Bug: Recurring TODO spuriously blocked [7.7]

Bug: Recurring TODO spuriously blocked [7.7]

[François Pinard]

Hi, people.

Whenever a TODO is scheduled with a recurrence (with .+ or ++), forcing
the state to DONE is a mere way to trigger Org into setting the state to
TODO again, yet with the scheduled date updated for the next repetition.
Setting to DONE merely means that this repetition is done, which is not
the same as being forever DONE.  In fact, setting a repeated schedule to
DONE is really a way of updating the schedule; the intent relies on the
mechanics by which the DONE state is just a transient way to TODO again.

Now, within ~/.emacs, I have org-enforce-todo-dependencies set to t, for
good purposes.  But then, I get spurious:

   byte-code: TODO state change from TODO to DONE blocked

trying to schedule the next repetition.  todo-dependencies should likely
never be enforced for repeated entries, even if enforced otherwise, as
enforcing for repetitions with the current Org mechanics has no meaning,
at least as I undestand Org so far.

François



P.S. This is my first report to Org mode people.  To sent id, I tried
the "Org -> Send Bug Report" menu entry.  This action took quite a long
time, mostly writing dots after "Formatting bug report buffer", and
produced a very long "current state" section, containing what might be
byte code, and very long lines which did not seem meaningful, and which
I edited out so this submission stays reasonable.  As edited below, the
report is now of reasonable length, and hopefully, reasonable contents.

The bug report took too much time to generate, and too much time to
hand-edit afterwards, to the point of discouragement.  I will likely
avoid that menu in next communications.  In my opinion, to be usable,
the generation should be corrected to avoid byte-code, and other noise.
It might also solve the speed problem.




Emacs  : GNU Emacs 23.2.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.4)
 of 2011-04-04 on rothera, modified by Debian
Package: Org-mode version 7.7

current state:
==============
(setq
 org-mouse-features '(context-menu move-tree yank-link activate-stars
                      activate-bullets activate-checkboxes)
 org-export-latex-after-initial-vars-hook '(org-beamer-after-initial-vars)
 org-todo-keyword-faces '(("TODO" :foreground "orange" :weight bold)
                          ("NEXT" . org-todo) ("DONE" . org-done)
                          ("WAIT" :foreground "dark red" :weight bold)
                          ("ISSUE" . org-todo)
                          ("FORWARDED" :foreground "dark red" :weight
                           bold)
                          ("REJECTED" :foreground "black" :weight bold)
                          ("SOLVED" . org-done)
                          ("Reclasser" :foreground "orange" :weight bold))
 org-speed-command-hook '(org-speed-command-default-hook
                          org-babel-speed-command-hook)
 org-agenda-files '("~/fp/notes/epsilon.org" "~/fp/notes/notes.org")
 org-blocker-hook '(org-block-todo-from-checkboxes
                    org-block-todo-from-children-or-siblings-or-parent)
 org-clock-in-hook '(fp-org-clock-in-routine)
 org-metaup-hook '(org-babel-load-in-session-maybe)
 org-after-todo-state-change-hook '(org-clock-out-if-current)
 org-special-ctrl-k t
 org-export-latex-format-toc-function 'org-export-latex-format-toc-default
 org-stuck-projects '("+projet/-DONE" ("TODO" "NEXT") nil "")
 org-clock-in-resume t
 org-agenda-clock-consistency-checks '(:max-gap "0:05" :gap-ok-around
                                       ("4:00" "13:30" "19:30")
                                       :max-duration "10:00"
                                       :min-duration 2 :default-face
                                       ((:background "DarkRed")
                                        (:foreground "white"))
                                       :gap-face
                                       ((:background "light blue")
                                        (:foreground "white"))
                                       :no-end-time-face
                                       ((:background "salmon")
                                        (:foreground "white"))
                                       )
 org-tab-first-hook '(org-hide-block-toggle-maybe
                      org-src-native-tab-command-maybe
                      org-babel-hide-result-toggle-maybe)
 org-src-mode-hook '(org-src-babel-configure-edit-buffer
                     org-src-mode-configure-edit-buffer)
 org-confirm-shell-link-function nil
 org-export-first-hook '(org-beamer-initialize-open-trackers)
 org-use-tag-inheritance nil
 org-clock-persist t
 org-startup-indented t
 org-todo-keywords '((sequence "TODO(t)" "NEXT(n)" "|" "DONE(d)"
                      "WAIT(w@)")
                     (sequence "ISSUE(i)" "FORWARDED(f@)" "|"
                      "REJECTED(r@)" "SOLVED(s@)")
                     (sequence "Reclasser" "|"))
 org-agenda-before-write-hook '(org-agenda-add-entry-text)
 org-default-notes-file "~/fp/notes/notes.org"
 org-directory "~/fp/notes"
 org-blank-before-new-entry nil
 org-babel-pre-tangle-hook '(save-buffer)
 org-cycle-hook '(org-cycle-hide-archived-subtrees org-cycle-hide-drawers
                  org-cycle-show-empty-lines
                  org-optimize-window-after-visibility-change)
 org-export-preprocess-before-normalizing-links-hook '(org-remove-file-link-modifiers)
 org-mode-hook '((lambda nil
                  (add-hook (quote before-save-hook)
                   (quote fp-org-before-save))
                  (imenu-add-to-menubar "Imenu") (visual-line-mode t)
                  (setq compile-command
                   (concat "~/etc/bin/orgmode-tool >/dev/null"
                    "; ~/etc/bin/orgmode-tool -s")
                   fill-paragraph-function (quote fp-org-fill-paragraph))
                  )
 org-agenda-ndays 1
 org-ctrl-c-ctrl-c-hook '(org-babel-hash-at-point
                          org-babel-execute-safely-maybe)
 org-confirm-elisp-link-function nil
 org-log-into-drawer t
 org-export-interblocks '((lob org-babel-exp-lob-one-liners)
                         (src org-babel-exp-inline-src-blocks))
 org-clock-out-hook '(fp-org-clock-out-routine
                      org-clock-remove-empty-clock-drawer)
 org-enforce-todo-dependencies t
 org-link-mailto-program '(compose-mail "%a" "%s")
 org-occur-hook '(org-first-headline-recenter)
 org-from-is-user-regexp "\\<François Pinard\\>"
 org-yank-adjusted-subtrees t
 org-export-preprocess-before-selecting-backend-code-hook '(org-beamer-select-beamer-code)
 org-tags-column -70
 org-export-latex-final-hook '(org-beamer-amend-header org-beamer-fix-toc
                               org-beamer-auto-fragile-frames
                               org-beamer-place-default-actions-for-lists)
 org-enforce-todo-checkbox-dependencies t
 org-metadown-hook '(org-babel-pop-to-session-maybe)
 org-clock-idle-time 10
 org-export-blocks '((src org-babel-exp-src-block nil)
                     (comment org-export-blocks-format-comment t)
                     (ditaa org-export-blocks-format-ditaa nil)
                     (dot org-export-blocks-format-dot nil))
 )

Re: Bug: Recurring TODO spuriously blocked [7.7]

[Bernt Hansen]

pinard@iro.umontreal.ca (François Pinard) writes:
>
> Whenever a TODO is scheduled with a recurrence (with .+ or ++), forcing
> the state to DONE is a mere way to trigger Org into setting the state to
> TODO again, yet with the scheduled date updated for the next repetition.
> Setting to DONE merely means that this repetition is done, which is not
> the same as being forever DONE.  In fact, setting a repeated schedule to
> DONE is really a way of updating the schedule; the intent relies on the
> mechanics by which the DONE state is just a transient way to TODO again.
>
> Now, within ~/.emacs, I have org-enforce-todo-dependencies set to t, for
> good purposes.  But then, I get spurious:
>
>    byte-code: TODO state change from TODO to DONE blocked
>
> trying to schedule the next repetition.  todo-dependencies should likely
> never be enforced for repeated entries, even if enforced otherwise, as
> enforcing for repetitions with the current Org mechanics has no meaning,
> at least as I undestand Org so far.

You can set a NOBLOCKING property to t to skip the dependency check for
repeated tasks.

* TODO Some Repeating Task
  SCHEDULED: <2011-12-16 Fri 15:30 ++1w>
  :PROPERTY:
  :NOBLOCKING: t
  :END:

Regards,
Bernt

Re: Bug: Recurring TODO spuriously blocked [7.7]

[François Pinard]

Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca> writes:

> pinard@iro.umontreal.ca (François Pinard) writes:

>> todo-dependencies should likely never be enforced for repeated
>> entries, even if enforced otherwise, as enforcing for repetitions
>> with the current Org mechanics has no meaning, at least as I
>> undestand Org so far.

> You can set a NOBLOCKING property to t to skip the dependency check for
> repeated tasks.

> * TODO Some Repeating Task
>   SCHEDULED: <2011-12-16 Fri 15:30 ++1w>
>   :PROPERTY:
>   :NOBLOCKING: t
>   :END:

Thanks for the hint, Bernt.  I'll use it for now.

I still think this is a work around a real problem, which would ideally
be corrected.  Regardless of blocking being configured or not for
non-repeating tasks, repeated tasks should never be blocked, shouldn't
they?

François

Re: Bug: Recurring TODO spuriously blocked [7.7]

[Bernt Hansen]

pinard@iro.umontreal.ca (François Pinard) writes:

> Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca> writes:
>
>> pinard@iro.umontreal.ca (François Pinard) writes:
>
>>> todo-dependencies should likely never be enforced for repeated
>>> entries, even if enforced otherwise, as enforcing for repetitions
>>> with the current Org mechanics has no meaning, at least as I
>>> undestand Org so far.
>
>> You can set a NOBLOCKING property to t to skip the dependency check for
>> repeated tasks.
>
>> * TODO Some Repeating Task
>>   SCHEDULED: <2011-12-16 Fri 15:30 ++1w>
>>   :PROPERTY:
>>   :NOBLOCKING: t
>>   :END:
>
> Thanks for the hint, Bernt.  I'll use it for now.
>
> I still think this is a work around a real problem, which would ideally
> be corrected.  Regardless of blocking being configured or not for
> non-repeating tasks, repeated tasks should never be blocked, shouldn't
> they?
>
> François

Hi François,

I think the answer to that question is "it depends".  I think there is a
way to make check boxes block tasks too (but I've never used it) and in
conjunction with resetting all of the checkboxes to unchecked you
probably don't want to do that accidentally half way through your list
of done items.

I think this preference is very much workflow driven and shouldn't be
globally assigned for everyone.  I'm fine with an option that selects
the behaviour globally so you can customize it the way you like.

It would be nice if subtasks (that are DONE) get automatically moved
back to TODO when the parent repeating task is marked DONE (and goes
back to TODO).  It's just not an itch anyone has scratched yet.  If
repeating tasks behaved this way (in the future) I think keeping the
blocking functionality for repeating tasks makes sense.

Regards,
Bernt

Re: Bug: Recurring TODO spuriously blocked [7.7]

[François Pinard]

>>> pinard@iro.umontreal.ca (François Pinard) writes:
>>>> todo-dependencies should likely never be enforced for repeated
>>>> entries

>> Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca> writes:
>>> You can set a NOBLOCKING property to t to skip the dependency check
>>> for repeated tasks.

Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca> writes:
> It would be nice if subtasks (that are DONE) get automatically moved
> back to TODO when the parent repeating task is marked DONE (and goes
> back to TODO).  It's just not an itch anyone has scratched yet.  [...]

Bernt, I think I understand your point.  You would prefer leaving the
(currently unspecified) meaning opened for some later thinking and
development.  I will not cruisade for a change, as your suggestion gives
me an usable work around.  I thank you for having shared it.

François