Re: [Orgmode] Suggestion: rename Org Font Lock customization group

[Dan Davison]

Xiao-Yong Jin <address@hidden> writes:

> On Sun, 28 Mar 2010 12:14:49 -0400, Dan Davison wrote:
>
>> For the sake of non-emacs experts, I think the customization group
>> "Org Font Lock" would be better named "Org Appearance". Here's what part of
>> the org-customize buffer currently looks like:
>

Hi Xiao-Yong,

I understand that we may not want to change something that's been this
way in org-mode for ages, but I don't think I understood your arguments:

> I wouldn't invent some new terminology apart from emacs'
> own. 

"Appearance" is not new terminology, it is a very widely-understood
word.

I'm not suggesting that org refer to font lock using a different term;
what I'm suggesting is that that customization group is for changing
Org's *appearance*; in fact, that will often concern internal emacs
implementation machinery known as font-lock, but who needs to know
that?[1]

Also, in the Font Lock customization group, users confront the Emacs
term "Faces", which is a much more important term for a new user to
understand than "Font Lock".

> But I agree that "font lock" is not friendly to new
> users.

Right, when being friendly to new users is the purpose of customize.

A further argument that "Font Lock" is a misnomer is that "Org Odd
Levels Only" is not related to font lock. It could be put in Structure,
but I think the decision to put it in the same group as all the other
variables related to appearance made sense.

And I think there may be other examples of things that are more
helpfully described as "Appearance" than "Font Lock". For example, some
of the options in the "Org Startup" group might benefit from also having
an entry in an appearance group, e.g. org-hide-block-startup. Or perhaps
we could have an option to control whether links to images are replaced
in the buffer by the image? (a topic for a different thread...)

Dan

Footnotes:

[1] I know emacs talks about "buffers", which is only really likely to
make sense initially to the sort of people who know what malloc is, but
I contend that while "buffer" is a towering peak in the linguistic
landscape of emacs, "font-lock" is an obscure and ignorable hillock.



>  We could mention this in info and tutorial so users
> new to emacs can know what they should look for.

>
>>    [+]-- Group Org TODO
>>    [+]-- Group Org Time
>>    [+]-- Group Org Tags
>>    [+]-- Group Org Properties
>>    [+]-- Group Org Agenda
>>    [+]-- Group Org LaTeX
>>    [-]-\ Group Org Font Lock
>>> [+]-- Group Org Faces
>>> |--- Option Org Odd Levels Only
>>> |--- Option Org Level Color Stars Only
>>> |--- Option Org Hide Leading Stars
>>> |--- Option Org Hidden Keywords
>>> |--- Option Org Fontify Done Headline
>>> |--- Option Org Fontify Emphasized Text
>>> |--- Option Org Fontify Whole Heading Line
>>> |--- Option Org Highlight Latex Fragments And Specials
>>> |--- Option Org Hide Emphasis Markers
>>> |--- Option Org Emphasis Regexp Components
>>> `--- Option Org Emphasis Alist
>>    [+]-- Group Org Completion
>
> It looks really nice.  Thanks!