Other software development for Org-mode

Other software development for Org-mode

[Carsten Dominik]

I know that a few people are developing add-on software for Org-mode.  
Maybe it is useful to make a list of these, to avoid duplicate work and 
allow for feedback.  I myself am aware of the following efforts.


XML export, for example XOXO or OPM or OPML.
     There is already a XOXO exporter by Nic Ferrier, he posted it on 
Usenet some time ago.

Bonsai Outliner for Windows/PalmOS, export/import options for Org-mode 
files
    Thomas Baumann has been working on these, but not finished the
    org-to-bonsai branch if I remember correctly because of problems 
with the data format
    on the Palm.

org-mouse.el by Piotr Zielinski
    This is a package with additional mouse support, also already 
published on Usenet.
     It does a number of things, like promotion/demotion with the mouse, 
and a
     context menu for mouse-clicks, for example with a list of TODO 
keywords
    when you click on TODO, or a list of priorities when you click on a 
priority cookie.

Is there anything else I am not aware of?

- Carsten

--
Carsten Dominik
Sterrenkundig Instituut "Anton Pannekoek"
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kruislaan 403
NL-1098SJ Amsterdam
phone: +31 20 525 7477

XOXO output (was Re: Other software development for Org-mode)

[Nic]

Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl> writes:

> I know that a few people are developing add-on software for Org-mode.  
> Maybe it is useful to make a list of these, to avoid duplicate work and 
> allow for feedback.  I myself am aware of the following efforts.
>
>
> XML export, for example XOXO or OPM or OPML.
>      There is already a XOXO exporter by Nic Ferrier, he posted it on 
> Usenet some time ago.

I'm going to post it here because I want some feedback on it.

At the moment it outputs a simple XOXO view of an outline. It does not
handle org-mode content when it breaks away from an outline.

There's a reason for that: XOXO (and OPM and OPML) only specify the
outline format... nothing else.

So the question is: what do people want the non-outline org-mode
content to look like in an XOXO view?

- something like is already in org-mode's HTML output

- simpler XHTML

- something else entirely?


Btw... an XOXO exporter would be better than the current HTML exporter
because it would be more flexible. Using an XML transform (maybe XSLT,
maybe something else) on the exported XOXO could render the existing
HTML as well as any other HTML or XML.


Anyway... the source is at the bottom of this mail.



Nic



;; An org mode extension
;; Copyright (C) 2005 by Tapsell-Ferrier Limited

;; This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
;; the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
;; any later version.

;; This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
;; GNU General Public License for more details.

;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
;; along with this program; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
;; Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
;; Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.


(defun org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into (buffer &rest output)
  (with-current-buffer buffer
    (apply 'insert output)))

(defun org-export-as-xoxo (&optional buffer)
  "Export the org buffer as XOXO.
The XOXO buffer is named *xoxo-<source buffer name>*"
  (interactive (list (current-buffer)))
  ;; A quickie abstraction

  ;; Output everything as XOXO
  (with-current-buffer (get-buffer buffer)
    (beginning-of-buffer)
    (let ((out (get-buffer-create (concat "*xoxo-" (buffer-name buffer) "*")))
          (last-level 1)
          (hanging-li nil))
      ;; Check the output buffer is empty.
      (with-current-buffer out
        (delete-region (point-min) (point-max)))
      ;; Kick off the output
      (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "<ol class='xoxo'>\n")
      (while (re-search-forward "^\\(\\*+\\) \\(.+\\)" (point-max) 't)
        (let* ((hd (match-string-no-properties 1))
               (level (length hd))
               (text (concat
                      (match-string-no-properties 2)
                      (save-excursion
                        (goto-char (match-end 0))
                        (let ((str ""))
                          (catch 'loop
                            (while 't
                              (forward-line)
                              (if (looking-at "^[ \t]\\(.*\\)")
                                  (setq str (concat str (match-string-no-properties 1)))
                                (throw 'loop str)))))))))

          ;; Handle level rendering
          (cond
           ((> level last-level)
            (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "\n<ol>\n"))
           
           ((< level last-level)
            (dotimes (- (- last-level level) 1)
              (if hanging-li
                  (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</li>\n"))
              (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</ol>\n"))
            (when hanging-li
              (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</li>\n")
              (setq hanging-li nil)))

           ((equal level last-level)
            (if hanging-li
                (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</li>\n")))
           )
          
          (setq last-level level)

          ;; And output the new li
          (setq hanging-li 't)
          (if (equal ?+ (elt text 0))
              (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "<li class='" (substring text 1) "'>")
            (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "<li>" text))))

      ;; Finally finish off the ol
      (dotimes (- last-level 1)
        (if hanging-li
            (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</li>\n"))
        (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</ol>\n"))

      ;; Finish the buffer off and clean it up.
      (switch-to-buffer out)
      (xml-mode)
      (indent-region (point-min) (point-max))
      )))

Re: XOXO output (was Re: Other software development for Org-mode)

[Carsten Dominik]

Nic,

if it is OK, I am going to include the XOXO exporter in the next test 
release of Org-mode.  Any objections or new versions?  Anybody tried 
this and found problems with it?

- Carsten

On Mar 14, 2006, at 12:36, Nic wrote:

> Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl> writes:
>
>> I know that a few people are developing add-on software for Org-mode.
>> Maybe it is useful to make a list of these, to avoid duplicate work 
>> and
>> allow for feedback.  I myself am aware of the following efforts.
>>
>>
>> XML export, for example XOXO or OPM or OPML.
>>      There is already a XOXO exporter by Nic Ferrier, he posted it on
>> Usenet some time ago.
>
> I'm going to post it here because I want some feedback on it.
>
> At the moment it outputs a simple XOXO view of an outline. It does not
> handle org-mode content when it breaks away from an outline.
>
> There's a reason for that: XOXO (and OPM and OPML) only specify the
> outline format... nothing else.
>
> So the question is: what do people want the non-outline org-mode
> content to look like in an XOXO view?
>
> - something like is already in org-mode's HTML output
>
> - simpler XHTML
>
> - something else entirely?
>
>
> Btw... an XOXO exporter would be better than the current HTML exporter
> because it would be more flexible. Using an XML transform (maybe XSLT,
> maybe something else) on the exported XOXO could render the existing
> HTML as well as any other HTML or XML.
>
>
> Anyway... the source is at the bottom of this mail.
>
>
>
> Nic
>
>
>
> ;; An org mode extension
> ;; Copyright (C) 2005 by Tapsell-Ferrier Limited
>
> ;; This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
> ;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
> ;; the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
> ;; any later version.
>
> ;; This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> ;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
> ;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
> ;; GNU General Public License for more details.
>
> ;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
> ;; along with this program; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
> ;; Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
> ;; Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
>
>
> (defun org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into (buffer &rest output)
>   (with-current-buffer buffer
>     (apply 'insert output)))
>
> (defun org-export-as-xoxo (&optional buffer)
>   "Export the org buffer as XOXO.
> The XOXO buffer is named *xoxo-<source buffer name>*"
>   (interactive (list (current-buffer)))
>   ;; A quickie abstraction
>
>   ;; Output everything as XOXO
>   (with-current-buffer (get-buffer buffer)
>     (beginning-of-buffer)
>     (let ((out (get-buffer-create (concat "*xoxo-" (buffer-name 
> buffer) "*")))
>           (last-level 1)
>           (hanging-li nil))
>       ;; Check the output buffer is empty.
>       (with-current-buffer out
>         (delete-region (point-min) (point-max)))
>       ;; Kick off the output
>       (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "<ol class='xoxo'>\n")
>       (while (re-search-forward "^\\(\\*+\\) \\(.+\\)" (point-max) 't)
>         (let* ((hd (match-string-no-properties 1))
>                (level (length hd))
>                (text (concat
>                       (match-string-no-properties 2)
>                       (save-excursion
>                         (goto-char (match-end 0))
>                         (let ((str ""))
>                           (catch 'loop
>                             (while 't
>                               (forward-line)
>                               (if (looking-at "^[ \t]\\(.*\\)")
>                                   (setq str (concat str 
> (match-string-no-properties 1)))
>                                 (throw 'loop str)))))))))
>
>           ;; Handle level rendering
>           (cond
>            ((> level last-level)
>             (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "\n<ol>\n"))
>
>            ((< level last-level)
>             (dotimes (- (- last-level level) 1)
>               (if hanging-li
>                   (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</li>\n"))
>               (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</ol>\n"))
>             (when hanging-li
>               (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</li>\n")
>               (setq hanging-li nil)))
>
>            ((equal level last-level)
>             (if hanging-li
>                 (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</li>\n")))
>            )
>
>           (setq last-level level)
>
>           ;; And output the new li
>           (setq hanging-li 't)
>           (if (equal ?+ (elt text 0))
>               (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "<li class='" 
> (substring text 1) "'>")
>             (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "<li>" text))))
>
>       ;; Finally finish off the ol
>       (dotimes (- last-level 1)
>         (if hanging-li
>             (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</li>\n"))
>         (org-export-as-xoxo-insert-into out "</ol>\n"))
>
>       ;; Finish the buffer off and clean it up.
>       (switch-to-buffer out)
>       (xml-mode)
>       (indent-region (point-min) (point-max))
>       )))
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
>
>

--
Carsten Dominik
Sterrenkundig Instituut "Anton Pannekoek"
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kruislaan 403
NL-1098SJ Amsterdam
phone: +31 20 525 7477

Re: XOXO output

[Nic]

Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl> writes:

> Nic,
>
> if it is OK, I am going to include the XOXO exporter in the next test 
> release of Org-mode.  

You may as well go ahead. I'll try and find time to update it to
include all the rest of org-modes output options.


> Any objections or new versions?  Anybody tried this and found
> problems with it?

I didn't get even a whisper of feedback.


/8->


Nic

Re: XOXO output

[Carsten Dominik]

On Apr 3, 2006, at 14:53, Nic wrote:

> Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl> writes:
>
>> Nic,
>>
>> if it is OK, I am going to include the XOXO exporter in the next test
>> release of Org-mode.
>
> You may as well go ahead. I'll try and find time to update it to
> include all the rest of org-modes output options.

One immediate thing I see now is that I don't think the code will work 
correctly when the outline jumst levels (for example, going from a 
level 2 to a level 4 and back again.  Looking at the code I think in 
this case it will only start one new outline level, but close two of 
them.

Another issue is that I have recently started to make the export an 
two-stage process.  I first copy the entire file to a temporary buffer, 
where I do some kine of preprocessing.  For example I am making all the 
links to use the now standard [[ ]] format, I am preparing the targets, 
and I create links from all matches of radio targets.  Then, in the 
second step I do the exporting.  maybe it would be good to do these 
preparatory steps also before exporting to XOXO?

Finally a question.  You have said at several points that using a 
format like XOXO and do little or now structural analysis of what is in 
the Org-mode file except for looking at the levels is a good thing 
because you can then later use another transformation to do whatever 
you want.  But I guess that transformation code would actually have to 
be custom written and understand all of the properties of Org-mode 
files.  So I am still wondering if it would be useful to have ev 
erything that is Org-mode specific translated into something more 
general.

- Carsten

Re: XOXO output

[Carsten Dominik]

On Apr 4, 2006, at 12:55, Nic wrote:
>
> No... that's not quite what I've said. The reason that XOXO export is
> good is because it's easy to transform later (say with XSLT but also
> specialized SAX or SXML processes would work).
>
>
>> But I guess that transformation code would actually have to
>> be custom written and understand all of the properties of Org-mode
>> files.  So I am still wondering if it would be useful to have ev
>> erything that is Org-mode specific translated into something more
>> general.
>
> This is the reason I haven't yet updated my XOXO exporter to output
> other things.
>
> XOXO is *just* an outline specification. So how should an XOXO output
> handle org mode tables or schedules?
>
> I think that XOXO output is really just part of what I want which is a
> minimal output format. Markup centric it would not include any
> formatting or extraneous information (as yours does now).

OK.  I think that would be very useful indeed.  I guess there are two 
ways forward with this.

- We try to modify the HTML output routine so that we can simply set a 
switch which output format it is going to be.  I think that is going to 
be hard, because the switch would have to be tested in many many 
places.

- We copy the org-export-as-html routine and then modify it to remove 
all the extra formatting junk I have in there (which was born not out 
of desire to be abstract, but just out of the wish "I would like to 
look at this thing in a web browser...").  This would have the 
advantage that all the parsing and structure information is there for 
you to use, but we would still have an independent and possibly more 
compact routine.

>
> So XOXO would be used for outline markup but straight tables would be
> used for org mode tables and hCalendar would be used for dates and
> times and things like that.
>
> See http://microformats.org/wiki/Main_Page for more info.
>
> I think what I'll do is take a look at your new exporter and see if I
> can replicate what it does but with microformat markup instead of your
> current markup.

Go right ahead.  Should I delay putting XOXO code into org.el then?

- Carsten

--
Carsten Dominik
Sterrenkundig Instituut "Anton Pannekoek"
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kruislaan 403
NL-1098SJ Amsterdam
phone: +31 20 525 7477

Re: XOXO output

[Carsten Dominik]

>> Go right ahead.  Should I delay putting XOXO code into org.el then?
>
> If you like. The current XOXO export is useful if all you have is an
> outline.

True enough, of course.  I'll keep it in then.

- Carsten
--
Carsten Dominik
Sterrenkundig Instituut "Anton Pannekoek"
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kruislaan 403
NL-1098SJ Amsterdam
phone: +31 20 525 7477