[O] [Bug] org-capture datetree+prompt: wrong time (range) information in timestamp (%T escape sequence)

[Gregor Zattler]

Dear org-mode users and developers,


* what I want to do
I want to use org-capture instead of Emacs diary (+calendar)
[fn:1] in order to record all kinds of events and appointments.

* how I try to achieve this
I try to use org-capture.  I want to be prompted for the date of
the event or the date and time / time range of the appointment.
I want the event/appointment to be recorded in a date tree under
it's respective date, not under today.  I want a timestamp in the
resulting heading in order to see the date/appointment in the
agenda view and I want to see the respective time (range)
information if there is any.

I tried to achieve this with an file+datetree+prompt template as
such:

(setq org-capture-templates (quote (
 ("d" "diary the Org way" entry (file+datetree+prompt
 "~/org/diary.org") "* %? %T
 noted: %U"))))


* how it works
If using this template I'm prompted for a date and this date is
used as target in the date tree.  That's fine.  The same date is
also used in the timestamp of the captured items heading which is
produced via expansion of the %T exscape.  That#s fine too.  If I
also enter at the same prompt a time for the appointment as
e.g. 19:00 this time information is reused in the time stamp in
the heading.  That's fine too.  This way I'm able to enter
appointments.


* when it does not work
But there are two problems with the time information, which I
consider to be bugs:

1) If I enter a time *range* at the prompt, the %T expands to the
   time when I invoked the capture ("now") while the date is
   still the entered day, not today.  This is a mixture of the
   events date / recording time which I consider to be a bug.
   Instead I expect to see the date and time range of the
   appointment.

2) If I do not enter a time at all, since for instance the date
   is not bound to a time (e.g. holiday, birthday) the %T also
   expands to the time when I invoked the capture ("now") while
   the date is still the entered day, not today.

   Here instead I expect to see no time information at all, since
   I did not enter one.

   At least I also consider the mixture of the events date /
   recording time information a bug.


* how to reproduce the bug
This is with
- Emacs GNU Emacs 24.2.50.1 (i486-pc-linux-gnu, X
  toolkit, Xaw scroll bars) of 2012-09-19 on dex, modified by
  Debian (Emacs-snapshot)
- Org-mode version 7.9.1 (release_7.9.1-316-g66fe32 @
  /home/grfz/src/org-mode/lisp/)


I tested this with Emacs -Q and this minimal setup:

(add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name "~/src/org-mode/lisp"))
(setq load-path (cons "~/src/org-mode/contrib/lisp/" load-path))
(setq load-path (cons "~/.Emacs.d/elisp" load-path))
(require 'org-install)
(global-set-key "\C-cc" 'org-capture)

(setq org-capture-templates (quote (
 ("d" "diary the Org way" entry (file+datetree+prompt
 "~/org/diary.org") "* %? %T"))))


* how grateful I am
Thanks for your attention and for org-mode, Gregor
-- 
 -... --- .-. . -.. ..--.. ...-.-

Footnotes:

[fn:1] Mostly for performance reasons: Building the Agenda is
       slow due to my large diary file.  It's much faster if
       appointment data is stored in org files.