TODOs with repeat are not sorted correctly(?) in the agenda view

TODOs with repeat are not sorted correctly(?) in the agenda view

[Sébastien Delafond]

Hi fellows,

got the following bug report[1] from a Debian user:

  We have the <2012-12-23 Sun>.  I have in my TODO.org file the entries

  ***** TODO reference entry
        SCHEDULED: <2012-12-22 Sat>
  ***** TODO test entry +
        SCHEDULED: <2012-12-19 Wed +2d>
  ***** TODO test entry ++
        SCHEDULED: <2012-12-19 Wed ++2d>
  ***** TODO test entry .+
        SCHEDULED: <2012-12-19 Wed .+2d>

  When I type 'Ctrl-c a a' the agenda view gets created (with the
  default sorting settings) as follows:

    TODO:       Sched. 2x:  TODO reference entry
    TODO:       Scheduled:  TODO test entry +
    TODO:       Scheduled:  TODO test entry ++
    TODO:       Scheduled:  TODO test entry .+

  This is not the result I expect.  The test entries are scheduled 3
  days more in the past than the reference entry.  Thus, I would expect
  them to come first with 'Sched. 5x:' in front.  I understand that due
  to the repeats, the test entries virtually appear also on the 21st and
  23rd, and that's why it is sorted that way.  The sorting takes the
  last virtual appearance rather than the one real appearance.  But that
  means, that entries that I should work on every second day never makes
  it to the top of the priority list, which renders the priority list in
  the agenda view useless, I think.  When I work on one of the test
  entries and cycle through TODO-DONE-TODO, the SCHEDULED date is
  automatically incremented and only then should the entry appear later
  in the list.  This is the most reasonable behavior, I think.  However,
  since there seem different oppinions on that issue possible, it would
  be great to have at least an option that would allow to pick the one
  or the other behavior.

(Please note that he is still using version 7.01g). I'll point the user
to this thread so he can tell us more if need be.

Cheers,

--Seb

Re: TODOs with repeat are not sorted correctly(?) in the agenda view

[Bastien]

Hi Sébastien,

Sébastien Delafond <sdelafond@gmail.com> writes:

> (Please note that he is still using version 7.01g). I'll point the user
> to this thread

Please do!

> so he can tell us more if need be.

Yes.  First thing we need to know is whether he has been trying to
achieve what he wants by configuring `org-agenda-sorting-strategy'.
Maybe he's not aware of that option.

Thanks, 

-- 
 Bastien

Re: TODOs with repeat are not sorted correctly(?) in the agenda view

[Josef Atmin]

Bastien <bzg <at> altern.org> writes:
> Yes.  First thing we need to know is whether he has been trying to
> achieve what he wants by configuring `org-agenda-sorting-strategy'.
> Maybe he's not aware of that option.

Hello Bastien, 

I have posted the bug report.  Thanks for responding so quickly.

I have tried to customize `org-agenda-sorting-strategy', but only
'user-defined-up' might do the trick, I think.  However, I do not know LISP and
would not know how to define the required comparison function.

Merry Christmas,

Josef.

Re: TODOs with repeat are not sorted correctly(?) in the agenda view

[Bastien]

Hi Josef,

thanks for writing back.

Josef Atmin <jatmin@web.de> writes:

> I have tried to customize `org-agenda-sorting-strategy', but only
> 'user-defined-up' might do the trick, I think.  However, I do not know LISP and
> would not know how to define the required comparison function.

In fact we need a date-up/date-down sorting strategy.

I'm putting this in my TODO list for Org 8.0.

Thanks!

-- 
 Bastien

Re: TODOs with repeat are not sorted correctly(?) in the agenda view

[Josef Atmin]

Dear Bastien,

Bastien <bzg <at> altern.org> writes:
> > I have tried to customize `org-agenda-sorting-strategy', but only
> > 'user-defined-up' might do the trick, I think.  
> > However, I do not know LISP and
> > would not know how to define the required comparison function.
> 
> In fact we need a date-up/date-down sorting strategy.

Maybe, it would be clearer to call it scheduled-up/scheduled-down,
because there are several different dates used.

As far as I understand, items are already sorted by date as a
fallback, i.e. it cannot be selected in the 'customize-variable' of
'org-agenda-sorting-strategy', but it is done anyway as a last rule.
However, the date used is not the SCHEDULED date but in repeated items
it is the last date in the past that one would get by incrementing the
SCHEDULED date by multiples of the interval set (e.g. .+1w), which I
find a not very useful behavior.

> I'm putting this in my TODO list for Org 8.0.

If you could implement a scheduled-up/scheduled-down to override this
behavior, that would be great.

Best wishes,

Josef.