Re: Re: Organizing a students live

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

On Dec 28, 2009, at 10:09 PM, Daniel Martins wrote:

> > Interesting.  But too complex for now - and I actually do prefer  
> local control.
>
> I know it is complex.
>
> I thought about the first steps
>
> I was thinking about a variable (list?) with predefined holidays
>
> or better omit-holidays
>
> such as org-omit-holidays
>
> we could add the omit dates in any place
>   (add-to-list 'org-omit-holidays "25 Dec")
>   (add-to-list 'org-omit-holidays "1 Jan")
>   (add-to-list 'org-omit-holidays "1 May")
> etc.
>

Hmm, this is a possibility - but I don't have the time now to  
implement it.
And then the question remains: What exactly should be omitted on these  
days?
Everything? - probably not.  So I don't see how this leads to useful  
control, unless
we have a really fine-grained control for each entry.

>
> Then we could change (adapt) the
>
> function calendar-check-holydays from holidays.el
>
>
> I did a search-replace to something like this:
>
> (defun org-check-calendar-omit-holidays (date)
>   "Check the list of org-omit-holidays for any that occur on DATE.
> The value returned is a list of strings of relevant org-omit-holiday  
> descriptions.
> The org-omit-holidays are those in the list `org-omit-holidays'."
>   (let ((displayed-month (extract-calendar-month date))
>         (displayed-year (extract-calendar-year date))
>         (org-omit-holiday-list))
>     (dolist (h (calendar-org-omit-holiday-list))
>       (if (calendar-date-equal date (car h))
>           (setq org-omit-holiday-list (append org-omit-holiday-list  
> (cdr h)))))
>     org-omit-holiday-list))
>
> with these adaptation we could use a slighly changed  version of the  
> "diary-schedule" function  I sent before.
>
> I did not go further nor tested it.
>
> Thinking again now: I think it is better to avoid holidays than week  
> numbers. The problem is that we have to decide which holidays are  
> "really" holidays and not rely on the holidays variables that come  
> with Emacs.


I do not agree.  Lectures are not only skipped on holidays, but also  
on other
days, so a more general approach is needed.

>
>
> Daniel
>
> 2009/12/28 Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com>
> Hi Daniel,
>
>
> On Dec 27, 2009, at 1:51 AM, Daniel Martins wrote:
>
> I liked the idea of org-diary-class!
>
> I have added the function now to org-agenda.el
>
>
>
> About avoiding holidays and certain weeks:
>
> I used remind and wyrd for a while  and they are a quite good software
> for dealing with such appts.
>
> There we have the OMIT function where we determine holidays and other
> non-working days including Sat and Sundays
>
>
> Normally we have an OMIT list at the beginning of file
>
> Some functions simply omit those dates
>
> Other expressions use another keyword AFTER (or BEFORE)  to change
> OMIT behaviour
>
> like
> 23 Mar AFTER OMIT "Bank payment"
>
> eg If 23 Mar is in Saturday it will appear in Monday
>
> This preamble is just to say 2 things:
>
> 1) remind/wyrd could be used as a benchmark for some of the calendar
> isuues we have
>
> 2) I do not know if the week number in a year is a practical way of
> setting exceptions to org-diary-class
>
> Daniel
>
> PS Wyrd page is
>
> http://pessimization.com/software/wyrd/
>
> Interesting.  But too complex for now - and I actually do prefer  
> local control.
>
> - Carsten
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 2009/12/26 Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com>:
> Hi Daniel,
>
> I think it is a good idea to add such a function to org-mode.  But I
> am not sure if skipping holidays is the best, because Universities
> also have lecture-free weeks etc.
>
> So I am more thinking about a function like this (untested)
>
> (defun org-diary-class (m1 d1 y1 m2 d2 y2 dayname &rest skip-weeks)
>  "Entry applies if date is between dates on DAYNAME, but skips SKIP- 
> WEEKS.
> Order of the parameters is M1, D1, Y1, M2, D2, Y2 if
> `european-calendar-style' is nil, and D1, M1, Y1, D2, M2, Y2 if
> `european-calendar-style' is t.  The weeks are ISO week numbers where
> the item should not apply."
>  (let* ((date1 (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian
>                (if european-calendar-style
>                    (list d1 m1 y1)
>                  (list m1 d1 y1))))
>        (date2 (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian
>                (if european-calendar-style
>                    (list d2 m2 y2)
>                  (list m2 d2 y2))))
>        (d (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian date)))
>   (and
>    (<= date1 d)
>    (<= d date2)
>    (= (calendar-day-of-week date) dayname)
>    (or (not skip-weeks)
>        (progn
>          (require 'cal-iso)
>          (not (member (car (calendar-iso-from-absolute d)) skip- 
> weeks))))
>    entry)))
>
>
> What do you think?
>
> - Carsten
>
> On Dec 21, 2009, at 4:54 PM, Daniel Martins wrote:
>
> In fact, it helps! Thanks
>
> However a sentence like this:
>
>
> +# a class that meets every Monday evening between February 16 and
> April 20, 2009
> ** Class 7:00pm-9:00pm
> <%%(and (= 1 (calendar-day-of-week date)) (diary-block 2 16 2009 4 20
> 2009))>
>
> is not an example of simplicity and visibility for a quite common  
> feature!
>
> Maybe as a suggestion we could encapsulate such a huge expression in a
> simpler org-mode function ?
>
> Daniel
>
>
> PS In
>
> http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/DiaryMode#toc12
>
> I found another suggestion which I do not know how to include in org- 
> mode
>
>
> ------------------------------------
> Schedule
>
> If you want to write a schedule for school or university, you need to
> define a block (it’s derived from diary-block) between two dates and a
> weekday. The following function also recognizes holidays and won’t
> send you to school on those days… :)
>
>  (defun diary-schedule (m1 d1 y1 m2 d2 y2 dayname)
>    "Entry applies if date is between dates on DAYNAME.
>  Order of the parameters is M1, D1, Y1, M2, D2, Y2 if
>  `european-calendar-style' is nil, and D1, M1, Y1, D2, M2, Y2 if
>  `european-calendar-style' is t. Entry does not apply on a history."
>    (let ((date1 (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian
>                  (if european-calendar-style
>                      (list d1 m1 y1)
>                    (list m1 d1 y1))))
>          (date2 (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian
>                  (if european-calendar-style
>                      (list d2 m2 y2)
>                    (list m2 d2 y2))))
>          (d (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian date)))
>      (if (and
>           (<= date1 d)
>           (<= d date2)
>           (= (calendar-day-of-week date) dayname)
>           (not (check-calendar-holidays date))
>           )
>           entry)))
>
> Then: "&%%(diary-schedule 22 4 2003 1 8 2003 2) 18:00 History"
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
>
>
> 2009/12/20 Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org>:
>
> Daniel Martins <danielemc@gmail.com> writes:
>
> All academics here present (including of course Carsten) suffer from
> the same problem, I think
>
>
> *** Math classes
> <2009-12-10 Thu 11:00-14:00 +1w>
>
>
> will repeat forever and ever...
>
> We need to create a schedule for a period.
>
> The package "remind" (and its simple interface "wyrd") do this job
> wonderfully but I do not know how to deal with this problem in Org
> mode
>
> The following FAQ should help:
>
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.php#diary-sexp-in-org-files
>
> - Matt
>
>
>
>
>
> - Carsten
>
>
>
>

- Carsten