todo-prefix default value has odd diary interpretation

todo-prefix default value has odd diary interpretation

[Denis Bueno]

[Crossposting because this is half request-for-help and half bug-report.]

I recently started using diary and todo-mode. I use the following
customisations to have emacs display appoinments as they occur:

;; Remind me about diary entries.
(add-hook 'diary-display-hook 'appt-make-list)
;; Also display the diary when I do M-x diary.
(add-hook 'diary-display-hook 'fancy-diary-display)
;; Enable #include in diary.
(add-hook 'list-diary-entries-hook 'include-other-diary-files)

As suggested in todo-mode.el in the emacs trunk, I enable diary
includes so that my todos show up when I'm reading my diary for the
day. This behavior is useful. However, I find one thing odd:

If I add a todo to some category at (say) 09:00 on Tuesday, then when
I read my diary wednesday morning, I get an "appointment" at 09:00
whose text is the text of the todo. This doesn't make any sense,
because the time at which I added the todo has nothing (necessarily)
to do with any kind of "deadline" for that todo (I put the deadline in
scare quotes because todo-mode appears to have no concept of deadlines
for todos).

So, first: is there a way to set a deadline for a todo, such that
emacs will display an appointment at the time of the deadline for the
todo?

Second: should this behavior be changed so that the time of entering
the todo should not be considered an appointment time?

Please let me know if I'm confused, or if you agree with my confusion.

Thanks.

-Denis

Re: todo-prefix default value has odd diary interpretation

[Glenn Morris]

"Denis Bueno" wrote:

> So, first: is there a way to set a deadline for a todo, such that
> emacs will display an appointment at the time of the deadline for the
> todo?

It seems not, because todo's don't have a concept of a time at which
they need to be done. Why not just make a normal diary entry?

> Second: should this behavior be changed so that the time of entering
> the todo should not be considered an appointment time?

Try customizing todo-time-string-format so that the time of day is not
recognized by appt.

Re: todo-prefix default value has odd diary interpretation

[Denis Bueno]

On 4/20/07, Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> wrote:
> "Denis Bueno" wrote:
>
> > So, first: is there a way to set a deadline for a todo, such that
> > emacs will display an appointment at the time of the deadline for the
> > todo?
>
> It seems not, because todo's don't have a concept of a time at which
> they need to be done. Why not just make a normal diary entry?

I may do that. It seems weird to have to look in two places for todos
(if I put deadline-having todos in diary but not in todo-mode), but I
suppose I could put the deadline in diary, and the todo in .todo-do.
This duplicates a bit of work, but may be psychologically acceptable.

>
> > Second: should this behavior be changed so that the time of entering
> > the todo should not be considered an appointment time?
>
> Try customizing todo-time-string-format so that the time of day is not
> recognized by appt.

Ah. Hadn't thought of that. Will report on any solution.

-Denis

Re: todo-prefix default value has odd diary interpretation

[Tim X]

"Denis Bueno" <dbueno@gmail.com> writes:

> On 4/20/07, Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> wrote:
>> "Denis Bueno" wrote:
>>
>> > So, first: is there a way to set a deadline for a todo, such that
>> > emacs will display an appointment at the time of the deadline for the
>> > todo?
>>
>> It seems not, because todo's don't have a concept of a time at which
>> they need to be done. Why not just make a normal diary entry?
>
> I may do that. It seems weird to have to look in two places for todos
> (if I put deadline-having todos in diary but not in todo-mode), but I
> suppose I could put the deadline in diary, and the todo in .todo-do.
> This duplicates a bit of work, but may be psychologically acceptable.
>
>>
>> > Second: should this behavior be changed so that the time of entering
>> > the todo should not be considered an appointment time?
>>
>> Try customizing todo-time-string-format so that the time of day is not
>> recognized by appt.
>
> Ah. Hadn't thought of that. Will report on any solution.
>
> -Denis
>
>

You may also like to check out planner-mode. It provides quite powerful
facilities for scheduling tasks, being warned about deadlines, tracking time,
generating reports of completed/uncompleted/in-progress tasks, convenient links
between related items in a specific project - including integration with bbdb,
various mail clients, w3m, emacs bookmarks, etc. I've been using it for quite a
while now and have found it extremely useful in managing day planning, project
planning/tracking and information tracking. 

Tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au