Re: property searches for #+CATEGORY

From: "Mario E. Munich" <mariomu@ieee.org>
To: Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl>
Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
Subject: Re: property searches for #+CATEGORY
Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:33:37 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <493DBCE1.1080507@ieee.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <8961829C-A8C1-4835-8F6D-386BA1DDE335@uva.nl>

Dear Carsten,

I am really sorry for not having been clear... let me explain myself a
little bit and hopefully you would be able to point me in the right
direction.

First of all, I would like to mention that I am a planner-el convert
given the flexibility that org-mode provides. I have converted all my
planner files into org-mode files and I am moving forward using org-mode.

My particular use-case scenario (that seemed to be the same scenario
that Adam mentioned in this thread) is that I would like to have two set
of org files stored in separated directories: one set for the office
(work) and another set for home (personal). I am able to run agenda
commands in both sets of files using org-agenda-files and I am able to
see all the TODO items using the basic C-a a commands. However, I would
like to search for TODO items that correspond only to my work or only to
my home (basically, have two emacs buffers, one with work TODO lists and
another with personal TODO lists to avoid cluttering).

From this thread of emails of about a year ago, I thought that the
solution to my use-case was to add a #+CATEGORY indicator on the files.
I have added the following lines:

#+CATEGORY: work my-work-project

or

#+CATEGORY: personal my-personal-project

accordingly in the work and the personal files.
So, I am now at the point in which I would like to customize the
org-agenda-custom-commands to search for CATEGORY work or personal TODO
items. I have looked in the mailing list and in the org-mode
documentation and I have not been able to find a good example on how to
do this (I should add that my lisp skills are not that great and
therefore that might be the root cause of the problem).

I have several questions:

1) Given my use-case, is this the right approach? Should I be using
something else like FILETAGS?

I think that this use-case might be rather common for people working in
industry in which you would like to have a separation between work and
personal files due to IP and ownership issues. Things might be even
worse if you use SVN at work and GIT at home (my case). So, I would
think that it would be useful to have a simple skeleton setup in the
documentation. In planner, I used to have a way of switching between
pointing at work or personal files, but this setup was less than ideal.

2) If using CATEGORY is the right thing to do, how should I write the
search function?

Thanks a lot for your help and support... And not that you need any more
praise for org-mode, but, man, it is really, really good!!!!

Thanks again,

-Mario

Carsten Dominik wrote:
> Hi Mario,
>
> the fact that you "have read all the postings" almost contradicts
> your other statement that you "have implemented *the* method".
> I guess you need to tell us more about your detailed setup
> to get a useful reply.
>
> - Carsten
>
> On Dec 8, 2008, at 12:35 AM, Mario E. Munich wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I am sorry to bother you with a silly question, but I have read all the
>> postings on the orgmode list on how to separate files for work and
>> personal using the CATEGORY stuff. I have implemented the method, but I
>> cannot get org-agenda-custom-commands to search properly in each
>> category. Any pointers/help would be highly appreciated.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> -Mario
>>
>> -- 
>> Mario E. Munich, PhD
>> VP of Engineering
>> Principal Scientist
>> Evolution Robotics
>> Ph: (626) 993-3317
>> Fax: (626) 993-3301
>> mario@evolution.com
>> http://www.evolution.com
>>
>>
>>
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>