support overlapping activities

[skyfaller]

I realize that if you use rtw to track freelance work you are doing for a client, you can't really work on multiple tasks at the same time, so this may not be a huge issue. But if you also use rtw to track anything else, such as what food you are eating, or what your child is doing while you futilely attempt to do work and childcare at the same time during the pandemic ("look, see, I do plenty of chores, here's my log in rtw"), you will have overlapping activities.

Currently, if you attempt to start a new task while another task is in progress, rtw will end the previous task:

nelson@Valence ~> rtw start 1 h ago write issue
Tracking write issue
Started  2020-07-12T07:17:47
nelson@Valence ~> rtw start 30 min ago sit in chair
Tracking sit in chair
Started  2020-07-12T07:47:56
nelson@Valence ~> rtw stop write issue
Error:  --> 1:1
  |
1 | write issue
  | ^---
  |
  = expected time_clue
nelson@Valence ~ [1]> rtw stop
Recorded sit in chair
Started 2020-07-12T07:47:56
Ended   2020-07-12T08:18:20
Total   00:30:24
nelson@Valence ~> rtw summary
write issue  2020-07-12T07:17:47 2020-07-12T07:47:56 00:30:08
sit in chair 2020-07-12T07:47:56 2020-07-12T08:18:20 00:30:24

If multiple activities are running at once, perhaps instead rtw should ask which one you want to stop (if you don't specify), or allow you to include tags that indicate which activity you want to end.

I imagine this would also require re-engineering the timeline view.

For people who don't want overlapping activities to ever happen (seriously, they are only using this for business), maybe a preference should allow them to disable (or enable) overlapping activities. Then perhaps they would receive errors if they mistakenly attempt to start an overlapping activity, rather than rtw silently interpreting their activities so that they do not overlap.

[PicoJr]

I realize that if you use rtw to track freelance work you are doing for a client, you can't really work on multiple tasks at the same time.

Yes, it's what I'm using rtw for.

Currently, if you attempt to start a new task while another task is in progress, rtw will end the previous task.

Yes, it's exactly what rtw does. Btw rtw stop can only stops the current activity, rtw stop expects an optional time clue such as 5 min ago when you forgot to stop an ongoing activity.

if overlapping activities are supported then rtw stop will need to support stopping a given ongoing activity.

I imagine this would also require re-engineering the timeline view

Yes, it would require reworking the timeline lib to support overlapping intervals.
It would mean splitting intervals into non-overlapping subsets and display as many timelines as necessary.

For people who don't want overlapping activities to ever happen...Maybe a preference should allow them to disable (or enable) overlapping activities.

Yes, it should be configurable.