Re: [O] Emulating list functionality from traditional GUI editors

[Calvin Young]

Jorge, thanks for the quick response!

 

* If the cursor is at the end of a list item, then "Return" should   insert a new list item (i.e., automatically perform   org-meta-return)

M-<enter> does this. You do not want <enter> to do that because you when you want to finish the list <enter> finishes it.

I don't think I explained myself clearly the first time around. The behavior I'm hoping to achieve (i.e., the default bulletting behavior in Google Docs, OSX Notes, etc.) is as follows:

;; Starting with this setup:

- one

- two
 + a[CURSOR_HERE]

;; Hitting <enter> should produce:

- one

- two
 + a

 + [CURSOR_HERE]

;; Hitting <enter> again would then produce:

- one

- two
 + a

- [CURSOR_HERE]

;; And hitting <enter> one last time would produce:

- one

- two
 + a

[CURSOR_HERE]

I know we can already achieve this with some combination of M-<enter>, <enter>, and M-S-<enter>, but this behavior has 2 distinct advantages:

1. The user only needs to remember one key to cycle between all of these actions, rather than 3 key combinations.

2. This behavior is more consistent with the bulleting behavior in other editors, which could make it feel more intuitive for new org-mode users.

 

* If the cursor is at the beginning of an empty list item, then   "Return" should outdent the list item (or remove it if it's   already at the outer-most indentation level)

I am not sure that I understand this but I assume that you would obtain the same with <tab>. It goes back and forth between levels of list so if you have

- one
- two
 + a
 + CURSOR_HERE

and you hit <tab> then it changes to
- one
- two
 + a
   + CURSOR_HERE

and then two times <tab> (or S-<tab> from the beginning) changes it to

- one
- two
 + a
- CURSOR_HERE

Yes, but for the reasons mentioned above, it'd be nice if we could use the <enter> to outdent a new list entry as well.

 

* If the cursor is at the beginning of an empty list item, then   "Backspace" should delete the list item and move my cursor to   the end of the previous list item

I guess you could remap <backspace> to a function that checks if you are at the beginning of the list and when that is true it does what you want, otherwise it just calls `delete-backward-char'. But generally I would do C-a C-k <backspace>, just two more keystrokes.

Makes sense. This is an easy function to write — just wanted to make sure there wasn't something that already does this out-of-the-box.

 

* It'd be nice of these rules could be applied to checkboxes as well

M-S-<enter> inserts a check box.

In general, I *believe* a lot of folks use lists and checkboxs in similar ways. I certainly do, and I frequently accidentally hit M-<enter> while editing a checkbox when I really intend to insert a new checkbox entry. As a result, it seems desirable to create an interface that treats them more similarly (e.g., using a single <enter> keypress to auto-insert a new entry).

If this doesn't exist yet, I'd be happy to roll it myself. But it'd be nice to avoid re-inventing the wheel here if possible :)