multiple agenda buffers

multiple agenda buffers

[suvayu ali]

Hi Orgers,

I was wondering whether it was possible to have multiple agenda buffers
at the same time. My use case is when I want to look for two differnt
but related things, or when I want to search while having my daily (or
weekly) agenda visible. I found references in the archives[fn:1] stating
that it was not possible at the time. Has the situation changed?

Renaming the buffer before calling the next agenda command seems to work
at first glance, but it breaks things like updating the buffer with ~g~.
It ends up updating the newest agenda buffer instead of the buffer where
the command was called.

Thanks a lot.

Footnotes:
[fn:1] http://www.mail-archive.com/emacs-orgmode@gnu.org/msg20407.html

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Bastien]

Hi Suvayu,

suvayu ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> writes:

> I was wondering whether it was possible to have multiple agenda buffers
> at the same time. My use case is when I want to look for two differnt
> but related things, or when I want to search while having my daily (or
> weekly) agenda visible. I found references in the archives[fn:1] stating
> that it was not possible at the time. Has the situation changed?

No, the situation has not changed to this respect.

I reckon your use-case makes sense, but I'm not sure how useful it would
be in general.

It would be a bit like being able to open several email inboxes at the
same time, for the sake of comparing informations from various folders.

Email inboxes and agenda views are made to be _processed_: having more
than one open at the same time might lead to the bad habit of fiddling
with buffers instead of processing agenda items...

Not a strong opinion, just a thought,

-- 
 Bastien

Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi Bastien,

On Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:20:08 +0100
Bastien <bastien.guerry@wikimedia.fr> wrote:

> I reckon your use-case makes sense, but I'm not sure how useful it
> would be in general.
> 
> It would be a bit like being able to open several email inboxes at the
> same time, for the sake of comparing informations from various
> folders.
> 
> Email inboxes and agenda views are made to be _processed_: having more
> than one open at the same time might lead to the bad habit of fiddling
> with buffers instead of processing agenda items...
> 
> Not a strong opinion, just a thought,

This is indeed very true. I do fall prey to that sometimes.

However I was wondering, block agenda commands might work at least for
doing multiple searches. But I don't think there is any interactive
interface to it.

If we could have some syntax for specifying prompts for custom agenda
commands (something like capture templates) then it might be possible.
Is that a feasible request?

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Bastien]

Hi all,

Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> writes:

> However I was wondering, block agenda commands might work at least for
> doing multiple searches. But I don't think there is any interactive
> interface to it.

inspired by this conversation, I have add a new agenda command:

  M-x org-agenda-append-agenda RET

It is bound to `A' in the agenda buffer and lets you append any 
agenda to the currently displayed one, thus providing some kind
of interactive interface to build block agendas from simple ones.

I think it's a neat addition -- especially useful when you want 
to compare to _small_ list of items.

Let me know what you think - and thanks Suvayu for the idea!

-- 
 Bastien

Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi Bastien,

On Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:20:28 +0100
Bastien <bastien.guerry@wikimedia.fr> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > However I was wondering, block agenda commands might work at least
> > for doing multiple searches. But I don't think there is any
> > interactive interface to it.
> 
> inspired by this conversation, I have add a new agenda command:
> 
>   M-x org-agenda-append-agenda RET
> 
> It is bound to `A' in the agenda buffer and lets you append any 
> agenda to the currently displayed one, thus providing some kind
> of interactive interface to build block agendas from simple ones.
> 
> I think it's a neat addition -- especially useful when you want 
> to compare to _small_ list of items.
> 
> Let me know what you think - and thanks Suvayu for the idea!
> 

This is exactly how I was expecting things to work when I proposed the
idea! Wonderful work, lots and lots of thank yous. :)

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Bastien]

Hi Suvayu,

Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> writes:

> This is exactly how I was expecting things to work when I proposed the
> idea! Wonderful work, lots and lots of thank yous. :)

Well, this command turned out to be trivial -- so thanks to the design
of org-agenda.el ;)

-- 
 Bastien

Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Matt Lundin]

Hi Bastien,

Bastien <bastien.guerry@wikimedia.fr> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> However I was wondering, block agenda commands might work at least for
>> doing multiple searches. But I don't think there is any interactive
>> interface to it.
>
> inspired by this conversation, I have add a new agenda command:
>
>   M-x org-agenda-append-agenda RET
>
> It is bound to `A' in the agenda buffer and lets you append any 
> agenda to the currently displayed one, thus providing some kind
> of interactive interface to build block agendas from simple ones.
>
> I think it's a neat addition -- especially useful when you want 
> to compare to _small_ list of items.
>
> Let me know what you think - and thanks Suvayu for the idea!

Thanks for the new function. However, at the moment, it has destructive
effects if it is called in a buffer other than the agenda buffer, as it
appends the new agenda results to the current buffer and then makes the
buffer read-only. 

Perhaps for now we could throw an error if the append function is called
from outside the agenda:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
diff --git a/lisp/org-agenda.el b/lisp/org-agenda.el
index ea822da..f2eac99 100644
--- a/lisp/org-agenda.el
+++ b/lisp/org-agenda.el
@@ -2266,6 +2266,8 @@ Pressing `<' twice means to restrict to the current subtree or region
 This function allows interactive building of block agendas.
 Agenda views are separated by `org-agenda-block-separator'."
   (interactive)
+  (unless (string= (buffer-name) org-agenda-buffer-name)
+    (error "Can only append from within agenda buffer"))
   (let ((org-agenda-multi t))
     (org-agenda)
     (widen)))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
 
Best,
Matt

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[Accepted] [O] Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Bastien Guerry]

Patch 648 (http://patchwork.newartisans.com/patch/648/) is now "Accepted".

Maintainer comment: none

This relates to the following submission:

http://mid.gmane.org/%3C87k4ghe1cw.fsf%40fastmail.fm%3E

Here is the original message containing the patch:

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> Subject: [O] Re: multiple agenda buffers
> Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:03:43 -0000
> From: Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org>
> X-Patchwork-Id: 648
> Message-Id: <87k4ghe1cw.fsf@fastmail.fm>
> To: Bastien <bastien.guerry@wikimedia.fr>
> Cc: org-mode mailing list <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>
> 
> Hi Bastien,
> 
> Bastien <bastien.guerry@wikimedia.fr> writes:
> 
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >> However I was wondering, block agenda commands might work at least for
> >> doing multiple searches. But I don't think there is any interactive
> >> interface to it.
> >
> > inspired by this conversation, I have add a new agenda command:
> >
> >   M-x org-agenda-append-agenda RET
> >
> > It is bound to `A' in the agenda buffer and lets you append any 
> > agenda to the currently displayed one, thus providing some kind
> > of interactive interface to build block agendas from simple ones.
> >
> > I think it's a neat addition -- especially useful when you want 
> > to compare to _small_ list of items.
> >
> > Let me know what you think - and thanks Suvayu for the idea!
> 
> Thanks for the new function. However, at the moment, it has destructive
> effects if it is called in a buffer other than the agenda buffer, as it
> appends the new agenda results to the current buffer and then makes the
> buffer read-only. 
> 
> Perhaps for now we could throw an error if the append function is called
> from outside the agenda:
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>  
> Best,
> Matt
> 
> 
> diff --git a/lisp/org-agenda.el b/lisp/org-agenda.el
> index ea822da..f2eac99 100644
> --- a/lisp/org-agenda.el
> +++ b/lisp/org-agenda.el
> @@ -2266,6 +2266,8 @@ Pressing `<' twice means to restrict to the current subtree or region
>  This function allows interactive building of block agendas.
>  Agenda views are separated by `org-agenda-block-separator'."
>    (interactive)
> +  (unless (string= (buffer-name) org-agenda-buffer-name)
> +    (error "Can only append from within agenda buffer"))
>    (let ((org-agenda-multi t))
>      (org-agenda)
>      (widen)))
> 

Re: Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Bastien]

Hi Matt,

Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> writes:

> Thanks for the new function. However, at the moment, it has destructive
> effects if it is called in a buffer other than the agenda buffer, as it
> appends the new agenda results to the current buffer and then makes the
> buffer read-only. 

Thanks for catching this, and sorry I didn't prevent this possibly
destructive error before.

I've now applied your patch.

-- 
 Bastien

Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Matt Lundin]

Bastien <bastien.guerry@wikimedia.fr> writes:

> Hi Suvayu,
>
> suvayu ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I was wondering whether it was possible to have multiple agenda buffers
>> at the same time. My use case is when I want to look for two differnt
>> but related things, or when I want to search while having my daily (or
>> weekly) agenda visible. I found references in the archives[fn:1] stating
>> that it was not possible at the time. Has the situation changed?
>
> No, the situation has not changed to this respect.
>
> I reckon your use-case makes sense, but I'm not sure how useful it would
> be in general.
>
> It would be a bit like being able to open several email inboxes at the
> same time, for the sake of comparing informations from various folders.
>
> Email inboxes and agenda views are made to be _processed_: having more
> than one open at the same time might lead to the bad habit of fiddling
> with buffers instead of processing agenda items...

One possible exception here is the use of the agenda to query notes. I
use org-mode as a research tool, storing all sorts of reading notes in
my org files.

While working on tasks I often need to search for notes relevant to the
current task. This is not an interruption, but rather a normal part of
my workflow. In these instances, a separate buffer for search results
would be exceptionally useful.

Just a thought.

Best,
Matt


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Re: Re: multiple agenda buffers

[Bastien]

Hi Matt,

Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> writes:

> While working on tasks I often need to search for notes relevant to the
> current task. This is not an interruption, but rather a normal part of
> my workflow. In these instances, a separate buffer for search results
> would be exceptionally useful.

Just curious: does `org-agenda-append-agenda' suit the workflow you
describe above, even if it uses only one buffer to store multiple
agendas?

-- 
 Bastien

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