From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Nick Dokos Subject: Re: [OT] CSV to Org Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:37:20 -0500 Message-ID: <8244.1322026640@alphaville.dokosmarshall.org> References: <14656.1322004710@alphaville.americas.hpqcorp.net> Reply-To: nicholas.dokos@hp.com Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:51893) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RT5WQ-0008O1-Fi for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:37:27 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RT5WP-0007LZ-62 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:37:26 -0500 Received: from g4t0017.houston.hp.com ([15.201.24.20]:13059) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RT5WP-0007Kz-0r for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:37:25 -0500 In-Reply-To: Message from Samuel Wales of "Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:16:21 MST." List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Samuel Wales Cc: nicholas.dokos@hp.com, emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Samuel Wales wrote: > Hmm, thanks for your comments. I can see the appeal of a Python-ish > solution, but I was thinking maybe some elisp (or even a package or a > part of Org) instead. Then it could grow to a generally useful > importer. > The trouble is that CSV is a very loosely defined format, with many variations and dialects. The nice thing about the python solution is that it takes care of many of these variations. If somebody does take up your challenge, I would strongly advise that they should consult the csv python module (or equivalent modules in other languages, depending on their preferred language) and the design document for it (PEP 305 - at http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0305/ ) and try to translate it into elisp, rather than striking off on their own. Nick