Re: [O] Config best practices?

[Nick Dokos]

Marcin Borkowski <address@hidden> writes:

> On 2015-03-20, at 10:07, Sebastien Vauban <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> Hello Marcin,
>>
>> Marcin Borkowski wrote:
>>> I'm wondering what people do to keep the configuration of their Org
>>> files in order.
>>
>> I'm not sure to correctly grasp your objective.  Could you restate it?
>
> Sure.
>
> Where do you put things like
>
> #+OPTIONS: toc:nil
>
> or
>
> #+SEQ_TODO: TODO | DONE
>
> or
>
> #+LATEX_HEADER: \newcommand{\eps}{\varepsilon}
>
> ?
>
>>> I use a dedicated top-level headline, with a COMMENT keyword, but
>>> I started to think that a :noexport: tag might be a better idea.
>>>
>>> Are there any advantages of one over the other, or other approaches
>>> altogether?
>>
>> I can tell you they aren't isomorphic...  The noexport tag simply says
>> "don't export this subtree".  The COMMENT keyword adds "don't run any
>> Babel code block in there".
>

COMMENT also says that the whole subtree is not to be exported according
to the doc:

   (info "(org) Comment lines")

Has that changed?

> So I guess that – since the lines with options etc. are not exported
> anyway – that using a :noexport: tag might be a better idea.  Am I right?
>
>>> The reason I'm asking is that I'm tweaking my org-one-to-many utility
>>> so that it propagates the config to all the generated files.
>>
>> Still not that clear to me.  Maybe an ECM would clarify your request?
>
> As you wish.  This is what I usually do.
>
> * Headline
> * Another one
> ** Subheadline
> * COMMENT Config
> #+LATEX_HEADER: \newcommand{\eps}{\varepsilon}
> #+SEQ_TODO: TODO | DONE CANCEL
> #+OPTIONS: toc:nil
>

Yes, but why do you do that? What are you trying to accomplish? What
does "keeping the configuration in order" mean?

I sometimes use a Setup heading marked with COMMENT, so it does not get
exported.  I never put babel stuff in there so I haven't worried about
that, but if Seb is correct that it prevents babel from evaluating
things in the subtree, that's a bonus. If you are just trying to
(mostly) hide it from view, add an :ARCHIVE: tag to the heading.
But most of the time I have them at the top of the file in plain view.

-- 
Nick