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.