Re: A small idea to simplify (further) time input in the date/time prompt

[Gustavo Barros <gusbrs.2016@gmail.com>]

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Hi Bastien,

On Tue, Jun 02 2020, Bastien wrote:

> Hi Gustavo,
>
> I like this idea, thanks for proposing it.  We are in feature freeze
> for core features, so we have time to work on this for Org 9.5.
>

[...]

> Would you agree?  Would you like to work on this change?

Well, I did give it a shot.  And, as it turns out, this might be 
manageable within my limitations.

A preliminary patch is attached, for comments.

I took here the stance of following the same treatment which is given to 
am/pm times, and of using the letter "h" as sole main identifier.  In 
particular, standard "HH:MM" times take precedence, as is the case for 
am/pm times.  And duration specification with numbers only are presumed 
to be hours, which was already the case, the patch does not introduce 
any changes here.  The input will match for this format for "number h 
2-digit-number", where either the hour or the minutes, but not both, can 
be omitted and, if so, is presumed to be zero.  24h format is also 
presumed.

With it, some example inputs/outputs for time in the date/time prompt:

| input     |      output |
|-----------+-------------|
| 9h        |       09:00 |
| h45       |       00:45 |
| 21h       |       21:00 |
| 9h-10h    | 09:00-10:00 |
| 9h--10h30 | 09:00-10:30 |
| 18h30+h30 | 18:30-19:00 |
| 18h30+1   | 18:30-19:30 |
| 18h30+1h  | 18:30-19:30 |

And some sanity checks:

| input     | output               | Observation 
  |
|-----------+----------------------+-------------------------------------------|
| 10:00 9h  | 10:00                | by design, as for am/pm times 
  |
| 10am 9h   | 10:00                | expected from coming after am/pm 
  handling |
| 10:00-11h | 10:00-11:00          | 
  |
| 10h-11:00 | no match             | am/pm also does not match here 
  |
| +9h       | no match             | 
  |
| -9h       | no match             | 
   |
| h         | no match             | 
  |
| 10h+h     | no match             | 
  |
| h5        | no match             | 
  |
| 10h70     | no match             | 
  |
| 29h       | 2020-06-04 Thu 05:00 | makes sense, same as for 29:00 
  |
| 30h       | no match             | as per the regexp 
  |

WDYT?

Best,
Gustavo.



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From 02829c7771a1f7a0c00d607a924fb8f56d2f3dd6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Gustavo Barros <gusbrs.2016@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2020 08:57:53 -0300
Subject: [PATCH] date/time prompt: Provide support for HHhMM time input

* lisp/org.el (org-read-date-analyze): Add support for HHhMM time
input, in similar way as for am/pm times.
* doc/org-manual.org (The date/time prompt): Add example to illustrate
the feature.

TINYCHANGE
---
 doc/org-manual.org |  1 +
 lisp/org.el        | 13 +++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/org-manual.org b/doc/org-manual.org
index 92252179b..bfd2aea1f 100644
--- a/doc/org-manual.org
+++ b/doc/org-manual.org
@@ -6017,6 +6017,7 @@ dash(es) as the separator in the former case and use =+= as the
 separator in the latter case, e.g.:
 
 | =11am-1:15pm=  | \rArr{} 11:00-13:15   |
+| =11h-13h15=    | \rArr{} same as above |
 | =11am--1:15pm= | \rArr{} same as above |
 | =11am+2:15=    | \rArr{} same as above |
 
diff --git a/lisp/org.el b/lisp/org.el
index b869e12e1..8333e1a5a 100644
--- a/lisp/org.el
+++ b/lisp/org.el
@@ -13981,6 +13981,19 @@ user."
 	       (setq ans (replace-match (format "%02d:%02d" hour minute)
 					t t ans))))
 
+    ;; Help matching HHhMM times, similarly as for am/pm times.
+    (cl-loop for i from 1 to 2 do	; twice, for end time as well
+	     (when (and (not (string-match "\\(\\`\\|[^+]\\)[012]?[0-9]:[0-9][0-9]\\([ \t\n]\\|$\\)" ans))
+			(string-match "\\(?:\\(?1:[012]?[0-9]\\)?h\\(?2:[0-5][0-9]\\)\\)\\|\\(?:\\(?1:[012]?[0-9]\\)h\\(?2:[0-5][0-9]\\)?\\)\\>" ans))
+	       (setq hour (if (match-end 1)
+				(string-to-number (match-string 1 ans))
+			      0)
+		     minute (if (match-end 2)
+				(string-to-number (match-string 2 ans))
+			      0))
+	       (setq ans (replace-match (format "%02d:%02d" hour minute)
+					t t ans))))
+
     ;; Check if a time range is given as a duration
     (when (string-match "\\([012]?[0-9]\\):\\([0-6][0-9]\\)\\+\\([012]?[0-9]\\)\\(:\\([0-5][0-9]\\)\\)?" ans)
       (setq hour (string-to-number (match-string 1 ans))
-- 
2.17.1