[Orgmode] Re: Agenda view > Face for deadlines > PATCH

[Sébastien Vauban]

Hi all,

Sébastien Vauban wrote:
> In the same kind of thought, trying to enhance the way we (or I) visualize
> tasks in the agenda, I have chosen some sort of "inverse video" face for
> deadlines.
>
> (my-org-deadline-yesterday ((t (:foreground "white" :background "#D80000" 
> :weight bold))))
> (my-org-deadline-today ((t (:foreground "white" :background "#E9A36A" :weight 
> bold))))
> (my-org-deadline-tomorrow ((t (:foreground "black" :background "#B4F1B3" 
> :weight bold))))
> (my-org-deadline-later ((t (:foreground "black" :background "#AACAFC"))))
>
> with the following code in my .emacs file:
>
> ;; faces for showing deadlines in the agenda
> (setq org-agenda-deadline-faces
>       '((1.01 . my-org-deadline-yesterday)
>         (0.99 . my-org-deadline-today)
>         (0.49 . my-org-deadline-tomorrow)
>         (0.00 . my-org-deadline-later)))
>
> The result is the following:
>
> Week-agenda (W20-W21):
> 2010-05-18 Tue 
> _________________________________________________________________
>   Personal:   17:15-17:20 Sarah!                                 
> :home::errands:
>   refile:     Sched. 2x:  TODO [#A] Update reservations Scorpios       
> :refile::
> x Family: xxx In  -1 d.:  TODO [#A] Photos-reportage Andre xxxx 
> :home::computer:
>
> where `xxx' is just some textual way to represent background color.
>
> For the sake of clarity, I'd like the first 2 characters (in front of
> `Family', in my example) not to be "impacted" by that face. Otherwise, when in
> inverse video, they obfuscate the view of the day separators and of the
> deadline lines.
>
> Is there a way to do so?

I was so disturbed by this, and have always wanted to become (and still wants)
enlightened in Emacs Lisp and in Org's code that I finally took the time to
try and understand how all this works.

Not easy for me, I must admit. Cannot say I can follow the code, either,
because of lack of knowledge, on ELisp and on how to trace through the code.

Though, I've been able to answer my own demand, by adding a function (code
stolen from `org-compat.el'):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defun org-add-props-from-2 (string plist &rest props)
  "Add text properties to string, from position 2 to end.
PLIST may be a list of properties, PROPS are individual properties and values
that will be added to PLIST.  Returns the string that was modified."
  (add-text-properties
   2 (length string) (if props (append plist props) plist) string)
  string)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

and changing one line of `org-agenda.el' (L4619, function
`org-agenda-get-deadlines'):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
                (org-add-props txt props
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

to

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
                (org-add-props-from-2 txt props
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Maybe that can be factored (much, much) more smartly?

Can this be patched against the source code?

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sébastien Vauban