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/)