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

[Toby Cubitt <tsc25@cantab.net>]

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 04:04:05PM +0100, Nicolas Goaziou wrote:
> Toby Cubitt <tsc25@cantab.net> writes:
> 
> Thanks for your work. Some comments below.
> 
> > The second patch:
> > - further extends org-time-clocksum-format to allow separate month and
> >   year components (where a month is taken to be 30 days, a year to be 365
> >   days).
> 
> I suggest to add week instead of month, as the duration of the former is
> more stable and [1;52[ range is still readable.

Yes, not sure why I didn't think of adding weeks. But using months and
years is optional and not the default, so I see no great harm in
including them too (as long as the fact that 1 month = 30 days and 1 year
= 365 days here is well documented).

> > The reason for retaining separate org-time-clocksum-format and
> > org-time-clocksum-fractional-format's is that (i) it doesn't make much
> > sense to have a list of formats for separate components when using the
> > fractional format (see Nicolas' examples earlier in this discussion
> > thread);
> 
> Then, my examples weren't clear. It is useful to have a list of formats
> when using fractional time as the unit used may change:
> 
>                           1.2 d    or    1.2 h

I can easily allow org-time-clocksum-fractional-format to be a list of
formats. But "1d 3.4h" doesn't seem very useful to me. Probably it should
work a bit differently: format the time as a fractional quantity, using
the largest time unit which will give a non-zero integer part.

Does that sound reasonable?

> > I'm not wedded to new customization type I've used in
> > org-time-clocksum-format. If you prefer a plist, or a different ordering
> > of the format strings in the list, or a different customization ui,
> > that's fine by me.
> 
> I think a plist would be clearer. More on that below.
> 
> > +		     (org-add-props (concat (format "%s " (make-string l ?*))
> > +					    (org-minutes-to-clocksum-string time)
> > +					    (format "%s" (make-string (- 16 l) ?\ )))
> 
> Shouldn't it be:
> 
> (org-add-props (concat (make-string l ?*) " "
>                        (org-minutes-to-clocksum-string time)
>                        (make-string (- 16 l) ? ))

Yes. This was an artifact of converting the previous code over to
org-minutes-to-clocksum-string.

> > -(defcustom org-time-clocksum-format "%d:%02d"
> > +(defcustom org-time-clocksum-format '(":%02d" "%d" "%dd ")  ;"%d:%02d"
> >    "The format string used when creating CLOCKSUM lines.
> > -This is also used when org-mode generates a time duration."
> > +This is also used when org-mode generates a time duration.
> 
> This is not about your patch, but while you're working in this area: in
> documentation, it should be "Org mode".

OK.

> > +The value can be a single format string containing two
> > +%-sequences, which will be filled with the number of hours and
> > +minutes in that order.
> 
> Ok, for backward compatibility. Note that, for a major release (8.0),
> such changes are acceptable even without it.

OK, but in this case I think the single-format-string option is still
useful. It gives users a simpler way of customizing the format if they
don't want to do anything fancy.

> > +Alternatively, the value can be a list of up to three format
> > +strings. In this case, the first format string in the list is
> > +used for the number of minutes, the second for the number of
> > +hours, and the third for the number of days if the duration is
> > +longer than 1 day. The complete formatted duration is obtained by
> > +concatenating these in the order: days, minutes, hours.
> > +
> > +If the list contains fewer than three format strings, it
> > +restricts the largest time unit in the formatted duration to be
> > +the largest one in the list. A two-element list means the
> > +duration will always be expressed in hours and minutes, a
> > +one-element list means the duration will always be expressed in
> > +minutes."
> 
> There, I think we would benefit from using a plist. Indeed,
> a two-element list might mean that duration should be expressed in days
> and hours instead. Also I suggest to report duration targeted at missing
> format strings to the smaller unit.

Good idea. This adds (yet more) flexibility, and it makes customization
more transparent too.

> So:
> 
>   '(:day nil :hour "%d" :minute ":%02d")
> 
> will be the equivalent of the current default format string. Then we can
> specify that "%d:%02d" is still available but should be deprecated.

I don't see any pressing need to deprecate the old format.

> It would also allow to skip months/weeks.
> 
> > +(defalias 'org-minutes-to-hh:mm-string 'org-minutes-to-clocksum-string)
> > +(make-obsolete 'org-minutes-to-hh:mm-string 'org-minutes-to-clocksum-string
> > +	       "org-mode version 7.9.3")
> 
> Good idea.

Don't forget to fix the WHEN argument when the patch is applied.

I'll post an updated patch when I get time to make the changes.

Cheers,
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