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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, 2007,
4 ;; 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5
6 ;; Author: John Wiegley <johnw@gnu.org>
7 ;; Created: 29 Mar 1999
8 ;; Version: 2.0
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 of the License, or
17 ;; (at your option) 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. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
26
27 ;;; Commentary:
28
29 ;; * The idea
30 ;;
31 ;; Todo lists, schedules, phone databases... everything we use
32 ;; databases for is really just a way to extend the power of our
33 ;; memory. To be able to remember what our conscious mind may not
34 ;; currently have access to.
35 ;;
36 ;; There are many different databases out there -- and good ones --
37 ;; which this mode is not trying to replace. Rather, it's how that
38 ;; data gets there that's the question. Most of the time, we just
39 ;; want to say "Remember so-and-so's phone number, or that I have to
40 ;; buy dinner for the cats tonight." That's the FACT. How it's
41 ;; stored is really the computer's problem. But at this point in
42 ;; time, it's most definitely also the user's problem, and sometimes
43 ;; so laboriously so that people just let data slip, rather than
44 ;; expend the effort to record it.
45 ;;
46 ;; "Remember" is a mode for remembering data. It uses whatever
47 ;; back-end is appropriate to record and correlate the data, but it's
48 ;; main intention is to allow you to express as _little_ structure as
49 ;; possible up front. If you later want to express more powerful
50 ;; relationships between your data, or state assumptions that were at
51 ;; first too implicit to be recognized, you can "study" the data later
52 ;; and rearrange it. But the initial "just remember this" impulse
53 ;; should be as close to simply throwing the data at Emacs as
54 ;; possible.
55 ;;
56 ;; * Implementation
57 ;;
58 ;; Hyperbole, as a data presentation tool, always struck me as being
59 ;; very powerful, but it seemed to require a lot of "front-end" work
60 ;; before that data was really available. The problem with BBDB, or
61 ;; keeping up a Bibl-mode file, is that you have to use different
62 ;; functions to record the data, and it always takes time to stop what
63 ;; you're doing, format the data in the manner expected by that
64 ;; particular data interface, and then resume your work.
65 ;;
66 ;; With "remember", you just hit `M-x remember' (you'd probably want
67 ;; to bind this to an easily accessible keystroke, like C-x M-r), slam
68 ;; in your text however you like, and then hit C-c C-c. It will file
69 ;; the data away for later retrieval, and possibly indexing.
70 ;;
71 ;; Indexing is to data what "studying" is in the real world. What you
72 ;; do when you study (or lucubrate, for some of us) is to realize
73 ;; certain relationships implicit in the data, so that you can make
74 ;; use of those relationships. Expressing that a certain quote you
75 ;; remembered was a religious quote, and that you want the ability to
76 ;; pull up all quotes of a religious nature, is what studying does.
77 ;; This is a more labor intensive task than the original remembering
78 ;; of the data, and it's typical in real life to set aside a special
79 ;; period of time for doing this work.
80 ;;
81 ;; "Remember" works in the same way. When you enter data, either by
82 ;; typing it into a buffer, or using the contents of the selected
83 ;; region, it will store that data -- unindexed, uninterpreted -- in a
84 ;; data pool. It will also try to remember as much context
85 ;; information as possible (any text properties that were set, where
86 ;; you copied it from, when, how, etc). Later, you can walk through
87 ;; your accumulated set of data (both organized, and unorganized) and
88 ;; easily begin moving things around, and making annotations that will
89 ;; express the full meaning of that data, as far as you know it.
90 ;;
91 ;; Obviously this latter stage is more user-interface intensive, and
92 ;; it would be nice if "remember" could do it as elegantly as
93 ;; possible, rather than requiring a billion keystrokes to reorganize
94 ;; your hierarchy. Well, as the future arrives, hopefully experience
95 ;; and user feedback will help to make this as intuitive a tool as
96 ;; possible.
97 ;;
98 ;; * Future Goals
99 ;;
100 ;; This tool hopes to track (and by doing it with as little new code
101 ;; as possible):
102 ;;
103 ;; - The raw data that gets entered
104 ;;
105 ;; - The relationships between that data (either determined
106 ;; implicitly by parsing the input, or explicitly by the user's
107 ;; studying the data).
108 ;;
109 ;; - Revisioning of the data
110 ;;
111 ;; - Where it came from, and any context information that can be
112 ;; programmatically determined.
113 ;;
114 ;; - Allowing particular views of the initially amorphous data pool
115 ;; (ala the Xanadu concept).
116 ;;
117 ;; - Storage of the data in a manner most appopriate to that data,
118 ;; such as keeping address-book type information in BBDB, etc.
119 ;;
120 ;; * Using "remember"
121 ;;
122 ;; As a rough beginning, what I do is to keep my .notes file in
123 ;; outline-mode format, with a final entry called "* Raw data". Then,
124 ;; at intervals, I can move the data that gets appended there into
125 ;; other places. But certainly this should evolve into an intuitive
126 ;; mechanism for shuffling data off to its appropriate corner of the
127 ;; universe.
128 ;;
129 ;; To map the primary remember function to the keystroke F8, do the
130 ;; following.
131 ;;
132 ;; (autoload 'remember "remember" nil t)
133 ;;
134 ;; (define-key global-map [f8] 'remember)
135 ;;
136 ;; * Feedback
137 ;;
138 ;; If Emacs could become a more intelligent data store, where
139 ;; brainstorming would focus on the IDEAS involved -- rather than the
140 ;; structuring and format of those ideas, or having to stop your
141 ;; current flow of work in order to record them -- it would map much
142 ;; more closely to how the mind (well, at least mine) works, and hence
143 ;; would eliminate that very manual-ness which computers from the very
144 ;; beginning have been championed as being able to reduce.
145 ;;
146 ;; Have you ever noticed that having a laptop to write on doesn't
147 ;; _actually_ increase the amount of quality material that you turn
148 ;; out, in the long run? Perhaps its because the time we save
149 ;; electronically in one way, we're losing electronically in another;
150 ;; the tool should never dominate one's focus. As the mystic
151 ;; Faridu'd-Din `Attar wrote: "Be occupied as little as possible with
152 ;; things of the outer world but much with things of the inner world;
153 ;; then right action will overcome inaction."
154 ;;
155 ;; * Diary integration
156 ;;
157 ;; To use, add the following to your .emacs:
158 ;;
159 ;; ;; This should be before other entries that may return t
160 ;; (add-to-list 'remember-handler-functions 'remember-diary-extract-entries)
161 ;;
162 ;; This module recognizes entries of the form
163 ;;
164 ;; DIARY: ....
165 ;;
166 ;; and puts them in your ~/.diary (or remember-diary-file) together
167 ;; with an annotation. Dates in the form YYYY.MM.DD are converted to
168 ;; YYYY-MM-DD so that diary can understand them.
169 ;;
170 ;; For example:
171 ;;
172 ;; DIARY: 2003.08.12 Sacha's birthday
173 ;;
174 ;; is stored as
175 ;;
176 ;; 2003.08.12 Sacha's birthday
177
178 ;;; History:
179
180 ;;; Code:
181
182 (provide 'remember)
183
184 (defconst remember-version "2.0"
185 "This version of remember.")
186
187 (defgroup remember nil
188 "A mode to remember information."
189 :group 'data)
190
191 ;;; User Variables:
192
193 (defcustom remember-mode-hook nil
194 "Functions run upon entering `remember-mode'."
195 :type 'hook
196 :options '(flyspell-mode turn-on-auto-fill org-remember-apply-template)
197 :group 'remember)
198
199 (defcustom remember-in-new-frame nil
200 "Non-nil means use a separate frame for capturing remember data."
201 :type 'boolean
202 :group 'remember)
203
204 (defcustom remember-register ?R
205 "The register in which the window configuration is stored."
206 :type 'character
207 :group 'remember)
208
209 (defcustom remember-filter-functions nil
210 "Functions run to filter remember data.
211 All functions are run in the remember buffer."
212 :type 'hook
213 :group 'remember)
214
215 (defcustom remember-handler-functions '(remember-append-to-file)
216 "Functions run to process remember data.
217 Each function is called with the current buffer narrowed to what the
218 user wants remembered.
219 If any function returns non-nil, the data is assumed to have been
220 recorded somewhere by that function. "
221 :type 'hook
222 :options '(remember-store-in-mailbox
223 remember-append-to-file
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.
269 INITIAL is the text to initially place in the *Remember* buffer,
270 or nil to bring up a blank *Remember* buffer.
271
272 With 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.
348 In which case `remember-mailbox' should be the name of the mailbox.
349 Each piece of pseudo-mail created will have an `X-Todo-Priority'
350 field, 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
357 Date: %s
358 From: %s
359 Message-Id: <remember-%s@%s>
360 X-Todo-Priority: %s
361 To: %s <%s>
362 Subject: %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 (convert-standard-filename "~/.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.
414 It is called from within the *Remember* buffer to save the text
415 that was entered.
416
417 If BEG and END are nil, the entire buffer will be remembered.
418
419 If 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 ;;;###autoload
434 (defun remember-clipboard ()
435 "Remember the contents of the current clipboard.
436 Most useful for remembering things from Netscape or other X Windows
437 application."
438 (interactive)
439 (remember (current-kill 0)))
440
441 (defun remember-finalize ()
442 "Remember the contents of the current buffer."
443 (interactive)
444 (remember-region (point-min) (point-max)))
445
446 ;; Org needs this
447 (define-obsolete-function-alias 'remember-buffer 'remember-finalize "23.1")
448
449 (defun remember-destroy ()
450 "Destroy the current *Remember* buffer."
451 (interactive)
452 (when (equal remember-buffer (buffer-name))
453 (kill-buffer (current-buffer))
454 (jump-to-register remember-register)))
455
456 ;;; Diary integration
457
458 (defcustom remember-diary-file nil
459 "File for extracted diary entries.
460 If this is nil, then `diary-file' will be used instead."
461 :type 'file
462 :group 'remember)
463
464 (defun remember-diary-convert-entry (entry)
465 "Translate MSG to an entry readable by diary."
466 (save-match-data
467 (when remember-annotation
468 (setq entry (concat entry " " remember-annotation)))
469 (if (string-match "\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" entry)
470 (progn
471 ;; For calendar-date-style. This costs us nothing because
472 ;; the call to diary-make-entry below loads diary-lib
473 ;; which requires calendar.
474 (require 'calendar)
475 (replace-match
476 (let ((style (if (boundp 'calendar-date-style)
477 calendar-date-style
478 ;; Don't complain about obsoleteness.
479 (if (with-no-warnings european-calendar-style)
480 'european
481 'american))))
482 (cond ((eq style 'european)
483 (concat (match-string 3 entry) "/"
484 (match-string 2 entry) "/"
485 (match-string 1 entry)))
486 ((eq style 'iso)
487 (concat (match-string 1 entry) "-"
488 (match-string 2 entry) "-"
489 (match-string 3 entry)))
490 (t (concat (match-string 2 entry) "/"
491 (match-string 3 entry) "/"
492 (match-string 1 entry)))))
493 t t entry))
494 entry)))
495
496 (autoload 'diary-make-entry "diary-lib")
497
498 ;;;###autoload
499 (defun remember-diary-extract-entries ()
500 "Extract diary entries from the region."
501 (save-excursion
502 (goto-char (point-min))
503 (let (list)
504 (while (re-search-forward "^DIARY:\\s-*\\(.+\\)" nil t)
505 (add-to-list 'list (remember-diary-convert-entry (match-string 1))))
506 (when list
507 (diary-make-entry (mapconcat 'identity list "\n")
508 nil remember-diary-file))
509 nil))) ;; Continue processing
510
511 ;;; Internal Functions:
512
513 (defvar remember-mode-map
514 (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
515 (define-key map "\C-x\C-s" 'remember-finalize)
516 (define-key map "\C-c\C-c" 'remember-finalize)
517 (define-key map "\C-c\C-k" 'remember-destroy)
518 map)
519 "Keymap used in Remember mode.")
520
521 (define-derived-mode remember-mode indented-text-mode "Remember"
522 "Major mode for output from \\[remember].
523 This buffer is used to collect data that you want to remember.
524 \\<remember-mode-map>
525 Just hit \\[remember-finalize] when you're done entering, and it will file
526 the data away for latter retrieval, and possible indexing.
527
528 \\{remember-mode-map}"
529 (set-keymap-parent remember-mode-map nil))
530
531 ;;; remember.el ends here