The Kitchin Research Group

We can get a sorted list of the time-stamps like this.

(sort (org-element-map (org-element-parse-buffer) 'timestamp
	(lambda (timestamp)
	  (org-element-property :raw-value timestamp))) 'org-time>)

Interestingly, the deadline timestamp does not appear in this list! I am not sure why it doesn't show up.

Unfortunately, having those time stamps in this buffer will complicate further analysis, because org-mode will parse them too. What we need to do next is figure out a way to sort with the positions, so we can jump to it.

Side bar: How to sort a cons list based on the first element of each cons cell? Here are two examples.

(cl-sort '((3 . "a") (2 . "b") (1 . "c")) '> :key 'car)

((3 . a) (2 . b) (1 . c))

(sort '((3 . "a") (2 . "b") (1 . "c"))
      (lambda (a b)
	(> (car a) (car b))))

((3 . a) (2 . b) (1 . c))

So, we just build up a sorted cons-list of timestamps and their beginning characters, then pop the top entry off and jump to it. Here is the code. Running this jumps directly to the most recent (which could be in the future) timestamp.

(let ((timestamps (cl-sort
		   (org-element-map (org-element-parse-buffer) 'timestamp
		     (lambda (timestamp)
		       `(,(org-element-property :raw-value timestamp) . ,(org-element-property :begin timestamp))))
		   'org-time> :key 'car)))
  (goto-char
   (cdr
    (pop timestamps))))

There are some limitations here:

1. Only free timestamps are shown, timestamps associated with deadlines and scheduling do not appear to be considered here. You would need to map over the headlines and check for deadlines to get these I think.
2. The code block above finds the timestamp with the highest time value, which may be in the future. It is an interesting exercise to think about how to find the most recent timestamp that is not in the future.