[zedboy]

Originally Posted by xmas

Please feel free to submit this as a feature request. And its something I'll keep in mind as we go along as well.

Along the same lines (I hope this hasn't come up before, the forums are getting a bit unwieldy to search these days), I think if I type "feb 1" while here in November, that it should probably figure out that I mean Feb 1, 2008, not Feb 1, 2007. In fact, anything more than a couple weeks old should get that treatment.

Just a thought.

[jasong]

I recently filed an enhancement request asking for exactly this. Dates which are ambiguous should be the next upcoming one, not the past. Might as well have "Feb 1" mean 1993 otherwise.

If I enter "Feb 1" and mean "Feb 1 2007", I'll do the extra work of correcting it when OF says "2008"; I can live with that.

[jdh]

Likewise, typing in "Next Friday" should normally mean the Friday of next week (ie, not this Friday, but the next Friday). Right now, it does the same thing as just typing in "Friday" so there's really no point.

Just to be clear with an example: Today is Wednesday, November 21. If I type in "Friday" the date field should be 11/23/07. If I type in "next Friday" it should be 11/30/07. Right now, both phrases result in the same date, which doesn't make as much sense.

I could see how things like "Next Monday" might get confusing, since they span different weeks by most people's calendars (ie, in the above example many people would consider 11/26/07 to be "next Monday" regardless), but I'm still inclined to think that "next" should always mean "the one after the coming one" since it's fairly rare in a GTD system to enter dates in the past :)

[philmur]

jdh-
To me, "next Friday" means "the next Friday that is going to come." So, you're right, "Friday" and "next Friday" do mean the same. I don't have OF yet, but maybe try the phrase "Friday after next." Might work!

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by jdh

Likewise, typing in "Next Friday" should normally mean the Friday of next week (ie, not this Friday, but the next Friday). Right now, it does the same thing as just typing in "Friday" so there's really no point.

I agree that dates should always default to the future. I also agree that "Next Friday" is 9 days away as I type this. Note that you can enter "+1w Friday" to get the Friday of next week. That's a format that only a programmer could love, but then, I'm a programmer! :-)

[brianogilvie]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

I agree that dates should always default to the future. I also agree that "Next Friday" is 9 days away as I type this. Note that you can enter "+1w Friday" to get the Friday of next week. That's a format that only a programmer could love, but then, I'm a programmer! :-)

I also think "next Friday" is nine days away, but I run across enough people who think it's two days away that I try to avoid the phrase and say things like "Friday of next week."

You can also use "fri+7" to get Friday of the next week.

I recently sent in feedback requesting that start and due dates default to the future but completion dates to the past. (Sometimes I realize that I forgot to mark a task complete, and that for reporting reasons I need to note when I actually completed it, so I'll enter the completion date in the past instead of just checking it off.)

[jasong]

I'm one of those for whom "next friday" is context dependent, based on today's date and who I'm talking with. "Next friday" today, Wedneday, is "the friday following the one coming up in two days"; on Sunday or Monday, it would be "friday coming up".

I try to avoid it....

[coconino]

Originally Posted by jasong

I'm one of those for whom "next friday" is context dependent, based on today's date and who I'm talking with. "Next friday" today, Wedneday, is "the friday following the one coming up in two days"; on Sunday or Monday, it would be "friday coming up".

What you have there is this Friday, or Friday coming (or simply Friday), as opposed to next Friday. Next Friday is also known here as Friday week, and the one after that is Friday fortnight, with the one after that known as next Friday fortnight or two-weeks-next-Friday. There's nothing context-dependent about it; it's all very precise and unambiguous. Nobody I know would, on a Sunday or Monday, regard the following Friday as next Friday.

[zackayak]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

I agree that dates should always default to the future. I also agree that "Next Friday" is 9 days away as I type this. Note that you can enter "+1w Friday" to get the Friday of next week. That's a format that only a programmer could love, but then, I'm a programmer! :-)

Cool - defaulting dates to the future has been discussed at length!

I looking forward to typing "4/16" and getting the next future 4/16.

I'm not looking forward to typing any spreadsheet formula looking dates. I'm happy that you all are working this out.

Thanks,
Zack

[zedboy]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

I agree that dates should always default to the future.

It seems the nice folks at Omni have changed this behavior in some recent bulid. Kudos to them!

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

I also agree that "Next Friday" is 9 days away as I type this. Note that you can enter "+1w Friday" to get the Friday of next week. That's a format that only a programmer could love, but then, I'm a programmer! :-)

Apropos this discussion: the meaning of "Next Friday" etc. varies dramatically based on the person, where they were born, where they live, etc. etc. There is, quite simply, no single answer that's going to keep everyone happy. If you don't believe me, go check out the archives of alt.usage.english on the topic. (Whether anyone even remembers Usenet these days is a different question.)