Re: Differences between Org-Mode and Hyperbole

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2016-07-03, at 02:05, Richard Stallman <address@hidden> wrote:

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> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
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>
>   > Org is a complex package which cannot be appreciated
>   > by just giving it a quick glance.
>
> That is the problem that concerns me.
>
> I am sure Org is very useful.  I know that because many people say
> they like using it.  However, bundling together several conceptually
> separate features makes it harder to start using any of them, and also
> makes Emacs overall less clean.
>
> If these various functionalities were carefully separated out, they
> could still work together, and in combination they could be just as
> useful as they are now.  And each one, separately, would be more
> useful than it is now.

I'll try to stop, but for the last time: they are not "bundled" from the
user's POV!!!  You really don't have to learn a lot to start being
productive with Org.  This is one of its main strengths.

OTOH, the design of Org is a different thing: there are quite a few huge
functions, and it happens sometimes that I need something for my
customizations, and I have to copy a half of some function, because
I can't easily hook into it.  The same can be said about AUCTeX (I know
because it happened to me, too), and probably a bunch of other packages,
including Emacs core itself.  (See e.g. the code of `mark-defun', which
is one big hack around buggy `beginning-of-defun'.)  So I agree that Org
could be made better.  Almost nobody actually wants to do it, I'm
afraid...  Adding new features (and even fixing bugs) is just more
fun/rewarding.

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adam Mickiewicz University