Re: want a file format easily edited and read by emacs that allows (multiple) pictures to be included

[tomas]

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On Tue, Dec 05, 2017 at 12:23:13PM +0100, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> Eric S Fraga wrote:
> 
> > I sometimes have the need to create
> > a self-contained document for sharing with
> > others. Using the little snippet of elisp
> > that Marcin posted allows me to do so quite
> > easily. Previously, I would need to create
> > a tar/zip file with all the images. Very nice
> > solution for my requirements.
> 
> The "all in an Emacs buffer" is appealing but
> the Achille's Heel is that an Emacs buffer,
> compared to a PDF document or HTML website, is
> a cup from which only a select few dare
> drink...

*This* is actually the one interesting point. That
said, even Github (the horrors!) understands Org
syntax. The syntax itself has a few downsides, IMHO,
but it is way cleaner than Markdown with its ugly
HTML escape hatch.

> As for me, it feels like all the wonders
> I create already have a minimal audience.
> To a huge part, this is a human, not technology
> problem. But I don't want to put up even more
> palisades. Besides, I have no problem with
> LaTeX or HTML. So I always want to use the
> biggest thing which still is to my liking.
> So far, that has meant small enough things as
> it is...

The point is that LaTeX (and HTML) are, as
actually used, in a different point in space,
much more concerned with appearance and less
with structure. At least for LaTeX, you might
argue that you can choose that yourself, because
the *mechanism* of abstraction is there, but
success has been modest. As to HTML... a format
mainly in the hands of the W3C (club of the
richest Internet consortia), oh, well. I prefer
to treat that one as write-only.

There's a place for more content-oriented, more
easily editable, more plain-texty language.

And these are Markdown, Python's reStructuredText,
Perl's POD, and many other lightweight markup
languages [1] among which... org comes with a
built-in powerful editor we all love :-)

Cheers

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language
- -- tomás
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