At Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:20:44 +0000, Eric S Fraga wrote: > > Dave Abrahams <d...@boostpro.com> writes: > > > 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 > > I do have a couple of rules I follow to avoid problems. > > 1. I usually have a blank line between the meta data (scheduled, > properties) and any subsequent text, whether part of that entry or > the following headline. I accomplish this by ensuring that my > capture templates all insert such a blank line, typically followed by > the date of insertion.
Nice idea; I'll get right on it. > > 2. I also always use the =C-c C-d=, =C-c C-s= and =C-c C-x p= sequences > to manage the meta data so org takes care of keeping things sane. Understood; I do that too ... well, sometimes I add properties manually but only because I forget the keybinding, and I always get that right because it's trivially easy. The problems creep in when I'm not watching carefully and typing fast, or maybe when my 3-year-old visits my keyboard, or... life happens. Then things can effectively drop off my TODO list silently, which is really problematic! I know there are ways to mitigate the risk, but I really want a new feature: in general I really don't want Org to *let* me edit most of the file as plain text most of the time. > However: > > [...] > > > 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). > > This would be quite nice, even something as simple as having RET, within > a time stamp, doing the equivalent of org-time-stamp or > org-time-stamp-inactive depending on the current state of the time > stamp. Right. But Org could be smart about the whole "grammar" of items and only allow freeform editing where it wouldn't do any serious damage. > > It'd be great if there were a way to make the ID property > > read-only (or really really hard to change). > > This is where column mode comes in quite handy? Link please? > I tend to use column mode to edit properties and so I never come > near the ID property as it usually isn't displayed. My properties are usually collapsed, so I usually don't see them either. But I don't want a special mode. I want org to understand and manage its own syntax. > > 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. > > org-narrow-to-subtree does some of this... Yes, some of it, but not all of it. But the point is that these are just examples. I think Org wasn't designed with the idea that it would end up having much of a "grammar," but it grew one. I'm arguing for a UI re-think for the tool Org has become. -- Dave Abrahams BoostPro Computing http://www.boostpro.com _______________________________________________ Emacs-orgmode mailing list Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
