Item — HN Reader

Thanks for your feedback, much appreciated.

The current model is that every record (i.e. that entire block) can have multiple entries that are added up regardless of order. So the resulting total is the just the sum of the individual time values. (Here: `8h30m + (-45m) = 7h45m`)

Regarding whitespace: are you referring to some whitespace specifically (like the indentation) or to whitespace in general? Do you have a concrete idea in mind how you would change the syntax? Curious on your thoughts!

1 comments

The way I would do it is to parse the blocks sequentially, and ignore the indentation. Maybe you are doing that already?

Problem is (unless I’m misunderstanding you) that the entries must be unanimously distinguishable from the summary text. Consider:

    2018-03-27
    Tried to do this and that,
    but had to stop after
    30m because of a phone call.
        30m Some activity

The fourth line could not be told apart from an entry (the fifth line) without indentation or some other special character.

That's what I'm talking about.

Now, imagine you take that block and copy it from one text file and into another.

The meaning is now completely lost.

I think that using lines as separators is a better idea.

However, it is true that it requires care and brevity when writing your item lines.