Re: [O] why is 'no' the default value of :tangle

[Sebastien Vauban]

Christian Moe wrote:
> Guido Van Hoecke writes:
>> I am wondering why the default value of header argument :tangle is 'no'
>> rather than 'yes'.
>
> FWIW, the default makes sense to me. A document might contain lots of
> little code blocks for one purpose or another (testing, little
> utilities, version archive, etc.)  that you don't want included in the
> tangled product.
>
>> Back to google-calendar.org as an example.
>>
>> Is it normal that whomever wants to use the embedded elisp file needs
>> to edit the source and e.g. insert a '#+PROPERTY: tangle yes'?
>>
>> It is clear that this file will need to be tangled by every single
>> person that wants to use the embedded code, so should the default not
>> allow for tangling without having the edit the input file?
>
> Well, if you're distributing code for others to use in the form of
> source blocks in Org documents, it may be a courtesy to set `:tangle
> yes'.
>
> But that doesn't necessarily give users the tangled result where they
> want it on their system, with the filename they want, so they will often
> have to edit it anyway.

And you can change the default for your Org installation, by changing the
default of the "tangle" header argument in your .emacs file:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
;; add default arguments
(add-to-list 'org-babel-default-header-args
             '(:tangle . "yes"))
#+end_src

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sebastien Vauban