Re: Suggested Syntax for cancelled checkboxes: [-] as non-blocking dependency

[Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at>]

Hi Ihor,

* Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@gmail.com> wrote:
> Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:
>
>> I was using list checkboxes like that:
>> - [ ] open task
>> - [X] closed task
>> - [-] cancelled task
>
> From the manual (5.6 Checkboxes):
>
> ‘C-c C-x C-b’ (‘org-toggle-checkbox’)
>      Toggle checkbox status or—with prefix argument—checkbox presence at
>      point.  With double prefix argument, set it to ‘[-]’, which is
>      considered to be an intermediate state.
>
> [-] is not considered done by our conventions
>
>    Here is an example of a checkbox list.
>
>      * TODO Organize party [2/4]
>        - [-] call people [1/3]
>          - [ ] Peter
>          - [X] Sarah
>          - [ ] Sam
>        - [X] order food
>        - [ ] think about what music to play
>        - [X] talk to the neighbors

Yes, that makes sense. [-] is not a candidate for a cancelled
checkbox for that reason. :-(

>> (setq org-enforce-todo-checkbox-dependencies t)
>> ... any [-] checkbox will be regarded as non-finished contrary to
>> the behavior of TODO/DONE/CANCELLED heading states.
>>
>> As a workaround, I may use:
>> - +[ ]+ cancelled task
>
> As you can see, we already have conflicting convention, and we cannot
> change it without breaking backwards compatibility.
>
> `org-block-todo-from-checkboxes', currently uses
>
> (org-list-search-forward
> 		 (concat (org-item-beginning-re)
> 			 "\\(?:\\[@\\(?:start:\\)?\\([0-9]+\\|[A-Za-z]\\)\\][ \t]*\\)?"
> 			 "\\[[- ]\\]")
> 		 end t)
>
> as a condition that some list items are marked incomplete.
>
> So, you can use something like
>  - [C] cancelled task
>
> But beware that this is an internal implementation detail that might be
> changed in future unless we decide to document the existing behaviour.

In that case, I prefer not to depend on that internal detail and
start using +[ ]+ as a workaround which causes the parser to not
detect a checkbox at all, as far as I understood.

Thanks for clarification.

If we wanted to introduce a cancelled checkbox state, it seems to be
the case that this would require a new approach like [/] or similar.

Is it only me who is thinking that a non-blocking cancelled checkbox
state would be a good idea?

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