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

[Raymond Zeitler]

On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 10:43:29 -0500, Carl Worth wrote:
[snip]
> 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. 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?

Yes, there are too many requests for info.  The way I respond is to
type in the task description (or yank it from the plan page), then
accept the default date and plan page.  This last prompt actually
serves as a confirmation, as in "Do you really want this task
associated with the SpongeBob plan page?  If so, press ENTER."  So I
welcome it.

It's not obvious that you can respond to the date prompt with "nil."
I didn't discover that until I got in the habit of always accepting
"Today" and setting planner-carry-tasks-forward (or whatever it is) to
true in my .emacs.

[snip]
> Since I wasn't too happy with the prompting of planner-create-task, I
> wondered if I could just create new tasks by typing them in in a
> matching style to existing tasks. This seems a very natural interface,
> (perhaps since I'm already used to structured text entry for wikis).
> 
> 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.

It isn't that robust, unfortunately.  And you have no way of knowing
that until you try it and it fails to work as expected.

That wasn't a problem for me, since I underestimated what Planner
would do.  :-)

[snip]

> Thanks for taking the time to listen. Hopefully something I've said has
> been useful.

Thanks for taking the time to contribute!

-- 
Raymond Zeitler <address@hidden>