[emacs-wiki-discuss] Re: planner task syntax

[Michael Olson]

Torsten Anders <address@hidden> writes:

> Does there exist some doku which explains the syntax for a planner
> task (i.e. a task in the TaskPool) somewhat formally? What form must
> a task have to be automatically bi-directionally linked/linkable to
> other pages (e.g. the page of today).  I would like to be able to
> manually edit the task and have changes always reflected by the
> linked page (required use of an ID is fine).

See the "Example Page" section in the Planner manual.  It should
probably be modified, however, to better explain the syntax of a
single task line.

Here is a sort of Task syntax, using nested definition lists to form a
modified sort of BNF grammar that is publishable by Muse, as of 10
minutes ago.

#disable-tables t
; tell Muse not to turn "|" into a table; ignore if you are
; casually reading this via email

<TASK> :: #<PRIORITY> " " <STATUS> " " <DESCRIPTION>

  <PRIORITY> :: A | B | C

    A :: high priority
    B :: medium priority
    C :: low priority

  <STATUS> :: _ | D | X | P | C | o

    _ :: open
    D :: delegated
    X :: done
    P :: pending
    C :: cancelled
    o :: in progress

  <DESCRIPTION> :: <text> ( "{{" <TAG> "}}" )* ( "(" <PARTNERS> ")" )?

    <TAG> :: ( Tasks:<TASK_ID> | Deadline:<DATE> | ... )

    <PARTNERS> ::
      (simple case) :: <PAGE_NAME>

      (with planner-multi) :: ( <PAGE_NAME> <PAGE_SEPARATOR> )*
                              <PAGE_NAME>

         <PAGE_SEPARATOR> (by default) :: " "

> What kind of pages can be linked such that edits are reflected
> automatically? The usual case is some date (like today). However, I
> would like to organise my plans, for example, in larger time frames
> like having as link [[May.2006]]. I once succeeded in creating such
> a task and editing the task was then reflected in the file/buffer
> May.2006. Still, I couldn't reproduce that :-/

A task must have a task ID in order for edits to be automatically
propagated between instances of the same task in different files.

To add this ID, either create tasks using M-x planner-create-task or
run M-x planner-id-add-task-id after moving to the task.

> Can a task exceed multiple lines?

Tasks cannot span multiple lines.  This would be good to have in the
future, though.  Something like the following might work.

#B _ Task description ...
     continuation of task
#B _ Another task

> Must the link always be the last token of a task? For example, when
> I had some text after that link, this text was skipped on the linked
> page.

Yes.  We should allow people to put the link first, however, in future
versions.

> Thank you very much! Sorry, if the number of questions exceed what
> is allowed in a single post..

The good thing is, we now have at least 3 different tasks that
interested contributors could pursue to help make Planner better. :^)

-- 
Michael Olson -- FSF Associate Member #652 -- http://www.mwolson.org/
Interests: Emacs Lisp, text markup, protocols -- Muse, Planner, ERC, EMMS
  /` |\ | | | IRC: mwolson on freenode.net: #hcoop, #muse, #PurdueLUG
 |_] | \| |_| Jabber: mwolson_at_hcoop.net

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