WEBVTT
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Hello. My name is Karl Voit,
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and I've spent the last decade
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working with Emacs Org Mode
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as my main organization system
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for my use cases,
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and I would like to take this opportunity
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and point out a subtle issue we've had
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in many different discussions around Org Mode,
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which itself stands for
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quite different kind of things.
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On the one hand side,
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Org Mode is an implementation in Elisp
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on the Emacs platform,
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and on the other hand side,
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Org Mode is also a lightweight markup language
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which we use to express things:
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how headings are marked,
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how text is made boldface,
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how external links are written,
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and so forth, in text documents.
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From my own experience,
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from many different online discussions,
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I once wrote a blog article on my web page
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that summarizes why I do think
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that Org Mode is superior
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to other well-known lightweight markup languages
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such as Markdown, AsciiDoc, reStructuredText and more.
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My main points in this article were that
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Org Mode is an intuitive
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and easy to learn and remember markup.
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It is standardized,
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as in the Emacs implementation
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defines the current standard,
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and there is no different Org mode version
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out there which conflicts with that.
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Org Mode is consistent
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within its markup language design.
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Org Mode can be easily typed in any text-based tool,
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and Org Mode makes much sense outside of Emacs,
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so that you can use it, for example,
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in email clients or in other text documents
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not interpreting the markup at all.
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And of course, if you want,
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you can have the perfect tool support within Emacs
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and other software tools.
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This naming issue,
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using one name for two different kind of things,
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arises in discussions about the markup's support
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in non-Emacs tools and services,
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in questions on levels of compatibility
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in comparison to the large and huge
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amount of functionality within Emacs,
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and so forth.
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In order to find a solution
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to some of those issues,
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I propose a different name. A new idea.
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A definition for the lightweight markup language,
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and the lightweight markup language alone.
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A new standard, which, by the way,
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reminds me on something here...
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Anyway...
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So we need a different name
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for this new thing,
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and its feature set needs to be
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something good enough
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to help adapting Org Mode syntax
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outside of the Emacs universe.
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It can't be the whole set of Org Mode features.
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This would kill the idea instantly,
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because everything that is going
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into that direction
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would be compared to our golden standards,
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the Emacs implementation of Org Mode,
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which cannot be compared
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to anything else at this time.
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So it needs to be somehow less than Org Mode.
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It needs to be recognizable in non-Emacs circles,
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and it should remind people
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on similar things
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in order to be something
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somewhat self-explanatory as a term.
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Hereby, I propose the name Orgdown
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for this thing, and it's launched
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with my Emacs Conference talk 2021.
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So what should Orgdown be?
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It should be a subset of Org Mode
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lightweight markup language syntax.
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It should be a definition of
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Org-Mode-based entities
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that do make sense on their own
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which is, in any case,
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always a compromise of some sort, of course.
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It needs to be extensible for different purposes
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to ensure future-proofness,
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and it needs to have
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a formal definition of Org Mode,
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which helps in becoming a new standard.
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it needs to be a self-sustaining community
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that supports the process by documentation
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and connecting people to other people,
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to the documentation, and to tools.
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What Orgdown should never be
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is something that's incompatible
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with Org Mode within Emacs,
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and some kind of Org Mode replacement, of course.
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The advantages of Orgdown for everybody
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includes better Org support in non-Emacs tools;
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to promote the beautifully crafted Org Mode syntax
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to a larger set of people,
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even outside of Emacs, of course;
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to push better support for the collaboration
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for Emacs and non-Emacs users
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for using text-based documents;
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finally, fix the irritating mix-up of
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markup language support
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and its Elisp implementation.
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I already mentioned briefly the need for
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a definition and extensibility.
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Therefore I came up with the idea
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of having different levels of Orgdown,
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and the first and most basic level of Orgdown
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is called Orgdown1.
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Orgdown1, or in short, OD1, consists of
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a small set of Org-Mode-based features
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such as simple text formatting, headings, lists,
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and checkboxes, example, quote, and source blocks,
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comments, external web links,
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tables without calculations.
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I tried to find a compromise
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that should work with most people
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starting with any lightweight markup
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that is based on Emacs Org Mode.
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In order to get a measure
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on how well Orgdown1 is supported
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by one specific tool,
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I came up with an OD1
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compatibility percentage index.
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43 easy-to-check features such as:
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does it support highlighting of bold text
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using single asterisks?
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Each feature can be supported
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in a basic way (one point)
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or in an advanced way (two points).
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One point means it basically
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doesn't interfere with the tool
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in any negative way.
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Two points means that it provides
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active syntax highlighting, for example,
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or even tool-supported features
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like shortcuts to insert elements and such.
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Summing up those two levels
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for all those 43 features
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result in a number
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that can be compared
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to the maximum level there is,
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which results in a given percentage.
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By definition,
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Emacs provides full support
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of all Orgdown levels,
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and most tools support
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at least fifty percent of Orgdown1
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as long as Orgdown1 syntax
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doesn't result in some markup conflict
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or tooling conflict or whatever.
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This emphasizes the idea
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that Orgdown can and should be used
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for personal notes anywhere and in general domains,
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just like writing emails, for example.
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I guess the majority of tools
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with a certain support for Orgdown1
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will be in the area of 80s and 90s, percentwise.
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If Orgdown1 is not enough,
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there will be future definitions
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of Orgdown2, 3, or higher
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which will take more and more syntax elements
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from the Org Mode syntax
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and integrate it into
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the domain of Orgdown.
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So far, Orgdown1 is described
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on a public GitLab page
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which has already documentation
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on how to learn Orgdown,
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some syntax examples,
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frequently asked questions,
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and of course, with their answers,
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a collection of tools
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that already do support Orgdown in some way,
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and a few of them did already
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get evaluated by me
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and got their OD1 compatibility percentage
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in a table.
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Some ideas on how people can contribute
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to this new standard
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is also part of this new site.
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And of course, now I need your help
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in order to make this a success story
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for Org Mode and of course Orgdown.
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So please do contribute
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to the GitLab project pages
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and add tools and their Orgdown1-compatible percentages.
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For example, a template file is provided,
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of course.
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Please do add more parsers.
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Please use the term Orgdown1
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to label tool properties
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for your own stuff
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and so that people do realize
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that your tools are already supporting
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this general use case of Org Mode.
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And there is no need to support
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all the Org Mode
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in order to profit from Org Mode syntax
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with Orgdown.
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You can spread the idea
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by promoting Orgdown
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as a separate term
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compared to Org Mode
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and its mixed up definition
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with the Org Mode Elisp implementation.
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And in case that Orgdown
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really resonates with you,
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you can add a formal specification
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to the GitLab project of Orgdown.
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I guess that some of the
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existing formal definitions of Org Mode
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already do qualify for Orgdown1
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by stripping down to the few things
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Orgdown1 is concentrating on.
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You can create, for example,
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a language server protocol for Orgdown1
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which would multiply the possibilities
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for adapting Orgdown1
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in all kinds of editors
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by giving syntax highlighting, for example.
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And you may find the idea intriguing
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that Orgdown1 is a perfect markup language candidate
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for the Gemini project,
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which would be, in short,
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a linked web of plain Orgdown1 files
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that form a parallel internet
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without advertisements,
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malware-bloated web pages, and so forth.
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It's concentrating
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on the essential value of information
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in form of simple text files
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and links to other simple text files.
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I would love to see this.
happen someday
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In the meantime, let's kick-start Orgdown
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with Orgdown1 as the first level.
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Visit the GitLab page,
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hand in improvements for the linked tool sections,
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and spread the brilliant markup design
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of Org Mode,
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using Orgdown as a well-defined
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new standard.
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Thank you.
