Re: want a file format easily edited and read by emacs that allows (multiple) pictures to be included

[Rusi]

On Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 5:05:19 PM UTC+5:30, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> Eric S Fraga wrote:
> 
> > I would have an example block first which
> > allows the editing of the ascii drawing and
> > then an nroff src block (although there is
> > currently no actual support for nroff but
> > trivial to add) for the pic diagram.
> 
> In general, if there is no support for *roff
> this is a very severe flaw in any IDE as groff
> is the markup and typesetting language of the
> man pages - a cornerstone of any Unix system.
> 
> Even so, *roff is much more powerful and within
> the military-publicist complex some use it to
> layout commercial books like others
> would LaTeX.
> 
> Here (my little project), nroff-mode isn't
> essential because I just use it (so far) to get
> some rudimentary font lock. For that, there are
> other modes that could serve just as well.
> nroff is closest tho conceptually as pic is
> part of the groff pipeline tool chain,
> as stated.
> 
> But anyhow, if I were to do as you suggest, and
> I must confess I didn't understand any of
> it :), what is the first step?


Speaking conceptually

You basically want a babel language binding for groff (-p)
The general idea of babel bindings is

http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/languages.html

To make a new binding a template is provided:
http://orgmode.org/w/worg.git/blob/HEAD:/org-contrib/babel/ob-template.el

Someone seems to have put together something for groff (attachment of)
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2016-03/msg00434.html

(You may need to stick in a -p to use pic)

That is speaking conceptually ;-) Speaking more helpfully:
I would say for a first dive into org start with something more mainstream
rather than picking up some rough and untried code and shoe-horning it to your
needs

But then
1. I am very far from a babel expert — noob is more accurate
2. Even after 25 years of emacs I find configuration slow, painful and 
error-prone

Very likely you are much better than I ;-) and may enjoy the dive
Just thought I should say this is diving in at the deep end…