[Planner Dev] printing, Resource Usage, zoom, ...

[Andrej Vodopivec <Andrej Vodopivec ids si>]

I did some more planning using planner. I have quite some remarks on
bugs? and new features. Let me apologize for not being able to use
the right words all the time but I hope the ideas will be clear to 
everybody.
When I will start implementing anything I will consult some of you
not to put awkward words in the UI.
                                                                              

-zoom
  Draw vertical gray lines at the beginning of month,quater,... when weeks
       are not shown any more. It is difficult to compare timing of
       tasks when one has 50 lines without any grid.
       When minor unit is month one could gray out the first full week,
       when minor unit is quarter one could gray out the first month, ...
  Extend horizontal gray lines in Gantt chart into calendar area (option?)
       like in task view
  Vertical grid would also come handy in HTML file.
-print
  I have a schedule which extends well into 2006 but I am much more 
interested
       into the next quarter details than in 2006 plan or what already 
happened        since May. I want to print Gantt chart from 1-SEP-2004 
to 31-DEC-2004.
       I would not mind if a few extra days are plotted to get a weekly 
grid.
       Most of my schedule beyond half a year in the future is changing
       quite a bit so it is a waste of paper to print it in detail.
   Something like:
       from-date to-date; 6 weeks per page
       from-week year to-week year; 1 week per page
   or
       this and next three quarter; one quarter per page
-zoom
       from-date to-date
       from-week to-week
-when started as: 'planner fname' window banner says "Unnamed - Imendio 
Planner"-save expansion status for subtasks
-buttons to expand and unexpand all tasks
-save resource assignment window size
-list Resource Usage as
   Resource
       Top_task_name Bottom_task_name
   Like I plan design of three circuits. The database has to be  
delivered to
               a fab. The process is called tape-out. My plan contains
               tape-out 2-3 times for each of 3 circuits: mis, mis-tx,cdat
   The Resource Usage creates a list like:
       > Igor Grm
           Igor Grm    tape-out
           Igor Grm    tape-out
           Igor Grm    tape-out2
           Igor Grm    tape-out
               ....
   While I would need:
       > Igor Grm
           mis         tape-out
           cdat        tape-out
           mis         tape-out2
           mis-tx      tape-out
               ....
-when 'Fixed duration' is selected for a task one can not assign resource
       percentage: Say, I wave a task requiring 10 man-weeks of effort
       and 6 person to do it; one person will work all five weeks while
       the others will put in a week each.
-exported HTML tasks are shown with -0.5d offset in firefox
-display time unit for work,duration,lag,slack: select weeks, days, or hours
       All time entries should expect values entered using this unit
       unless w,d,h is appended. This should be selectable in Preferences.
-merge (import) of plans
-export selected tasks (with subtasks)
-means to track plan execution
-(means to track changes in plan)
-view Resource Usage of multiple plans (files)
-events (call it some more suitable word)
   I would like to be able to print a list of events to be
       executed in selected time frame. This should belong to groups
       which should enable selective viewing, printing/exporting and 
plotting.
       Say, I want to know
               - which tape-outs are due in the next two months
               - what phases of project I will be able to bill next 
quarter.
   This events should be symbols insertable in the Gantt view displayed
       with varying glyph/color attached to the beginning/end of the
       task with some offset or say when 75% of the time allocated for the
       task is reached. Events of subtasks should be inherited by
       parent task (as to the Event group setting) say one level up (1),
       two levels up (2), all the way (0), all the way -1 (-1).
   One should be able to remove Events, export Events in CSV format
       (maybe some other) and control Event group behavior with:
           group name
           color /? glyph
           visibility  (to display/undisplay all events belonging to group)
           transparency (inheritance? which parents see this event)
   An event should consist of the following data
       name, task, value, event group, due, done, comment
                                                                               

-there is no description of 'slack' in User guide
-User guide says in 1.1: "Task Sequencing - identify dependencies ..."
       I can not see this in my Task View. There is no link information.
       Is this to be a new feature, or is it an error in documentation?
-I can not locate info on critical path in the User guide
                                                                               

Eventually I have preferences regarding the order of changes I would
work on. I would start with 1. printing, 2, Resource Usage, 3. zoom (grid).
                                                                               

Now, there is the question on who decides on what features will be
accepted in case I decide to do them. I do not want to spent my
time doing a feature nobody needs or whoever is in control of the
main source tree would not accept. I would like to consult with the
decision makers before I start coding. This is the first time I am
joining something like this and I have no idea how does this work.