Re: About 'inline special blocks'

[Juan Manuel Macías]

Hi, Christian,

Thanks for your comments.

Christian Moe writes:

> Hi,
>
> This makes sense to me.
>
> Note: For the html output in your example, I expect you don't mean
> <name>contents></name>, but <span class="name">contents</span>. That
> would give the desired custom style controle of the output, and would
> parallel the behavior of special blocks.

You are absolutely right, it is my fault. These days I'm doing a work
with a lot of xml, and I've mixed things up in my head :-). In html the
expected form is as you say. Apologize for the confusion.

> If "inline special blocks" will be able to nest, they will have an
> advantage over org macros, which cannot.
>
> Apart from nesting, an org macro could do the same job, but less
> elegantly. The suggested inline syntax would not require commas to be
> escaped in the contents. And it would be somewhat more concise and far
> more legible, as illustrated in the below example (with working macros,
> imagined inline special blocks, and a CSS implementation):
>
> #+begin_example
> #+macro: fmt @@html:<span 
> class="$1">$2</span>@@@@latex:\$1{$2}@@@@odt:<text:span 
> text:style-name="$1">$2</text:span>@@
> #+html_head: <style>.highlight {background-color: yellow;}
> #+html_head:        .smallcaps {font-variant: small-caps;}</style>
>
> This is some {{{fmt(highlight, highlighted text)}}} and this is some
> {{{fmt(smallcaps, text in small caps)}}}.
>
> This is some %[highlight]{highlighted text} and this is some
> %[smallcaps]{text in small caps}.
> #+end_example

I have used macros a lot in the past for these purposes. But the problem
of having to escape commas and the somewhat confusing (and ugly) syntax
of macros has led me to rarely use them now. Links have been a good
replacement for me, but they still have their limitations (the most
important, as Ihor commented, not being able to include a link within
the description. But we can't put footnotes either). I actually think
that inline special blocks could be tremendously useful and versatile.
And, in syntactic terms, an important point in favor of Org against
Markdown, which if I'm not mistaken does not have anything similar (I
hardly use md, so I'm not very aware).

Best regards,

Juan Manuel