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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
3;; Copyright (C) 1999-2001, 2003-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4
5;; Author: John Wiegley <johnw@gnu.org>
6;; Created: 29 Mar 1999
7;; Version: 2.0
8;; Keywords: data memory todo pim
9;; URL: http://gna.org/projects/remember-el/
10
11;; This file is part of GNU Emacs.
12
13;; GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
14;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
15;; the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
16;; (at your option) any later version.
17
18;; GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
19;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
20;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
21;; GNU General Public License for more details.
22
23;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
24;; along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
25
26;;; Commentary:
27
28;; * The idea
29;;
30;; Todo lists, schedules, phone databases... everything we use
31;; databases for is really just a way to extend the power of our
32;; memory. To be able to remember what our conscious mind may not
33;; currently have access to.
34;;
35;; There are many different databases out there -- and good ones --
36;; which this mode is not trying to replace. Rather, it's how that
37;; data gets there that's the question. Most of the time, we just
38;; want to say "Remember so-and-so's phone number, or that I have to
39;; buy dinner for the cats tonight." That's the FACT. How it's
40;; stored is really the computer's problem. But at this point in
41;; time, it's most definitely also the user's problem, and sometimes
42;; so laboriously so that people just let data slip, rather than
43;; expend the effort to record it.
44;;
45;; "Remember" is a mode for remembering data. It uses whatever
46;; back-end is appropriate to record and correlate the data, but it's
47;; main intention is to allow you to express as _little_ structure as
48;; possible up front. If you later want to express more powerful
49;; relationships between your data, or state assumptions that were at
50;; first too implicit to be recognized, you can "study" the data later
51;; and rearrange it. But the initial "just remember this" impulse
52;; should be as close to simply throwing the data at Emacs as
53;; possible.
54;;
55;; * Implementation
56;;
57;; Hyperbole, as a data presentation tool, always struck me as being
58;; very powerful, but it seemed to require a lot of "front-end" work
59;; before that data was really available. The problem with BBDB, or
60;; keeping up a Bibl-mode file, is that you have to use different
61;; functions to record the data, and it always takes time to stop what
62;; you're doing, format the data in the manner expected by that
63;; particular data interface, and then resume your work.
64;;
65;; With "remember", you just hit `M-x remember' (you'd probably want
66;; to bind this to an easily accessible keystroke, like C-x M-r), slam
67;; in your text however you like, and then hit C-c C-c. It will file
68;; the data away for later retrieval, and possibly indexing.
69;;
70;; Indexing is to data what "studying" is in the real world. What you
71;; do when you study (or lucubrate, for some of us) is to realize
72;; certain relationships implicit in the data, so that you can make
73;; use of those relationships. Expressing that a certain quote you
74;; remembered was a religious quote, and that you want the ability to
75;; pull up all quotes of a religious nature, is what studying does.
76;; This is a more labor intensive task than the original remembering
77;; of the data, and it's typical in real life to set aside a special
78;; period of time for doing this work.
79;;
80;; "Remember" works in the same way. When you enter data, either by
81;; typing it into a buffer, or using the contents of the selected
82;; region, it will store that data -- unindexed, uninterpreted -- in a
83;; data pool. It will also try to remember as much context
84;; information as possible (any text properties that were set, where
85;; you copied it from, when, how, etc). Later, you can walk through
86;; your accumulated set of data (both organized, and unorganized) and
87;; easily begin moving things around, and making annotations that will
88;; express the full meaning of that data, as far as you know it.
89;;
90;; Obviously this latter stage is more user-interface intensive, and
91;; it would be nice if "remember" could do it as elegantly as
92;; possible, rather than requiring a billion keystrokes to reorganize
93;; your hierarchy. Well, as the future arrives, hopefully experience
94;; and user feedback will help to make this as intuitive a tool as
95;; possible.
96;;
97;; * Future Goals
98;;
99;; This tool hopes to track (and by doing it with as little new code
100;; as possible):
101;;
102;; - The raw data that gets entered
103;;
104;; - The relationships between that data (either determined
105;; implicitly by parsing the input, or explicitly by the user's
106;; studying the data).
107;;
108;; - Revisioning of the data
109;;
110;; - Where it came from, and any context information that can be
111;; programmatically determined.
112;;
113;; - Allowing particular views of the initially amorphous data pool
114;; (ala the Xanadu concept).
115;;
116;; - Storage of the data in a manner most appropriate to that data,
117;; such as keeping address-book type information in BBDB, etc.
118;;
119;; * Using "remember"
120;;
121;; As a rough beginning, what I do is to keep my .notes file in
122;; outline-mode format, with a final entry called "* Raw data". Then,
123;; at intervals, I can move the data that gets appended there into
124;; other places. But certainly this should evolve into an intuitive
125;; mechanism for shuffling data off to its appropriate corner of the
126;; universe.
127;;
128;; To map the primary remember function to the keystroke F8, do the
129;; following.
130;;
131;; (autoload 'remember "remember" nil t)
132;;
133;; (define-key global-map [f8] 'remember)
134;;
135;; * Feedback
136;;
137;; If Emacs could become a more intelligent data store, where
138;; brainstorming would focus on the IDEAS involved -- rather than the
139;; structuring and format of those ideas, or having to stop your
140;; current flow of work in order to record them -- it would map much
141;; more closely to how the mind (well, at least mine) works, and hence
142;; would eliminate that very manual-ness which computers from the very
143;; beginning have been championed as being able to reduce.
144;;
145;; Have you ever noticed that having a laptop to write on doesn't
146;; _actually_ increase the amount of quality material that you turn
147;; out, in the long run? Perhaps its because the time we save
148;; electronically in one way, we're losing electronically in another;
149;; the tool should never dominate one's focus. As the mystic
150;; Faridu'd-Din `Attar wrote: "Be occupied as little as possible with
151;; things of the outer world but much with things of the inner world;
152;; then right action will overcome inaction."
153;;
154;; * Diary integration
155;;
156;; To use, add the following to your .emacs:
157;;
158;; ;; This should be before other entries that may return t
159;; (add-to-list 'remember-handler-functions 'remember-diary-extract-entries)
160;;
161;; This module recognizes entries of the form
162;;
163;; DIARY: ....
164;;
165;; and puts them in your ~/.diary (or remember-diary-file) together
166;; with an annotation. Dates in the form YYYY.MM.DD are converted to
167;; YYYY-MM-DD so that diary can understand them.
168;;
169;; For example:
170;;
171;; DIARY: 2003.08.12 Sacha's birthday
172;;
173;; is stored as
174;;
175;; 2003.08.12 Sacha's birthday
176
177;;; History:
178
179;;; Code:
180
181(provide 'remember)
182
183(defconst remember-version "2.0"
184 "This version of remember.")
185
186(defgroup remember nil
187 "A mode to remember information."
188 :group 'data)
189
190;;; User Variables:
191
192(defcustom remember-mode-hook nil
193 "Functions run upon entering `remember-mode'."
194 :type 'hook
195 :options '(flyspell-mode turn-on-auto-fill org-remember-apply-template)
196 :group 'remember)
197
198(defcustom remember-in-new-frame nil
199 "Non-nil means use a separate frame for capturing remember data."
200 :type 'boolean
201 :group 'remember)
202
203(defcustom remember-register ?R
204 "The register in which the window configuration is stored."
205 :type 'character
206 :group 'remember)
207
208(defcustom remember-filter-functions nil
209 "Functions run to filter remember data.
210All functions are run in the remember buffer."
211 :type 'hook
212 :group 'remember)
213
214(defcustom remember-handler-functions '(remember-append-to-file)
215 "Functions run to process remember data.
216Each function is called with the current buffer narrowed to what the
217user wants remembered.
218If any function returns non-nil, the data is assumed to have been
219recorded somewhere by that function."
220 :type 'hook
221 :options '(remember-store-in-mailbox
222 remember-append-to-file
223 remember-store-in-files
224 remember-diary-extract-entries
225 org-remember-handler)
226 :group 'remember)
227
228(defcustom remember-all-handler-functions nil
229 "If non-nil every function in `remember-handler-functions' is called."
230 :type 'boolean
231 :group 'remember)
232
233;;; Internal Variables:
234
235(defvar remember-buffer "*Remember*"
236 "The name of the remember data entry buffer.")
237
238(defcustom remember-save-after-remembering t
239 "Non-nil means automatically save after remembering."
240 :type 'boolean
241 :group 'remember)
242
243;;; User Functions:
244
245(defcustom remember-annotation-functions '(buffer-file-name)
246 "Hook that returns an annotation to be inserted into the remember buffer."
247 :type 'hook
248 :options '(org-remember-annotation buffer-file-name)
249 :group 'remember)
250
251(defvar remember-annotation nil
252 "Current annotation.")
253(defvar remember-initial-contents nil
254 "Initial contents to place into *Remember* buffer.")
255
256(defcustom remember-before-remember-hook nil
257 "Functions run before switching to the *Remember* buffer."
258 :type 'hook
259 :group 'remember)
260
261(defcustom remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag nil
262 "Non-nil means use all annotations returned by `remember-annotation-functions'."
263 :type 'boolean
264 :group 'remember)
265
266;;;###autoload
267(defun remember (&optional initial)
268 "Remember an arbitrary piece of data.
269INITIAL is the text to initially place in the *Remember* buffer,
270or nil to bring up a blank *Remember* buffer.
271
272With a prefix or a visible region, use the region as INITIAL."
273 (interactive
274 (list (when (or current-prefix-arg
275 (and mark-active
276 transient-mark-mode))
277 (buffer-substring (region-beginning) (region-end)))))
278 (funcall (if remember-in-new-frame
279 #'frame-configuration-to-register
280 #'window-configuration-to-register) remember-register)
281 (let* ((annotation
282 (if remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag
283 (mapconcat 'identity
284 (delq nil
285 (mapcar 'funcall remember-annotation-functions))
286 "\n")
287 (run-hook-with-args-until-success
288 'remember-annotation-functions)))
289 (buf (get-buffer-create remember-buffer)))
290 (run-hooks 'remember-before-remember-hook)
291 (funcall (if remember-in-new-frame
292 #'switch-to-buffer-other-frame
293 #'switch-to-buffer-other-window) buf)
294 (if remember-in-new-frame
295 (set-window-dedicated-p
296 (get-buffer-window (current-buffer) (selected-frame)) t))
297 (remember-mode)
298 (when (= (point-max) (point-min))
299 (when initial (insert initial))
300 (setq remember-annotation annotation)
301 (when remember-initial-contents (insert remember-initial-contents))
302 (when (and (stringp annotation)
303 (not (equal annotation "")))
304 (insert "\n\n" annotation))
305 (setq remember-initial-contents nil)
306 (goto-char (point-min)))
307 (message "Use C-c C-c to remember the data.")))
308
309;;;###autoload
310(defun remember-other-frame (&optional initial)
311 "Call `remember' in another frame."
312 (interactive
313 (list (when current-prefix-arg
314 (buffer-substring (point) (mark)))))
315 (let ((remember-in-new-frame t))
316 (remember initial)))
317
318(defsubst remember-mail-date (&optional rfc822-p)
319 "Return a simple date. Nothing fancy."
320 (if rfc822-p
321 (format-time-string "%a, %e %b %Y %T %z" (current-time))
322 (format-time-string "%a %b %e %T %Y" (current-time))))
323
324(defun remember-buffer-desc ()
325 "Using the first line of the current buffer, create a short description."
326 (buffer-substring (point-min)
327 (save-excursion
328 (goto-char (point-min))
329 (end-of-line)
330 (if (> (- (point) (point-min)) 60)
331 (goto-char (+ (point-min) 60)))
332 (point))))
333
334;; Remembering to UNIX mailboxes
335
336(defcustom remember-mailbox "~/Mail/remember"
337 "The file in which to store remember data as mail."
338 :type 'file
339 :group 'remember)
340
341(defcustom remember-default-priority "medium"
342 "The default priority for remembered mail messages."
343 :type 'string
344 :group 'remember)
345
346(defun remember-store-in-mailbox ()
347 "Store remember data as if it were incoming mail.
348In which case `remember-mailbox' should be the name of the mailbox.
349Each piece of pseudo-mail created will have an `X-Todo-Priority'
350field, for the purpose of appropriate splitting."
351 (let ((who (read-string "Who is this item related to? "))
352 (moment (format "%.0f" (float-time)))
353 (desc (remember-buffer-desc))
354 (text (buffer-string)))
355 (with-temp-buffer
356 (insert (format "From %s %s
357Date: %s
358From: %s
359Message-Id: <remember-%s@%s>
360X-Todo-Priority: %s
361To: %s <%s>
362Subject: %s\n\n"
363 (user-login-name)
364 (remember-mail-date)
365 (remember-mail-date t)
366 who
367 moment (system-name)
368 remember-default-priority
369 (user-full-name) user-mail-address
370 desc))
371 (let ((here (point)))
372 (insert text)
373 (unless (bolp)
374 (insert "\n"))
375 (insert "\n")
376 (goto-char here)
377 (while (re-search-forward "^\\(From[: ]\\)" nil t)
378 (replace-match ">\\1")))
379 (append-to-file (point-min) (point-max) remember-mailbox)
380 t)))
381
382;; Remembering to plain files
383
384(defcustom remember-data-file (locate-user-emacs-file "notes" ".notes")
385 "The file in which to store unprocessed data."
386 :type 'file
387 :group 'remember)
388
389(defcustom remember-leader-text "** "
390 "The text used to begin each remember item."
391 :type 'string
392 :group 'remember)
393
394(defun remember-append-to-file ()
395 "Remember, with description DESC, the given TEXT."
396 (let ((text (buffer-string))
397 (desc (remember-buffer-desc)))
398 (with-temp-buffer
399 (insert "\n" remember-leader-text (current-time-string)
400 " (" desc ")\n\n" text)
401 (if (not (bolp))
402 (insert "\n"))
403 (if (find-buffer-visiting remember-data-file)
404 (let ((remember-text (buffer-string)))
405 (set-buffer (get-file-buffer remember-data-file))
406 (save-excursion
407 (goto-char (point-max))
408 (insert remember-text)
409 (when remember-save-after-remembering (save-buffer))))
410 (append-to-file (point-min) (point-max) remember-data-file)))))
411
412(defun remember-region (&optional beg end)
413 "Remember the data from BEG to END.
414It is called from within the *Remember* buffer to save the text
415that was entered.
416
417If BEG and END are nil, the entire buffer will be remembered.
418
419If you want to remember a region, supply a universal prefix to
420`remember' instead. For example: \\[universal-argument] \\[remember] RET."
421 ;; Sacha: I have no idea where remember.el gets this context information, but
422 ;; you can just use remember-annotation-functions.
423 (interactive)
424 (let ((b (or beg (min (point) (or (mark) (point-min)))))
425 (e (or end (max (point) (or (mark) (point-max))))))
426 (save-restriction
427 (narrow-to-region b e)
428 (if remember-all-handler-functions
429 (run-hooks 'remember-handler-functions)
430 (run-hook-with-args-until-success 'remember-handler-functions))
431 (remember-destroy))))
432
433(defcustom remember-data-directory "~/remember"
434 "The directory in which to store remember data as files."
435 :type 'file
436 :group 'remember)
437
438(defcustom remember-directory-file-name-format "%Y-%m-%d_%T-%z"
439 "Format string for the file name in which to store unprocessed data."
440 :type 'file
441 :group 'remember)
442
443(defun remember-store-in-files ()
444 "Store remember data in a file in `remember-data-directory'.
445The file is named after `remember-directory-file-name-format'."
446 (let ((name (format-time-string
447 remember-directory-file-name-format (current-time)))
448 (text (buffer-string)))
449 (with-temp-buffer
450 (insert text)
451 (write-file (convert-standard-filename
452 (format "%s/%s" remember-data-directory name))))))
453
454;;;###autoload
455(defun remember-clipboard ()
456 "Remember the contents of the current clipboard.
457Most useful for remembering things from other applications."
458 (interactive)
459 (remember (current-kill 0)))
460
461(defun remember-finalize ()
462 "Remember the contents of the current buffer."
463 (interactive)
464 (remember-region (point-min) (point-max)))
465
466;; Org needs this
467(define-obsolete-function-alias 'remember-buffer 'remember-finalize "23.1")
468
469(defun remember-destroy ()
470 "Destroy the current *Remember* buffer."
471 (interactive)
472 (when (equal remember-buffer (buffer-name))
473 (kill-buffer (current-buffer))
474 (jump-to-register remember-register)))
475
476;;; Diary integration
477
478(defcustom remember-diary-file nil
479 "File for extracted diary entries.
480If this is nil, then `diary-file' will be used instead."
481 :type 'file
482 :group 'remember)
483
484(defun remember-diary-convert-entry (entry)
485 "Translate MSG to an entry readable by diary."
486 (save-match-data
487 (when remember-annotation
488 (setq entry (concat entry " " remember-annotation)))
489 (if (string-match "\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" entry)
490 (progn
491 ;; For calendar-date-style. This costs us nothing because
492 ;; the call to diary-make-entry below loads diary-lib
493 ;; which requires calendar.
494 (require 'calendar)
495 (replace-match
496 (let ((style (if (boundp 'calendar-date-style)
497 calendar-date-style
498 ;; Don't complain about obsolescence.
499 (if (with-no-warnings european-calendar-style)
500 'european
501 'american))))
502 (cond ((eq style 'european)
503 (concat (match-string 3 entry) "/"
504 (match-string 2 entry) "/"
505 (match-string 1 entry)))
506 ((eq style 'iso)
507 (concat (match-string 1 entry) "-"
508 (match-string 2 entry) "-"
509 (match-string 3 entry)))
510 (t (concat (match-string 2 entry) "/"
511 (match-string 3 entry) "/"
512 (match-string 1 entry)))))
513 t t entry))
514 entry)))
515
516(autoload 'diary-make-entry "diary-lib")
517
518;;;###autoload
519(defun remember-diary-extract-entries ()
520 "Extract diary entries from the region."
521 (save-excursion
522 (goto-char (point-min))
523 (let (list)
524 (while (re-search-forward "^DIARY:\\s-*\\(.+\\)" nil t)
525 (add-to-list 'list (remember-diary-convert-entry (match-string 1))))
526 (when list
527 (diary-make-entry (mapconcat 'identity list "\n")
528 nil remember-diary-file))
529 nil))) ;; Continue processing
530
531;;; Internal Functions:
532
533(defvar remember-mode-map
534 (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
535 (define-key map "\C-x\C-s" 'remember-finalize)
536 (define-key map "\C-c\C-c" 'remember-finalize)
537 (define-key map "\C-c\C-k" 'remember-destroy)
538 map)
539 "Keymap used in Remember mode.")
540
541(define-derived-mode remember-mode indented-text-mode "Remember"
542 "Major mode for output from \\[remember].
543This buffer is used to collect data that you want to remember.
544\\<remember-mode-map>
545Just hit \\[remember-finalize] when you're done entering, and it will file
546the data away for latter retrieval, and possible indexing.
547
548\\{remember-mode-map}"
549 (set-keymap-parent remember-mode-map nil))
550
551;;; remember.el ends here