Re: [PATCH] Separate clocksum format for durations >= 1 day

[Toby Cubitt <tsc25@cantab.net>]

On Tue, Nov 06, 2012 at 01:29:02PM +0100, Nicolas Goaziou wrote:
> Toby Cubitt <tsc25@cantab.net> writes:
> 
> > How do I produce the format "5 h 32 min" with your defcustom, without
> > requiring the user to define their own function? (Assuming that 'regular
> > produces the current default "5:32" format.)
> 
> Why "without defining their own function"? My proposal was to use
> functions instead of format strings to customize output.

Because customizing a format string is easier than defining a new
function when you don't want to do anything more fancy than modifying the
textual formatting. (If you want to do something conditional on the
duration, then defining a new function is natural.)

> > You still need a way to allow users to supply format strings, so they can
> > customize the appearance of the `regular' and `decimal' formats. Your own
> > "5 h 32 min" and "5,3 days" examples demonstrate this.
> 
> In my proposal, customizing `regular' and `decimal' format wasn't
> expected.
> 
> > This either implies a second defcustom for the format strings, or it
> > implies storing both the format strings and choice of function choice in
> > the same defcustom. Furthermore, one format string isn't be enough
> > because you might want to different numbers of placeholders depending on
> > the duration (which is what my original patch allowed).
> 
> But let's forget about it, it's a false good idea, anyway. I'm shooting
> myself in the foot: custom formats mean parsing hell.

No. It's possible to do it with standard format strings. You just need to
(optionally) allow multiple format strings, one for each duration.


> So either:
> 
> 1. We define a new format, non customizable, but possibly conditional,
>    which can describe a duration, in order to include days.
> 
> 2. We allow customization as overlays (much like timestamps).
> 
> 3. We leave it as-is.
> 
> I'm not very fond of 2, so I think this whole customization problem is
> moot anyway.

Or

4. We replace the existing muddle with two defcustoms, one selecting
   regular or decimal (or user-defined function), and one specifying a
   list of standard format strings that the function can choose between,
   depending on the duration.

No custom format required, no format string parsing required.

Best,
Toby
-- 
Dr T. S. Cubitt
Mathematics and Quantum Information group
Department of Mathematics
Complutense University
Madrid, Spain

email: tsc25@cantab.net
web:   www.dr-qubit.org