Re: [Emacs-orgmode] org-archive-done

[Carsten Dominik]

Hi Daniel,

thanks for taking the time to discuss this through.

On Jun 17, 2006, at 22:47, Daniel J. Sinder wrote:

> OK, so now we've come full circle -- this is very nearly the current 
> behavior, except instead of archiving the whole subtree, it would only 
> archive DONE entries from within the subtree.  I think this is perhaps 
> the best solution (and easiest to implement, right?).

Yes it is, and I think this is what I will implement.

However,..

> I have just one final thought....and it's just a thought because I 
> don't understand how org-mode is implemented....
> What if, instead of archiving *moving* subtrees, it left them in place 
> but *hid* them in a semi-permanent way.  By that I mean, they'd be 
> hidden just like the collapsing org-mode normally does, but they would 
> never expand, unless a special show-archived-subtrees variable was 
> non-nil.

this is a very interesting and original idea!  I really like it.  It 
would mean that subitems that are done remain in place, but don't use 
space on the screen.  I am not sure if I like the term "archiving" for 
this.  "Locking" seems to be better.

The implementation could for example be TAG based:  All subtrees with a 
TAG :LOCKED: will never open when attacked with TAB (visibility 
cycling).  This can be done using org-cycle-hook.

Proof of concept:

(defvar org-locked-subtrees t
  "Non-nil means, allow locked subtrees.")

(defun org-hide-locked-subtrees (state)
  "Re-hide all locked subtrees after a visibility state change."
  (interactive)
  (when (and org-locked-subtrees
             (not (memq state '(overview folded))))
    (save-excursion
      (let* ((globalp (memq state '(contents all)))
             (beg (if globalp (point-min) (point)))
             (end (if globalp (point-max) (org-end-of-subtree) 
(point))))
        (goto-char beg)
        (while (re-search-forward ":LOCKED:" nil t)
          (and (org-on-heading-p) (hide-subtree))
          (org-end-of-subtree))))))

(add-hook 'org-cycle-hook 'org-hide-locked-subtrees 'append)

Then all that is needed is

- an easy way to toggle org-locked-subtrees (to allow looking at
  locked trees occasionally)
- and easy way to toggle the LOCKED tag
- An automatic locker that goes through the subitems of a given
  level N heading, locking all subtrees that do not have any
  open TODO items.

This is great.  I'll do something like this.  Thanks.

- Carsten

> P.S. Thank you very much for org mode.  I find I'm using it more and 
> more:  README files, task lists, etc.  I've recently even impressed my 
> technical leader at work (Qualcomm, San Diego) with how organized I 
> am, mostly due to org-mode.

You're welcome.  I am glad it is so useful.