How to copy an agenda buffer into another buffer for editing

How to copy an agenda buffer into another buffer for editing

[Pete Phillips]

Hmmmm

I am trying to send a list of appointments to someone, but I need to
edit the list to remove my personal agenda items first.  If I go into
the Agenda buffer and sweep the weeks list of days and apoointments, I
can, of course paste it into my MH-Letter draft.

However, if I try to edit the list of dates in the MHE draft buffer, it
won't allow me - the *Messages buffer states:

	remove-yank-excluded-properties: Wrong type argument: symbolp, ""

and I can't use ^K to kill the line with the appointment.

This is *not* an org or agenda buffer. Same thing happens if I copy it
into *scratch*.

Any idea what is happening, and a way around this ? 

Cheers
Pete

Re: How to copy an agenda buffer into another buffer for editing

[Carsten Dominik]

On Jan 16, 2007, at 16:55, Pete Phillips wrote:
>
> However, if I try to edit the list of dates in the MHE draft buffer, it
> won't allow me - the *Messages buffer states:
>
> 	remove-yank-excluded-properties: Wrong type argument: symbolp, ""
>
> and I can't use ^K to kill the line with the appointment.

Now that is an interesting bug, and it is actually dangerous.

Entries in the agenda buffer have a large number of text properties
that store all kinds of information, for example where the original
entry is located, what the category is, the priority and much more.
These properties get copied and pasted along with the text.

One of the properties I use is `category' which seems to have some
special meaning in Emacs.  This is what is causing the bug you
describe.  However, the problem is bigger because
agenda lines also have a property specifying an overriding keymap,
so org-mode commands will *still* be called, even if you have pasted the
text into the scratch buffer and are working on it there.

This is, in fact, a dangerous bug, because if, for example, you press
C-k on one of those lines, the corresponding entry in the org-mode
file or in the diary will be *removed*.  So don't do that, and I
hope you have not destroyed something already.

A work-around is to use the following function to copy the region from
the agenda buffer.  It does the same thing as M-w, but does not take
along any text properties.

(defun copy-region-no-properites (beg end)
   "Copy the region into the kill ring, but remove all text properties."
   (interactive "r")
   (kill-new (buffer-substring-no-properties beg end)))

Hmmmmm, I am just thinking, that a general solution for this might
instead be:

(add-hook
  'org-agenda-mode-hook
  (lambda ()
    (make-local-variable 'buffer-substring-filters)
    (setq buffer-substring-filters
	 (cons (lambda (x) (set-text-properties 0 (length x) nil x) x)
	       buffer-substring-filters))))

Let me know if this does the trick, and I am putting it into the next 
version.

- Carsten

Re: How to copy an agenda buffer into another buffer for editing

[Pete Phillips]

Hi Carsten

>>>>> "Carsten" == Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl> writes:

    Carsten> Now that is an interesting bug, and it is actually
    Carsten> dangerous.

:-)

    Carsten> This is, in fact, a dangerous bug, because if, for example,
    Carsten> you press C-k on one of those lines, the corresponding
    Carsten> entry in the org-mode file or in the diary will be
    Carsten> *removed*.  So don't do that, and I hope you have not
    Carsten> destroyed something already.

Nearly. Thank goodness for undo eh ?

    Carsten> A work-around is to use the following function to copy the
    Carsten> region from the agenda buffer.  It does the same thing as
    Carsten> M-w, but does not take along any text properties.

I haven't tried that because I tried:

    Carsten> Hmmmmm, I am just thinking, that a general solution for
    Carsten> this might instead be:

    Carsten> (add-hook 'org-agenda-mode-hook (lambda ()
    Carsten> (make-local-variable 'buffer-substring-filters) (setq
    Carsten> buffer-substring-filters (cons (lambda (x)
    Carsten> (set-text-properties 0 (length x) nil x) x)
    Carsten> buffer-substring-filters))))

and this works (once I killed the *Org Agenda* buffer off and
regenerated it).

Superb. Thanks.
Pete

Re: How to copy an agenda buffer into another buffer for editing

[Carsten Dominik]

Great.

Please remove this from your setup when you get 4.62, because it will 
be built-in then.

- Carsten

On Jan 17, 2007, at 13:04, Pete Phillips wrote:

> Hi Carsten
>
>>>>>> "Carsten" == Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl> writes:
>
>     Carsten> Now that is an interesting bug, and it is actually
>     Carsten> dangerous.
>
> :-)
>
>     Carsten> This is, in fact, a dangerous bug, because if, for 
> example,
>     Carsten> you press C-k on one of those lines, the corresponding
>     Carsten> entry in the org-mode file or in the diary will be
>     Carsten> *removed*.  So don't do that, and I hope you have not
>     Carsten> destroyed something already.
>
> Nearly. Thank goodness for undo eh ?
>
>     Carsten> A work-around is to use the following function to copy the
>     Carsten> region from the agenda buffer.  It does the same thing as
>     Carsten> M-w, but does not take along any text properties.
>
> I haven't tried that because I tried:
>
>     Carsten> Hmmmmm, I am just thinking, that a general solution for
>     Carsten> this might instead be:
>
>     Carsten> (add-hook 'org-agenda-mode-hook (lambda ()
>     Carsten> (make-local-variable 'buffer-substring-filters) (setq
>     Carsten> buffer-substring-filters (cons (lambda (x)
>     Carsten> (set-text-properties 0 (length x) nil x) x)
>     Carsten> buffer-substring-filters))))
>
> and this works (once I killed the *Org Agenda* buffer off and
> regenerated it).
>
> Superb. Thanks.
> Pete
>
>

--
Carsten Dominik
Sterrenkundig Instituut "Anton Pannekoek"
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kruislaan 403
NL-1098SJ Amsterdam
phone: +31 20 525 7477