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[bpt/emacs.git] / lisp / textmodes / remember.el
1 ;;; remember --- a mode for quickly jotting down things to remember
2
3 ;; Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,
4 ;; 2008 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
31 ;; * The idea
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 ;;
58 ;; * Implementation
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 ;;
100 ;; * Future Goals
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 ;;
122 ;; * Using "remember"
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 ;;
131 ;; To map the primary remember function to the keystroke F8, do the
132 ;; following.
133 ;;
134 ;; (autoload 'remember "remember" nil t)
135 ;;
136 ;; (define-key global-map [f8] 'remember)
137 ;;
138 ;; * Feedback
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 ;; * Diary integration
158 ;;
159 ;; To use, add the following to your .emacs:
160 ;;
161 ;; ;; This should be before other entries that may return t
162 ;; (add-to-list 'remember-handler-functions 'remember-diary-extract-entries)
163 ;;
164 ;; This module recognizes entries of the form
165 ;;
166 ;; DIARY: ....
167 ;;
168 ;; and puts them in your ~/.diary (or remember-diary-file) together
169 ;; with an annotation. Dates in the form YYYY.MM.DD are converted to
170 ;; YYYY-MM-DD so that diary can understand them.
171 ;;
172 ;; For example:
173 ;;
174 ;; DIARY: 2003.08.12 Sacha's birthday
175 ;;
176 ;; is stored as
177 ;;
178 ;; 2003.08.12 Sacha's birthday
179
180 ;;; History:
181
182 ;;; Code:
183
184 (provide 'remember)
185
186 (defconst remember-version "1.9"
187 "This version of remember.")
188
189 (defgroup remember nil
190 "A mode to remember information."
191 :group 'data)
192
193 ;;; User Variables:
194
195 (defcustom remember-mode-hook nil
196 "Functions run upon entering `remember-mode'."
197 :type 'hook
198 :options '(flyspell-mode turn-on-auto-fill org-remember-apply-template)
199 :group 'remember)
200
201 (defcustom remember-in-new-frame nil
202 "Non-nil means use a separate frame for capturing remember data."
203 :type 'boolean
204 :group 'remember)
205
206 (defcustom remember-register ?R
207 "The register in which the window configuration is stored."
208 :type 'character
209 :group 'remember)
210
211 (defcustom remember-filter-functions nil
212 "*Functions run to filter remember data.
213 All functions are run in the remember buffer."
214 :type 'hook
215 :group 'remember)
216
217 (defcustom remember-handler-functions '(remember-append-to-file)
218 "*Functions run to process remember data.
219 Each function is called with the current buffer narrowed to what the
220 user wants remembered.
221 If any function returns non-nil, the data is assumed to have been
222 recorded somewhere by that function. "
223 :type 'hook
224 :options '(remember-store-in-mailbox
225 remember-append-to-file
226 remember-diary-extract-entries
227 org-remember-handler)
228 :group 'remember)
229
230 (defcustom remember-all-handler-functions nil
231 "If non-nil every function in `remember-handler-functions' is
232 called."
233 :type 'boolean
234 :group 'remember)
235
236 ;;; Internal Variables:
237
238 (defvar remember-buffer "*Remember*"
239 "The name of the remember data entry buffer.")
240
241 (defcustom remember-save-after-remembering t
242 "*Non-nil means automatically save after remembering."
243 :type 'boolean
244 :group 'remember)
245
246 ;;; User Functions:
247
248 (defcustom remember-annotation-functions '(buffer-file-name)
249 "Hook that returns an annotation to be inserted into the remember buffer."
250 :type 'hook
251 :options '(org-remember-annotation buffer-file-name)
252 :group 'remember)
253
254 (defvar remember-annotation nil
255 "Current annotation.")
256 (defvar remember-initial-contents nil
257 "Initial contents to place into *Remember* buffer.")
258
259 (defcustom remember-before-remember-hook nil
260 "Functions run before switching to the *Remember* buffer."
261 :type 'hook
262 :group 'remember)
263
264 (defcustom remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag nil
265 "Non-nil means use all annotations returned by
266 `remember-annotation-functions'."
267 :type 'boolean
268 :group 'remember)
269
270 ;;;###autoload
271 (defun remember (&optional initial)
272 "Remember an arbitrary piece of data.
273 INITIAL is the text to initially place in the *Remember* buffer,
274 or nil to bring up a blank *Remember* buffer.
275
276 With a prefix or a visible region, use the region as INITIAL."
277 (interactive
278 (list (when (or current-prefix-arg
279 (and mark-active
280 transient-mark-mode))
281 (buffer-substring (region-beginning) (region-end)))))
282 (funcall (if remember-in-new-frame
283 #'frame-configuration-to-register
284 #'window-configuration-to-register) remember-register)
285 (let* ((annotation
286 (if remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag
287 (mapconcat 'identity
288 (delq nil
289 (mapcar 'funcall remember-annotation-functions))
290 "\n")
291 (run-hook-with-args-until-success
292 'remember-annotation-functions)))
293 (buf (get-buffer-create remember-buffer)))
294 (run-hooks 'remember-before-remember-hook)
295 (funcall (if remember-in-new-frame
296 #'switch-to-buffer-other-frame
297 #'switch-to-buffer-other-window) buf)
298 (if remember-in-new-frame
299 (set-window-dedicated-p
300 (get-buffer-window (current-buffer) (selected-frame)) t))
301 (remember-mode)
302 (when (= (point-max) (point-min))
303 (when initial (insert initial))
304 (setq remember-annotation annotation)
305 (when remember-initial-contents (insert remember-initial-contents))
306 (when (and (stringp annotation)
307 (not (equal annotation "")))
308 (insert "\n\n" annotation))
309 (setq remember-initial-contents nil)
310 (goto-char (point-min)))
311 (message "Use C-c C-c to remember the data.")))
312
313 ;;;###autoload
314 (defun remember-other-frame (&optional initial)
315 "Call `remember' in another frame."
316 (interactive
317 (list (when current-prefix-arg
318 (buffer-substring (point) (mark)))))
319 (let ((remember-in-new-frame t))
320 (remember initial)))
321
322 (defsubst remember-time-to-seconds (time)
323 "Convert TIME to a floating point number."
324 (+ (* (car time) 65536.0)
325 (cadr time)
326 (/ (or (car (cdr (cdr time))) 0) 1000000.0)))
327
328 (defsubst remember-mail-date (&optional rfc822-p)
329 "Return a simple date. Nothing fancy."
330 (if rfc822-p
331 (format-time-string "%a, %e %b %Y %T %z" (current-time))
332 (format-time-string "%c" (current-time))))
333
334 (defun remember-buffer-desc ()
335 "Using the first line of the current buffer, create a short description."
336 (buffer-substring (point-min)
337 (save-excursion
338 (goto-char (point-min))
339 (end-of-line)
340 (if (> (- (point) (point-min)) 60)
341 (goto-char (+ (point-min) 60)))
342 (point))))
343
344 ;; Remembering to UNIX mailboxes
345
346 (defcustom remember-mailbox "~/Mail/remember"
347 "*The file in which to store remember data as mail."
348 :type 'file
349 :group 'remember)
350
351 (defcustom remember-default-priority "medium"
352 "*The default priority for remembered mail messages."
353 :type 'string
354 :group 'remember)
355
356 (defun remember-store-in-mailbox ()
357 "Store remember data as if it were incoming mail.
358 In which case `remember-mailbox' should be the name of the mailbox.
359 Each piece of psuedo-mail created will have an `X-Todo-Priority'
360 field, for the purpose of appropriate splitting."
361 (let ((who (read-string "Who is this item related to? "))
362 (moment
363 (format "%.0f" (remember-time-to-seconds (current-time))))
364 (desc (remember-buffer-desc))
365 (text (buffer-string)))
366 (with-temp-buffer
367 (insert (format "
368 From %s %s
369 Date: %s
370 From: %s
371 Message-Id: <remember-%s@%s>
372 X-Todo-Priority: %s
373 To: %s <%s>
374 Subject: %s\n\n"
375 (user-login-name)
376 (remember-mail-date)
377 (remember-mail-date t)
378 who
379 moment (system-name)
380 remember-default-priority
381 (user-full-name) user-mail-address
382 desc))
383 (let ((here (point)))
384 (insert text)
385 (unless (bolp)
386 (insert "\n"))
387 (insert "\n")
388 (goto-char here)
389 (while (re-search-forward "^\\(From[: ]\\)" nil t)
390 (replace-match ">\\1")))
391 (append-to-file (point-min) (point-max) remember-mailbox)
392 t)))
393
394 ;; Remembering to plain files
395
396 (defcustom remember-data-file "~/.notes"
397 "*The file in which to store unprocessed data."
398 :type 'file
399 :group 'remember)
400
401 (defcustom remember-leader-text "** "
402 "*The text used to begin each remember item."
403 :type 'string
404 :group 'remember)
405
406 (defun remember-append-to-file ()
407 "Remember, with description DESC, the given TEXT."
408 (let ((text (buffer-string))
409 (desc (remember-buffer-desc)))
410 (with-temp-buffer
411 (insert "\n" remember-leader-text (current-time-string)
412 " (" desc ")\n\n" text)
413 (if (not (bolp))
414 (insert "\n"))
415 (if (find-buffer-visiting remember-data-file)
416 (let ((remember-text (buffer-string)))
417 (set-buffer (get-file-buffer remember-data-file))
418 (save-excursion
419 (goto-char (point-max))
420 (insert remember-text)
421 (when remember-save-after-remembering (save-buffer))))
422 (append-to-file (point-min) (point-max) remember-data-file)))))
423
424 (defun remember-region (&optional beg end)
425 "Remember the data from BEG to END.
426 It is called from within the *Remember* buffer to save the text
427 that was entered.
428
429 If BEG and END are nil, the entire buffer will be remembered.
430
431 If you want to remember a region, supply a universal prefix to
432 `remember' instead. For example: C-u M-x remember RET."
433 ;; Sacha: I have no idea where remember.el gets this context information, but
434 ;; you can just use remember-annotation-functions.
435 (interactive)
436 (let ((b (or beg (min (point) (or (mark) (point-min)))))
437 (e (or end (max (point) (or (mark) (point-max))))))
438 (save-restriction
439 (narrow-to-region b e)
440 (if remember-all-handler-functions
441 (run-hooks 'remember-handler-functions)
442 (run-hook-with-args-until-success 'remember-handler-functions))
443 (remember-destroy))))
444
445 ;;;###autoload
446 (defun remember-clipboard ()
447 "Remember the contents of the current clipboard.
448 Most useful for remembering things from Netscape or other X Windows
449 application."
450 (interactive)
451 (remember (current-kill 0)))
452
453 (defun remember-finalize ()
454 "Remember the contents of the current buffer."
455 (interactive)
456 (remember-region (point-min) (point-max)))
457
458 ;; Org needs this
459 (define-obsolete-function-alias 'remember-buffer 'remember-finalize)
460
461 (defun remember-destroy ()
462 "Destroy the current *Remember* buffer."
463 (interactive)
464 (when (equal remember-buffer (buffer-name))
465 (kill-buffer (current-buffer))
466 (jump-to-register remember-register)))
467
468 ;;; Diary integration
469
470 (defcustom remember-diary-file nil
471 "*File for extracted diary entries.
472 If this is nil, then `diary-file' will be used instead."
473 :type 'file
474 :group 'remember)
475
476 (defun remember-diary-convert-entry (entry)
477 "Translate MSG to an entry readable by diary."
478 (save-match-data
479 (when remember-annotation
480 (setq entry (concat entry " " remember-annotation)))
481 (if (string-match "\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" entry)
482 (replace-match
483 (if european-calendar-style
484 (concat (match-string 3 entry) "/"
485 (match-string 2 entry) "/"
486 (match-string 1 entry))
487 (concat (match-string 2 entry) "/"
488 (match-string 3 entry) "/"
489 (match-string 1 entry)))
490 t t entry)
491 entry)))
492
493 (autoload 'make-diary-entry "diary-lib")
494
495 ;;;###autoload
496 (defun remember-diary-extract-entries ()
497 "Extract diary entries from the region."
498 (save-excursion
499 (goto-char (point-min))
500 (let (list)
501 (while (re-search-forward "^DIARY:\\s-*\\(.+\\)" nil t)
502 (add-to-list 'list (remember-diary-convert-entry (match-string 1))))
503 (when list
504 (make-diary-entry (mapconcat 'identity list "\n")
505 nil (or remember-diary-file diary-file)))
506 nil))) ;; Continue processing
507
508 ;;; Internal Functions:
509
510 (defvar remember-mode-map
511 (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
512 (define-key map "\C-x\C-s" 'remember-finalize)
513 (define-key map "\C-c\C-c" 'remember-finalize)
514 (define-key map "\C-c\C-k" 'remember-destroy)
515
516 map)
517 "Keymap used in Remember mode.")
518
519 (defun remember-mode ()
520 "Major mode for output from \\[remember].
521 This buffer is used to collect data that you want to remember.
522
523 Just hit `C-c C-c' when you're done entering, and it will file
524 the data away for latter retrieval, and possible indexing.
525
526 \\{remember-mode-map}"
527 (interactive)
528 (kill-all-local-variables)
529 (indented-text-mode)
530 (use-local-map remember-mode-map)
531 (setq major-mode 'remember-mode
532 mode-name "Remember")
533 (run-hooks 'remember-mode-hook))
534
535 ;; arch-tag: 59312a05-06c7-4da1-b6f7-5ea41c9d5577
536 ;;; remember.el ends here