FR: more options in (org-diary)

[Wanrong Lin <wanrong.lin@gmail.com>]

Hi,

This is branched off from the previous thread "FR: date marking in 
calendar". I got the marking working now with the help from Bastien. My 
intention was to mark calendar with important "hard schedule" 
(appointments) that can not be conflicted with. However, I could not do 
it with current org-diary function, as detailed in the following:

1. Apparently, I can not use %%(org-diary :scheduled), as a lot of 
"SCHEDULED" items are just "softly scheduled". I would like to do those 
things at specified time, but do not HAVE TO do them.
2. If I use %%(org-diary :timestamp), and use plain active time stamps 
for all my appointments, all my appointments will be marked, however, 
entries like this will get marked too:

***** Payday
      <2007-11-02 Fri +2w>

The above entry is just a reminder so I will know it is a payday by 
checking today's agenda. But this does not require any action and hence 
is not an appointment. I can not change the above plain time stamp to 
"SCHEDULED" because that will make it show up as a "past due" task in my 
everyday agenda.

3. My way of indicating that a task is an appointment is as following:

* TODO See Doctor 
Smith                                                   :APPOINT:
  SCHEDULED: <2008-03-05 Wed 09:00>

I use a tag to indicate an appointment. This makes it easy to search and 
list all appointments and clears the ambiguity around "what exactly is 
an appointment". Also I use "SCHEDULED" instead of a plain time stamp 
because if for some reason I missed an appointment (say because I took a 
3-week vacation), I want the appointment to show up in my agenda as a 
past due task instead of being silently passed by.

4. I am reluctant to put my appointments in the diary file, as I want to 
have all my planning information in org files. Org file entries provide 
much more than diary entries. For example, I can group my health related 
appointments in a sub-tree. I can archive my previous dental 
appointments so I know when I should see my dentist next time, and etc.

It seems if we can enhance (org-diary) function a little bit by doing 
the following, my problem can be solved:

1. add options to limit search to "TODO" items only (I can compromise by 
using plain time stamp in my appointments)
2. and/or, add options to limit search to items with certain tags (my 
appointment set up will work very well with this option)

Any comments?  Thank you very much.

Wanrong