaks for addresses) and different entry names are
> used.
>
> However I'd look forward to some new ideas and improvements.
> Right now it's not ideal solution.

I am glad to help here as well if my help is needed. The current
examples in org-contacts.el were not able to suit my personal
requirements. Therefore, I did my own definitions. In future, I will
derive my complete mailserver whitelist directly from my Org-mode
contacts and more.

  1. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/49747/
-- 
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