Re: property searches for #+CATEGORY

["Tim O'Callaghan" <tim.ocallaghan@gmail.com>]

On 07/11/2007, Adam Spiers <orgmode@adamspiers.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 07, 2007 at 02:59:35PM +0100, Tim O'Callaghan wrote:
> > On 07/11/2007, Adam Spiers <orgmode@adamspiers.org> wrote:
> > > On Wed, Nov 07, 2007 at 02:23:12PM +0100, Tim O'Callaghan wrote:
> > > > It would seem to me that this is exactly what tags does.
> > > > You could move everything down a level and use tag inheritance:
> > > > * personal stuff :personal:
> > > > * work stuff :work:
> > >
> > > I could, but this would mean that each file would have a single
> > > top-level entry, and the entire contents would be indented an extra
> > > level, which I fear is a rather unattractive solution!
> >
> > It's the technique i've been using, and yes, it is unattractive.
> >
> > When i thought of tags, it was not explicitly for GTD context
> > specifier, it was also for adding searchable metadata to a todo node.
>
> Same here.  I used tags for a lot more than GTD contexts, e.g. also
> for a rough ETC and to group them by areas of responsibility.
> (N.B. Sometimes a task can be motivated by multiple areas of
> responsibility, so subheadings aren't good enough.)
>
> > How about adding the context to the tag table with a prefix character, say #?
>
> I don't follow you, sorry.  Perhaps I should state explicitly that my
> need to distinguish between 'work' and 'personal' categories has
> nothing to do with my use of GTD contexts.  I can (and do very often)
> work from home, and I also occasionally(!) do personal tasks from the
> office.
>

My point with the taxonomy is that Categories especially 'personal'
and 'work' can be thought of as Meta Contexts (i wanted to say
Meta-TAGS, but that might get confusing). So contexts that are
arbitrary but are used to group many actual physical contexts (TAGS)
of todo nodes.

The '#' was the thought that if you treat Categories as a type of tag,
then you could add them to the tag search mechanism. To avoid
collision, such as work - the physical context and work, the category,
prefix them with a meta-character such as # which cannot normally be
in a tag name.

So a categorised tag-todo search might be:
"#work+work+email/TODO"

Tim.