Re: Org-mode is not able to manage complex calendar events

[Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk>]

Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:

> * Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
>> Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:
>>
>
>>> * Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>> you can clone with time shift whole trees, etc.  
>>>
>>> Oh, I have to look up that clone thing. This is new to me. Do you
>>> happen to have an URL for this feature by instance?
>>
>> ,----[ org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift ]
>>| ...
>> `----
>
> Wow, this is *great* news to me, thanks!

You're very welcome!

> Although this is mentioned in chapter 2 of the Org-mode manual, I
> strongly urge to mention this in section 8.3.2 «Repeated tasks»[1]
> too!
>
> Where can I place this wish?

You've done so, to some degree, by expressing this on the mailing list.
Better yet, however, is to update the documentation yourself and submit
a patch!  Instructions on how to contribute to org are on the web site
(I'm offline at the moment so cannot give you a direct link; sorry).
Patches to the documentation, in particular, are very welcome and
generally straightforward to generate!

>> Sure; elisp is non-trivial.  Point taken!
>
> Thanks :-) The resulting problem is that things I can only express
> using sexp is non-trivial too.
>
> I'd be glad to see something like this:
>
>        * Event <2011-06-21 Tue +1w> <-2011-06-28 Tue>
>
> ... which lets me express an exception (each tuesday starting with
> today but not next week) in an easy to use way.

Not possible without use of sexp entries, as far as I know.

>> If there's any complaint one might have about org, is that it can
>> be used for so many different tasks (calendar, task management,
>> document preparation, etc.)  that it can be overwhelming.  
>
> Agree. But I'd consider the calendar use-case as the worst supported
> usecase in this list. I have seen the talks of Carsten Dominik and
> AFAIR he clearly says that Org-mode's focus is task oriented and not
> calendar oriented.

Yes, I think that's a fair assessment.  The trick to using org is to
realise that everything in life is really oriented around tasks;
calendaring then comes automatically from this!  The problem is that
most people have gotten used to separating tasks from calendar views
(cf. separation between tasks lists and appointments) and so moving to
org can be a bit of a culture shock.  If you start thinking from the
tasks first, the rest follows.

For instance, I'm working on a project; call it A.  I create a headline
for this project (or a file, or a sub-headline, whatever).  Under this
headline, I will create entries for finances, meetings, notes, actions,
etc.  Everything in one place.  Org then provides a number of "views" to
look at different aspects of this project: agenda view (akin to a
calendar), column view, sparse tree view, tags view, ...  All of these
allow you to see, easily, the particular aspects of a project, or
collection of projects, that are important at any point.

[...]

> Sure, org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift is very cool indeed. But it
> goes in this direction:
>
>     * Event <2011-06-21 Tue>
>     * Event <2011-06-28 Tue>
>     * Event <2011-07-05 Tue>
>     * Event <2011-07-12 Tue +1w>
>
> But I aim in a slightly different direction:
>
>     * Event
>         <2011-06-21 Tue>
>         <2011-06-28 Tue>: additional note
>         <2011-07-05 Tue>
>         <2011-07-12 Tue +1w>
>
> The latter one works pretty well and keeps my Org-file more clear.

I would argue that this is a more limiting view as it is difficult to
add notes to each individual event, something I would often (always?)
want to do!  If each event (meeting?) is a sub-headline of its own,
adding notes, actions that arise, etc is very easy.

Again, you can use org to "view" the information you have in different
ways so I would suggest you explore these views.  For the above, maybe a
Log view in the agenda might give you what you want.

HTH.
-- 
: Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1
: using Org-mode version 7.5 (release_7.5.414.g56de5)