1 This is notes-mode.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.13 from
6 * Notes-mode: (notes-mode). Organizing on-line note-taking.
9 Notes-mode: Organizing on-line note-taking.
11 This file documents notes-mode, a package for organizing on-line
14 Copyright (C) 1994-1996,2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
16 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
17 document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
18 Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software
19 Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts
20 being "A GNU Manual", and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a)
21 below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
22 "GNU Free Documentation License".
24 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You have the freedom to copy and
25 modify this GNU manual. Buying copies from the FSF supports it in
26 developing GNU and promoting software freedom."
29 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Top, Next: Introduction, Prev: (dir), Up: (dir)
31 This file documents notes-mode, a package for organizing on-line
32 note-taking. This is edition $Revision: 1.40 $, for notes-mode version
33 1.16, last updated $Date: 2010/06/20 18:30:34 $.
45 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
50 * Why keep notes at all?::
51 * Why keep notes on-line?::
52 * Why use notes-mode?::
62 * The notes directories::
68 * Notes-mode configuration::
75 * Useful conventions::
79 * Notes-mode history::
84 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Introduction, Next: Basics, Prev: Top, Up: Top
89 What is notes-mode and why should you (perhaps) use it?
94 * Why keep notes at all?::
95 * Why keep notes on-line?::
96 * Why use notes-mode?::
102 File: notes-mode.info, Node: What is it?, Next: Why keep notes at all?, Prev: Introduction, Up: Introduction
107 Notes-mode is an indexing system for on-line note-taking. Notes-mode
108 is composed of two parts, the visible part, a major-mode for emacs to
109 aid note-taking; and the invisible part, scripts which periodically
110 index your notes for you.
112 Note that notes-mode provides tools to "index" your notes, not to
113 "search" them. (Other existing tools such as `grep', `agrep', and
114 `glimpse' already allow file search.)
116 A digression about indexing vs. searching: Indexing in this sense
117 means organize them according to categories you give, while searching
118 looks through all text for arbitrary strings. Drawing on the World
119 Wide Web for examples, Yahoo (`http://www.yahoo.com/') is an index,
120 while Alta Vista (`http://www.altavista.digital.com/') is a
121 search-engine. In (potentially) more familiar terms, the yellow pages
122 (1) are an index, while directory information (411 in the USA) is sort
125 ---------- Footnotes ----------
127 (1) Trademarked, in Great Britain, Sunone tells me.
130 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Why keep notes at all?, Next: Why keep notes on-line?, Prev: What is it?, Up: Introduction
132 1.2 Why keep notes at all?
133 ==========================
135 So why should you use notes-mode? Well, first, consider why you should
136 (perhaps) keep your notes on line. First, I assume that you take notes
137 as part of your work or school. If you don't, you can stop reading now
138 and go back to watching TV.
140 If you keep notes, ask yourself why you keep them. Reasons vary for
141 different people, but some include:
143 * To remember what is said or done.
145 * To focus on what is important about what is said.
147 * To provide proof of having done something at a particular time or
150 * I know there were other reasons here, but they slipped my mind.
153 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Why keep notes on-line?, Next: Why use notes-mode?, Prev: Why keep notes at all?, Up: Introduction
155 1.3 Why keep notes on-line?
156 ===========================
158 OK, I've talked you into keeping notes. Why do it on-line? Again,
159 there are different reasons for different people. If you don't want to
160 consider keeping your notes on-line, you're welcome to go back to your
161 (clay tablets) paper notes.
163 However, if you do much of your work on-line, or if you have
164 portable computer, then you might want to consider keeping your notes
167 * It's faster to type than write, and possibly more legible at high
170 * Often information is already on-line. For example, in software
171 development, bug reports, measurement results, and everything else
172 that's useful is on-line.
174 * You can take down more detail than you otherwise would (especially
175 if the data is already on-line). Taking more copious notes can be
176 helpful when you go back to figure out why that strange thing was
179 * On-line notes are easy to search. Full-text search with grep,
180 agrep, and glimpse are all much faster and are often more accurate
181 than paging through paper notes looking for a particular keyword.
183 * On-line notes are easy to index. (At least with notes-mode!) In
184 addition to full-text search, it's helpful to organize notes by
185 category. If you keep a table-of-contents of your paper notes,
186 you are either extremely fastidious or a librarian (Nadia?).
188 * You can keep all of your notes with you at all times (if you have
189 a portable computer). Even at a page a day, paper notes quickly
190 become bulky and awkward to carry around. On-line notes fit on
191 your computer's hard disk, an extraordinarily compact medium by
194 * Your notes can be automatically backed up. Paper notes can become
195 damaged with time, and as a graduate student one of my fears was
196 fire in Boelter Hall consuming all my research experiments and and
197 therefore hopes of a degree. Electronic notes are extremely easy
198 to duplicate and can be automatically backed up with the rest of
199 your computer. (You _do_ back up your computer, don't you?)
202 While these advantages are undoubtedly clear to any right-thinking
203 computer user, it should be said that there are a few disadvantages for
206 * If you don't have a computer with you most of the time, it's
207 difficult take notes on-line (because you're off-line, of course).
210 * Computers require power. If your portable computer runs out of
211 juice, you're on your own. Corollary: watch your power, or bring
212 paper. Better corollary: watch your power, _and_ bring paper.
214 * Social limitations. It's not always socially acceptable to take
215 notes-on-line. For example, at a party, few people would use a
216 computer to take down the phone number of a person to whom they're
217 attracted (at least, if they wanted the attraction to be mutual).
218 (2) Sometimes other people find the sound of typing distracting.
220 * Health issues. Repetitive stress injuries do occur writing
221 (slower) by hand is at least an alternate motion than typing.
223 * Legal limitations. If you want to use your electronic notes to
224 justify a patent or invention, you may be breaking legal ground.
225 Being on the legal cutting-edge is rarely an easy thing for the
229 ---------- Footnotes ----------
231 (1) I consider myself pretty anal about this subject, often typing
232 notes in from paper after-the-fact, and _I_ certainly don't manage to
233 back-enter my notes all time time.
235 (2) On the other hand, some folks at MIT are working on this problem
236 from both the hardware and the social side of things
237 (`http://wearables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables/') (Perhaps
238 they have wild parties with computers, too.)
240 (3) My hat is off to Rosa Parks and the many other normal people who
241 triggered landmark cases.
244 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Why use notes-mode?, Next: Y2K Statement, Prev: Why keep notes on-line?, Up: Introduction
246 1.4 Why use notes-mode?
247 =======================
249 OK, I've sold you on note-taking and even on on-line note-taking. What
250 about notes-mode? Naturally, it slices, dices, and makes julienne
251 fries. But wait, there's more:
253 * It automates indexing your notes, linking notes with the same
256 * It supports embedded links, allowing you to manually link together
257 different topics and external files.
259 * It includes a number of convenience-features in emacs. Subjects
260 can be completed based on existing subjects. The usual emacs
261 customization mechanisms are available.
263 * Notes containing sensitive information can be encrypted.
265 * Notes-mode seems better than the other, currently available
268 What are the alternatives? I'm glad you asked. (1)
270 * *HTML*. HTML has better formatting capabilities than notes-mode,
271 and it has excellent linking capabilities. Unfortunately, HTML's
272 tags are fairly intrusive (each is at least four characters long
273 and most come with a pair), tags can get confused with normal
274 text, errors in HTML can be bad (obscuring data), and there's no
275 automatic indexing feature (at least with plain HTML). Besides,
276 all data should be kept as close to the ASCII from whence it came,
277 as God Intended (hi, Steve).
279 * *Word Processors*. Word processors are strong in the formatting
280 department, but most don't really have linking capabilities, and
281 have poor or restricted indexing.
284 ---------- Footnotes ----------
286 (1) If you think I'm missing an alternative, please let me know.
289 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Y2K Statement, Next: Related work, Prev: Why use notes-mode?, Up: Introduction
294 Notes mode uses dates extensively, both two-digit years and
295 seconds-since-1970. However, notes-mode has been coded to function
296 correctly through the year 2038.
298 To avoid problems with the year 2000, notes-mode assumes that any
299 two-digit years before "70" are 20xx, not 19xx. Notes-mode should
300 therefore work correctly in both the year 1999 and 2000.
302 (Notes-mode 1.17 released February 1999 fixes a lingering Y2K
305 Because notes-mode uses seconds-since-1970 for some date calculations
306 it will fail beyond the year 2038 on computers with 32-bit integers.
308 If I'm still using notes-mode then on a 32-bit machine I'll see what
312 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Related work, Next: Staying on top, Prev: Y2K Statement, Up: Introduction
317 What would a document be without related work?
319 Notes-mode is not related in any way to Lotus Notes.
321 I am told (by David Weisman) that it's something like the now
322 defunct Lotus Agenda.
324 Ashvin Goel, one of the contributors to notes-mode, has gone off
325 and done a from-scratch reimplementation called records-mode. It's
326 very similar to notes mode, and emphasizes on-the-fly updates to entry
327 links but lacks a manual. You may want to check it out at
328 `http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~ashvin/software.html'.
330 Hyperbole (by Bob Weiner) offers better linking facilities than
331 notes-mode, but it has a bunch of stuff notes-mode doesn't need and
332 it's missing notes-specific indexing provided by notes-mode. For
333 people already using Hyperbole it would be interesting to replace
334 notes-mode's linking with Hyperbole's. Contributions in this area are
335 welcome, provided they make Hyperbole optional.
338 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Staying on top, Prev: Related work, Up: Introduction
343 The most recent distribution of notes-mode is always available via
344 `http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/SOFTWARE/NOTES_MODE/'.
346 After you've installed notes mode you're encouraged to subscribe to
347 the mailing lists. To subscribe, go to the web page Send the message
349 `http://www.heidemann.la.ca.us/mailman/listinfo/notes-mode-announce' or
350 `http://www.heidemann.la.ca.us/mailman/listinfo/notes-mode-talk'.
352 The announce list will contain only release announcements and so is
353 guaranteed to be very low bandwidth.
356 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Basics, Next: Advanced Features, Prev: Introduction, Up: Top
361 All you need to use notes-mode in a chapter. (Except for
362 installation, *Note Installation::.)
369 * The notes directories::
372 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Getting started, Next: A notes file, Prev: Basics, Up: Basics
377 To get started with notes-mode, read the introduction this chapter,
380 * Start emacs, do `M-x' `load-library' `RET' `notes-mode' `RET'
381 This approach will set up notes-mode with the default parameters.
383 * OR, from the shell, run the program `notesinit'. This approach
384 will ask you some questions about how you want to configure notes
388 Either way these should set up everything notes-mode needs. This
389 program will modify your environment (as described in this section),
390 or it will give you the exact commands you should run yourself.
392 After you've done one of these, start up emacs and note-away. I
393 usually begin a day of note-taking by running the command `M-x'
394 `notes-index-todays-link' to jump directly to today's note. You may
395 even wish to bind this to something, perhaps with `(define-key
396 global-map "\C-cn" 'notes-index-todays-link)' in your `.emacs'.
398 If you want to browse your existing notes, you might instead want
399 to edit the `~/NOTES/index'. (What is a notes file and the index?
400 Hurry up and finish reading this chapter.)
403 File: notes-mode.info, Node: A notes file, Next: The notes index, Prev: Getting started, Up: Basics
408 The notes file is the focus of most of the activity in notes-mode,
409 it's where you take your notes. Notes files are mostly free-form text
410 broken up into "entries". Here's an example:
418 next: <file:///~/NOTES/199506/950609#* Today>
420 next week - release notes-mode
426 I explained notes mode to Ashvin and Geoff.
429 Each entry has a subject-block, (maybe) some links, and then (maybe)
432 The subject-block must begin with an asterisk-space (`* ') at the
433 beginning of a line, followed by the subject itself. Subjects must be
434 underlined with a row of dashes (if they're not exact, that's OK;
435 notes-mode will fix them periodically). For convenience, notes-mode
436 will automatically add the underlines when you hit `<RTN>'
437 (`notes-electric-return'), and `<TAB>' on a partially completed
438 subject will invoke completion based on indexed subjects
439 (`notes-complete-subject').
441 Following the subject may be links. (In the example, the "Today"
442 entry has links, the "Environment/notes" entry doesn't.) These links
443 will be automatically updated by notes-mode when your notes are
444 re-indexed; just leave a blank line when writing the note.
446 Links are made with pseudo-URLs, sort of like those in the World
447 Wide Web. Any of these URLs can be followed in notes-mode files by
448 clicking `S-mouse-2' on the pseudo-URL (`notes-w3-follow-link-mouse').
450 Finally comes the text. Go wild, but just don't include text that
451 looks like a subject. You can embed pseudo-URLs to link notes together
454 The more anal of you may have noticed that the lines before the
455 first subject are not part of any entry. These lines are "front
456 matter". They're not usually used for much, but they can be a good
457 place to label the file.
459 There are a number of useful conventions that can be adopted to
460 organize your notes. The most common is the "Today" entry. If you
461 keep an entry with the same subject at the beginning of each file,
462 you link all of your notes together. Notes-mode will help you out with
463 some of these convetions by automatically creating or copying some
464 fields for you; see *note Useful conventions:: for details.
466 Finally, notes-mode can also work with outline-minor-mode (thanks
467 to Tim Carroll for pointing this out). Outline-mode supports hiding
468 and revealing text and other helpful features beyond the scope of this
469 document. *Note Outline Mode: (emacs)Outline Mode, for details.
472 File: notes-mode.info, Node: The notes index, Next: The notes directories, Prev: A notes file, Up: Basics
477 The notes index lists all subjects you've kept notes about, and each
478 date of each note. Impress your friends, show your advisor why you're
479 worth the _big_ peanuts, you'll soon have the biggest index of all.
481 The index has one line per subject, listing the subject and each
482 day a note was made about that subject. For example:
484 Bicycle: 950314, 950316
485 Bicycle/maintenance/books: 951028
486 Bridge/hands: 951113, 951114, 951116, 951117
487 Bridge/UCLA: 960222, 960409
489 Clicking on any of the dates with `mouse-2' will take you to that
490 note (`notes-index-mouse-follow-link'). (You can also move the point
491 over the date and hit `<RTN>' if you're musaphobic
492 [`notes-index-follow-link'].)
494 The notes index is automatically updated by the program `mkall'.
495 Typically `mkall' is run nightly by `cron'. On most modern versions of
496 Unix, you can add this command to cron by running `crontab -e' and
499 0 4 * * * /usr/local/lib/notes-mode/mkall
501 (Assuming that your notes programs are installed in
502 /usr/local/lib/notes-mode, the default location.)
505 File: notes-mode.info, Node: The notes directories, Prev: The notes index, Up: Basics
507 2.4 The notes directories
508 =========================
510 The final thing needed to tie basic notes-mode together his how the
511 pieces fit together. Since my graduate work is in file systems, you
512 can bet that directories are involved.
514 Notes-mode keeps its files in a two-level hierarchy:
520 ~/NOTES/199603/960329
521 ~/NOTES/199603/960330
523 ~/NOTES/199604/960401
525 The top level, `~/NOTES', is the notes directory. It keeps all
526 notes in one place. (The name of this directory is configurable, *Note
527 Notes-mode configuration::.)
529 Inside the notes directory are two files and a number of directories.
530 The files are `index', the index of all entries (*note The notes
531 index::), and `rawindex', used internally.
533 The notes directory also contains a number of subdirectories,
534 sometimes called "intermediate directories". These directories group
535 the actual notes files into manageable chunks, keeping any directory
536 from getting too large. Intermediate directories are named by the
537 four-digit year and the two-digit month of the entries they contain.
538 (The format of intermediate directories is configurable, *Note
539 Notes-mode configuration::.)
541 Finally, in each intermediate directory are the notes files
542 themselves, named according to the two-digit year, month, and
545 For the most part, notes-mode will automatically maintain this
546 organization of files, once you create the top-level directory.
547 Notes-mode will also automatically ensure that all files in the notes
548 directory are unreadable by anyone other than their owner. Notes are
549 personal things. (This behavior is not currently configurable, but it
553 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Advanced Features, Next: History, Prev: Basics, Up: Top
558 Notes-mode, the minutiae, and some other good stuff.
564 * Notes-mode configuration::
567 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Notes files, Next: Notes indices, Prev: Advanced Features, Up: Advanced Features
577 * Useful conventions::
580 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Getting around, Next: Subject summary, Prev: Notes files, Up: Notes files
585 Moving between notes entries and around the hierarchy is fairly common,
586 so there are some accelerators.
589 Jump to the index entry for the current entry's subject
590 (`notes-goto-index-entry').
595 Move to the next or prior note with the same subject
596 (`notes-follow-next-link' and `notes-follow-prev-link'). These
597 functions follow the links in the note, if they're defined. If
598 not, they look through the index file. This approach usually
599 works, but will fail if there are multiple new entries created
600 with the given subject between when the index is recomputed.
603 Follow the link under the point (`notes-w3-follow-link'), a
604 keyboard equivalent of <S-mouse-2>.
609 Jump to the beginning or end of the current note entry
610 (`notes-beginning-of-defun' and `notes-end-of-defun').
613 Copies the pseudo-URL for the current note into the kill-ring
614 (`current-url-as-kill'). To link two entries, go to the target,
615 grab its URL with `C-c C-k', go to where you want to make the
616 link, and yank the URL with `C-y'.
619 Notes mode supports imenu, if you have it bound to something (I
620 use `(global-set-key [down-mouse-3] 'imenu)').
623 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Subject summary, Next: Encryption, Prev: Getting around, Up: Notes files
625 3.1.2 Subject summary
626 ---------------------
628 It's often helpful to look at all entries for a given subject `C-c C-s'
629 collects all entries with the subject of the current entry in a new
630 buffer (`notes-summarize-subject').
633 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Encryption, Next: Useful conventions, Prev: Subject summary, Up: Notes files
638 Notes occasionally contain private material. While Unix has strong
639 services for file protection (compared to other, say, more
640 wide-selling operating systems), in many systems root passwords are
641 shared, while other systems are vulnerable to physical compromise. In
642 such systems, properly used encryption is the best approach to
645 Notes-mode encryption is based Phill Zimmerman's PGP (Pretty Good
646 Privacy) (see `http://www.mantis.co.uk/pgp/pgp.html') and either with
647 Rick Campbell's emacs interface, PAM (PGP Augmented Messaging) (from
648 `ftp://h.gp.cs.cmu.edu/usr/rfb/pam/') (note that as of January 1997,
649 PAM is no longer at this ftp site and appears to not be publicly
650 available), or LoPresti and Choi's mailcrypt (from
651 `http://cag-www.lcs.mit.edu/mailcrypt/').
654 Encrypt the current note (`notes-encrypt-note'). By default this
655 function encrypts the whole entry. With a prefix argument, only
656 the part from the point to the end of the entry is encrypted.
659 Decrypt the current note (`notes-decrypt-note').
661 By default notes-mode determines your public key by looking up your
662 `user-full-name' in your PGP keyring. You can override this default by
663 setting `notes-encryption-key-id' to the desired key-id.
666 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Useful conventions, Prev: Encryption, Up: Notes files
668 3.1.4 Useful conventions
669 ------------------------
671 There are a number of conventions which can make notes-mode easier to
672 use. These conventions are a matter of personal taste, of course. Do
675 First, I find it helpful to keep the date of each notes-file at the
676 top of the file. This makes the file self-identifying if the
679 Second, I find it useful to have the first entry of each file have
680 the same subject (perhaps "Today"). This entry then links all notes
681 together, making it easy to go to yesterday and tomorrow. I keep a
682 to-do list on this entry, bringing the list forward each day.
684 A third useful convention is to keep an entry with the name based
685 on the day of the week in each file. Analogous to "Today", this entry
686 links together weeks.
688 Notes-mode supports these conventions. When you make a new
689 notes-file in emacs, notes-mode searches for the preceding file. If
690 it follows any of these conventions, the new file is initialized
691 appropriately. Currently the approach to do this process (in the
692 program `mknew') is fairly sensitive, so it may not work in all cases.
693 In particular, the date convention works only on for English-language
694 dates. (If you use notes-mode with a non-English language, let me
695 know and I'll work with you to fix this limitation.)
697 If you find other helpful conventions, please let me know.
698 Modifications to `mknew' to implement new conventions are also invited.
700 If you don't want to use these conventions, or if you want to use
701 different ones, set the emacs variable
702 notes-mode-initialization-program to nil or the name of your
703 initialization program.
706 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Notes indices, Next: Notes-mode configuration, Prev: Notes files, Up: Advanced Features
711 Only two features of notes index mode haven't yet been described.
712 First, you can open any notes-file based on date with
713 `notes-index-link', normally bound to <o>.
715 Second, you can get a subject-summary with <C-c C-s> (*note
716 Subject summary::). The subject defaults to that of the current index
720 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Notes-mode configuration, Prev: Notes indices, Up: Advanced Features
722 3.3 Notes-mode configuration
723 ============================
725 Several aspects of notes mode are particularly visible to the user.
726 Because I'm not a fascist, a user can change most of these.
728 Preferences are specified in `~/.notesrc'. This file lists things
731 # lines beginning with a hash are comments
735 Currently, two things can be changed:
738 Specifies the root of the notes directory hierarchy (*note The
739 notes directories::).
742 Specifies the form of the intermediate directory. A limited
743 subset of `strftime(3)' formatting is allowed.
745 The subset of `strftime(3)' supported in `int_form' is:
753 A two-digit numeric month.
758 In addition to `.notesrc', there are a number of emacs-specific
759 variables. These variables are documented in the file
760 `notes-variables.el'.
763 File: notes-mode.info, Node: History, Next: Installation, Prev: Advanced Features, Up: Top
768 More about notes-mode than you wanted to know, and some thanks.
772 * Notes-mode history::
775 * Suggested features::
778 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Notes-mode history, Next: Credits, Prev: History, Up: History
780 4.1 Notes-mode history
781 ======================
783 Briefly, I started keeping notes on-line shortly after I got a
784 portable computer in January, 1994. After a month-and-a-half of
785 notes, I realized that one does not live by grep alone, so I started
786 adding indexing facilities.
788 In June of 1995 some other Ficus-project members started keeping
789 and indexing on-line notes using other home-grown systems. After some
790 discussion, we generalized my notes-mode work and they started using
793 Over the next 18 months notes-mode grew. Finally, in April, 1996 I
794 wrote documentation, guaranteeing that innovation on notes-mode will
795 now cease or the documentation will become out of date.
798 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Credits, Next: Changes, Prev: Notes-mode history, Up: History
803 I (John Heidemann, <johnh@isi.edu>) started, documented, and currently
804 maintain notes-mode. I take ultimate responsibility for the code,
805 especially for the ugly parts that I won't let others change.
807 Ashvin Goel <ashvin@ficus.cs.ucla.edu> has been a very
808 enthusiastic notes-mode user and contributor. He is responsible for at
809 least the ideas behind `notes-summarize-subject' and the ideas and
810 initial implementations of some of the original generalization and
811 modularity improvements, `notes-follow-next-link' and
812 `notes-follow-prev-link', `notes-goto-index-entry', programmed
813 subject completion, and context-sensitive mouse-2 handling. In
814 addition, he is an invaluable second opinion about what and how
815 things should be done (even if I don't always agree with him).
817 Geoff Kuenning <geoff@ficus.cs.ucla.edu> has been another
818 enthusiastic notes-mode user and victim. He is responsible for
819 finding several bugs, motivation for mouse-less operation, comments
820 about the documentation, the day-of-week convention, and an initial
821 implementation and the idea of multiple entries with the same subjects
822 in a single notes-file.
824 Ramesh Govindan <govindan@isi.edu> did the xemacs port.
826 Since it's release on Usenet in April 1996 several other folks have
827 contributed. Thanks to David Weisman <weisman@app1.osf.org>, Martin
828 L. Smith <martin@ner.com>, Jason Bastek <jason@aai.com>, Ulrich
829 Herbst <Ulrich.Herbst@t-systems.com>. See the next section (*Note
830 Changes::.) for details of their exploits.
832 Thanks to Larry Ayers <layers@marktwain.net> for popularizing
833 notes-mode with reviews in the Linux Gazette (at
834 <http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue22/notes-mode.html> and
835 <http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue35/ayers.html>).
838 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Changes, Next: Suggested features, Prev: Credits, Up: History
845 First semi-public release. 12-Jul-95: version 0.1 Shared a version
846 with Ashvin and Geoff.
848 Changed 6-Dec-95: version 0.3 Ashvin's changes for note traversal
849 added (C-c C-p and C-c C-n now move to the prev/next note in note-mode).
850 URL parsing changed so that "localhost" is optional.
852 Changed 19-Dec-95: version 0.4 More robust prev/next code added,
853 both to handle going back and forward in the middle of chains through
854 the index file, and to handle back/forward in a single file. URL
855 parsing changed so that notes-goto-index-entry correctly handles
856 lookups on notes names such as "252A".
858 Changed 20-Dec-95: version 0.5. Fixed a missing variable in
859 notes-url.el. Added a work-around to a bug in emacs-19.30's
862 Changed 24-Dec-95: version 0.6. Prev/next code re-re-written to be
865 Changed 26-Dec-96: version 0.7. Bug fix release.
867 Changed 23-Jan-96: version 0.8. Initialization code added to set
868 up a new note. New variable: notes-bin-dir.
870 I'm skipping version 0.9 because I erroneously release version 0.1
871 as version 0.9 (only on the web, not on Usenet).
873 I'm bumping from version "0" to version "1" since the code is has
874 been in production use for more than a year by several people. Minor
875 numbers are the same.
877 Changed 26-Mar-96: version 1.10. Setup code completely re-written.
878 Several incompatible changes have been made: - the lisp and Perl code
879 must be installed via make install, not by copying. - some data is
880 specified in a .notesrc file; copy and modify sample.notesrc. -
881 several internal elisp changes. - catsubject added (bound to C-cC-s):
882 collect all notes about the current subject. - new notes-files are
883 initialized with fields based on the prior day's notes; see mknew for
884 details. - daily_work is gone; mkall is rewritten to use .notesrc.
886 Changed 29-Apr-96: version 1.11. Real documentation. Mknew
889 Changed 9-Aug-96: version 1.12. Added notesinit to do all setup
892 Changed 24-Aug-96: version 1.13. Minor documentation fixes.
894 Changed 20-Dec-97: version 1.14. Autoconf support.
896 Fontification of the index buffer is now pre-computed in perl other
897 than done when the file is needed (in elisp with slow regular
898 expressions). 2000-line index files are now 1-2 seconds rather than
899 15-30 on a 100MHz Pentium. If necessary (the pre-computed version
900 isn't up-to-date) we fall back on the slower code.
902 Related work improved (suggestion by David Weisman
903 <weisman@app1.osf.org>).
905 Documentation improvement (problem found by Martin L. Smith
908 Installation improved (code by Jason Bastek <jason@aai.com>).
910 Bug in notes-index mode with subjects containing colons fixed
913 Encryption now supports mailcrypt.el.
915 Support for emacs 20 (a small font-lock change).
917 Changed 5-Jan-98: version 1.15. Bug in decryption for non-PAM
918 users fixed (suggestion by Kevin Davidson <tkld@quadstone.com>).
920 Y2K statement added (suggestion by Kevin Davidson
921 <tkld@quadstone.com>).
923 Pointer to mailcrypt added (as a supported encryption package).
924 Problem pointed out by K. Ueda <kueda@jupiter.qse.tohoku.ac.jp>.
926 Changed 4-Nov-98: version 1.16. Bug in kill-ring handling of
927 notes-old-underline-line fixed by Tim Potter <timp@jna.com.au>. Bug
928 in whitespace handling after PGP encryption fixed by Tim Potter. Bugs
929 in handling of entries with hash signs in their name fixed (found by
930 Tim Potter). Fontification of index buffer further improved (mapcar
931 is your friend). Xemacs support added based on code contributed by
934 Changed 28-Feb-99: version 1.17: Improvement: notes-electric-return
935 now fixes up the prev/next links of new entries (only). Code
936 contributed by Takashi Nishimoto.
938 Bug fix: reversed options -batch and -q in configure.in to placate
939 XEmacs 20.0; changed notesinit to not downcase the pathname (bugs
940 found by Thierry Bezecourt).
942 Clarification: Autofilling of new notes more clear in the manual
943 (hopefully, suggested by Solofo Ramangalahy).
945 Bug fix: a y2k bug in was found and fixed in mkindex. Sigh.
947 New: Two mailing lists for notes-mode have been created:
948 `notes-mode-announce@heidemann.la.ca.us' and
949 `notes-mode-talk@heidemann.la.ca.us'. Send the line "subscribe
950 notes-mode-announce" (or "subscribe notes-mode-talk") to
951 `majordomo@heidemann.la.ca.us' to join them. [_These instructions are
952 now superceeded; to subscribe, go to
953 `http://www.heidemann.la.ca.us/mailman/listinfo/notes-mode-talk' and
954 `http://www.heidemann.la.ca.us/mailman/listinfo/notes-mode-announce'._]
956 Changed 6-Oct-99: version 1.18: Bug fix: handling of
957 electric-prevnext is better when there are existing prev/next links.
959 Clarification: I added some pointers in the code to the installation
960 instructions. (Apparently people can't RTF README.)
962 Extension: mailcrypt-3.5.x suported including pgp, pgp5 and gpg.
964 Changed (date 23-Dec-00): version 1.19: Bug fix (cosmetic): suppress
965 comments in encrypted nodes.
967 Install fixes from Kannan Varadhan: elisp directories changed on
970 Added C-j as a synonym for RET in notes-mode to parallel C++ or perl
971 mode. (Suggested by Fred Jaggi `jaggi@rsn.hp.com'.)
973 Outline-minor-mode support added and documented. (Suggested by Tim
974 Carroll `tim@boomboom.com'.)
976 Bug/typo fixes in gpg support (Contributed by William A. Perkins
977 `wa_perkins@pnl.gov', with separate patches from Knut Anders Hatlen
978 `kahatlen@online.no'.)
980 Installation improvements suggested by Christophe Troestler
981 `Ch.Troestler@linkline.be': use install-info to update the info dir,
982 warn users of -prefix that lisp files go elsewhere.
984 Changed (date 1-Feb-01): version 1.20: Bug fix: missing file
985 notes-first.el added to the distribution. (Bug found by Michael
986 Totschnig `michaelt@supernet.ca'.)
988 Changed ( 5-Dec-01): version 1.21: (backed-out--didn't work with
989 spaced URLs) URL lookup now uses thing-at-point.
991 Fix to make notes-mode work with emacs-21.1 (Fix from Klaus Zeitler
992 `kzeitler@lucent.com'.)
994 Changed ( 3-Jan-02): version 1.22: Several bugs in `notesinit' for
995 stricter Perl implementations (bug found by Paul Craven"
996 `pcraven@yorku.ca', and Kasper van Wijk `kasper@acoustics.mines.edu')
997 and to make it run cleanly more often.
999 Notes-first now autoinitializes notes mode from emacs. (As
1000 instisted by rms, unfortunately about two years later than requested.)
1002 Changed (20-Feb-05): version 1.23: Outline mode is now forcebly
1003 turned on to avoid interactions with user's text-mode hooks (bug and
1004 fix from Nils Ackermann `nils@nieback.de').
1006 Install bug involving ordering of scripts and byte-compilation fixed
1007 (bug and fix from Mark Allman `mallman@grc.nasa.gov').
1009 Fix obscure bug in configure, reported by Klaus Zeitler
1010 `kzeitler@lucent.com'.
1012 Fix for notes-summarize-subject when no subject is specified (bug
1013 and fix from Geoff Kuenning).
1015 Changed (14-Jan-06): version 1.24:
1017 install-info bug documented with the Debian install-info (bug
1018 reported by Aaron Falk `falk@isi.edu').
1020 Automatic date completion in new days is now done in the current
1021 locale, so it should now work for non-English languages. Bug reported
1022 by Torsten Bronger `bronger@physik.rwth-aachen.de'.
1024 Fixed a bug in mkindexcache, triggered by subjects with percent signs
1025 in them. Bug reported by Philip Austin `paustin@eos.ubc.ca'.
1027 We're a bit more robust about subjects, I hope. Warnings should
1028 appear about embedded number signs, and leading spaces should be
1029 filtered. Bug reported by Philip Austin `paustin@eos.ubc.ca'.
1031 Notes-mode now dervies from indented-text-mode rather than
1032 paragraph-indent-text mode. Unfortunatley this is not customizable
1033 because of limitations of define-derived-mode. Change suggested by
1034 Aaron Falk `falk@isi.edu'.
1036 Provide better hints about how to get started after installation or
1037 running notes-mode in emacs for the first time.
1039 In notes init, the default path for dir was the full path, not the
1040 tilde version of the path. Now it defaults to using tidle for home
1041 directory. Bug reported by Mark Allman `allman@icir.org'.
1043 Changed (26-May-06): version 1.25:
1045 fixed a bug in the release tar.gz file that had a additional copies
1048 Changed (30-Jun-08): version 1.26:
1050 Force unicode I/O in `mkindexcache' to fix highlighting mis-alignment
1051 when using emacs-21 with unicode subject lines.
1053 Changed mkprevnext and mkrawindex to optionally take the list of
1054 notes files to index from stdin rather than from the command line.
1055 Yes, I finally have 4093 notes files, overflowing the Unix command line
1058 Changes notes-mode.el to put path in quotes, allowing spaces to
1059 appear in home directory names (bug fix from Ulrich Herbst).
1061 Added a suggested features section.
1063 Changed ( 8-Aug-08): version 1.27:
1065 Change I/O in `mkindexcache' to use locale (the sadly correct thing)
1066 rather than forcing utf-8 (the Righteous Path). Bug report from Geoff
1067 Kuenning, a man with an older Unix environment than I.
1069 Changed (20-Jun-10): version 1.28:
1071 Changed a regular expression in `notes-index-mode.el' that was
1072 causing emacs-v23 (a pre-release version) to regular expression
1075 Changed (2012-04-04): version 1.29
1077 (2011-08-23) Changed `run-hooks' to `run-mode-hooks'. Bug report
1078 from Geoff Kuenning.
1080 Changed some handling of PGP encryption to account for some apparent
1083 (2012-04-04) Fixed encyrption to handle encrypting empty notes at
1084 the end of buffers without going into an infinite loop. Clearly wrong
1085 code, but you have to ask this guy for why he tried: Bug report from
1089 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Suggested features, Prev: Changes, Up: History
1091 4.4 Suggested features
1092 ======================
1094 Features suggested by users but not yet implemented:
1096 21-Feb-08: (from Xavier Maillard): should support "disconnected"
1097 notes that are indexed but not date-based.
1099 21-Feb-08: (from John Heidemann): should switch all notes files to
1100 have an extension (maybe `.notes').
1103 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Installation, Next: Keystroke index, Prev: History, Up: Top
1108 To install notes-mode,
1110 1. Unpack and extract the distribution (gunzip notes-mode-xxx.tar.gz;
1111 tar xvf notes-mode-xxx.tar; cd notes-mode-xxx).
1113 2. Run configure (./configure).
1115 3. Type "make install".
1117 (To control what's installed where, use -prefix=/where, or
1118 -with-lisp-dir=/where, -datadir=/where (for scripts), and
1124 If you have problems with paths being incorrect, please be aware that
1125 you _cannot_ run notes directly out of where you untar it. The
1126 installation process customizes the programs for where things are on
1127 your system. Make sure you move out of the directory where you
1128 untarred it before running it.
1130 The most recent distribution of notes-mode is always available via
1131 `http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/SOFTWARE/NOTES_MODE/'.
1134 File: notes-mode.info, Node: Keystroke index, Next: Concept index, Prev: Installation, Up: Top
1139 This index lists notes-mode keystrokes.