[Task Reminders Dialog] Unexpected sort order in 'Notification' column

[Ryan]

I'll call this a bug although I suspect it may just be a feature that was not completed.

I didn't post an .ini and .tdl for a few reasons:
1. The task reminders change between the time I post the file and the time it is investigated. So it may not show the problem in the posted .tdl.
2. I believe this should be easily reproducible since it simply does nothing and doesn't seem to have anything to do with the settings or environment.

Hope this is okay.

Please refer to the two images below. Note that when the task reminders are sorted by the 'Notification' column they are sorted in the same order regardless of whether the column header has the up or down arrow. So it appears they cannot be sorted by this column.

Clearly sorting by this column would be a common need (and it is also what I need for my own use). My guess is that maybe the reason it does not sort is that there is text in this column and not just dates/times? So maybe the sorting was never implemented during development because it wouldn't make sense to sort by the text? Just guessing.

But the critical thing is that I would expect it to sort by either soonest to latest date/time or latest to soonest date/time.

Sorry, I'm all over the place here! Hope this makes some sense!

=== Update ===

Thinking some more about this, my preference in the notification column would be to show everything in days rather than months days and weeks. And if there is less than one full day I guess it could also show it in hours although for me that's not terribly important since it will show the date and time anyway.

So my preference would simply be to show it in something like this format:

"Due in 55D: Mon 8/11/2024 9:45 AM"

"Due in 3H: Mon 8/11/2024 9:45 AM"


Image #1



Image #2

[abstr]

Looks to be a bit more complicated because sorting seems to work okay for me:

remsortdown.png (5.39 KiB) Viewed 399 times

remsortup.png (5.41 KiB) Viewed 399 times

[abstr]

I didn't post an .ini and .tdl for a few reasons:
1. The task reminders change between the time I post the file and the time it is investigated. So it may not show the problem in the posted .tdl.
2. I believe this should be easily reproducible since it simply does nothing and doesn't seem to have anything to do with the settings or environment.

I too yearn for a simple life... !

Could you at least provide some screenshots to show how the task dates were configured and how the reminders were set up so that I can infer the necessary information?

It could be that this issue relates to the other reminder issue...

[Ryan]

Sorry Dan, my bad. Didn't do enough testing.

This is so weird. It is sorting but not sorting correctly (see below).

Tough one. I'll keep investigating until I come up with something that can be reproduced.

At the moment I am out of ideas. It's a sticky wicket!

Thanks!

[Ryan]

Hi Dan...

This one was bugging the heck out of me (excuse the pun!). I spent a couple of hours experimenting and trying to isolate the problem with little progress.

But during one of my tests, I came across an unexpected result. It led me to try something in my original file. I dismissed the reminder on the suspect task, and then set the reminder again.

VOILA! Everything sorts now.

I would like to be more certain about what happened, but I cannot rule out the possibility that something was just written incorrectly when that reminder was set and it caused the sorting issue. And "erasing" and resetting the reminder corrected the error.

So for now, it is working. And it is possible it is a one-off error. If I have the problem again, I will do more work to see if I can isolate it, but so far so good.

I'm stoked because I love this feature! BUT...I still don't understand the calculation of remaining time until the 'Start' or 'Due' date in the 'Notification' column. It seems to be incorrect.

[abstr]

I still don't understand the calculation of remaining time until the 'Start' or 'Due' date in the 'Notification' column. It seems to be incorrect.

Can you locate your original post for me pls?

[Ryan]

Here it is Dan. Link below.

It may be correct, but I can't figure out how. I get different day counts than what this seems to show although it is a little confusing with the way they are displayed in weeks, days, hours, minutes etc. I am not sure what is considered an end time for the days or what days/times are counted.

For example it is says it will "Start" or become 'Due' in "1W", I assume you count 7 days forward from the current day and that is when it is referring to. But it doesn't seem to be the case. I come up with things being off by a day or maybe sometimes more. It would be great to just have a simple calendar day count which is easy to interpret quickly.

My preference would be to simply show the remaining time until the 'Start' or 'Due' date in days similar to the way it is shown in the "Remaining Time" column in the regular views. It's more compact and consistent with the way this is displayed in the rest of the program and just easier to read quickly. I can see the value of the way it is now too, but it is confusing to me as to how to evaluate it.

But that's another subject. Right now I would just like to try to understand how it is calculating the months, weeks, days, hours, etc.


I just edited the post in the link below and removed the second question because I think I know the answer to that one. So really the only question is how the remaining time before 'Start' or 'Due' dates are calculated in the 'Notification' column. They don't seem to be accurate, but maybe I am missing something.

viewtopic.php?t=2121

[abstr]

I'm marking this 'complete' because it resolved itself (for now).

If it occurs again could you possibly start a new thread please...

[Ryan]

Sounds like a plan. Will do if it happens again. TY

[Ryan]

Not sure if this is related to the issue, but here is something I observed about the sorting.

So everything is not necessarily sorted in date order in the 'Notification' column.