[PATCH] Time specifications: Allow specifying relative times

[Ilya Shlyakhter <ilya_shl@alum.mit.edu>]

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When specifying times in the tags/properties matcher you can use 
relative time notation, such as <yesterday> or <-1w>.  This patch
allows this to be used in other places, such as the :tstart and :tend
parameters of clocktable.

Btw, I couldn't quite understand the exact meaning of :block, :tstart 
and :tend as decribed in the manual.  Is there a better explanation
somewhere?

thanks,

ilya

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From d19778b3fc624e14237d69cc76a4aa9cb8450697 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ilya Shlyakhter <ilya_shl@alum.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:19:12 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Time specifications: Allow specifying relative times

* org.el (org-parse-time-string): Allow strings supported by tags/properties
matcher (eg <now>, <yesterday>, <-7d>) if the time starts with < and ends
with >.  This means that e.g. in the clocktable parameters you can specify
:tstart "<-1w>" :tend "<now>".

TINYCHANGE
---
 lisp/org.el |   23 +++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lisp/org.el b/lisp/org.el
index 4d2ae87..995dffd 100644
--- a/lisp/org.el
+++ b/lisp/org.el
@@ -16016,16 +16016,19 @@ When SHOW-ALL is nil, only return the current occurrence of a time stamp."
 This should be a lot faster than the normal `parse-time-string'.
 If time is not given, defaults to 0:00.  However, with optional NODEFAULT,
 hour and minute fields will be nil if not given."
-  (if (string-match org-ts-regexp0 s)
-      (list 0
-	    (if (or (match-beginning 8) (not nodefault))
-		(string-to-number (or (match-string 8 s) "0")))
-	    (if (or (match-beginning 7) (not nodefault))
-		(string-to-number (or (match-string 7 s) "0")))
-	    (string-to-number (match-string 4 s))
-	    (string-to-number (match-string 3 s))
-	    (string-to-number (match-string 2 s))
-	    nil nil nil)
+  (cond
+   ((string-match "^<.+>$" s)
+    (decode-time (seconds-to-time (org-matcher-time s))))
+   ((string-match org-ts-regexp0 s)
+    (list 0
+	  (if (or (match-beginning 8) (not nodefault))
+	      (string-to-number (or (match-string 8 s) "0")))
+	  (if (or (match-beginning 7) (not nodefault))
+	      (string-to-number (or (match-string 7 s) "0")))
+	  (string-to-number (match-string 4 s))
+	  (string-to-number (match-string 3 s))
+	  (string-to-number (match-string 2 s))
+	  nil nil nil))
     (error "Not a standard Org-mode time string: %s" s)))
 
 (defun org-timestamp-up (&optional arg)
-- 
1.7.9.3