That looks like a delay period on a SCHEDULED item would work very well
for me. I can see the positive delay period being useful to me as well.
This does look like it would be more difficult to implement because it's
a subtle change to existing code rather than something more modular.
:AMN:
On 01/25/2013 03:10 AM, Michael Brand wrote:
Hi Andrew
On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 11:54 PM, Andrew M. Nuxoll <nux...@up.edu> wrote:
Here an example scenario that illustrates my problem: Say, at the end of
each week I need to sit down and generate a report on my progress to send to
the boss. So I have recurring, weekly TODO entry on Friday morning. Well,
one week the report is delayed because a coworker was ill and couldn't send
me the data I needed on time. So, I have to delay that TODO entry until
Monday *just this one time.* I need to get it off my agenda for the day but
I don't want to mark is as completed because it's not.
Right now the only way to do that is to mark it as completed anyway but make
a one-time copy of the TODO item with the new scheduled date. The problem
is that I have roughly thirty TODO items per day and, on any given day, I
need to delay about 10-20% of them for various reasons. (It's the nature of
my job though I don't think it's that unusual.) So making a copy of a TODO
item each time is inconvenient because I end up with dozens of copies
floating about.
Furthermore, a delayed TODO item should have more urgency since it's been
delayed. But creating a copy means i can't do that. When Monday rolls
around and it's time to prepare that report it shows up in green text like
this in my agenda:
Scheduled: TODO [#B] Prepare TPS Report
but I want it to be in red text like this:
Sched. 4x: TODO [#B] Prepare TPS Report
This is why I'm looking for a distinct "snooze" or "delay" functionality. I
want a TODO item to disappear from the agenda until a specified date and
then reappear again waiting to be done with all the urgency associated with
that delay.
Let me only suggest an idea to deal with this, item-based: When the
DEADLINE “warning period” would be generalized to allow positive
numbers then it would extend to a “warning and delay period”. Starting
with:
* TODO [#B] Verify login to the virtual machines
DEADLINE: <2013-01-22 Tue +1w -0d>
It could be delayed to <2013-01-24 Thu> which means two days later by
changing the “warning and delay period” to 2d:
* TODO [#B] Verify login to the virtual machines
DEADLINE: <2013-01-22 Tue +1w 2d>
This would not show up in the agenda until <2013-01-24 Thu>. At that
date it would be shown with the desirable “In -2 d.:” for overdue to
get the higher priority. When set to done it would become:
* TODO [#B] Verify login to the virtual machines
DEADLINE: <2013-01-29 Tue +1w -0d>
Note the change from 2d to -0d: It is important that when the date
repeats and has a positive warning period aka delay period then it
must be reset to -0d. Otherwise undesirable suprises are guaranteed.
The same “warning and delay period” could also be allowed for
SCHEDULED, mainly usable with a positive range for a delay. Probably
what you would prefer over DEADLINE for your use case. I would even
allow negative numbers for a warning for SCHEDULED, with a default
warning period of -0d to reflect current behavior.
Michael
--
Andrew M. Nuxoll Phone: 503-943-7688
Asst Professor of Computer Science Fax: 503-943-7316
University of Portland - MSC #145 Email: nux...@up.edu
5000 N. Willamette Blvd Web: http://faculty.up.edu/nuxoll
Portland, OR 97203-5798 Office: Shiley Hall Rm 217
