Re: [Orgmode] Possible bug in ordered tasks

[Carsten Dominik]

On Jun 25, 2010, at 3:23 PM, Robert Goldman wrote:

> On 6/25/10 Jun 25 -2:03 AM, Carsten Dominik wrote:
> > Hi Robert,
> >
> > On Jun 18, 2010, at 5:42 PM, Robert Goldman wrote:
> >
> > > I have found what I believe to be a bug in handling ordered  
> > > subtasks.
> > > Here is the behavior:
> > >
> > > I have a top level set of tasks that is ordered.
> > >
> > > One of the outline items below the top level set is a grab bag of  
> > > tasks
> > > that will be performed in parallel.  So this task is NOT ordered
> > > (ORDERED: nil).
> > >
> > > The problem is that the blocking behavior from ordered tasks seems  
> > > to be
> > > inherited from the top level task list into the second level of the
> > > outline, even though the ORDERED property at the second level is
> > > explicitly overridden.
> > >
> > > I am attaching an org file that displays this issue.  To see the
> > > problem, put your cursor on the "Bar" task and attempt to change its
> > > status to DONE.
> >
> > The problem here is that the value of the ORDERED property is the  
> > string
> > "nil", and that is of course not nil!
> >
> > I have introduced a special case to have "nil" interpreted as nil  
> > here,
> > because your use case makes a lot of sense.
>
> Oh, dear.  That makes perfect sense, now that I think of it.
>
> Question:  what is the proper way to get a NIL into a property?  Are  
> we
> to use () instead of "nil"?  Or are property values always interpreted
> as strings?
>
> Apologies in advance if this is a stupid question!

Not a stupid question at all.

There is no way, currently.   Property values are string - the only  
way to make
org-entry-get return nil is to not have the property defined at all.

- Carsten