About 'inline special blocks'

[Juan Manuel Macías]

Hi all,

I think this idea was suggested by Ihor in a thread from a few months
ago (I don't remember which one), but since other topics were discussed,
the idea remained a bit in limbo. I still find the idea very
interesting, and I think it would be very productive for Org to have a
multipurpose inline container, so it occurred to me to open this thread
to invite a possible discussion on the subject.

I suppose it would have been more practical to start the thread directly
proposing a patch, but since it is about adding a new element to Org,
which is not trivial, I thought that maybe it would be more convenient
to have a previous discussion and poll the users' and developers opinion.

The question is: Does Org Mode need inline special blocks? On the one
hand, it seems that we can live without them. Macros and links can work
competently for this purpose. But macros have the drawback of the comma
as an escape character; and links also have its drawbacks, although the
org-link-set-parameters function is very versatile. And even a huge fan
of links like me can recognize these limitations :-). For example, we
cannot put a footnote inside a link.

Therefore, I think that inline special blocks would fill an important
gap. They could be translated into HTML as a <span></span> container; to
odt as character styles or to LaTeX as commands with arguments. And they
would open the doors to a real solution for multilingual support in Org.

Perhaps the syntax could be a continuation of that of inline code
blocks. Something like:

<name>_[options]{text}

And in options include some 'jibarized' version of attr_latex,
attr_html, etc.

Well, I don't know if I have managed to sell the product well or if I
have been too abstract :-)

Best regards,

Juan Manuel