Matt Lundin <m...@imapmail.org> wrote: > Hi Jambunathan, > > Jambunathan K <kjambunat...@gmail.com> writes: > > > Matt Lundin <m...@imapmail.org> writes: > > > >> I agree that the org-exporter currently does its job very well. The > >> astounding utility of org-mode is ample proof of the value of releasing > >> early; even if the exporter is not as elegant as a modern compiler, it > >> works. :) > >> > >> That said, I very much support Nicolas' proposal. > > > > A quick (prototype) exporter demoing Nicolas's proposal could be > > developed by using my new org-html.el in under few hours. > > > > Think of it this way: If something could be XML-ified it could be > > lispified. My exporter already has a common core that emits html and odt > > and it is a matter of altering few callbacks so that it generates a > > lispy list instead of XML. > > Thanks for all the hard work on your exporter and the rewrite! I look > forward to looking at it more closely very soon. > > In the meantime, does anyone have advice on how to start creating a > formal syntax definition for org-mode? Any good links or resources we > might check out?
EBNF is pretty much the standard metasyntax for context-free grammars (check Wikipedia). However, I doubt org is context-free, so EBNF might need extensions to deal with it. Or it can do the context-free part and any context-dependent stuff is superimposed on that. Nick > > I'm guessing that writing a formal definition is more complex than > simply defining org-mode syntax in prose---that we are after something a > little more formal and symbolic than "a headline is demarcated by one or > more asterisks beginning at column 0 of a new line...." Is that correct? > > Best, > Matt >
