Re: Re: TaskJuggler 3, revisited

From: Eric S Fraga <ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk>
To: Christian Egli <christian.egli@sbs.ch>
Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Re: TaskJuggler 3, revisited
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:46:56 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87aamb4cmn.wl%ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87k4lfmtzm.fsf@saadawi.sbszh.ch>

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On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:54:37 +0200, Christian Egli <christian.egli@sbs.ch> wrote:
> 
> Eric S Fraga <ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk> writes:
> 
> > For the recent project I had to prepare, I did have to generate a
> > GANTT chart.  I tried using TJ2 via org but found the current
> > implementation not suitable for my way of working.  
> 
> What are the problems you encountered?

The main problem (not really a problem per se) is the need to define
sub-headings for tasks and so on for the exporter to find the
necessary project information.  This makes sense for a running
project, say, but not for the type of document I was preparing (a
project proposal where the level of project workplan detail is much
lower).  I found it much easier, for the latter, to use a simple
table.  Of course, for a running project where you wish to keep track
of how far each task has progressed and allocations of resources etc,
my simple approach won't be of much use and a table is probably not
the ideal representation in any case.

A secondary problem (also not a problem) was the (current) lack of
babel integration for TJ.  I have become addicted to having all my
code etc within org.  I can no longer write anything without at least
one #+begin_src ... directive in my documents!

In terms of org->tj export, there were some issues (can't remember the
details now unfortunately) with default interpretation of values for
times and so on, none of which appeared to be insurmountable but I
didn't spend much time on this aspect due to the above points.

In the end, I didn't need the power of tj so found it quicker to roll
up my own!

> > Instead of using TJ, either 2 or 3, I simply created my own chart
> > using tikz in latex. 
> 
> Sweet hack! And looks quite nice too.

thanks!

I should add that my longer term goal is to support some simple
critical path analysis using the table approach I have defined.  This
would help me in some of the lectures on project management I give to
my students.  I'm currently stuck on how to do indirect references in
org tables: how to get the contents of an entry chosen by a value in a
different entry (e.g. what is the max of the end times of the
dependencies of the current task).  I've not asked any questions on
the list yet because I think most of my answers will come from
learning emacs Calc properly (so much to learn, so little time, but it
sure is fun ;-).

Thanks,
eric

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-- 
Eric S Fraga
GnuPG: 8F5C 279D 3907 E14A 5C29  570D C891 93D8 FFFC F67D

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