Hi, Even though I am new to the org-mode community, I would like to share some thoughts on the specification of org-mode, especially since I have seen some recent discussion of it in relation to registering org as a MIME type.
First, I would like to repeat the importance of developing standards for org-mode. If we want to expand the influence of org, tooling must expand beyond Emacs. While Emacs is an amazing tool, (a) we cannot convince the entire world to use Emacs and (b) org-mode should be integrated into tooling unrelated to text editing, and is outside of the Emacs-Lisp environment. Without additional org implementations, this is impossible. If org catches on before it is standardized, we end up in the situation of Markdown, with many competing standards and non-standards. Hence, standardization is essential. Standardizing org is much harder than standardizing something like Markdown, but I think by breaking it down as follows will maximize the portability of org while not compromising on development of org. I see three areas of standardization, which I think should be standardized separately: - Org DOM - Org Syntax - Org Standard Environments Before we get to that, a brief note on /how/ I think that org should be specified. I think that org should be specified in terms of an /environment/ that defines the properties, etc. that can be used in a document. For instance, the org standard would say something to the effect of "An environment may specify block bounding keywords that may be used like #+<kwd_0>\n...#+<kwd_1>. and the environment would specify "begin_src and end_src are a pair of block bounding keyword that indicates a source code block." This is for two reasons. First, this allows for development of org tool features independent of the standard. Second, this separates the individual features of org mode from the overall structure. Org DOM: The first thing to specify is the org DOM. (Maybe a different name should be used to avoid confusion with the HTML DOM) This is the structure of an org-mode document, without the textual representation. Many org-related tools operate on org documents without needing to use the textual representation. Specifying the DOM separately would (a) create a separation of concerns and (b) allow for better libraries built around org mode. Org Syntax: This would be specifying the mapping between the DOM and the textual representation, specified in terms of an environment. Org Standard Environments: This is how I would specify elements such as #+begin_src..#+end_src would be specified, as standardized elements of the environment. This would be structured as a number of individual standard environments, such as "Source Blocks" or "Standard Header Properties" (specifying #+title, #+author, etc.) I would appreciate thoughts on these ideas about how to develop and org specification. Thanks for reading, Asa Zeren