timewarrior/doc/examples.txt
2016-04-17 12:10:42 -04:00

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Use Cases
=========
This document contains a set of use cases and expected behavior. This will
gradually change into a feature spec. The use cases are grouped functionally:
[1] Basic Usage
[2] Reports
[3] Exclusions
[4] Tags
[5] Fill
[6] Configuration
[1.1] Basic Usage: clock
------------------------
Using the 'start' and 'stop' commands without tags just records time intervals:
$ timew start
...
$ timew stop
This results in a recorded interval with the 'default' tag.
[1.2] Basic Usage: clock + tags
-------------------------------
Using the 'start' and 'stop' commands with tags just records time intervals:
$ timew start tag1
...
$ timew start tag2
...
$ timew stop
This results in the 'tag1' interval being automatically stopped, and the new
'tag2' interval starting. The 'stop' command stops all tracking. As these tags
are not defined, there is no additional metadata.
[1.3] Basic Usage: no arguments
-------------------------------
Simply running the command with no arguments will show any currently tracking
interval, with associated tags:
$ timew
2016-02-29 8:00:00 - now, 3:11:24 total, using 'tag1'
If 'tag1' has a defined color, it is used here to color the 'tag1' string.
[2.1] Reports: Summaries
------------------------
There are several time-based default reports which summarizes tracked time over
preset periods:
$ timew summary :day
$ timew summary :week
$ timew summary :month
$ timew summary :quarter
$ timew summary :year
$ timew summary <from> - <to>
$ timew summary
[4.1] Tags: Non-overlapping
---------------------------
With non-overlapping tags, starting an interval closeѕ and existing interval:
$ timew start tag1
...
$ timew start tag2
The second command automatically stops tracking 'tag1'.
[4.2] Tags: Combining
---------------------
With non-overlapping tags, intervals can be controlled by adding and removing
tags:
$ timew start tag1 tag2
...
$ timew stop tag1
...
$ timew stop
The 'stop' command subtracts tags, and subtracts all tags if none are specified
which makes the above equivalent to:
$ timew start tag1 tag2
...
$ tiemw start tag2
...
$ tiemw stop
[5.1] Fill: Backfill
--------------------
If the time is 12:13pm, the workday starts at 8:00am, and you have already
tracked a 9am-10am meeting, then this command will automatically backfill
the 8am-9am interval only:
$ timew track 8am "Reading email"
Similarly, this command will do the same thing:
$ timew track 8:23am "Reading email" :backfill
These two examples assume that there is no empty slot at the end of yesterday,
because it would also be filled.
Backfill involves looking backwards from the stated date/time, looking for an
interval to define the start.
Only when a range is bounded can :fill and :backfill determine the interval.
[5.2] Fill: Fill (forwards)
---------------------------
If a time range is bounded, then :fill can determine an end point, and fill the
gap. For example:
$ timew track today tag1
The 'today' is a bounded range, and this command will use 'tag1' for an interval
that extends all day today. Similarly 'tomorrow', 'next week' are bounded.
[5.3] Fill: Autofill
--------------------
Given an exclusion that ends at 8am, and another that begins at 5pm (defining a
work day), then the following commands need to be explained:
$ timew track today ...
This will create an open tracking interval starting at 8am, because of the lack
of a specific start time, and the presence of configured exclusions.
$ timew track 7:45am ...
This will create an open tracking interval starting at 7:45am, because of the
specific start time, which always overrides exclusions. This means is possible
to track time that exists entirely within an exclusion, provided there is a
specific start and stop time.
[6.1] Configuration: Storing/accessing settings
-----------------------------------------------
With a 'config' command, all configuration data will be accessible. The command:
$ timew config name value
Will result in an update to the configuration file:
name = value
Using the '.' character allows the rule to reflect hierarchical configuration
data:
$ timew config one.two.three four
$ timew config one.two.five six
Will construct the rule like this:
one:
two:
three = four
five = six
The process of converting this structure to 'one.two.three four' is called
normalizing.
[6.2] Configuration: Running in debug mode
------------------------------------------
Running in debug mode reveals internal details that aid troubleshooting. To run
in debug mode, add the ':debug' hint to the command line:
$ timew ... :debug
[6.3] Configuration: Running without generating output
------------------------------------------------------
Running in quiet mode prevents all feedback. This is useful for automation
scripts. To run un quiet mode, add the ':quiet' hint to the command line:
$ timew ... :quiet
--- Raw Notes ---
- Outline case for double-tracking, perhaps where a manager tracks the time of
several employees. This would require that tracked time for a single tag has
no overlaps, but allowing overlapping intervals might need configuration to
allow this.
- Suppose "last week" is 39 hours of nothing, and 1 hour of a meeting. The
question becomes what do the following do:
[1] $ timew track last week "paint the thing"
[2] $ timew track last week "paint the thing" :fill
Our choices are:
[a] 39 hours of "paint the thing" filled around the 1 hour "meeting".
[b] 40 hours of "paint the thing" overlapping with 1 hour "meeting"
[c] 40 hours of "paint the thing", and the meeting is gone
Consensus: [b], but configurable.
- Given this scenario:
Exclusion: ------)
Exclusion: [----------
Inclusion: [-)
Now: |
Timeline: >--o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o-->
7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
am pm
$ timew track this morning :fill tag inc 8am - 9am # tag
$ timew track this morning :fill :active tag inc 8am - 9am # tag
inc 9:30am - # tag
$ timew track today tag inc 8am - 9am # tag
inc 9:30am - # tag
$ timew track 8am - 9am tag inc 8am - 9am # tag
$ timew start tag1 :fill inc 9:30am - # tag
- Need example and handling for people with exclusions that are not based on a
seven-day cycle. Example, I have have every other friday off. This should be
a supported exclusion, not 26 exceptions.