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[bpt/emacs.git] / lisp / textmodes / remember.el
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1;;; remember --- a mode for quickly jotting down things to remember
2
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3;; Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,
4;; 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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5
6;; Author: John Wiegley <johnw@gnu.org>
7;; Created: 29 Mar 1999
62f01d5e 8;; Version: 2.0
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9;; Keywords: data memory todo pim
10;; URL: http://gna.org/projects/remember-el/
11
12;; This file is part of GNU Emacs.
13
1fecc8fe 14;; GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
15f3eb73 15;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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16;; the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
17;; (at your option) any later version.
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18
19;; GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
20;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
21;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
22;; GNU General Public License for more details.
23
24;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1fecc8fe 25;; along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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26
27;;; Commentary:
28
77210f1e 29;; * The idea
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30;;
31;; Todo lists, schedules, phone databases... everything we use
32;; databases for is really just a way to extend the power of our
33;; memory. To be able to remember what our conscious mind may not
34;; currently have access to.
35;;
36;; There are many different databases out there -- and good ones --
37;; which this mode is not trying to replace. Rather, it's how that
38;; data gets there that's the question. Most of the time, we just
39;; want to say "Remember so-and-so's phone number, or that I have to
40;; buy dinner for the cats tonight." That's the FACT. How it's
41;; stored is really the computer's problem. But at this point in
42;; time, it's most definitely also the user's problem, and sometimes
43;; so laboriously so that people just let data slip, rather than
44;; expend the effort to record it.
45;;
46;; "Remember" is a mode for remembering data. It uses whatever
47;; back-end is appropriate to record and correlate the data, but it's
48;; main intention is to allow you to express as _little_ structure as
49;; possible up front. If you later want to express more powerful
50;; relationships between your data, or state assumptions that were at
51;; first too implicit to be recognized, you can "study" the data later
52;; and rearrange it. But the initial "just remember this" impulse
53;; should be as close to simply throwing the data at Emacs as
54;; possible.
55;;
77210f1e 56;; * Implementation
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57;;
58;; Hyperbole, as a data presentation tool, always struck me as being
59;; very powerful, but it seemed to require a lot of "front-end" work
60;; before that data was really available. The problem with BBDB, or
61;; keeping up a Bibl-mode file, is that you have to use different
62;; functions to record the data, and it always takes time to stop what
63;; you're doing, format the data in the manner expected by that
64;; particular data interface, and then resume your work.
65;;
66;; With "remember", you just hit `M-x remember' (you'd probably want
67;; to bind this to an easily accessible keystroke, like C-x M-r), slam
68;; in your text however you like, and then hit C-c C-c. It will file
69;; the data away for later retrieval, and possibly indexing.
70;;
71;; Indexing is to data what "studying" is in the real world. What you
72;; do when you study (or lucubrate, for some of us) is to realize
73;; certain relationships implicit in the data, so that you can make
74;; use of those relationships. Expressing that a certain quote you
75;; remembered was a religious quote, and that you want the ability to
76;; pull up all quotes of a religious nature, is what studying does.
77;; This is a more labor intensive task than the original remembering
78;; of the data, and it's typical in real life to set aside a special
79;; period of time for doing this work.
80;;
81;; "Remember" works in the same way. When you enter data, either by
82;; typing it into a buffer, or using the contents of the selected
83;; region, it will store that data -- unindexed, uninterpreted -- in a
84;; data pool. It will also try to remember as much context
85;; information as possible (any text properties that were set, where
86;; you copied it from, when, how, etc). Later, you can walk through
87;; your accumulated set of data (both organized, and unorganized) and
88;; easily begin moving things around, and making annotations that will
89;; express the full meaning of that data, as far as you know it.
90;;
91;; Obviously this latter stage is more user-interface intensive, and
92;; it would be nice if "remember" could do it as elegantly as
93;; possible, rather than requiring a billion keystrokes to reorganize
94;; your hierarchy. Well, as the future arrives, hopefully experience
95;; and user feedback will help to make this as intuitive a tool as
96;; possible.
97;;
77210f1e 98;; * Future Goals
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99;;
100;; This tool hopes to track (and by doing it with as little new code
101;; as possible):
102;;
103;; - The raw data that gets entered
104;;
105;; - The relationships between that data (either determined
106;; implicitly by parsing the input, or explicitly by the user's
107;; studying the data).
108;;
109;; - Revisioning of the data
110;;
111;; - Where it came from, and any context information that can be
112;; programmatically determined.
113;;
114;; - Allowing particular views of the initially amorphous data pool
115;; (ala the Xanadu concept).
116;;
117;; - Storage of the data in a manner most appopriate to that data,
118;; such as keeping address-book type information in BBDB, etc.
119;;
77210f1e 120;; * Using "remember"
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121;;
122;; As a rough beginning, what I do is to keep my .notes file in
123;; outline-mode format, with a final entry called "* Raw data". Then,
124;; at intervals, I can move the data that gets appended there into
125;; other places. But certainly this should evolve into an intuitive
126;; mechanism for shuffling data off to its appropriate corner of the
127;; universe.
128;;
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129;; To map the primary remember function to the keystroke F8, do the
130;; following.
15f3eb73 131;;
77210f1e 132;; (autoload 'remember "remember" nil t)
15f3eb73 133;;
77210f1e 134;; (define-key global-map [f8] 'remember)
15f3eb73 135;;
77210f1e 136;; * Feedback
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137;;
138;; If Emacs could become a more intelligent data store, where
139;; brainstorming would focus on the IDEAS involved -- rather than the
140;; structuring and format of those ideas, or having to stop your
141;; current flow of work in order to record them -- it would map much
142;; more closely to how the mind (well, at least mine) works, and hence
143;; would eliminate that very manual-ness which computers from the very
144;; beginning have been championed as being able to reduce.
145;;
146;; Have you ever noticed that having a laptop to write on doesn't
147;; _actually_ increase the amount of quality material that you turn
148;; out, in the long run? Perhaps its because the time we save
149;; electronically in one way, we're losing electronically in another;
150;; the tool should never dominate one's focus. As the mystic
151;; Faridu'd-Din `Attar wrote: "Be occupied as little as possible with
152;; things of the outer world but much with things of the inner world;
153;; then right action will overcome inaction."
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154;;
155;; * Diary integration
156;;
157;; To use, add the following to your .emacs:
158;;
159;; ;; This should be before other entries that may return t
160;; (add-to-list 'remember-handler-functions 'remember-diary-extract-entries)
161;;
162;; This module recognizes entries of the form
163;;
164;; DIARY: ....
165;;
166;; and puts them in your ~/.diary (or remember-diary-file) together
167;; with an annotation. Dates in the form YYYY.MM.DD are converted to
168;; YYYY-MM-DD so that diary can understand them.
169;;
170;; For example:
171;;
172;; DIARY: 2003.08.12 Sacha's birthday
173;;
174;; is stored as
175;;
176;; 2003.08.12 Sacha's birthday
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177
178;;; History:
179
180;;; Code:
181
182(provide 'remember)
183
62f01d5e 184(defconst remember-version "2.0"
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185 "This version of remember.")
186
187(defgroup remember nil
188 "A mode to remember information."
189 :group 'data)
190
191;;; User Variables:
192
193(defcustom remember-mode-hook nil
194 "Functions run upon entering `remember-mode'."
195 :type 'hook
e0628060 196 :options '(flyspell-mode turn-on-auto-fill org-remember-apply-template)
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197 :group 'remember)
198
199(defcustom remember-in-new-frame nil
200 "Non-nil means use a separate frame for capturing remember data."
201 :type 'boolean
202 :group 'remember)
203
204(defcustom remember-register ?R
205 "The register in which the window configuration is stored."
206 :type 'character
207 :group 'remember)
208
209(defcustom remember-filter-functions nil
210 "*Functions run to filter remember data.
211All functions are run in the remember buffer."
212 :type 'hook
213 :group 'remember)
214
215(defcustom remember-handler-functions '(remember-append-to-file)
216 "*Functions run to process remember data.
217Each function is called with the current buffer narrowed to what the
218user wants remembered.
219If any function returns non-nil, the data is assumed to have been
220recorded somewhere by that function. "
221 :type 'hook
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222 :options '(remember-store-in-mailbox
223 remember-append-to-file
224 remember-diary-extract-entries
225 org-remember-handler)
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226 :group 'remember)
227
228(defcustom remember-all-handler-functions nil
229 "If non-nil every function in `remember-handler-functions' is
230called."
231 :type 'boolean
232 :group 'remember)
233
234;;; Internal Variables:
235
236(defvar remember-buffer "*Remember*"
237 "The name of the remember data entry buffer.")
238
239(defcustom remember-save-after-remembering t
240 "*Non-nil means automatically save after remembering."
241 :type 'boolean
242 :group 'remember)
243
244;;; User Functions:
245
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246(defcustom remember-annotation-functions '(buffer-file-name)
247 "Hook that returns an annotation to be inserted into the remember buffer."
15f3eb73 248 :type 'hook
e0628060 249 :options '(org-remember-annotation buffer-file-name)
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250 :group 'remember)
251
252(defvar remember-annotation nil
253 "Current annotation.")
254(defvar remember-initial-contents nil
255 "Initial contents to place into *Remember* buffer.")
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256
257(defcustom remember-before-remember-hook nil
258 "Functions run before switching to the *Remember* buffer."
259 :type 'hook
260 :group 'remember)
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261
262(defcustom remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag nil
263 "Non-nil means use all annotations returned by
264`remember-annotation-functions'."
265 :type 'boolean
266 :group 'remember)
267
268;;;###autoload
269(defun remember (&optional initial)
270 "Remember an arbitrary piece of data.
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271INITIAL is the text to initially place in the *Remember* buffer,
272or nil to bring up a blank *Remember* buffer.
273
043989e3 274With a prefix or a visible region, use the region as INITIAL."
15f3eb73 275 (interactive
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276 (list (when (or current-prefix-arg
277 (and mark-active
278 transient-mark-mode))
279 (buffer-substring (region-beginning) (region-end)))))
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280 (funcall (if remember-in-new-frame
281 #'frame-configuration-to-register
282 #'window-configuration-to-register) remember-register)
283 (let* ((annotation
284 (if remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag
285 (mapconcat 'identity
286 (delq nil
287 (mapcar 'funcall remember-annotation-functions))
288 "\n")
289 (run-hook-with-args-until-success
290 'remember-annotation-functions)))
291 (buf (get-buffer-create remember-buffer)))
292 (run-hooks 'remember-before-remember-hook)
293 (funcall (if remember-in-new-frame
294 #'switch-to-buffer-other-frame
295 #'switch-to-buffer-other-window) buf)
296 (if remember-in-new-frame
297 (set-window-dedicated-p
298 (get-buffer-window (current-buffer) (selected-frame)) t))
299 (remember-mode)
300 (when (= (point-max) (point-min))
301 (when initial (insert initial))
302 (setq remember-annotation annotation)
303 (when remember-initial-contents (insert remember-initial-contents))
304 (when (and (stringp annotation)
305 (not (equal annotation "")))
306 (insert "\n\n" annotation))
307 (setq remember-initial-contents nil)
308 (goto-char (point-min)))
309 (message "Use C-c C-c to remember the data.")))
310
311;;;###autoload
312(defun remember-other-frame (&optional initial)
313 "Call `remember' in another frame."
314 (interactive
315 (list (when current-prefix-arg
316 (buffer-substring (point) (mark)))))
317 (let ((remember-in-new-frame t))
318 (remember initial)))
319
320(defsubst remember-time-to-seconds (time)
321 "Convert TIME to a floating point number."
322 (+ (* (car time) 65536.0)
323 (cadr time)
324 (/ (or (car (cdr (cdr time))) 0) 1000000.0)))
325
326(defsubst remember-mail-date (&optional rfc822-p)
327 "Return a simple date. Nothing fancy."
328 (if rfc822-p
329 (format-time-string "%a, %e %b %Y %T %z" (current-time))
b152c5d3 330 (format-time-string "%a %b %e %T %Y" (current-time))))
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331
332(defun remember-buffer-desc ()
333 "Using the first line of the current buffer, create a short description."
334 (buffer-substring (point-min)
335 (save-excursion
336 (goto-char (point-min))
337 (end-of-line)
338 (if (> (- (point) (point-min)) 60)
339 (goto-char (+ (point-min) 60)))
340 (point))))
341
342;; Remembering to UNIX mailboxes
343
344(defcustom remember-mailbox "~/Mail/remember"
345 "*The file in which to store remember data as mail."
346 :type 'file
347 :group 'remember)
348
349(defcustom remember-default-priority "medium"
350 "*The default priority for remembered mail messages."
351 :type 'string
352 :group 'remember)
353
354(defun remember-store-in-mailbox ()
355 "Store remember data as if it were incoming mail.
356In which case `remember-mailbox' should be the name of the mailbox.
357Each piece of psuedo-mail created will have an `X-Todo-Priority'
358field, for the purpose of appropriate splitting."
359 (let ((who (read-string "Who is this item related to? "))
360 (moment
361 (format "%.0f" (remember-time-to-seconds (current-time))))
362 (desc (remember-buffer-desc))
363 (text (buffer-string)))
364 (with-temp-buffer
b152c5d3 365 (insert (format "From %s %s
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366Date: %s
367From: %s
368Message-Id: <remember-%s@%s>
369X-Todo-Priority: %s
370To: %s <%s>
371Subject: %s\n\n"
372 (user-login-name)
373 (remember-mail-date)
374 (remember-mail-date t)
375 who
376 moment (system-name)
377 remember-default-priority
378 (user-full-name) user-mail-address
379 desc))
380 (let ((here (point)))
381 (insert text)
382 (unless (bolp)
383 (insert "\n"))
384 (insert "\n")
385 (goto-char here)
386 (while (re-search-forward "^\\(From[: ]\\)" nil t)
387 (replace-match ">\\1")))
388 (append-to-file (point-min) (point-max) remember-mailbox)
389 t)))
390
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391;; Remembering to plain files
392
393(defcustom remember-data-file "~/.notes"
394 "*The file in which to store unprocessed data."
395 :type 'file
396 :group 'remember)
397
398(defcustom remember-leader-text "** "
399 "*The text used to begin each remember item."
400 :type 'string
401 :group 'remember)
402
403(defun remember-append-to-file ()
404 "Remember, with description DESC, the given TEXT."
405 (let ((text (buffer-string))
406 (desc (remember-buffer-desc)))
407 (with-temp-buffer
408 (insert "\n" remember-leader-text (current-time-string)
409 " (" desc ")\n\n" text)
410 (if (not (bolp))
411 (insert "\n"))
412 (if (find-buffer-visiting remember-data-file)
413 (let ((remember-text (buffer-string)))
414 (set-buffer (get-file-buffer remember-data-file))
415 (save-excursion
416 (goto-char (point-max))
417 (insert remember-text)
418 (when remember-save-after-remembering (save-buffer))))
419 (append-to-file (point-min) (point-max) remember-data-file)))))
420
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421(defun remember-region (&optional beg end)
422 "Remember the data from BEG to END.
174a72ea 423It is called from within the *Remember* buffer to save the text
043989e3 424that was entered.
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425
426If BEG and END are nil, the entire buffer will be remembered.
15f3eb73 427
15f3eb73 428If you want to remember a region, supply a universal prefix to
174a72ea 429`remember' instead. For example: C-u M-x remember RET."
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430 ;; Sacha: I have no idea where remember.el gets this context information, but
431 ;; you can just use remember-annotation-functions.
432 (interactive)
433 (let ((b (or beg (min (point) (or (mark) (point-min)))))
434 (e (or end (max (point) (or (mark) (point-max))))))
435 (save-restriction
436 (narrow-to-region b e)
437 (if remember-all-handler-functions
438 (run-hooks 'remember-handler-functions)
439 (run-hook-with-args-until-success 'remember-handler-functions))
440 (remember-destroy))))
441
442;;;###autoload
443(defun remember-clipboard ()
444 "Remember the contents of the current clipboard.
445Most useful for remembering things from Netscape or other X Windows
446application."
447 (interactive)
448 (remember (current-kill 0)))
449
174a72ea 450(defun remember-finalize ()
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451 "Remember the contents of the current buffer."
452 (interactive)
453 (remember-region (point-min) (point-max)))
454
246a4316 455;; Org needs this
6159985a 456(define-obsolete-function-alias 'remember-buffer 'remember-finalize)
246a4316 457
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458(defun remember-destroy ()
459 "Destroy the current *Remember* buffer."
460 (interactive)
461 (when (equal remember-buffer (buffer-name))
462 (kill-buffer (current-buffer))
463 (jump-to-register remember-register)))
464
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465;;; Diary integration
466
467(defcustom remember-diary-file nil
468 "*File for extracted diary entries.
469If this is nil, then `diary-file' will be used instead."
470 :type 'file
471 :group 'remember)
472
473(defun remember-diary-convert-entry (entry)
474 "Translate MSG to an entry readable by diary."
475 (save-match-data
476 (when remember-annotation
477 (setq entry (concat entry " " remember-annotation)))
478 (if (string-match "\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" entry)
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479 (progn
480 ;; For calendar-date-style. This costs us nothing because
c5de0a17 481 ;; the call to diary-make-entry below loads diary-lib
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482 ;; which requires calendar.
483 (require 'calendar)
484 (replace-match
485 (let ((style (if (boundp 'calendar-date-style)
486 calendar-date-style
487 ;; Don't complain about obsoleteness.
488 (if (with-no-warnings european-calendar-style)
489 'european
490 'american))))
491 (cond ((eq style 'european)
492 (concat (match-string 3 entry) "/"
493 (match-string 2 entry) "/"
494 (match-string 1 entry)))
495 ((eq style 'iso)
496 (concat (match-string 1 entry) "-"
497 (match-string 2 entry) "-"
498 (match-string 3 entry)))
499 (t (concat (match-string 2 entry) "/"
500 (match-string 3 entry) "/"
501 (match-string 1 entry)))))
502 t t entry))
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503 entry)))
504
c5de0a17 505(autoload 'diary-make-entry "diary-lib")
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506
507;;;###autoload
508(defun remember-diary-extract-entries ()
509 "Extract diary entries from the region."
510 (save-excursion
511 (goto-char (point-min))
512 (let (list)
513 (while (re-search-forward "^DIARY:\\s-*\\(.+\\)" nil t)
514 (add-to-list 'list (remember-diary-convert-entry (match-string 1))))
515 (when list
800aaa89 516 (diary-make-entry (mapconcat 'identity list "\n")
612b0592 517 nil remember-diary-file))
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518 nil))) ;; Continue processing
519
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520;;; Internal Functions:
521
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522(defvar remember-mode-map
523 (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
524 (define-key map "\C-x\C-s" 'remember-finalize)
525 (define-key map "\C-c\C-c" 'remember-finalize)
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526 (define-key map "\C-c\C-k" 'remember-destroy)
527
528 map)
15f3eb73 529 "Keymap used in Remember mode.")
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530
531(defun remember-mode ()
532 "Major mode for output from \\[remember].
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533This buffer is used to collect data that you want to remember.
534
535Just hit `C-c C-c' when you're done entering, and it will file
536the data away for latter retrieval, and possible indexing.
537
538\\{remember-mode-map}"
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539 (interactive)
540 (kill-all-local-variables)
541 (indented-text-mode)
542 (use-local-map remember-mode-map)
543 (setq major-mode 'remember-mode
544 mode-name "Remember")
545 (run-hooks 'remember-mode-hook))
546
904fac67 547;; arch-tag: 59312a05-06c7-4da1-b6f7-5ea41c9d5577
15f3eb73 548;;; remember.el ends here