Re: [IT] Broken support for links to text files (both internal & external)

[Nicolas Goaziou <mail@nicolasgoaziou.fr>]

Hello,

"Nicolas Bercher (Aʟᴏɴɢ-Tʀᴀᴄᴋ)" <nbercher@along-track.com> writes:

> HOWEVER, in the case of links pointing to headlines, the matching to has
> to be EXACT (but it was not necessary in earlier version since 2011 at
> least) otherwise I get the message below:
>
>   "No match for fuzzy expression: <random text>"
>
> Do you know if I can revert some option to make the sample below to work
> again?

You cannot. This option somehow disappeared years ago.

Note that you can complete "[[*" with M-<TAB>, which can help a bit. If
the feature is considered useful anyway,
`org-link-search-must-match-exact-headline' is not the right way to
solve this. With this variable, that the same document can mean two
different things, which cripples portability.

For example, the following document

    * XX
    Contents 1
    * X
    Contents 2
    * Headline
    See [[*X]].

means two different things if you set
`org-link-search-must-match-exact-headline' to nil and I don't. 

Granted, you can use file local variables to fix a given value in the
document, but that doesn't sound right. Org format ought to be more
self-contained.

So, here's an idea. We could drop
`org-link-search-must-match-exact-headline' (the `query-to-create' value
could be handled in a dedicated variable) and introduce a new syntax for
regexp searches:

  [[?random words]] and [[*?random words]]

This way, where the link should point to is explicit.

The question about export is still open. [[*?random words]] targets
a headline it can be handled the usual way. However [[?random words]]
may target anything, including parts of the document that cannot be
referenced easily (e.g., comments, the contents of an example block...).

Another option is to keep only [[*?random words]] since we cannot handle
the other properly. Note that, even without this feature, you can still
use targets for specific locations in the buffer:

  Some <<here>>long text

  [[here]]

I have the feeling that a feature like [[?random words]] (and
`org-link-search-must-match-exact-headline') is going to bite us
someday.

WDYT?

Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou