New clocktable code

New clocktable code

[Carsten Dominik]

Hi everyone,

I have just pushed a rewrite of the clocktable code.

It has more options now, and most importantly the code is
*much* cleaner.  In particular, data collection and formatting
are now clearly separated.  Anyone who would like to hack now
actually has a chance to do so in a correct way (well, Adam
Elliot succeeded anyway with the old code when he implemented
tags filtering, but that was a strike of genius....)

Here are the new properties:

      :narrow      An integer to limit the width of the headline  
column in
                   the org table.  Does not work together with `:link'.
                   If you write it like `50!', then the headline will be
                   be shortened literally, so that this will also work
                   in export and with `:link'.
      :indent      Indent each headline field according to its level.
                   This is done by a funny string like \____, but it
                   looks OK and works in export.
      :tcolumns    Number of columns to be used for times.  If this is  
smaller
                   than `:maxlevel', lower levels will be lumped into  
one column.
                   For best result, combine this with :intent t
      :level       Should a level number column be included?
      :compact     Abbreviation for `:level nil :indent t :narrow  
40! :tcolumns 1'
                   All are overwritten except if there is an explicit  
`:narrow'
      :formatter   A function to format clock data and insert it into  
the buffer.
                   Use this to make your own formatting all together.

There is a new variable `org-clock-table-defaults' where you can
specify defaults for all clocktable properties.

Since this is a rewrite, it would be very useful if a few people who
have been using clock tables in the past try this code and check if
they get the same results.

Thanks to Rainer Stengele for pushing me far enough to
finally tackle this mess and rewrite it.

- Carsten

Re: New clocktable code

[Ilya Shlyakhter]

Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik <at> gmail.com> writes:
> I have just pushed a rewrite of the clocktable code.

Thanks Carsten!
Maybe, the code could also be extended to display a summary of any variable,
 rather than just clocksum?   E.g. the number of tasks done, or the amount of
 money spent. The sum for a given period would include the sum of a specified 
property in entries that were CLOSED within the specified period.

ilya

Re: Re: New clocktable code

[Carsten Dominik]

On Nov 2, 2010, at 8:35 PM, Ilya Shlyakhter wrote:

> Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik <at> gmail.com> writes:
>> I have just pushed a rewrite of the clocktable code.
>
> Thanks Carsten!
> Maybe, the code could also be extended to display a summary of any  
> variable,
> rather than just clocksum?   E.g. the number of tasks done, or the  
> amount of
> money spent. The sum for a given period would include the sum of a  
> specified
> property in entries that were CLOSED within the specified period.

Hi Ilya,

I think thiswould now be easier to implement - even though this code
is geared towar the clocking functionality.

However, your proposal still sounds abstract - do you
have concrete examples in mind?

- Carsten

Re: Re: New clocktable code

[Ilya Shlyakhter]

> However, your proposal still sounds abstract - do you
> have concrete examples in mind?

You could see a breakdown of your budget e.g. how much money you've
spent on various
areas of life in a given period, if you record money spent as a
property and immediately CLOSE
the entry on the date the money is spent.

You could count how many tasks you have closed in each area of your
life / for each project & its
sub-project in a given period, if you make an inherited property with
the default value of 1.
For harder / more important tasks that are worth several simpler
tasks, you could override the
default value of the property to be greater than one.   You could also
filter by kind of task,
e.g. if you have unpleasant tasks to do and want to make sure you do
at least a few a week,
you would include only headlines tagged :unpleasant: in the sum.


I'm writing an "org-goals" package that lets you set & check goals of the form,
"under this subtree, i want to spend at least 3 hours per week" or "at
most 100 dollars per month"
etc.   Being able to view what you've spent in a given period using a
clocktable would be a nice complement.

ilya

p.s. the package isn't ready for release, but if you want to take a
peek, it's at http://sourceforge.net/projects/org-balance/

On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Carsten Dominik
<carsten.dominik@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Nov 2, 2010, at 8:35 PM, Ilya Shlyakhter wrote:
>
>> Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik <at> gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>> I have just pushed a rewrite of the clocktable code.
>>
>> Thanks Carsten!
>> Maybe, the code could also be extended to display a summary of any
>> variable,
>> rather than just clocksum?   E.g. the number of tasks done, or the amount
>> of
>> money spent. The sum for a given period would include the sum of a
>> specified
>> property in entries that were CLOSED within the specified period.
>
> Hi Ilya,
>
> I think thiswould now be easier to implement - even though this code
> is geared towar the clocking functionality.
>
> However, your proposal still sounds abstract - do you
> have concrete examples in mind?
>
> - Carsten
>
>