Re: [O] [GSoC] org-merge-driver weekly update

[Andrew Young]

Hi Robert Horn,

On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Robert Horn <address@hidden> wrote:
> Another area that would be nice to address is taking advantage of the
> information in date-trees so assist with merging.  This is similar to
> the logic around keeping headlines in order.  With date trees there is a
> date and sometimes time tag to help.
>
> In addition to the occurrence order, there is also an ordering constraint on 
> date trees that can be used to determine the proper delta.  You can use the 
> date and time information in the headlines to determine the proper sequencing.
>
> For example, the delta/merger for two files of the form:
>     File 1:
>     * Year
>     ** Year-Month
>     *** Year-Month-Day
>     **** Y-M-D-Time1 stuff1 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time2 stuff2 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time4 stuff4 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time5 stuff5 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time9 stuff9 ...
>     File 2:
>     * Year
>     ** Year-Month
>     *** Year-Month-Day
>     **** Y-M-D-Time1 stuff1 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time2 stuff2 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time3 stuff3 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time6 stuff6 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time7 stuff7 ...
>
>     Should be:
>     * Year
>     ** Year-Month
>     *** Year-Month-Day
>     **** Y-M-D-Time1 stuff1 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time2 stuff2 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time3 stuff3 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time4 stuff4 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time5 stuff5 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time6 stuff6 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time7 stuff7 ...
>     **** Y-M-D-Time9 stuff9 ...
>
> This time aware merge logic will apply similarly to all levels of the date 
> tree.
>
> Date trees are recognizable by the combination of headlines in this
> format.  A date tree can occur anywhere in an org file, but it will
> begin with a level one headline of the form "* YYYY", etc.
>
> R Horn
> address@hidden

Thank you for the suggestion!  The program should support date trees.

I wonder if date trees specifically should be aggressively resorted
during the merge (reordering more headings than necessary, without
regards to the in-file ordering).  It is currently my opinion that the
program should try to retain the original ordering as much as
possible, only sorting the minimum number of headings necessary when
merging has made the ordering ambiguous.

Sincerely,
Andrew Young