Re: Hack: org-agenda-cache.el

[Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com>]

Hi Max,

this is a pretty good solution if the main issue with slow agenda
is that it feels slow because you are often switching back and forth
between different agenda buffers.  I like it, and I would vote for
integration into Org-mode, not as a separate package, but directly,
as an option.  If Bastien agrees, maybe you could make a patch which
introduces this into the main code.

Three comments:

1. I think there needs to be a command to remove all agenda buffers, to make sure that everything is updated.  Maybe this could be "C-u r" or so, which would rebuilt the current and remove all others.  This commands needs to make sure that all markers are safely discarded - otherwise you will die the marker death eventually.

2. I don't think that "-cache" is the best name choice for this, because this
is not a caching mechanism.  It is a "multiple-agenda-buffers" thing.

3. One caveat for this is that maybe in some places, org-agenda-marker-table
is modified while the agenda buffer is not current (I am not sure, I just think this needs to be checked).  If so, one would need to pop to the relevant agenda buffer to make the change.

Just my 2c, of course.

- Carsten
On 15.1.2012, at 20:47, Max Mikhanosha wrote:

> As my agenda files slowly grew over the years, the speed of generating
> agenda had slowly deteriorated, finally hitting the point of me jdoing
> something about it. (it got to around 5-7 seconds, which kind of
> interrupts work-flow)
> 
> Attached file org-agenda-cache.el is a "quick fix" solution that I
> developed for myself, its more of a request for discussion and not
> intended as contribution yet.
> 
> Basic idea is:
> 
> 1. Multiple-agenda buffers can exist at the same time, having separate
> tag filters and other such settings. This is accomplished by bunch of
> org-agenda-* variables being made buffer-local.
> 
> 2. Custom agenda commands should bind `org-agenda-buffer-name' variable,
> so that for example C-c a generates "*Agenda*" buffer and C-c t
> generates "*Todo List*" buffer. 
> 
> 3. org-agenda checks if buffer with `org-agenda-buffer-name' exists
> and if it does, it will show that buffer, rather then re-generating
> it. To generate a fresh agenda, becomes C-c a r instead of C-c a
> 
> 4. org-agenda-quit buries the agenda buffer instead of killing it.
> 
> 5. All of the above shenanigans can be switched on and off by doing
> M-x toggle-org-agenda-caching command, its off by default so you have
> to turn it on after loading the file.
> 
> I had been using this setup for last few days, and it had really been
> a blast, returning me to the times when I just started with org-mode,
> and information had appeared in milliseconds rather then seconds.
> 
> <org-agenda-cache.el>