Hi y'all,
I sort of gave up on Koutliner as mode for a bit; I struggled with some basic stuff, like the dreaded top margin, but the overall issue for me was that I just didn't have an immediate use case for an auto-numbered outline.
Well, I started going through the Intro to Emacs Lisp book, taking notes in org, adding headlines for each chapter; eg:
* Preface
* 1 - List Processing
** 1.1 Lisp Lists
*** examples
** 1.2 Lisp Atoms
...
I belatedly realized: hey, I could use Koutliner for this!
So I went back through the documentation and ran across the command that converts existing org files to .kotl, nice!
Then the questions set in. Here they are:
1 - there doesn't seem to be a way to create a 'title' for the file, in the file. More specifically, my org #+TITLE was inserted into cell 1, but that then throws off the outline numbering. Can Koutliner files have a title
Is cell 0 usable for this purpose, or is it only for establishing the root of the outline to follow?
Because I'm a total wiz at chapter 1 of EINTR, I poked around the Koutliner code in an attempt to discover an answer.
Is something like this possible?
(defun my-kotl-title (title)
(interactive "Title: ")
(call-interactively title))
(defun kcell:set-title (kcell)
"Store the current file's title as the title of KCELL."
(kcell:set-attr kcell 'title my-kotl-title)))
(defvar my/kcell:read-only-attributes
'(idstamp title creator create-time modifier mod-time)
"List of kcell attributes which may not be modified by a user.
Add to this list but don't remove any of the default elements.")
---
2 - Koutliner correctly imported my org markup, eg: /emph/ *bold*, etc. The manual doesn't seem to mention markup. What markup does Koutliner understand out of the box?
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3 - Due to #1, above, the imported outline displays like so:
1. #+TITLE An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp
#+DATE <2025-06-16 Mon>
... (notes on Preface)
3. 1 - List Processing
3.1. 1.1 Lisp Lists
3.1.1. example: '(rose violet daisy buttercup) is a list
3.1.2. example: *(+ 2 2) is a list*
3.1.3. example: /'(this list has (a list inside of it))/
3.2. 1.1.1 Lisp Atoms
---
Okay - it doesn't understand the hierarchy I was attempting to create in org, that's understandable.
However, even with a starting from scratch .kotl, it seems I can't have an outline that follows the chapter/subchapter headings (1, 1.1, etc) due to the hard-wired "starting from 1" outline.
That means: I cannot take notes on the Preface, qua Preface; even without a 'title', it would be assigned to cell 1, and chapter 1 will be 2., 1.1 => 2.1, etc.
The only (apparent) resolution is to start with chapter 1.
Is there any workaround, or is that just how it is? (It seems I may need to progress to EINTR chapter 2, at least, before I might attempt to ferret out an answer on my own.)
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Hyperbole version: 9.0.2pre, updated today
Side
question: is there a way to get the current version, ala M-x
org-version? For a repo install, that command returns something like :
Org mode version 9.8-pre (release_9.7.30-367-ge8413b")
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As always, I appreciate your time, and hope y'all're having a good summer so far.
Best,
C. Mayo
