Re: [feature proposal] Export in foreign buffers - ASCII (ox-ascii)

[Nicolas Goaziou <mail@nicolasgoaziou.fr>]

Hello,

Alexander Adolf <alexander.adolf@condition-alpha.com> writes:

> I was missing convert-region functions in the ox-ascii export back-end
> as are provided by the HTML, LaTeX, Texinfo, and MarkDown back-ends [1],
> and hence crafted my own (copied below) to go into my init file. My use
> case is composing emails using notmuch-message-mode.
>
> [1] https://orgmode.org/manual/Export-in-foreign-buffers.html
>
> I though this feature might be useful to others, too, and would likely
> also seem a low hanging fruit to implement? ;-))

It looks like an omission, indeed.

> (defun org-ascii-convert-region-to-ascii ()
>   "Assume the current region has org-mode syntax, and convert it to plain ASCII.
> This can be used in any buffer.  For example, you could write an
> itemized list in org-mode syntax in a Mail buffer and then use
> this command to convert it."
>   (interactive)
>   (let ((my/org-ascii-charset org-ascii-charset))
>     (setq org-ascii-charset 'ascii)
>     (org-export-replace-region-by 'ascii)
>     (setq org-ascii-charset my/org-ascii-charset)))

I see you are not including Latin1 export. Is there any reason to
implement pure ASCII export? Wouldn't UTF-8 be sufficient?

More generally, I wonder if, in 2018, it still makes sense to provide
ASCII-only and Latin1 export.

> (defun org-ascii-convert-region-to-utf8 ()
>   "Assume the current region has org-mode syntax, and convert it to UTF-8.

  Org syntax

> This can be used in any buffer.  For example, you could write an
> itemized list in org-mode syntax in a Mail buffer and then use

  in Org syntax in a mail buffer

Anyway, I don't think the example is useful.

> this command to convert it."
>   (interactive)
>   (let ((my/org-ascii-charset org-ascii-charset))
>     (setq org-ascii-charset 'utf-8)
>     (org-export-replace-region-by 'ascii)
>     (setq org-ascii-charset my/org-ascii-charset)))


I think

  (let ((org-ascii-charset 'utf-8)) 
    (org-export-replace-region-by 'ascii))

would be simpler.

The manual needs to be updated, too.

Thank you.

Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou