I agree that this is confusing. I examined the org repository history, and it seems that both the documentation and the variable go all the way back to 2007. I believe the default value of the variable was changed to nil, but the documentation was not updated accordingly.
Matt alain.coch...@unistra.fr writes: > Hello. > > In section "2.3.1 Global and local cycling" of the manual I read: > > > `<TAB>' (`org-cycle') > _Subtree cycling_: Rotate current subtree among the states > > ,-> FOLDED -> CHILDREN -> SUBTREE --. > '-----------------------------------' > > The cursor must be on a headline for this to work(1). When the > cursor is at the beginning of the buffer and the first line is not > a headline, then <TAB> actually runs global cycling (see > below)(2). > > with the footnote being > > (2) see the option `org-cycle-global-at-bob'. > > > If I use Org Mode without any customization, then, when using <TAB> > "When the cursor is at the beginning of the buffer and the first line > is not a headline", absolutely nothing is done. > > Sure, this is consistent with the help page of variable > org-cycle-global-at-bob which says that "When this option is nil, > don't do anything special at the beginning of the buffer", together > with the fact that, without any customization, org-cycle-global-at-bob > is 'nil'. > > But I find this very confusing, at least for the beginner, who is > unlikely to enquire right away about the possible values of > org-cycle-global-at-bob. > > Or perhaps I am missing something at the English level? > > Regards, > alain
