371 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
371 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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NOVEMBER 2021
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Elementary improvements
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TEC
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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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2021-11-30
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With a 9.5 release highlight post last month, and the month before
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skipped, it’s now /three months/ since the last regular instalment of
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TMIO. Let’s get back up to date on some of the latest happenings with
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Org.
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Org as markup
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═════════════
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Looking at the wider ecosystem, it certainly appears that there is a
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growing appetite for Org markup outside org-mode. More projects like
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[Hugo] and [Logseq] seem to be interested in supporting Org markup,
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and there has been a recent growth in editor extensions like Neovim’s
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[orgmode.nvim] (started in March this year) and Sublime Text’s
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[OrgExtended] (started in June this year).
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Interest in Org as a general-usage markup format can also be seen
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within the Org project. Primarily lead by Nicolas Goaziou, there is an
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ongoing attempt to codify the Org syntax in a formal specification in
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the Worg document [Org Syntax (draft)]. Other members of the Org
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mailing list have directed their effort to creating non-elisp parsers
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for Org, both to help Org tools be created in other languages, and as
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put in the README for Tom Gillespie’s [laundry] parser
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The long term goal of this work is to provide a reference
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that can be used to standardize Org syntax and behavior
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and to specify various levels of compliance for an
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implementation of Org mode.
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Earlier this week Karl Voit, the author of the rather well-known
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document [Org Mode Is One of the Most Reasonable Markup Languages to
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Use for Text], surprised the mailing list by announcing his
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independent creation of a multi-leveled standard for Org syntax
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subsets called “Orgdown” (the name is a blend of “Org-mode” and
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“markdown”, but the standard is only a subset of Org). Each level
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defines a compliance score given by a mix of parsing and editing
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support, with example compliance scores for the first (and currently
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only) level of the standard given for common tools.
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At this stage, it isn’t clear exactly how the Org-outside-Emacs
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landscape will evolve, but the swelling interest is very encouraging.
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[Hugo] <https://gohugo.io/>
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[Logseq] <https://logseq.com/>
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[orgmode.nvim] <https://github.com/nvim-orgmode/orgmode/>
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[OrgExtended] <https://packagecontrol.io/packages/OrgExtended>
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[Org Syntax (draft)] <https://orgmode.org/worg/dev/org-syntax.html>
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[laundry] <https://github.com/tgbugs/laundry>
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[Org Mode Is One of the Most Reasonable Markup Languages to Use for
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Text] <https://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/>
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An Org parser in Julia
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══════════════════════
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Speaking of parsers, I may be somewhat biased but I’m quite happy that
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a Org parser for [Julia] now exists 🎉.
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//github.com/tecosaur/OrgMode.jl
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OrgMode.jl is a parser, but also intended as a general-purpose Org
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library for Julia. It’s only been a week since development started,
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but it currently supports most of the [Org Syntax] draft
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specification, along with the rendering of a parsed Org AST to a TTY
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or back to Org text. A few utility functions are also included, such
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as `filtermap' which operates similarly to `org-element-map'.
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[Julia] <https://julialang.org/>
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[Org Syntax] <https://orgmode.org/worg/dev/org-syntax.html>
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Autoloading citation backends
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═════════════════════════════
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One small but impactful change is autoloading of citation
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backends. Until recently before say using the `csl' backend, one
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needed to `(require 'oc-csl)' or face error messages.
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Now, if you have a line like:
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┌────
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│ #+cite_export: FORMAT ...
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└────
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org-mode will try to load the file `oc-FORMAT' before trying to
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process citations.
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This should make getting started with citations in Org just a bit
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easier.
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A nicer `:tangle-mode' syntax
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═════════════════════════════
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The standard way of setting a `:tangle-mode' has typically been by
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providing a closure that makes use of Elisp’s octal syntax, such as
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`(identity #o755)'. This is unnecessarily verbose, and certainly
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doesn’t feel natural.
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With the addition of a small mode-interpreting function
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(`org-babel-interpret-file-mode') It is now possible to specify
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`:tangle-mode' using three different forms of shorthand
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octal
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`o755' is equivalent to `(identity #o755)'
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chmod
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`chmod'-style inputs like `u+x' are now parsed to a file mode[1]
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with the the base/default mode set by
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`org-babel-tangle-default-file-mode'.
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ls -l
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strings of the form given by `ls -l' like `rwxr-xr-x' are also
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accepted
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This means the following forms are now all equivalent:
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┌────
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│ :tangle-mode (identity #o755)
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│ :tangle-mode o755
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│ :tangle-mode a=rx,u+w
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│ :tangle-mode rwxr-xr-x
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└────
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It has also been noted on the mailing list that the `:tangle-mode
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(identity #o755)' form works by being transformed to `:tangle-mode
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493' during parsing. Similarly `:tangle-mode 755' is equivalent to
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`:tangle-mode (identity #o1363)'. For some values the decimal and
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octal interpretation are /both/ valid file modes. Due to the clear
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potential for confusion, and since file permissions are an important
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security consideration, it has been suggested on the mailing list that
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these forms should be depreciated with a warning in future. No
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decision has been made yet though.
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Org element parser cache
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════════════════════════
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Ihor Radchenko has done some fantastic work over the past few months
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by overhauling parts of `org-element.el' to introduce extensive
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caching. `org-element' is /the/ Org markup parser inside
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org-mode. This allows for a huge jump in speed, and also provides a
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few functions which fetch information without updating the cache —
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allowing for particularly speedy lookups with a small sacrifice to
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correctness guarantees on one or two properties in particular cases.
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Several org-mode APIs now make use of the cache to dramatically
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improve speed. Aside from improvements to typically slow operations,
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this is ideal for situations involving frequent buffer edits. It’s no
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understatement to say that this work is transformative.
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One potential beneficiary from this work is actually fontification. It
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has become increasingly apparent that the current regex-based method
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for buffer fontification is imperfect, and can actually differ from
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the true structure of the document as parsed (authoritatively) by
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`org-element'. This has lead to the well-received suggestion on the
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mailing list to rewrite the fontification code to be built on
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`org-element' instead.
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Inline source block fontification
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═════════════════════════════════
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I think [inline source code blocks] are an underappreciated feature of
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Org. I don’t think it’s helped that they have not been visually
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treated at all differently from plain text. Now though, they have a
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new dedicated face (`org-inline-src-block') /and/ in the same manner
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as source blocks, based on `org-src-fontify-natively' can be fontified
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using the language’s major mode.
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<file:figures/inline-src-block-fontified-vs-code.png>
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If you aren’t familiar with inline source blocks, you’re missing
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out. They are very much the inline cousin of source blocks, and so
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support all your favourite Babel features like code execution and
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header arguments. This provides a fantastic capacity to inline
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dynamically computed expressions, and optionally show the code that
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produces them.
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<file:figures/inline-src-block-julia-demo.png>
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[inline source code blocks]
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<https://orgmode.org/manual/Structure-of-Code-Blocks.html>
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Functions as default heading arguments
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══════════════════════════════════════
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Matt Huszagh has contributed a patch that allows functions to be used
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as values for default header arguments. This is great for arguments
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where a sensible default can be provided by evaluating a function
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on-the-fly.
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Consider for example the arguments required to produce a simple image
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using R with Babel:
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┌────
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│ #+begin_src R :results graphics file :file myimage.svg
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│ library(ggplot2)
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│ ggplot(mpg, aes(displ, hwy, colour = class)) + geom_point()
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│ #+end_src
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└────
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In a Jupyter-style (`.ipynb') or throwaway document, we likely don’t
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care about the file name at all. With these new capabilities, we can
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provide a file name dynamically as a default argument!
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First we must write a function that when run at the source block will
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give us a suitable file name, like so
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┌────
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│ (defun my/org-src-sha-to-image ()
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│ (concat "generated-"
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│ (substring
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│ (sha1 (org-element-property :value (org-element-at-point)))
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│ 0 8)
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│ ".svg"))
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└────
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Let’s also write a function to guess whether the source block produces
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a plot by checking if there’s a plot command on the last line.
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┌────
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│ (defun my/org-src-guess-results-type ()
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│ (if (string-match-p "^ *\\(?:plot\\|ggplot\\)([^\n]+\n?\\'"
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│ (org-element-property :value (org-element-at-point)))
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│ "graphics file" "replace"))
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└────
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Then we can just use these function in place of a static value in the
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default header arguments variable — that’s all it takes.
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┌────
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│ (setq org-babel-default-header-args:R
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│ '((:results . my/org-src-guess-results-type)
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│ (:file . my/org-src-sha-to-image)))
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└────
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This means for most cases we can now get away without any header
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arguments at all.
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┌────
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│ #+begin_src R
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│ library(ggplot2)
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│ ggplot(mpg, aes(displ, hwy, colour = class)) + geom_point()
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│ #+end_src
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└────
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It’s always lovely to see more ways of reducing boilerplate.
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Proportional image widths
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═════════════════════════
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Previously, as long as `org-image-actual-width' was `nil' or a list of
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the form `(default-value)', `org-mode' would display images according
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to a `:width' attribute (e.g. `#+attr_html: :width 400px') by simply
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looking for the first `#+attr_' affiliated keyword and reading the
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numeric component of the `:width' as the number of pixels wide the
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image should be.
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This has now become somewhat fancier. The image-width determining
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logic has been extracted to a new function
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(`org-display-inline-image--width') which will now extract
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floating-point values like `0.7' and interpret them as that portion of
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the accessible text width in the buffer.
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<file:figures/proportional-image-width.png>
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This means that a width parameter like `#+attr_latex: :width
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0.7\linewidth' the image will displayed as 70% of the buffer text
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width. This also supports percentage value, like `#+attr_html: :width
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80%' by dividing the number before the `%' by 100 as a floating-point
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value. As always, if you don’t like the way display width is inferred
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here you can override it by putting a `#+attr_org: :width X' statement
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first.
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Support for proportional image widths extends to the `(default-value)'
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form of `org-image-actual-width', as now if you set it to say `(0.9)'
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which will cause images /without/ any width specification to be
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displayed at 90% of the buffer text width.
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If you want to have some images displayed as their actual width you
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can use the new special width parameter `t' to set this on a per-image
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basis with `#+attr_org: :width t'. Now all you need to do is remember
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to put this first. Based on current discussions on the mailing list
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though, soon `#+attr_org' will be prioritised when determining display
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image width, no matter which order you put the attributes in. I do
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like having one less thing to remember 🙂.
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Other improvements
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══════════════════
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⁃ Allow citations immediately following an item bullet _TEC_
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⁃ Allow citations immediately following a footnote definition _Nicolas
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Goaziou_
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⁃ Update some obsolete function references _Marco Wahl_
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⁃ `ob-gnuplot' is now maintained by Ihor Radchenko
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⁃ Improve makescript support for `ORGVERSION' in tag-less mirrors
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_Nicholas Vollmer_
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⁃ New `ob-julia', now maintained by Pedro Bruel
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⁃ Allow for no indentation, but preserving current indentation by
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setting `org-indent-indentation-per-level' to `0' _David Lukes_
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⁃ Eliminate some byte-compile warnings _Nicholas Vollmer_ _Bastien_
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⁃ Support Greek smart quotes _Juan Manuel Macías_
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⁃ `org-mouse' support for intermediate-state checkboxes _Jim Porter_
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⁃ Allow nested parenthesis in `org-compile-prefix-format' `%(sexp)'
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expressions _Ihor Radchenko_
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⁃ `oc-csl' / citeproc improvements _András Simonyi_
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⁃ Move more unmaintained/overly niche `ob-*' files to the contrib
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repo, reducing the maintainer burden _Bastien_
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⁃ Allow use of a function for `org-agenda-overriding-header' for
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dynamic headers _Christopher League_
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⁃ Improve `org-protocol' URI decoding _Max Nikulin_
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⁃ Remove some obsolete LaTeX packages from the default packages list
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_TEC_
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⁃ Add support for text and year citation styles to `oc-csl' _András
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Simonyi_
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⁃ Produce lower-case keywords in `ox-org' _TEC_
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⁃ Improve `ob-gnuplot' argument processing _Ihor Radchenko_
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⁃ A collection of `oc-*' improvements _Nicholas Goaziou_
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⁃ Support bare author citations in `oc-csl' _TEC_
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⁃ Add `:options' LaTeX attribute to tables _Juan Manuel Macías_
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⁃ Fix display error with `ob-plantuml' and html export _Su Lin_
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⁃ More tests! _Ihor Radchenko_
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⁃ Documentation improvements! _Marco Wahl_ _Stefan Kangas_ _Daniel
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Fleischer_ _Wiliam Denton_ _Thomas Dye_ _Bastien_ _Bruce D’Arcus_
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_Kyle Meyer_ _Nicolas Goaziou_
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Bugfixes
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════════
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⁃ Fix heading insertion in a case where point is before any heading
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_Marco Wahl_
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⁃ Prevent stringp error when tangling Org from an org-src edit buffer
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_Mark Dawson_
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⁃ Prevent `indent-tabs-mode' from messing with justification in ASCII
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exports _Morgan Willcock_
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⁃ Fix form of default Babel haskell header args _Ihor Radchenko_
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⁃ No more duplicated logbook entries for repeated tasks _Ihor
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Radchenko_
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⁃ A headline fontification edge case _Sébastien Miquel_
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⁃ Refactor code that needed Emacs 28 _Kyle Meyer_
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⁃ Make sure a terminating emphasis marker can’t be used as a beginning
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emphasis marker in fontification _Ihor Radchenko_
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⁃ Allow footnotes at footnote definition start _Nicholas Goaziou_
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Footnotes
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─────────
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[1] This is performed easily thanks to
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`file-modes-symbolic-to-number', which is used as the basis for both
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the `chmod' and `ls -l' shorthand interpretations.
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