Re: merge trees?

[Thomas S. Dye <tsd@tsdye.com>]

Aloha Matt,

Matt Price <moptop99@gmail.com> writes:

> Eveyr year at this time, I struggle with the structure of my course
> syllabi, and move bits an pieces around with wild abandon.  At the end of
> my struggles, my course outline will be filled with headings like this:
> ------------------------
> ** <2015-10-06 Tue> Spatial History
> Thinking about the visual presentation of information, especially in map
> form
> *** Readings
> + Franco Moretti, /Graphs, Maps, Trees/, ch. 1 ([[
> http://2012.hackinghistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/placing-history.pdf][Graphs]]
> ).
> + Knowles, A. K. “GIS and History.” [[
> http://2012.hackinghistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/pariser-filter-bubble.pdf][/Placing
> History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical
> Scholarship/]] (2008): 1–13.
> + Bondenhamer, David J. “History and GIS: Implications for the Discipline.”
> /Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical
> Scholarship/ (2008): 219-234.
> + Theibault, John. “[[
> http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/evidence/theibault-2012-spring/][Visualizations
> and Historical Arguments]].” Writing History in the Digital Age, March 23,
> 2012.
> *** Lab: Google Maps and Javascript
> --------------------------
>
> Unfortunately, the Seminar topics, labs, and readings do not always match
> up very well. It occurs to me that it would be preferable to maintain
> separate trees of seminar topics and labs, and merge them, so eg:
>
> * Topics
> ** Introduction
> ** Crowds and Publics
> ** Spatial History
>
> * Labs
> ** Intro to HTML
> ** Styling with CSS
> ** The Google Maps Javascript API
>
> The two subtrees can be manipulated independently, then merged to create
> something like:
>
> * Schedule
> ** <2015-09-15>
> *** Seminar: Introduction
> *** Lab: Intro to HTML
>
> (each subheading will also include content, e.g., a description of the
> class, some lab instructions, etc.).
>
> Is there an easy way to do this already? Or is the best thing to do to
> write a piece of elisp that generates the appropriate structure using
> org-element, and put that code in a babel block? And if the latter, does
> anyone, um, want to write the code for me?
>

I keep separate headings for readings, discussion questions, lectures,
etc., and don't attach dates directly to the headings.  Then, I put
together a course calendar as a table that includes links to all the
relevant parts.  I export this to html, using Fabrice Niessen's
ReadTheOrg stylesheet, and I'm good to go.  My students like it, too. 

Not sure if this is what you're after, but it is working for me.

All the best,
Tom
-- 
Thomas S. Dye
http://www.tsdye.com