[emacs-wiki-discuss] Re: Making planner simpler

[Jody Klymak]

Hi Carl,

Carl Worth <address@hidden> writes:

> The first thing I tried using was planner-create-task-from-buffer. This
> command asked me for three pieces of information: a task description, a
> date, and a page. This feels like two pieces too many. When I think of a
> new task I need to do, I want to just type in that task so I don't
> forget it. 

You know that just hitting return at each prompt gives you the
default?  The default day and "PlanPage" should be today and TaskPool,
unless you are on a PlanPage, in which case it is the current
PlanPage.  This default behavior is pretty useful, in my opinion.  I'm
sure it could easily be hacked to not do this, but hitting return a
couple of times isn't onerous.

> Personally, for the kinds of tasks I want to plan, I almost
> never know in advance a date for the task---I intend the planning
> process to help me figure out the scheduling. And as for "page", isn't
> that what the -from-buffer command is for? If so, why prompt again?

The -from-buffer command adds an annotation to the note.  i.e.:

#A0  _ Test: [[/Users/jklymak/flip/CtdProcessingNew/GridAll.m]] {{Tasks:259}} 
(TaskPool)

> I entered a new task by manually typing something like:
>
>       #A0  _ Test manual tasks (2004.12.14)
>
> I was happy to see it highlighted just like the other tasks, and the
> date link actually took me to the 2004.12.14 buffer. But, alas, there
> was no "Test manual tasks" item on that page.

How would the buffer (2004.12.14) know what you had typed on your new
page?  If you think about it, this would be somewhat nasty behaviour
in general; I often put links in my tasks that do *not* mean I want
the task to show up in the linked page.  

> Similarly, there were other parts of planner that just don't fit my
> style. The "A0" prioritization, (can't remember what planner calls
> these) doesn't help me. I don't think I want the computer to sort a list
> for me after I assign prioritization codes. That feels like an
> unnecessarily indirect means of sorting. I think I'd rather just see a
> small list of related items and directly put them in the order I want. I
> can accept that others have different preferences here, but for me the
> "A0" field is just noise.

I'm kind of with you there.  Except the sorting *is* best done by
hand - i.e. kill and yank a task into the order you want.  The
numbering resorts itself.  

> So I think my ideal interface to planner mode is actually very simple. I
> would enter tasks directly into a buffer, with some simple structure to
> indicate the beginning of a new task, (say an initial sequence of " _
> "). Then, I could optionally enter categories or dates in () after a
> task, which would make links to dynamically created pages showing tasks
> with matching categories/dates.

This is possible, I suppose.  You just need a way of 1) figuring out
what page(s) the task should go on, 2) making sure that the task is
not already on that page, 3) copying the task to that page.  I guess
this could be some sort of save hook?

However, you may be missing one of the best things about planner,
which is hyperlinking to other emacs buffers.  My task above was
assigned while I was in the buffer
/Users/jklymak/flip/CtdProcessingNew/GridAll.m.  Now, in my DailyPage
I can simply hit the hyperlink and be at the file.  Same for a bbdb
entry, gnus mail message, bibtex entry, etc etc.

The other advantage to planner-create-task-from-buffer,
planner-create-note-from-buffer, and planner-diary-add-entry, is that
they can be called anytime from anywhere in emacs.  The advantage
being that if you come up with an idea, you do not need to leave your
context, find todays page, find where on the page to enter it, and
then get back to where you were.  Planner just does it for you.

Cheers,  Jody

-- 
Jody Klymak      http://opg1.ucsd.edu/~jklymak/
mailto:address@hidden