From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Eddward DeVilla" Subject: Re: Duration Tally Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:20:38 -0500 Message-ID: References: <20070613134706.GA10452@odin.demosthenes.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I0gRe-0002pq-SP for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:20:42 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I0gRe-0002pY-4a for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:20:42 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I0gRd-0002pV-W4 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:20:42 -0400 Received: from nz-out-0506.google.com ([64.233.162.226]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I0gRd-00024f-J1 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:20:41 -0400 Received: by nz-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id q3so1582739nzb for ; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:20:39 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Content-Disposition: inline List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Carsten Dominik Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org On 6/19/07, Carsten Dominik wrote: > > On Jun 13, 2007, at 17:33, Eddward DeVilla wrote: > > > I'm starting to wonder if it would be useful to have a general > > format for properties (or choose some other word) to be associated > > with a heading or todo item. It seems the heading is getting a little > > crowded. > > > > Would it be reasonable to say that a list of non-whitespace > > listing following the heading with a format of "key: value..." are > > special. (Or a table might be nice. I like tables.:) org-mode could > > provide an interface to get a plist or alist of them for a heading to > > simplify writing now features based on them. > > One of the advantages of using plain text for notes files like > we do with Org-mode is, that you can of course implement any system > you like to store additional information. Keyword lists, tables, > anything. > > So the discussion must be about how you would like Org-mode to make > use of such data. Obviously it would be easy to write (as you > suggest) a little function that returns all this data as, say, > a property list. But then you would still need to use it in > some way. Are you suggesting tis as a feature where some users > (those who can write Lisp code) write their own extensions? > That is certainly an option. Are you also envisioning ways > how Org-mode should use this? > > Here are tow ideas: > > - a LOCATION keyword would be useful for exporting to iCalendar, > this was already proposed by Bastien a while ago. > > - We could allow the TAGS match to set conditions based on these > keywords. Right now, a tags match can say "LEVEL=2" to require > entries with putline level 2. In a similar way one could allow > "LOCATION=Paris" or whatever, that would be something quite > easily implemented. > > Nothing of this will be in todays release, obviously, this needs > more careful thinking. Thanks for starting this discussion. I don't expect to see any of this soon or in this form. It just idea I've been trying to justify bringing up. Where I'd want to use it most is in custom agenda queries. "Show me projects(todos) that are associated with release X of product Y. Release and Product would be my keywords. Right now all we have is a TODO state and a list of tags. Tags are basically boolean. You have to have a tag for each thing you want to report on. A tag for every product ID, a tag for every release identifier, tags for interested parties, tags for classes, etc. And all the tags are mixed together in a long run-on string at the end of the heading. It can get unreadable. I also would like to be able to set a property like this that I can then use in tables under the TODO item. I'd have other uses for that, but I'd like to set the property in the same way. This isn't as useful, but I've wished for it more than once. Just a way to set a variable in an org document that I can then use in formula. Originally I thought it would be a '#' directive but I do like this as a possible way to do it. While playing with these ideas and reading the message that trigger all of this, I thought it would be nice to be able to code an extension that would allow me to insert a keyword like TOTAL_DURATION: that would automatically (based on some trigger) be assigned a value equal to the sum of all the DURATION: values under the current TODO item. I know the original request sounded useful, but it seem very non-general and it was yet another thing to clutter the heading. The property list would give us easy access to user/plugin definable/managed fields. I think we would want a way to hook into a few other org-isms, like having an easy way to say C-cC-c or C-uC-cC-c makes something happen here. But this is all still wild fantasy of the bizarre and possibly impractical. I was hoping it might bring about a better idea. Edd