icalendar "description" suggestion

icalendar "description" suggestion

[Tom Tromey]

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usually do not have translators to read other languages for them.

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and the precise symptoms of the bug:


Lately I've been using icalendar-import-buffer to convert a Zimbra
calendar to Emacs format.

This works pretty well, except that Zimbra puts the string
"*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*" into the DESCRIPTION field.  I'm not exactly
sure where this comes from, though a Zimbra bug report suggests that
perhaps it is an Outlook thing:

http://bugzilla.zimbra.com/show_bug.cgi?id=6071

(see comment #1)

It would be nice if icalendar-import-buffer understood this convention
and deleted any text before the magic string from the description.

More generally it would be nice to be able to exert more control the
over formatting of the description than is provided by a format string
like icalendar-import-format-description.  For instance, in my case I
want to compact sequences of newlines into a single newline.


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please include the output from the following gdb commands:
    `bt full' and `xbacktrace'.
If you would like to further debug the crash, please read the file
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In GNU Emacs 22.0.990.1 (i386-koji-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.10.11)
 of 2007-05-23 on xenbuilder3.fedora.phx.redhat.com
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.70101000
configured using `configure  '--build=i386-koji-linux-gnu' '--host=i386-koji-linux-gnu' '--target=i386-redhat-linux-gnu' '--program-prefix=' '--prefix=/usr' '--exec-prefix=/usr' '--bindir=/usr/bin' '--sbindir=/usr/sbin' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--datadir=/usr/share' '--includedir=/usr/include' '--libdir=/usr/lib' '--libexecdir=/usr/libexec' '--localstatedir=/var' '--sharedstatedir=/usr/com' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--with-pop' '--with-sound' '--with-gtk' 'build_alias=i386-koji-linux-gnu' 'host_alias=i386-koji-linux-gnu' 'target_alias=i386-redhat-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-DMAIL_USE_LOCKF -DSYSTEM_PURESIZE_EXTRA=16777216 -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -m32 -march=i386 -mtune=generic -fasynchronous-unwind-tables''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Group

Minor modes in effect:
  gnus-agent-mode: t
  compilation-in-progress: (compilation grep grep grep grep grep grep grep grep grep gid gid grep)
  erc-menu-mode: t
  erc-autojoin-mode: t
  erc-ring-mode: t
  erc-pcomplete-mode: t
  erc-track-mode: t
  erc-track-minor-mode: t
  erc-match-mode: t
  erc-button-mode: t
  erc-fill-mode: t
  erc-stamp-mode: t
  erc-netsplit-mode: t
  erc-spelling-mode: t
  erc-truncate-mode: t
  gnus-undo-mode: t
  erc-status-mode: t
  erc-services-mode: t
  erc-irccontrols-mode: t
  erc-noncommands-mode: t
  erc-readonly-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  unify-8859-on-encoding-mode: t
  utf-translate-cjk-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
1 M-< C-c C-g C-u C-u C-n C-u C-n C-u C-n C-c a C-a 
C-k C-k C-u C-p C-SPC C-n C-n M-w C-y C-c b C-c a D 
e l e e <backspace> t e SPC o l d SPC a p p o i n t 
m e n t s . C-x C-s C-c b M-< C-h f u s e r - <tab> 
l o g <tab> <return> C-h f u r <backspace> s e r <tab> 
<tab> r e <tab> l <tab> <return> C-u C-n C-n C-n M-f 
M-f M-f M-f C-f <return> ( c o n c a t SPC M-f M-f 
M-f M-f M-f M-f M-f M-f M-b " " M-d C-b C-o <return> 
( u s e r - l o g ESC TAB ) C-n TAB C-e ) C-x C-e C-x 
C-g C-p C-p C-p C-c a U s e SPC u s e r - l l o g i 
C-u C-b C-d C-e n - n a m e . C-x C-s C-x s SPC C-x 
b <return> M-x p a c k a g e <tab> i n s t <tab> f 
<backspace> - f r <tab> <return> C-x k <return> C-a 
C-p C-SPC C-n C-n M-w M-x c v s - u p d <tab> <return> 
<return> c C-y C-k C-k C-c C-c C-u C-n C-n C-n c C-c 
C-c C-x o C-x 1 C-c b C-x k <return> C-z o <switch-frame> 
<help-echo> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
C-x k <return> M-v M-v C-r D E C <backspace> C <backspace> 
S C C-w C-r C-r C-r M-f C-f C-s C-w C-w C-w C-w C-r 
C-r C-r C-r C-r C-r C-v C-l C-z o M-x r e p o C-g C-a 
M-x r e p o r <tab> b <tab> <return>

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Tom

Re: icalendar "description" suggestion

[Ulf Jasper]

Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com> writes:
> It would be nice if icalendar-import-buffer understood this convention
> and deleted any text before the magic string from the description.
>
> More generally it would be nice to be able to exert more control the
> over formatting of the description than is provided by a format string
> like icalendar-import-format-description.  For instance, in my case I
> want to compact sequences of newlines into a single newline.

That magic string stuff is not part of the icalendar standard.  It is
just some secret convention that some ical export tool uses. It may
change anytime. I don't think that icalendar.el should support stuff
like that.

Instead I suggest to allow not only format strings but also functions as
values of icalendar-import-format-description. Such a function must take
the imported description string as argument. Of course, the same should
be done for the other icalendar-import-format-* variables and for
icalendar-import-format itself (which would require a function with more
than 1 arguments).

That will give users complete control over the import of icalendar data.

However, I see a problem regarding export of diary data. Import and
export was supposed to be reversible and so icalendar.el currently uses
icalendar-import-format-* for *formatting icalendar entries* when
importing and for *parsing diary entries* when exporting. This will not
work with formatting functions.

On the other hand: I have noticed there are other problems with export,
so this might not count. ;)

Ulf

-- 
Merken Sie auch, muss diese Verhandlung wegen seiner Natur behalten
werden. ich, mich auf Annahme Ihre unverzügliche Erwiderung zu freuen.

Re: icalendar "description" suggestion

[Tom Tromey]

>>>>> "Ulf" == Ulf Jasper <ulf.jasper@web.de> writes:

Ulf> Instead I suggest to allow not only format strings but also
Ulf> functions as values of icalendar-import-format-description.

That would work for me.

Meanwhile I hack on the buffer after downloading from Zimbra, but
before calling icalendar-*.

Thanks for writing icalendar.el.  It has been very helpful to me.
My appreciation went even higher after I spent some time looking at
RFC 2445 today.

Tom