[PROPOSITION] edit the diary file from the minibuffer

[PROPOSITION] edit the diary file from the minibuffer

[BP25]

Hey guys,

I'd like to see the Diary + Calendar more evolved by eliminating the
requirement for the user to manually edit the diary file. I call this
evolution for two reason: the first is that it would build on the
current system, without replacing anything really. The second reason is
that I think it would eliminate my frustration at editing the diary
buffer, saving, killing or burying, killing the window/frame which
sometimes it's been opened into, then updating the diary. Diary
modifications would happen in the minibuffer. So if I type in the
calendar i d then I would insert the description of the event in the
minibuffer and RET would also save the diary file and update the diary.

This improvement would be conservative because by design it will always
be possible to edit manually the diary file as it's being done now. Has
anyone attempted this already? Would you incorporate this on the
standard emacs which is distributed? I am aware that Org also has some
diary function but because at the moment I detest Org, then I refuse to
check this and I wouldn't use it anyway; even if it were the case it
wouldn't make an argument for not improving the Emacs diary anyway.

I'm not subscribed to this list, please CC: me!

Re: [PROPOSITION] edit the diary file from the minibuffer

[Stephen Berman]

On Fri, 15 Nov 2024 21:51:40 +0000 BP25 <bp25@riseup.net> wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> I'd like to see the Diary + Calendar more evolved by eliminating the
> requirement for the user to manually edit the diary file. I call this
> evolution for two reason: the first is that it would build on the
> current system, without replacing anything really. The second reason is
> that I think it would eliminate my frustration at editing the diary
> buffer, saving, killing or burying, killing the window/frame which
> sometimes it's been opened into, then updating the diary. Diary
> modifications would happen in the minibuffer. So if I type in the
> calendar i d then I would insert the description of the event in the
> minibuffer and RET would also save the diary file and update the diary.
>
> This improvement would be conservative because by design it will always
> be possible to edit manually the diary file as it's being done now. Has
> anyone attempted this already? Would you incorporate this on the
> standard emacs which is distributed? I am aware that Org also has some
> diary function but because at the moment I detest Org, then I refuse to
> check this and I wouldn't use it anyway; even if it were the case it
> wouldn't make an argument for not improving the Emacs diary anyway.
>
> I'm not subscribed to this list, please CC: me!

You might consider todo-mode.el to be such an evolution; it's a kind of
categorized extension of the Emacs Diary with many additional features,
including entering and editing items in the minibuffer (however, it does
not currently support Diary sexp entries).  Details are in the todo-mode
Info manual (`C-h R RET todo-mode RET').

Steve Berman