Re: Diary Usage Poll

Re: Diary Usage Poll

[Henrik Enberg]

Galen Boyer <galenboyer@hotpop.com> writes:

> I don't use it.  Should I?

  Yes.

> Will I not know how I lived without it if I do?

  Yes, that's how it is for me at least.

> I've tried a few times, but found it a bit hard to use.  

  Well, just like the rest of Emacs, you don't have to learn all of it
  at once.  I found it to be quite obvious when I first started using
  it, so it shouldn't be _too_ hard.  

> Maybe the biggest drawback is that I work in Microsoft environments so
> calendar stuff is all in the behemoth's software.

  My condolences.

-- 
Booting... /vmemacs.el

Re: Diary Usage Poll

[Urban Gabor]

Emacs diary is very good, I love it. May be some extensions 
would be really cool. BTW yuo can write simple Perls 
scripts to assist yourself....

Gabaux
Linux is like a wigwam: no gates, no windows, and an apache 
inside!

Re: Diary Usage Poll

[David S Goldberg]

>>>>> On 04 Nov 2002 13:27:28 -0800, David Masterson
>>>>> <dmaster@synopsys.com> said:

>> FWIW, I ditched my Palm III in favor of BBDB and the Emacs diary.

> Could you be a bit more specific as to why?  Isn't there a BBDB to
> Palm synchronizer out there (somewhere...)?

There is.  In fact there are several.  Unfortunately the only one I've
found that is a true synchronization as opposed to a one way export
from bbdb to pilot appears to be no longer active development.  Nor
for that matter, is the synchronization tool it's built on.  These
would be SyncBBDB and pilotmgr.  They still work, but not nearly as
well under PalmOS4 as they did under PalmOS3.  I get various warnings
that I suspect may become fatal errors in some future version of
PalmOS, and had to tweak some (shudder) perl to get it to work for
me.  For a while I synchronized everything except the Datebook (we use
a proprietary calendar system at work in spite of my best efforts)
with pilotmgr and linux.  Due to the problems I've had, now I have to
sync everything but bbdb with the Palm desktop.  Bleah.

-- 
Dave Goldberg
david.goldberg6@verizon.net

Re: Diary Usage Poll

[David Masterson]

>>>>> David S Goldberg writes:

>>>>> On 04 Nov 2002 13:27:28 -0800, David Masterson
>>>>> <dmaster@synopsys.com> said:

>>> FWIW, I ditched my Palm III in favor of BBDB and the Emacs diary.

>> Could you be a bit more specific as to why?  Isn't there a BBDB to
>> Palm synchronizer out there (somewhere...)?

> There is.  In fact there are several.  Unfortunately the only one I've
> found that is a true synchronization as opposed to a one way export
> from bbdb to pilot appears to be no longer active development.  Nor
> for that matter, is the synchronization tool it's built on.  These
> would be SyncBBDB and pilotmgr.  They still work, but not nearly as
> well under PalmOS4 as they did under PalmOS3.  I get various warnings
> that I suspect may become fatal errors in some future version of
> PalmOS, and had to tweak some (shudder) perl to get it to work for
> me.  For a while I synchronized everything except the Datebook (we use
> a proprietary calendar system at work in spite of my best efforts)
> with pilotmgr and linux.  Due to the problems I've had, now I have to
> sync everything but bbdb with the Palm desktop.  Bleah.

Thanks to you and Alan for the replies.  I had considered getting a
Palm and eventually hooking it up to BBDB, but I guess I'll rethink
that strategy.

-- 
David Masterson                David DOT Masterson AT synopsys DOT com
Sr. R&D Engineer               Synopsys, Inc.
Software Engineering           Sunnyvale, CA

Re: Diary Usage Poll

[Alan Shutko]

ken <ken@cleveland.lug.net> writes:

> I switched because I believe gnomecal will be the dominant
> calendaring app in Linux, and especially as Linux becomes more
> popular on the desktop.

Gnomecal was already orphaned once, and may be again in the future.
Last I fiddled in the code, it was pretty buggy in a number of
areas.  Why do you think that it (and not Evolution, or the KDE
calendar, or plan, or remind, or something else) will be the dominant
calendaring app in Linux?  And why does it matter?

> This gnomecal also easily handles repeating events, events which
> repeat only a finite number of times, exceptions to either of these
> kinds of repeating events, and a variety of others, all by pointing
> and clicking...

What it doesn't handle are floating holidays or things like the DST
switch.  That's one reason I don't use it anymore.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.

Re: Diary Usage Poll

[ken]

Spake Alan Shutko at 21:22 (UTC-0000) on Wed, 6 Nov 2002:

= ken <ken@cleveland.lug.net> writes:
= 
= > I switched because I believe gnomecal will be the dominant
= > calendaring app in Linux, and especially as Linux becomes more
= > popular on the desktop.
= 
= Gnomecal was already orphaned once, and may be again in the future.
= Last I fiddled in the code, it was pretty buggy in a number of
= areas.  Why do you think that it (and not Evolution, or the KDE
= calendar, or plan, or remind, or something else) will be the dominant
= calendaring app in Linux?  And why does it matter?

Seems I touched a nerve.

I haven't had problems with it and can't say why you did.  I was just 
responding to a question about emacs diary, hoping to get the point 
across that another gnu app has a lot of nice features and is simple to 
use, a consideration for people who want to do calendaring without 
having to learn to program in elisp, also a consideration for those of 
us interested in broadening the use of open source software.  That's why 
it matters.  

It would be a little OT and inconsiderate to the list to provide you a
review of the apps you requested... or to take up what seems to me to be 
an invitation to a pointless dispute.  You disagree with me.  This is 
duly noted.  Let's leave it there.

= 
= > This gnomecal also easily handles repeating events, events which
= > repeat only a finite number of times, exceptions to either of these
= > kinds of repeating events, and a variety of others, all by pointing
= > and clicking...
= 
= What it doesn't handle are floating holidays or things like the DST
= switch.  That's one reason I don't use it anymore.

Rereading my original post, you'll note that I said that gnomecal "needs
more development".  This is one notable area where it is needed.  And 
there are others.  

Further discussion may be pursued off the list.


Regards,
ken

-- 
AMD crashes?  See http://cleveland.lug.net/~ken/amd-problem/.

Re: Diary Usage Poll

[Alan Shutko]

ken <ken@cleveland.lug.net> writes:

> I was just responding to a question about emacs diary, hoping to get
> the point across that another gnu app has a lot of nice features and
> is simple to use
[...]

That's a good thing, but I was responding to your statement that you
switched to gnomecal because you believe it "will be the dominant
calendaring app in Linux."  

Now, I don't think that Emacs' calendar will ever be the "dominant"
calendaring app anywhere except within Emacs.  But I don't know why
you think that app will more dominant than any other number of
existing apps (personally, I doubt it), and I didn't know why
switching to something just because it may be the most dominant app is
a good idea.

More specific reasons could be quite useful here in giving ideas to
people who want to improve the Emacs calendar, but just that mass
throngs seem to be going to another app gets us nowhere.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
"Excuse me. I should like to buy a fish license please."