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+#+TITLE: Notes on documenting Org
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+#+AUTHOR: Phil Rooke
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+#+EMAIL: phil@yax.org.uk
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+#+LANGUAGE: en
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+#+STARTUP: showall
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+#+TEXT: Notes to myself justifying the coventions and standards in my
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+#+TEXT: set of recent doc patches.
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+#+OPTIONS: H:3 num:t toc:t \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t *:t TeX:t
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+
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+* Background
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+
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+I think it is an express objective of Carsten's that Org should be
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+readily accessible to all users of Emacs and not just those who might
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+happen to read or hack on the code of this particular package. To that
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+end significant effort has been made and continues to be made by the Org
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+community to ensure that high quality, user focused, documentation is
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+readily available to everyone.
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+
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+Org itself contains a comprehensive guide to using all aspects of the
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+system, how to extend it yourself, and highlights some of the many
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+burgeoning number of add-on packages that others are contributing. This
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+guide, [[info:org:Top][The Org Manual]], concentrates on the facts of working with the
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+system. Supplementing this, the [[Org web pages]] contain pointers to many
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+tutorials and how-to's which capture much of spirit and imagination
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+people show when using Org as a basis for building broader
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+organizational systems that help them help themselves.
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+
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+I use Org, but it is a big system, and so I happen to think that
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+improving the consistency, clarity and accuracy of Org documents helps
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+both me and all other users of the system. In support of this and by
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+way of justification and clarification, this short note attempts to
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+capture some of the existing guidelines and standards that have been
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+used in the patches I am submitting and, which I hope, may be adopted by
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+others when making their own contributions.
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+
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+* Org - Referencing systems, packages, modes and much else
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+
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+Originally Org was a single mode and there was no ambiguity about what
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+Org mode could refer to. Things have changed rapidly though and it
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+seems that Carsten now thinks of Org as the system encompassing the
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+major mode, some minor modes, and an increasing number of additional
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+packages and plug-ins that build on the core Org functionality. It is
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+really hard to find a consistent way to refer to all these things, but
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+what I am trying to do is follow these guidelines (which are not
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+perfect, merely a start):
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+
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+ - In general write "Org" as much as possible and, in particular, when
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+ discussing concepts, features and functions that are generally
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+ applicable to Org as a whole.
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+
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+ - Be more specific and write, for example, "the Orgtbl minor mode" when
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+ referring to something unique to that feature. It maybe, for example,
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+ a command is only available when you are actually editing a file using
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+ just that mode, add-on package or plug-in.
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+
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+ - Prefer "Org mode" to "Org-mode" or "org-mode". This is simply because
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+ it reflects an existing convention in [[info:emacs:Top][The Emacs Manual]] which
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+ consistently documents mode names in this form - "Text mode", "Outline
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+ mode", "Mail mode" etc.
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+
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+ - Likewise refer, if at all possible, to "Org file or "Org buffer"
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+ meaning with, great generality, any file or buffer which requires use
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+ of some part of Org to edit it properly.
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+
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+ - Org uses "org-..." to ring fence a name space for itself in the Emacs
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+ code base. This is obviously retained in code snippets.
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+
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+* Other Org specific conventions
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+
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+Unless there is a good reason to do otherwise then try and adopt the
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+following conventions. (I think all can be justified by reference to
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+Carsten or precedent in other significant Emacs documentation...unless I
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+have made them up of course).
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+
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+ - Org has *lots* of commands and a /lot/ of them take prefix arguments
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+ of one sort or another. Write in full "prefix argument", "numeric
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+ prefix argument" or, maybe, "a numeric prefix argument N" when you
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+ want to refer to the argument again.
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+
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+ - Org lives in various states of harmony and discord with other Emacs
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+ packages. Try and write the names of those packages as their authors
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+ and maintainers write them. So it should be (I think) BBDB, MH-E,
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+ Rmail, VM, Gnus, CDLaTeX etc.
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+
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+ - TODO keywords, whether Org or user defined, are written in capitals.
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+
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+ - Built-in tags with a special meaning (eg ARCHIVE) are written in
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+ uppercase. User defined tags (eg boss, home) are written in
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+ lowercase.
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+
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+ - Built-in properties (eg PRIORITY) are written in uppercase. User defined
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+ properties (eg Release) are written in lowercase.
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+
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+ - [[info:org:Top][The Org Manual]] uses the @chapter, @section and @subsection Texinfo
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+ commands for sectioning. I have tried to capitalize significant words
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+ in @chapter headings. In @section and @subsection headings, just the
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+ first word is capitalized and all other words are lowercase (with
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+ exceptions of course...). Thus, use:
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+
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+ @chapter Properties and Columns
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+
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+ @section Visibility cycling
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+
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+ *but*
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+
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+ @section Fast access to TODO states
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+
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+* Miscellaneous
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+
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+ - Only two of the standard Texinfo indexes are used; those for concepts
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+ and keys. This has some implications:
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+
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+ + The preference is to document commands by key rather than by name
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+
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+ + Texinfo commands such as @var and @defoption are not used. The
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+ preference for this type of thing is that the user browses the
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+ customize groups. If you want or need to refer to, say, a variable
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+ then document it as "the variable @code{org-startup-folded}"
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+
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+ + Entries in the concept index are normally all lower case unless
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+ some other rule dictates otherwise.
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+
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+ - Org documentation is written in American English, which is somewhat
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+ foreign as far as I am concerned, but live with it anyway.
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+
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+ - Org uses a number of compound words, words that I wouldn't necessarily
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+ run together. Instead of worrying about whether these should be
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+ separate, hyphenated or compound I have simply gone with the majority
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+ case as originally written and then tried to make sure the spell
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+ checker knows what this chosen standard should be so that I do not
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+ worry about it anymore.
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+
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+ - I have run a spell checker periodically. Aspell works well and has a
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+ useful Texinfo filter (although, annoyingly, I cannot make this work
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+ with ispell.el and so I run it from the command line). I have an Org
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+ specific Aspell configuration file (which sets an American dictionary,
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+ rules for compound words etc) and which, along with the associated
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+ word and replacement files, captures some of the more detailed and
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+ somewhat arbitrary rules I have used.
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+
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+ - Org has really low entry barriers. The requirements seem simply
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+ to be:
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+
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+ + You can use Text mode or, pretty much, any derivative of it
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+
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+ + You have some motivation to become slightly better organized.
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+
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+ Therefore, try and write the documentation so that it is relevant to,
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+ and can be read by such a diverse audience.
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+
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+# Local variables:
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+# mode: org
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+# fill-column: 72
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+# ispell-local-dictionary: "en_US-w_accents"
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+# ispell-local-pdict: "./.aspell.org.pws"
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+# End:
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Carsten Dominik