Suggestion: Treat "container tasks" differently

[Christoph Zwerschke]

On the top level of the hiearchical task tree people usually have some long-living projects, "working areas", or "areas of responsibility". Such top-level tasks never really "complete", they serve only as containers for the other tasks, very much like "folders" in the file system.

Therefore it would be helpful if tasks could be marked as "folders" contrary to normal tasks. ToDoList could then use this information to treat folders (container tasks) differently from normal tasks:

* In the task tree or task list, these tasks could show a folder icon instead of a checkbox

* There is a setting "Remove archived tasks from the tasklist only when all the task's subtasks and siblings are also complete" which is really useful. However, due to the longevity of "folder tasks", their immediate children will never get archived because they always have some siblings. I'm not sure how this exactly should be solved, but treating folders differently in this rule could help.

[.dan.g.]

Hi Christoph

>> In the task tree or task list, these tasks could show a folder icon instead of a checkbox

1. That doesn't really work because some people are going to want a folder icon and a checkbox

2. There is a preference to show parent tasks with a folder icon automatically

>> I'm not sure how this exactly should be solved

Therein lies the problem because it is a complex request that cannot be solved 'easily'.

Feel free to think about it some more and share your thoughts on this thread.

Dan

[Christoph Zwerschke]

Am 20.10.2015 um 05:19 schrieb .dan.g.:
>  >> In the task tree or task list, these tasks could show a folder icon
> instead of a checkbox
>
> 1. That doesn't really work because some people are going to want a
> folder icon and a checkbox
> 2. There is a preference to show parent tasks with a folder icon
> automatically

So we currently have these two options:

1. Show all tasks, including parents, with a checkbox
2. Show parent tasks with a folder icon

How about keeping these two options, and just add a third one:

3. Show tasks with a folder icon only if they are explicitly marked as
"folders". In this case, don't consider them as "doable."

So this would need another flag attribute on tasks that marks them as
being "folders" = "not doable." This flag must be set by the users.

For archiving, the option should now be:

"Remove archived tasks from the tasklist only when all the task's

*doable* subtasks and siblings are also complete"

or phrased differently:

"Remove archived tasks from the tasklist only when all the task's

subtasks and siblings are folders or also complete"

Another advantage of a "doable" flag would be that the list view
would become decluttered by only showing the doable tasks.

-- Chris