Re: [O] Syntax of Org Babel ":results" header argument

[Sebastien Vauban]

Hello,

As there was no reaction to this, I'd like to bump it up. At least, to either
have a discussion on this, or a clearly stated "no go".

Best regards,
Seb

"Sebastien Vauban" wrote:
> Before Org 8 is out, I'm willing to put light on some last syntax which I find
> counter-intuitive and not along the lines of the rest: it concerns the
> `results' parameter.
>
> Let's sum up first the list of all parameters:
>
> 1. Collection
>
>    - :results value
>    - :results output
>
> 2. Type of results (when :results is set to `value'):
>
>    - Result types
>
>      + :results vector
>      + :results scalar
>      + :results list
>      + :results file
>
>    - Result wrappers
>
>      + :results raw
>      + :results drawer
>      + :results org (removed, right?)
>      + :results html
>      + :results code
>      + :results latex
>      + :results pp
>
> 3. Handling
>
>    - :results replace
>    - :results silent
>    - :results none
>    - :results append
>    - :results prepend
>
> As you see (by the shown structure), the different values answer different
> questions:
>
> - How the results should be collected from the source code block?
> - How they will be inserted into the Org mode buffer?
> - How to interpret/wrap the results?
> - How the results should be handled?
>
> And answering many of these questions at the same time means giving a
> *multi-value* to the parameter, such as:
>
>   :results list append
>
> Wouldn't it make more sense (and be more easily parsed by the machine and be
> cleaner and less error-prone for us, poor humans) if `results' would be split
> in different parameters for the different questions they answer, each of those
> parameters getting at most one value?
>
> Something along the lines of:
>
>   :results_type file :results_insertion append
>
>   (those names may be ugly, it just for the purpose of explaining my idea).
>
> I know that it's the ultimate moment to discuss such a change, would there be
> consensus, before Org 8 is out.

-- 
Sebastien Vauban