columnview dynamic block - different time summing behaviour for EFFORT and CLOCKSUM

[Alexander Adolf <alexander.adolf@condition-alpha.com>]

Hello Org experts,

it seems that the time summing behaviour of columnview dynamic blocks is
different for CLOCKSUM than for EFFORT columns with respect to how the
contributions from sub-headlines are handled. When summing up CLOCKSUM
columns, a parent headline can have its own clocked time, which gets
added to the sum of its sub-items' clocked times to produce its CLOCKSUM
value. When summing up EFFORT columns, any effort a parent headline may
have been manually assigned gets overwritten with the sum of its
sub-items' efforts, however. In the example at the end of this message,
compare the results for tasks A and D. If you change the effort for
either task B or C, and then update the dynamic block, the EFFORT in the
property drawer of task A will get overwritten with the new sum of B's
and C's efforts.

I'd have two questions regarding this:

Does anyone recall the rationale for this different behaviour?

Is there any way to change the summation behaviour for either or both
column types?


I have no preference for either behaviour; they both will have their
merits and applications, depending on how one organises things. I do
think that being able to get the same behaviour would seem advantageous,
however.


Many thanks and looking forward to your thoughts,

  --alexander


---------------------------- Begin Quote -----------------------------
* Example Project
#+BEGIN: columnview :maxlevel 4 :skip-empty-rows t :indent t :format "%70ITEM(Task) %17Effort(Estimated){:} %17CLOCKSUM(Clocked){:}" :id local
| Task            | Estimated | Clocked  |
|-----------------+-----------+----------|
| Example Project |   6d 0:00 | 15d 0:00 |
| \_  Task A      |   3d 0:00 | 9d 0:00  |
| \_    Task B    |        1d | 3d 0:00  |
| \_    Task C    |        2d | 3d 0:00  |
| \_  Task D      |   3d 0:00 | 6d 0:00  |
| \_    Task E    |        1d | 3d 0:00  |
| \_    Task F    |        2d | 3d 0:00  |
#+END:
** Task A
:PROPERTIES:
:EFFORT:   3d 0:00
:END:
:LOGBOOK:
CLOCK: [2023-12-08 Fri 15:51 +0100]--[2023-12-09 Sat 01:50 +0100] =>  9:59
CLOCK: [2022-01-07 Fri 18:35 +0100]--[2022-01-08 Sat 08:36 +0100] => 14:10
:END:
*** Task B
:PROPERTIES:
:Effort:   1d
:END:
:LOGBOOK:
CLOCK: [2023-12-08 Fri 15:51 +0100]--[2023-12-09 Sat 01:50 +0100] =>  9:59
CLOCK: [2022-01-07 Fri 18:35 +0100]--[2022-01-08 Sat 08:36 +0100] => 14:10
:END:
*** Task C
:PROPERTIES:
:Effort:   2d
:END:
:LOGBOOK:
CLOCK: [2023-12-08 Fri 15:51 +0100]--[2023-12-09 Sat 01:50 +0100] =>  9:59
CLOCK: [2022-01-07 Fri 18:35 +0100]--[2022-01-08 Sat 08:36 +0100] => 14:10
:END:
** Task D
*** Task E
:PROPERTIES:
:Effort:   1d
:END:
:LOGBOOK:
CLOCK: [2023-12-08 Fri 15:51 +0100]--[2023-12-09 Sat 01:50 +0100] =>  9:59
CLOCK: [2022-01-07 Fri 18:35 +0100]--[2022-01-08 Sat 08:36 +0100] => 14:10
:END:
*** Task F
:PROPERTIES:
:Effort:   2d
:END:
:LOGBOOK:
CLOCK: [2023-12-08 Fri 15:51 +0100]--[2023-12-09 Sat 01:50 +0100] =>  9:59
CLOCK: [2022-01-07 Fri 18:35 +0100]--[2022-01-08 Sat 08:36 +0100] => 14:10
:END:
----------------------------- End Quote ------------------------------