Re: [emacs-wiki-discuss] Thoughts on org.el

[Jody Klymak]

Hi Sacha,

Sacha Chua <address@hidden> writes:

> * Tasks as notes
>
> I've been looking at
> http://zon.wins.uva.nl/~dominik/Tools/org/org.el
>
> and I think it handles hierarchies very well by treating tasks as
> specially-marked note subtrees. A task is any tree that has "TODO" in
> the headline. This makes it easier to have lots of links in a task.
> org.el supports deadlines and timestamps.
>
> Do you think tasks-as-notes would fit the way you work?

I prefer the short tasks - it makes a nice view at the top of each
Daily and Project page.  Burying the todo-s in the page would hide
them.  Yes, you *could* display them like org.el does.  But that
requires volition on my part, and would make it less likely to
happen.   

Again, I'd suggest that if someone needs extensive notes about a
task, they create a note and link it to that.  Perhaps a nice way to
do this would be useful:  planner-create-task-note, which runs
planner-create-task, runs remember with the Task Description as a
headline (and a link to the task at the bottom), and then adds a link
to the task.

i.e. 

-------
#A1  _ Test task ProjectPage#19 {{Tasks:113}} (ProjectPage)
-------

.#19 Test task ([[2004.04.01#5]])

Some random notes about this task.  maybe an extended free-form todo.
[[Task:113]]
-------

Hmm, I guess this also means a new link type (Task)....
 
> * Storage
>
> org.el encourages you to store everything in one file. Easy to search,
> but could be hard if you have lots of DONE tasks and other items you
> don't really use but still need to categorize. Possible approach like
> PlannerModeCompletedTasks - split off another tree for archived topics
> and just link.
>
> I like planner.el's approach of day pages and plan pages. I can see
> stuff from different projects on one day, and all my project-relevant
> stuff on the project page.

I prefer planner.el's methodology too.  Again, an all-in-one file
requires volition on the part of the user to sort information into
relevant categories.  Does it even have a concept of category?  If
not, then the user has to put keywords into every entry.  Planner's
blog style encourages applying a category by asking for a Project
Page and supplies an obvious summary by looking at the Project Page.
Keeping everything in one directory makes using "grep" possible for
more sophisticated data-mining.

> * Scheduling tasks
>
> I like being able to schedule my tasks for different days so that I'm
> not overwhelmed by the list of things I need to do. I'm not yet sure
> how to do that with org.el. Timestamps, then chronological view? Tasks
> don't get automatically carried forward, though. Deadlines might be
> useful, but then I see all future tasks anyway. Hmm. Timestamp start,
> then use deadline to remind me if it's passed?

org.el would be a pretty big step backwards in this regards for me.  

It *does* claim to have the ability to output LateX-like math in the
html output.  That would be quite useful!

Cheers,  Jody

-- 
Jody Klymak      http://opg1.ucsd.edu/~jklymak/
mailto:address@hidden