Re: [misc-new-features 1/5] Add two new special properties, SINCE and SINCE_IA.

[James TD Smith <ahktenzero@mohorovi.cc>]

Hi Bastien

On 2009-07-17 18:55:01(+0200), Bastien wrote:
> sorry for the delay.  As I said, I will let Carsten decides about this
> patch.  While I like the idea of displaying this information in column
> view, I'm unsure whether it's relevant to add another special property.
>
> Two arguments: (1) this special property, contrary to other ones, is a
> _relative_ property.  The information it displays in the column view is
> not displayed in the subtree, it is dynamically computed when displaying
> the column.  So it is a "special special property". (2) The 2nd argument
> is that, it would be more useful to have a custom summary-type mechanism
> rather than adding too many special properties.  Displaying SINCE could
> be done by such a mechanism.
>
> What do you think?

Actually, I've been thinking the same thing. When I wrote the patch adding a new
property looked like the easiest way to get what I wanted, but it's somewhat
limited. It would be useful to be able to use a property for the creation time
of an entry, rather than putting an inactive timestamp in the entry. There's
also the problem of being dependent on the order of the contents of the entry
(the TIMESTAMP and TIMESTAMP_IA special properties return the first timestamp in
the entry), so it only does the right thing if the LOGBOOK and PROPERTIES
drawers are at the top of the entry and in that order.

Having a column view operator for calculating time since would avoid this
problem and be much more flexible. I've been looking at the changes Mikael
Fornius' patch to org-columnview added, and I think I can add a new operator for
this fairly easily.

I still might want to add another special property, for the latest clocked time
for an entry. That way I can have a column for the creation time (stored in a
property) and a column for the last time I worked on the entry.

James

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