Re: Feature request [7.3]

[Dave Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com>]

At Wed, 8 Dec 2010 23:11:09 +0530,
Manish wrote:
> 
>  Manish <mailtomanish.sharma@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Orgmode] Feature request [7.3]
> Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 23:11:09 +0530
> To: Dave Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com>
> Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> Message-ID: <AANLkTikjaXo4BM1gbiGNZvjYZRddYRFQY_0VbWHcWqqv@mail.gmail.com>
> 
> On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 2:29 AM, Dave Abrahams wrote:
> >
> > When using Org for planning, I often find myself corrupting my Org
> > files.  All kinds of things can go wrong, but the basic issue is that
> > agenda items have a syntax, and it's easy to violate, especially when
> > I'm going *fast*, which after all is what Org is supposed to enable!
> >
> > For example, a typical captured item looks like:
> >
> > ** TODO Set up yasnippet
> >   SCHEDULED: <2010-11-22 Mon>
> >   :PROPERTIES:
> >   :Link: [[some-nasty-link]]
> >   :ID:       A0B4159C-D796-40DF-9ADD-93DF03577B68
> >   :END:
> >   [2010-11-20 Sat 20:17]
> >
> > Now, suppose I'm looking at this in the agenda and I want to add some
> > commentary.
> 
> I am not sure what you mean by agenda here since you don't see the
> full entry in the agenda.

Exactly.  Sometimes I am dealing with agenda items from plain org.
For example, if I've stored a link to the item and follow it from an
agenda item, I end up in my todo.org file.

> > Where should I open the new line?  If I choose wrongly, my
> > agenda will start to misbehave (e.g. items will appear to be
> > un-reschedulable because they'll acquire a second SCHEDULED date).
> >
> 
> When in the entry in org file, use `C-c C-z' and when in agenda just
> use `z' to add a correctly formatted  and timestamped note.

Yes, I use those keys.  The problem is that I edit fast, and an errant
key here or there can blow the syntax of items to heck.

> > So I'm requesting some more help from Org in maintaining proper Org
> > syntax.  Could Org have a mode that prevents things from being modified
> > incorrectly?  For example, it'd be awesome if dates were smart (TAB into
> > one, hit return, get a smart date editor).
> 
> FWIW, I find shift+up/down arrow sufficiently magical for my use case,
> but I suppose you have already tried that.

Yes, I've tried all the simple things.  I'm really asking for regular
org to act more like the agenda in some ways.

> > It'd be great if there were
> > a way to make the ID property read-only (or really really hard to
> > change). I'd love it if there were a way to create a link to an org
> > item that narrows the view to just that item, so I don't inadvertently
> > mess anything else up.  Do you get the idea?
> 
> You mean like if you clicked/returned on an item in agenda it should
> take you to the entry in org file but narrowed to that item?  

spacebar already does that.  But if I have an *org link* to an 

  [[id: ... ]] 

item and follow that I end up with no narrowing.

> I had earlier added a call to org-narrow (I think) to the code that
> enables follow mode and the code that jumps to the entry in the org
> file.  It used to work nice but was a minor irritation when I needed
> to widen it all the time.  I have since lost the code but it should
> be reasonable easy to reproduce.

That's nice, but not what I'm asking for.  I'm asking for a
comprehensive re-think of editing in plain org mode.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com