feature request: show context in agenda

feature request: show context in agenda

[Samuel Wales]

In the agenda, it is difficult to find where you are in
the hierarchy.  I find that I have to switch to the outline,
then scroll up, if I want to know what the parent headline
is, or any ancestor.

Others have proposed showing the parent headline, but that
could clutter the agenda and will not show other ancestors.

Here is a simple proposal: put the olpath of the current
header in header-line-format.

Then you always know where you are, without having to switch
to the outline buffer.

Thanks.

-- 
Q: How many CDC "scientists" does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: You only think it's dark. [CDC has denied ME/CFS for 25 years]
=================================================================
Retrovirus: http://www.wpinstitute.org/xmrv/xmrv_qa.html

Re: feature request: show context in agenda

[Manish]

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 6:06 AM, Samuel Wales wrote:
> In the agenda, it is difficult to find where you are in
> the hierarchy. I find that I have to switch to the outline,
> then scroll up, if I want to know what the parent headline
> is, or any ancestor.
>
> Others have proposed showing the parent headline, but that
> could clutter the agenda and will not show other ancestors.
>
> Here is a simple proposal: put the olpath of the current
> header in header-line-format.
>
> Then you always know where you are, without having to switch
> to the outline buffer.

+10

I proposed something similar six months ago.

-- 
Manish

Re: feature request: show context in agenda

[Carsten Dominik]

On Nov 12, 2009, at 3:03 AM, Manish wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 6:06 AM, Samuel Wales wrote:
>> In the agenda, it is difficult to find where you are in
>> the hierarchy. I find that I have to switch to the outline,
>> then scroll up, if I want to know what the parent headline
>> is, or any ancestor.
>>
>> Others have proposed showing the parent headline, but that
>> could clutter the agenda and will not show other ancestors.
>>
>> Here is a simple proposal: put the olpath of the current
>> header in header-line-format.
>>
>> Then you always know where you are, without having to switch
>> to the outline buffer.
>
> +10
>
> I proposed something similar six months ago.

You did?  I don't remember.  Can you find the thread on gmane?

- Carsten

>
> -- 
> Manish
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode

- Carsten

Re: feature request: show context in agenda

[Manish]

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 1:26 PM, Carsten Dominik wrote:
>
> On Nov 12, 2009, at 3:03 AM, Manish wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 6:06 AM, Samuel Wales wrote:
>>>
>>> In the agenda, it is difficult to find where you are in
>>> the hierarchy. I find that I have to switch to the outline,
>>> then scroll up, if I want to know what the parent headline
>>> is, or any ancestor.
>>>
>>> Others have proposed showing the parent headline, but that
>>> could clutter the agenda and will not show other ancestors.
>>>
>>> Here is a simple proposal: put the olpath of the current
>>> header in header-line-format.
>>>
>>> Then you always know where you are, without having to switch
>>> to the outline buffer.
>>
>> +10
>>
>> I proposed something similar six months ago.
>
> You did? I don't remember. Can you find the thread on gmane?

I could not locate that post on gmane at all!  Closest I could find
was Eraldo's response to my email.  But I found the email in Gmail
archive and am quoting it below.

,----
| MIME-Version: 1.0
| Received: by 10.110.53.12 with HTTP; Mon, 18 May 2009 20:01:00 -0700 (PDT)
| In-Reply-To: <2BA22C73-CD1F-4791-BA0C-E7112CABD4ED@gmail.com>
| References: <1e5bcefd0905151433v72384998ub908996d78dcbdb2@mail.gmail.com>
| 	 <2BA22C73-CD1F-4791-BA0C-E7112CABD4ED@gmail.com>
| Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 08:31:00 +0530
| Delivered-To: mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com
| Message-ID: <e7cdbe30905182001j113ff356k5cf6446461444b16@mail.gmail.com>
| Subject: Re: [Orgmode] Show parent PROJECTS for an item
| From: Manish <mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com>
| To: Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com>
| Cc: Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <celoserpa@gmail.com>, emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
| Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
| Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
|
|   On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 8:41 PM, Carsten Dominik wrote:
|   >
|   > On May 15, 2009, at 11:33 PM, Marcelo de Moraes Serpa wrote:
|   >
|   >> Hello list,
|   >>
|   >> I'd like to do a little modification to the code that grabs the
|   >> summary of items for the agenda view. For each item that has a
|   >> parent with a PROJECT type, I'd like org to render this parent in
|   >> a hierarchical, tree way, like this:.
|   >>
|   >> Let's say I search for a specific item using a regexp. This item
|   >> has three parents, which all are PROJECTS, it would show like
|   >> this:
|   >>
|   >>
|   >> PROJECT My project
|   >>  PROJECT My sub-project
|   >>    PROJECT My sub-sub-project
|   >>      NEXT Call Liz to check if the account has been created
|   >> :@call:@work:
|   >>
|   >> So, searched for Liz and got this specific item, but org then
|   >> would give me more context, showing me to which project it
|   >> belongs to. Not sure if it's already possible, but if not, would
|   >> be a great addition to support the GTD system, IMO :)
|   >
|   > The purpose of the flat agenda list is to be compact, and what you
|   > want would defeat that purpose.
|   >
|   > If you are working with a single file, a sparse tree might be the
|   > best alternative. If not, you could give follow mode in the agenda
|   > a try.
|   >
|
| Follow mode is fit for the purpose when you are _in_ Emacs but when
| you want to print and take your lists along then missing context can
| be confusing.  Would it be possible to encode the task hierarchy into
| the task display like so:
|
| ,----[ sample tree ]
| | * PROJECT Take over the world
| | ** SUBPROJ Make a plan
| | *** TODO Print a trillion dollars
| `----
|
| ,----[ sample todo list ]
| |    TODO Take over the world/Make a plan/Print a trillion dollars
| | or TODO Print a trillion dollars [Take over the world/Make a plan]
| | or [Take over the world/Make a plan] TODO Print a trillion dollars
| | or TODO [Take over the world/Make a plan] Print a trillion dollars
| | or TODO Print a trillion dollars\Make a plan\Take over the world
| `----
|
| Personally I prefer the last one most.  The number of characters added
| from each node, and/or the numbers of nodes added and/or the total
| length of todo item in agenda can be made configurable to limit the
| length of the agenda lines.
|
| At present, some of us try to be more descriptive when defining a task
| so as to identify the context from the task alone.  If this is
| implemented, we can try to be succinct instead.
|
| Of course, I do not know elisp nor do I understand Org internals so
| the idea might just be nonsense from an implementation perspective.
|
| Regards,
| --
| Manish
`----

Regards,
-- 
Manish

Re: feature request: show context in agenda

[Bernt Hansen]

Manish <mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com> writes:

> On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 1:26 PM, Carsten Dominik wrote:
>>
>> On Nov 12, 2009, at 3:03 AM, Manish wrote:
>>
>>> I proposed something similar six months ago.
>>
>> You did? I don't remember. Can you find the thread on gmane?
>
> I could not locate that post on gmane at all!  Closest I could find
> was Eraldo's response to my email.  But I found the email in Gmail
> archive and am quoting it below.

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/13739/focus=13812

-Bernt

Re: feature request: show context in agenda

[Daniel Clemente]

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 1:36 AM, Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> wrote:
> In the agenda, it is difficult to find where you are in
> the hierarchy.  I find that I have to switch to the outline,
> then scroll up, if I want to know what the parent headline
> is, or any ancestor.

  Just a note: pressing E in the agenda view you will see an excerpt
of each section's context.
  It shows some lines from the content.
  Maybe it could show in addition the names of the headings which form
the outline path. Or maybe a simplified form of them (like: the first
3 characters of each heading: /Pro…/Web…/tas…/Design. Or the first
word. Or the first N words that make that heading different from its
siblings.)

Re: feature request: show context in agenda

[Carsten Dominik]

On Nov 12, 2009, at 1:36 AM, Samuel Wales wrote:

> In the agenda, it is difficult to find where you are in
> the hierarchy.  I find that I have to switch to the outline,
> then scroll up, if I want to know what the parent headline
> is, or any ancestor.
>
> Others have proposed showing the parent headline, but that
> could clutter the agenda and will not show other ancestors.
>
> Here is a simple proposal: put the olpath of the current
> header in header-line-format.

Hi Samuel,

I am not so comfortable with using the header-line-format, because
that is also used by column view, also in the agenda.

How about using the echo area?

I have implemented that, please take a look to see if this works as  
well.

- Carsten

P.S.  In an org file, with speed commands turned on, press SPC
to get the current outline path displayed.

>
> Then you always know where you are, without having to switch
> to the outline buffer.
>
> Thanks.
>
> -- 
> Q: How many CDC "scientists" does it take to change a lightbulb?
> A: You only think it's dark. [CDC has denied ME/CFS for 25 years]
> =================================================================
> Retrovirus: http://www.wpinstitute.org/xmrv/xmrv_qa.html
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode

- Carsten

Re: feature request: show context in agenda

[Manish]

On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 3:23 AM, Carsten Dominik wrote:
>
> On Nov 12, 2009, at 1:36 AM, Samuel Wales wrote:
>
>> In the agenda, it is difficult to find where you are in
>> the hierarchy. I find that I have to switch to the outline,
>> then scroll up, if I want to know what the parent headline
>> is, or any ancestor.
>>
>> Others have proposed showing the parent headline, but that
>> could clutter the agenda and will not show other ancestors.
>>
>> Here is a simple proposal: put the olpath of the current
>> header in header-line-format.
>
> Hi Samuel,
>
> I am not so comfortable with using the header-line-format, because
> that is also used by column view, also in the agenda.
>
> How about using the echo area?
>
> I have implemented that, please take a look to see if this works as well.

Thank you!  Although it does force one to keep sweeping the gaze from
top to bottom of the screen but it's way better than having to resort
to other methods.

Regards
-- 
Manish

Re: feature request: show context in agenda

[Gregory J. Grubbs]

Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> writes:

> P.S.  In an org file, with speed commands turned on, press SPC
> to get the current outline path displayed.


Best. Feature. Ever.

(along with the speed keys!)

Re: feature request: show context in agenda

[Friedrich Delgado Friedrichs]

Hey!

I was just doing a small review and noticed that I get the current tree
of the agenda item in the echo area!

This rocks!

Carsten Dominik schrieb:
> On Nov 12, 2009, at 1:36 AM, Samuel Wales wrote:
> >In the agenda, it is difficult to find where you are in
> >the hierarchy.  I find that I have to switch to the outline,
> >then scroll up, if I want to know what the parent headline
> >is, or any ancestor.
> How about using the echo area?
> 
> I have implemented that, please take a look to see if this works as
> well.

Wonderful! :)

Its fun when features are added that were below my conscious level
of recognising that I want it. Kind of like getting a really awesome
birthday present, that you never knew even existed.

Keep on rocking!
	Friedel
-- 
        Friedrich Delgado Friedrichs <friedel@nomaden.org>
                             TauPan on Ircnet and Freenode ;)