Thanks!
> We aim to reduce config-dependent Org syntax in the long term.
Thats wonderful news! Sometimes this stuff can really surprise you. For
example, the structure of the document created by running `echo "1. foo\n
1.bar\n 1.baz\n\t1.lorem"` changes based on the user's **tab-width**!!
If tab-width is less than 8 then this is:
```text
1. foo
1. bar
1. baz
2. lorem
```
If tab-width is 8 then this is:
```text
1. foo
1. bar
1. baz
2. lorem
```
and if tab-width is greater than 8 this is:
```text
1. foo
1. bar
1. baz
1. lorem
```
Absolute madness! I always considered tab-width to be a personal aesthetic
choice and not something that would functionally change how documents other
people wrote will be parsed.
Idk if its been discussed, but personally if I were given dictatorship over
org-mode I would take all of these emacs variables that are defined outside of
the document, and instead of having them influence org-mode directly, I would
*only* use them to pre-populate values for in-buffer settings templates.
For example, if a user had set `org-odd-levels-only` then I wouldn't have that
impact ANY existing document they open, but if they open a new document then I
would have it auto-insert `#+STARTUP: odd` at the top of the fresh document.
Otherwise it seems like org-mode is unsuitable for multi-person collaboration
without dictating the contents of everyone's `.emacs` file.
--
Tom Alexander
pgp: https://fizz.buzz/pgp.asc
