[O] Bug: malformed property drawers [8.3.6 (8.3.6-3-gf46b92-elpa @ c:/Users/atamulis/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20160919/)]

[Tamulis, Andrius]

I have a problem with orgmode related to the fixing of "malformed property drawers".

I use orgmode a lot; I have been using it for over a decade (if memory serves.) I use it to organize my life, my job, by volunteer work . My .org files are rather large - one is over 500 KB (that's for my job). I am having a problem with the (comparatively recent) change in the code that causes org-agenda-set-property (C-c C-x p) to search through the entire file looking for "malformed property drawers".

Over the years, my files have accumulated many, many property drawers that are not, strictly, in the correct place (which is supposed to be just below the SCHEDULED and DEADLINE line, right?). This used to not be a problem, then someone "fixed" the code, and now org-agenda-set-property tries to fix the drawers. And, unfortunatly, it "fixes" them by ignoring the drawer in the incorrect location and creating a new, empty one, not having carried over any properties.

There is a problem even if I want to "fix" these drawers by hand. There are many, many drawers, and the fix is long and tedious:

C-c C-x p
get the error message
remember the character location
C-g, M-x goto-char
type character location
hope that section has been unfolded (The fix searches inside ARCHIVEd locations!)
check that the PROPERTY drawer does not have any important properties (except those left there by mobileorg)
delete property drawer.

Until {I get sick of it}

C-c C-x P and type "CATEGORY:" myself, without the typing completion of C-c C-x p.

I think that you should possible go back to the way it was before the "fix the properties" patch. If it is terribly important to fix the drawers, create a new function that fixes them as intelligently as possible (copying existing drawers into the correct place).

But the better idea is to forget "fixing" these drawers. Is it truly that important to have the SCHEDULED and DEADLINE in the line below the heading, and the PROPERTIES drawer directly beneath? I see no programming advantage, since you need to search for these strings anyway. And I don't like the way it looks: I use org-mode to keep todo lists and notes, I need to read the notes and instructions I wrote to myself. These notes and instructions often are longer than the headline, so I naturally keep reading from the headline to the line below - and then I have to skip lines with code in them. And I'm not the only one who does not like this setup: there's code out there to completly hide the PROPERTIES drawer so that it does not interrupt your reading. (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17478260/completely-hide-the-properties-drawer-in-org-mode).

So: put SCHEDULED, DEADLINE, and drawers anywhere in the item! And stop fixing the drawers!

Thanks,

Andrius

Emacs  : GNU Emacs 24.5.1 (i686-pc-mingw32)
 of 2015-04-11 on LEG570
Package: Org-mode version 8.3.6 (8.3.6-3-gf46b92-elpa @ c:/Users/atamulis/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20160919/)