(nroff-mode): Set comment-insert-comment-function rather than
[bpt/emacs.git] / lisp / textmodes / remember.el
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1;;; remember --- a mode for quickly jotting down things to remember
2
3;; Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,
4;; 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5
6;; Author: John Wiegley <johnw@gnu.org>
7;; Created: 29 Mar 1999
8;; Version: 1.9
9;; Keywords: data memory todo pim
10;; URL: http://gna.org/projects/remember-el/
11
12;; This file is part of GNU Emacs.
13
14;; GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
15;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
16;; the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
17;; any later version.
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
25;; along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
26;; Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
27;; Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
28
29;;; Commentary:
30
77210f1e 31;; * The idea
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32;;
33;; Todo lists, schedules, phone databases... everything we use
34;; databases for is really just a way to extend the power of our
35;; memory. To be able to remember what our conscious mind may not
36;; currently have access to.
37;;
38;; There are many different databases out there -- and good ones --
39;; which this mode is not trying to replace. Rather, it's how that
40;; data gets there that's the question. Most of the time, we just
41;; want to say "Remember so-and-so's phone number, or that I have to
42;; buy dinner for the cats tonight." That's the FACT. How it's
43;; stored is really the computer's problem. But at this point in
44;; time, it's most definitely also the user's problem, and sometimes
45;; so laboriously so that people just let data slip, rather than
46;; expend the effort to record it.
47;;
48;; "Remember" is a mode for remembering data. It uses whatever
49;; back-end is appropriate to record and correlate the data, but it's
50;; main intention is to allow you to express as _little_ structure as
51;; possible up front. If you later want to express more powerful
52;; relationships between your data, or state assumptions that were at
53;; first too implicit to be recognized, you can "study" the data later
54;; and rearrange it. But the initial "just remember this" impulse
55;; should be as close to simply throwing the data at Emacs as
56;; possible.
57;;
77210f1e 58;; * Implementation
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59;;
60;; Hyperbole, as a data presentation tool, always struck me as being
61;; very powerful, but it seemed to require a lot of "front-end" work
62;; before that data was really available. The problem with BBDB, or
63;; keeping up a Bibl-mode file, is that you have to use different
64;; functions to record the data, and it always takes time to stop what
65;; you're doing, format the data in the manner expected by that
66;; particular data interface, and then resume your work.
67;;
68;; With "remember", you just hit `M-x remember' (you'd probably want
69;; to bind this to an easily accessible keystroke, like C-x M-r), slam
70;; in your text however you like, and then hit C-c C-c. It will file
71;; the data away for later retrieval, and possibly indexing.
72;;
73;; Indexing is to data what "studying" is in the real world. What you
74;; do when you study (or lucubrate, for some of us) is to realize
75;; certain relationships implicit in the data, so that you can make
76;; use of those relationships. Expressing that a certain quote you
77;; remembered was a religious quote, and that you want the ability to
78;; pull up all quotes of a religious nature, is what studying does.
79;; This is a more labor intensive task than the original remembering
80;; of the data, and it's typical in real life to set aside a special
81;; period of time for doing this work.
82;;
83;; "Remember" works in the same way. When you enter data, either by
84;; typing it into a buffer, or using the contents of the selected
85;; region, it will store that data -- unindexed, uninterpreted -- in a
86;; data pool. It will also try to remember as much context
87;; information as possible (any text properties that were set, where
88;; you copied it from, when, how, etc). Later, you can walk through
89;; your accumulated set of data (both organized, and unorganized) and
90;; easily begin moving things around, and making annotations that will
91;; express the full meaning of that data, as far as you know it.
92;;
93;; Obviously this latter stage is more user-interface intensive, and
94;; it would be nice if "remember" could do it as elegantly as
95;; possible, rather than requiring a billion keystrokes to reorganize
96;; your hierarchy. Well, as the future arrives, hopefully experience
97;; and user feedback will help to make this as intuitive a tool as
98;; possible.
99;;
77210f1e 100;; * Future Goals
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101;;
102;; This tool hopes to track (and by doing it with as little new code
103;; as possible):
104;;
105;; - The raw data that gets entered
106;;
107;; - The relationships between that data (either determined
108;; implicitly by parsing the input, or explicitly by the user's
109;; studying the data).
110;;
111;; - Revisioning of the data
112;;
113;; - Where it came from, and any context information that can be
114;; programmatically determined.
115;;
116;; - Allowing particular views of the initially amorphous data pool
117;; (ala the Xanadu concept).
118;;
119;; - Storage of the data in a manner most appopriate to that data,
120;; such as keeping address-book type information in BBDB, etc.
121;;
77210f1e 122;; * Using "remember"
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123;;
124;; As a rough beginning, what I do is to keep my .notes file in
125;; outline-mode format, with a final entry called "* Raw data". Then,
126;; at intervals, I can move the data that gets appended there into
127;; other places. But certainly this should evolve into an intuitive
128;; mechanism for shuffling data off to its appropriate corner of the
129;; universe.
130;;
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131;; To map the primary remember function to the keystroke F8, do the
132;; following.
15f3eb73 133;;
77210f1e 134;; (autoload 'remember "remember" nil t)
15f3eb73 135;;
77210f1e 136;; (define-key global-map [f8] 'remember)
15f3eb73 137;;
77210f1e 138;; * Feedback
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139;;
140;; If Emacs could become a more intelligent data store, where
141;; brainstorming would focus on the IDEAS involved -- rather than the
142;; structuring and format of those ideas, or having to stop your
143;; current flow of work in order to record them -- it would map much
144;; more closely to how the mind (well, at least mine) works, and hence
145;; would eliminate that very manual-ness which computers from the very
146;; beginning have been championed as being able to reduce.
147;;
148;; Have you ever noticed that having a laptop to write on doesn't
149;; _actually_ increase the amount of quality material that you turn
150;; out, in the long run? Perhaps its because the time we save
151;; electronically in one way, we're losing electronically in another;
152;; the tool should never dominate one's focus. As the mystic
153;; Faridu'd-Din `Attar wrote: "Be occupied as little as possible with
154;; things of the outer world but much with things of the inner world;
155;; then right action will overcome inaction."
156
157;;; History:
158
159;;; Code:
160
161(provide 'remember)
162
163(defconst remember-version "1.9"
164 "This version of remember.")
165
166(defgroup remember nil
167 "A mode to remember information."
168 :group 'data)
169
170;;; User Variables:
171
172(defcustom remember-mode-hook nil
173 "Functions run upon entering `remember-mode'."
174 :type 'hook
e0628060 175 :options '(flyspell-mode turn-on-auto-fill org-remember-apply-template)
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176 :group 'remember)
177
178(defcustom remember-in-new-frame nil
179 "Non-nil means use a separate frame for capturing remember data."
180 :type 'boolean
181 :group 'remember)
182
183(defcustom remember-register ?R
184 "The register in which the window configuration is stored."
185 :type 'character
186 :group 'remember)
187
188(defcustom remember-filter-functions nil
189 "*Functions run to filter remember data.
190All functions are run in the remember buffer."
191 :type 'hook
192 :group 'remember)
193
194(defcustom remember-handler-functions '(remember-append-to-file)
195 "*Functions run to process remember data.
196Each function is called with the current buffer narrowed to what the
197user wants remembered.
198If any function returns non-nil, the data is assumed to have been
199recorded somewhere by that function. "
200 :type 'hook
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201 :options '(remember-store-in-mailbox
202 remember-append-to-file
203 remember-diary-extract-entries
204 org-remember-handler)
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205 :group 'remember)
206
207(defcustom remember-all-handler-functions nil
208 "If non-nil every function in `remember-handler-functions' is
209called."
210 :type 'boolean
211 :group 'remember)
212
213;;; Internal Variables:
214
215(defvar remember-buffer "*Remember*"
216 "The name of the remember data entry buffer.")
217
218(defcustom remember-save-after-remembering t
219 "*Non-nil means automatically save after remembering."
220 :type 'boolean
221 :group 'remember)
222
223;;; User Functions:
224
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225(defcustom remember-annotation-functions '(buffer-file-name)
226 "Hook that returns an annotation to be inserted into the remember buffer."
15f3eb73 227 :type 'hook
e0628060 228 :options '(org-remember-annotation buffer-file-name)
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229 :group 'remember)
230
231(defvar remember-annotation nil
232 "Current annotation.")
233(defvar remember-initial-contents nil
234 "Initial contents to place into *Remember* buffer.")
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235
236(defcustom remember-before-remember-hook nil
237 "Functions run before switching to the *Remember* buffer."
238 :type 'hook
239 :group 'remember)
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240
241(defcustom remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag nil
242 "Non-nil means use all annotations returned by
243`remember-annotation-functions'."
244 :type 'boolean
245 :group 'remember)
246
247;;;###autoload
248(defun remember (&optional initial)
249 "Remember an arbitrary piece of data.
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250INITIAL is the text to initially place in the *Remember* buffer,
251or nil to bring up a blank *Remember* buffer.
252
253With a prefix, use the region as INITIAL."
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254 (interactive
255 (list (when current-prefix-arg
256 (buffer-substring (point) (mark)))))
257 (funcall (if remember-in-new-frame
258 #'frame-configuration-to-register
259 #'window-configuration-to-register) remember-register)
260 (let* ((annotation
261 (if remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag
262 (mapconcat 'identity
263 (delq nil
264 (mapcar 'funcall remember-annotation-functions))
265 "\n")
266 (run-hook-with-args-until-success
267 'remember-annotation-functions)))
268 (buf (get-buffer-create remember-buffer)))
269 (run-hooks 'remember-before-remember-hook)
270 (funcall (if remember-in-new-frame
271 #'switch-to-buffer-other-frame
272 #'switch-to-buffer-other-window) buf)
273 (if remember-in-new-frame
274 (set-window-dedicated-p
275 (get-buffer-window (current-buffer) (selected-frame)) t))
276 (remember-mode)
277 (when (= (point-max) (point-min))
278 (when initial (insert initial))
279 (setq remember-annotation annotation)
280 (when remember-initial-contents (insert remember-initial-contents))
281 (when (and (stringp annotation)
282 (not (equal annotation "")))
283 (insert "\n\n" annotation))
284 (setq remember-initial-contents nil)
285 (goto-char (point-min)))
286 (message "Use C-c C-c to remember the data.")))
287
288;;;###autoload
289(defun remember-other-frame (&optional initial)
290 "Call `remember' in another frame."
291 (interactive
292 (list (when current-prefix-arg
293 (buffer-substring (point) (mark)))))
294 (let ((remember-in-new-frame t))
295 (remember initial)))
296
297(defsubst remember-time-to-seconds (time)
298 "Convert TIME to a floating point number."
299 (+ (* (car time) 65536.0)
300 (cadr time)
301 (/ (or (car (cdr (cdr time))) 0) 1000000.0)))
302
303(defsubst remember-mail-date (&optional rfc822-p)
304 "Return a simple date. Nothing fancy."
305 (if rfc822-p
306 (format-time-string "%a, %e %b %Y %T %z" (current-time))
307 (format-time-string "%c" (current-time))))
308
309(defun remember-buffer-desc ()
310 "Using the first line of the current buffer, create a short description."
311 (buffer-substring (point-min)
312 (save-excursion
313 (goto-char (point-min))
314 (end-of-line)
315 (if (> (- (point) (point-min)) 60)
316 (goto-char (+ (point-min) 60)))
317 (point))))
318
319;; Remembering to UNIX mailboxes
320
321(defcustom remember-mailbox "~/Mail/remember"
322 "*The file in which to store remember data as mail."
323 :type 'file
324 :group 'remember)
325
326(defcustom remember-default-priority "medium"
327 "*The default priority for remembered mail messages."
328 :type 'string
329 :group 'remember)
330
331(defun remember-store-in-mailbox ()
332 "Store remember data as if it were incoming mail.
333In which case `remember-mailbox' should be the name of the mailbox.
334Each piece of psuedo-mail created will have an `X-Todo-Priority'
335field, for the purpose of appropriate splitting."
336 (let ((who (read-string "Who is this item related to? "))
337 (moment
338 (format "%.0f" (remember-time-to-seconds (current-time))))
339 (desc (remember-buffer-desc))
340 (text (buffer-string)))
341 (with-temp-buffer
342 (insert (format "
343From %s %s
344Date: %s
345From: %s
346Message-Id: <remember-%s@%s>
347X-Todo-Priority: %s
348To: %s <%s>
349Subject: %s\n\n"
350 (user-login-name)
351 (remember-mail-date)
352 (remember-mail-date t)
353 who
354 moment (system-name)
355 remember-default-priority
356 (user-full-name) user-mail-address
357 desc))
358 (let ((here (point)))
359 (insert text)
360 (unless (bolp)
361 (insert "\n"))
362 (insert "\n")
363 (goto-char here)
364 (while (re-search-forward "^\\(From[: ]\\)" nil t)
365 (replace-match ">\\1")))
366 (append-to-file (point-min) (point-max) remember-mailbox)
367 t)))
368
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369;; Remembering to plain files
370
371(defcustom remember-data-file "~/.notes"
372 "*The file in which to store unprocessed data."
373 :type 'file
374 :group 'remember)
375
376(defcustom remember-leader-text "** "
377 "*The text used to begin each remember item."
378 :type 'string
379 :group 'remember)
380
381(defun remember-append-to-file ()
382 "Remember, with description DESC, the given TEXT."
383 (let ((text (buffer-string))
384 (desc (remember-buffer-desc)))
385 (with-temp-buffer
386 (insert "\n" remember-leader-text (current-time-string)
387 " (" desc ")\n\n" text)
388 (if (not (bolp))
389 (insert "\n"))
390 (if (find-buffer-visiting remember-data-file)
391 (let ((remember-text (buffer-string)))
392 (set-buffer (get-file-buffer remember-data-file))
393 (save-excursion
394 (goto-char (point-max))
395 (insert remember-text)
396 (when remember-save-after-remembering (save-buffer))))
397 (append-to-file (point-min) (point-max) remember-data-file)))))
398
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399(defun remember-region (&optional beg end)
400 "Remember the data from BEG to END.
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401It is called from within the *Remember* buffer to save the text
402that was entered,
403
404If BEG and END are nil, the entire buffer will be remembered.
15f3eb73 405
15f3eb73 406If you want to remember a region, supply a universal prefix to
174a72ea 407`remember' instead. For example: C-u M-x remember RET."
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408 ;; Sacha: I have no idea where remember.el gets this context information, but
409 ;; you can just use remember-annotation-functions.
410 (interactive)
411 (let ((b (or beg (min (point) (or (mark) (point-min)))))
412 (e (or end (max (point) (or (mark) (point-max))))))
413 (save-restriction
414 (narrow-to-region b e)
415 (if remember-all-handler-functions
416 (run-hooks 'remember-handler-functions)
417 (run-hook-with-args-until-success 'remember-handler-functions))
418 (remember-destroy))))
419
420;;;###autoload
421(defun remember-clipboard ()
422 "Remember the contents of the current clipboard.
423Most useful for remembering things from Netscape or other X Windows
424application."
425 (interactive)
426 (remember (current-kill 0)))
427
174a72ea 428(defun remember-finalize ()
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429 "Remember the contents of the current buffer."
430 (interactive)
431 (remember-region (point-min) (point-max)))
432
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433;; Org needs this
434(defalias 'remember-buffer 'remember-finalize)
435
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436(defun remember-destroy ()
437 "Destroy the current *Remember* buffer."
438 (interactive)
439 (when (equal remember-buffer (buffer-name))
440 (kill-buffer (current-buffer))
441 (jump-to-register remember-register)))
442
443;;; Internal Functions:
444
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445(defvar remember-mode-map
446 (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
447 (define-key map "\C-x\C-s" 'remember-finalize)
448 (define-key map "\C-c\C-c" 'remember-finalize)
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449 (define-key map "\C-c\C-k" 'remember-destroy)
450
451 map)
15f3eb73 452 "Keymap used in Remember mode.")
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453
454(defun remember-mode ()
455 "Major mode for output from \\[remember].
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456This buffer is used to collect data that you want to remember.
457
458Just hit `C-c C-c' when you're done entering, and it will file
459the data away for latter retrieval, and possible indexing.
460
461\\{remember-mode-map}"
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462 (interactive)
463 (kill-all-local-variables)
464 (indented-text-mode)
465 (use-local-map remember-mode-map)
466 (setq major-mode 'remember-mode
467 mode-name "Remember")
468 (run-hooks 'remember-mode-hook))
469
904fac67 470;; arch-tag: 59312a05-06c7-4da1-b6f7-5ea41c9d5577
15f3eb73 471;;; remember.el ends here