enhanced diary mode?

enhanced diary mode?

[Adam P.]

I'm missing various features in the calendar / diary mode and I've
been wondering if there exists an enhanced diary mode that implements
those, or whether anybody implemented any of those stand-alone.  The
ones that I'd find particulalry useful are:

- sending reminders via email rather than displaying them in the mode
  line;
- marking diary entries in various ways depending on the type of the
  entry (e.g.: anniversaries in red and appointment via underlining);
- something like RefTeX's follow mode: moving cursor from one date to
  another would automatically result in displaying diary entries for
  the new date, without the need to press 'd' each time.

<NTG>
Failing that, could anybody recommend any linux diary / appointment
management program that's not too heavy (evolution is heavy) and which
has such features?
</NTG>

Many thanks.

     Adam

-- 
Name and address in X-Real...

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

Did you read the section about Calendar/Diary in the Emacs manual?

   - sending reminders via email rather than displaying them in the mode
     line;

From (emacs)Diary Commands:

   Many users like to receive notice of events in their diary as
email.  To send such mail to yourself, use the command `M-x
diary-mail-entries'.  A prefix argument specifies how many days
(starting with today) to check; otherwise, the variable
`diary-mail-days' says how many days.

   - marking diary entries in various ways depending on the type of the
     entry (e.g.: anniversaries in red and appointment via underlining);

See (emacs)Special Diary Entries:

   Each of the standard sexp diary entries takes an optional parameter
specifying the name of a face or a single-character string to use when
marking the entry in the calendar.  Most generally, sexp diary entries
can perform arbitrary computations to determine when they apply.
*Note Sexp Diary Entries: (elisp)Sexp Diary Entries.

   - something like RefTeX's follow mode: moving cursor from one date to
     another would automatically result in displaying diary entries for
     the new date, without the need to press 'd' each time.

See calendar-move-hook:

*List of functions called whenever the cursor moves in the calendar.

For example,

  (add-hook 'calendar-move-hook (lambda () (view-diary-entries 1)))

redisplays the diary for whatever date the cursor is moved to.

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Adam P.]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" <ams@kemisten.nu> writes:

> Did you read the section about Calendar/Diary in the Emacs manual?

Yes.  Apparently missed some important bits, though...

> From (emacs)Diary Commands:
>
>    Many users like to receive notice of events in their diary as
> email.  To send such mail to yourself, use the command `M-x
> diary-mail-entries'.  A prefix argument specifies how many days
> (starting with today) to check; otherwise, the variable
> `diary-mail-days' says how many days.

This description wasn't helpful because it suggested that I have to
run M-x diary-mail-entries manually each time I want to remind myself
about diary entries, which missed the point.  But "C-h f
diary-mail-entries" describes a way of automating this task (using
cron).

>    - marking diary entries in various ways depending on the type of the
>      entry (e.g.: anniversaries in red and appointment via underlining);
>
> See (emacs)Special Diary Entries:
>
>    Each of the standard sexp diary entries takes an optional parameter
> specifying the name of a face or a single-character string to use when
> marking the entry in the calendar.

A! This is useful -- thanks.  More useful would be defining just a few
entry types, with a face for each type, and without the need to
manually assign face to each entry, but I suppose this can be done
with some elisp tweaking.

>    - something like RefTeX's follow mode: moving cursor from one date to
>      another would automatically result in displaying diary entries for
>      the new date, without the need to press 'd' each time.
>
> See calendar-move-hook:
>
> *List of functions called whenever the cursor moves in the calendar.
>
> For example,
>
>   (add-hook 'calendar-move-hook (lambda () (view-diary-entries 1)))
>
> redisplays the diary for whatever date the cursor is moved to.

Many thanks -- that's been very helpful.

Best,

        Adam
-- 
Name and address in X-Real...

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Alan Shutko]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" <ams@kemisten.nu> writes:

>    Each of the standard sexp diary entries takes an optional parameter
> specifying the name of a face or a single-character string to use when
> marking the entry in the calendar.  

Note that this is only in Emacs CVS right now.  It makes me happy to
see someone else using it!  It should hit the street in 21.4.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
I lead a dog's life. I'm not even allowed on the furniture!

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Alan Shutko]

adamp_at@at_ipipan.waw.pl (Adam P.) writes:

> A! This is useful -- thanks.  More useful would be defining just a few
> entry types, with a face for each type, and without the need to
> manually assign face to each entry, but I suppose this can be done
> with some elisp tweaking.

I can see both sides of that.  I have things like 

(defface ats-birthday-face 
  '((t :inherit diary-face))
  "Anniversary face"
  :group 'ats)

(defun diary-birthday (month day year)
  "Birthday diary entry.
Acts like `diary-anniversary' but uses `ats-birthday-face'."
  (diary-anniversary month day year 'ats-birthday-face))

set up, but I also use the normal sexps with different faces.  (Block
especially, for vacations, on-call, etc.)

Any ideas what some common faces/entry types should be?


-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
TENNIS PLAYERS cannot play with balls all day long {n}

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Adam P.]

Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> writes:

> adamp_at@at_ipipan.waw.pl (Adam P.) writes:
>
>> A! This is useful -- thanks.  More useful would be defining just a few
>> entry types, with a face for each type, and without the need to
>> manually assign face to each entry, but I suppose this can be done
>> with some elisp tweaking.
>

[...]

> Any ideas what some common faces/entry types should be?

Sorry, no deep thoughts here :-) Entry types that would be useful for
me would be: anniversary, appointment, deadline, todo (various
priorities?), vacation / being away...

> "Alfred M. Szmidt" <ams@kemisten.nu> writes:
>
>>    Each of the standard sexp diary entries takes an optional parameter
>> specifying the name of a face or a single-character string to use when
>> marking the entry in the calendar.  
>
> Note that this is only in Emacs CVS right now.  It makes me happy to
> see someone else using it!  It should hit the street in 21.4.

So there is a good reason why I haven't seen this described in my
version of Emacs -- I am relieved (perhaps not blind, after all).

        Adam

-- 
Name and address in X-Real...

Diary Usage Poll (WAS) Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Galen Boyer]

I don't use it.  Should I?  Will I not know how I lived without it if I
do?   I've tried a few times, but found it a bit hard to use.  Maybe the
biggest drawback is that I work in Microsoft environments so calendar
stuff is all in the behemoth's software.

-- 
Galen deForest Boyer
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.

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 (WAS) Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Alan Shutko]

Galen Boyer <galenboyer@hotpop.com> writes:

> I don't use it.  Should I? 

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

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
Edward Scissorhands has jock itch!

Re: Diary Usage Poll (WAS) Re: enhanced diary mode?

[David Masterson]

>>>>> Alan Shutko writes:

> Galen Boyer <galenboyer@hotpop.com> writes:
>> I don't use it.  Should I? 

> 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...)?

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

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 (WAS) Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Alan Shutko]

David Masterson <dmaster@synopsys.com> writes:

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

Few reasons:

* I am near my laptop nearly all the time.  I had stopped carrying
  around my Palm when I wasn't, since it was generally a pain.

* I was sick of the lack of coordination with the programs I normally
  use.  For example, I was keeping a second addressbook in bbdb to be
  able to mail people easily.  I also was keeping a second copy of
  phone numbers in my cell phone.

* There is a SyncBBDB, but it only works with PilotManager.  I
  switched from PilotManager long ago because I hated it.  ISTR some
  stability issues, which may have been corrected, but certainly it
  didn't sync well with any calendar programs I liked.

* I disliked the limitations of the Palm calendar.  When I found
  myself running M-x holidays to update the Palm, I figured I needed
  to change.

Now, I do everything within Emacs.  When I need info and am away from
my computer, I carry a small Circa[1] and a fountain pen.  I can
print my calendar into pages sized for the notebook.  I haven't
bothered with BBDB info yet, although it's on the list, since my
phone has all that stuff.  (Still no way to sync the phone.)

Otherwise, I don't carry anything around, and I don't feel bad about
having this piece of electronics I never actually use.  (Instead, I
gave it to my mom.)

Anything the Emacs solutions don't do that I want, I just fix.  Makes
it happy that way.

Footnotes: 
[1]  http://www.levenger.com, sorry, couldn't figure out the deep link.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
"I dunno how you guys walk around with those things." (Elaine)

Re: Diary Usage Poll (WAS) Re: enhanced diary mode?

[mr.sparkle]

On 3 Nov 2002, galenboyer@hotpop.com wrote:
> I don't use it.  Should I?  Will I not know how I lived without it
> if I do?  I've tried a few times, but found it a bit hard to use.
> Maybe the biggest drawback is that I work in Microsoft environments
> so calendar stuff is all in the behemoth's software.

I use it and find it very useful, with only only minor quibbles.

quibble (1) As far as I know, its not possible to display diary
            entries in a grid format. If this is in fact possible, it
            would make diary/calendar even more wonderful.

quibble (2) This involve the i-d command,and I think I will start a
            separate thread for this one

Re: Diary Usage Poll (WAS) Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Sacha Chua]

Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> writes:

> bothered with BBDB info yet, although it's on the list, since my
> phone has all that stuff.  (Still no way to sync the phone.)

I hooked my Nokia 5110 (yes, old phone) up to my laptop through a data
cable. Gnokii can talk to it and some other kinds of phones. Alamin is
a GSM SMS gateway that polls my phone for messages and sends me e-mail
from alamin+phonenumber@localhost. Gnus picks it up, splits it into
mail.text, looks up the sender's real name in BBDB, and uses that for
summary lines. E-mail replies get parsed by a Perl script that invokes
the alamin command to send text messages. Alamin queues outgoing
messages and tries sending it until it succeeds (eventually giving up
after a configurable number of tries). Of course, Gnus gcc:s all
outgoing text I send, so I have a nice, neat archive. I'm thinking of
sorting it by author and then by date. I used to have the numbers in
the subject, which made it really easy to have nice threaded displays,
but I moved the caller identification into the From: address and set
the subject to the first N characters of the message so that I can
browse easily.

I used xgnokii to extract the phonebook, wrote a Perl script to turn
that into an elisp script that created or updated the relevant BBDB
entries, and manually merged some of the resulting entries. Right now
I still add alamin+phonenumber@localhost addresses to the BBDB records
that have phone numbers, although I can probably write a Perl script
to munge my BBDB records (or do it in elisp, of course). I'd love it
if BBDB automatically handled that for me, but I think it only checks
name and net for Gnus integration.

I haven't written an elisp function to initiate voice calls, but
seeing as gnokii has a --dialvoice <number> argument... =)

Anyway, yeah, Emacs + cellphone is fun. <g>
-- 
Sacha Chua <sacha@free.net.ph> - 4 BS CS Ateneo geekette
interests: emacs, gnu/linux, wearables, teaching compsci

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 (WAS) Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>]

Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> writes:
> 
> Now, I do everything within Emacs.  When I need info and am away from
> my computer, I carry a small Circa[1] and a fountain pen.  I can
> print my calendar into pages sized for the notebook.

How do you get the small ones?  I'm sure that there's an option
somewhere.

> I haven't bothered with BBDB info yet, although it's on the list,
> since my phone has all that stuff.

Is there a BBDB->LaTeX function somewhere?  I don't recall one from
the docs but...

> [1]  http://www.levenger.com, sorry, couldn't figure out the deep link.

<http://tinyurl.com/2gf8>

-- 
Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>
French General: `I knew it.  You Germans are only useful as garrison soldiers.'
German Colonel: `True.  In the last war, we garrisoned Paris, Nice, Lyon...'

Re: Diary Usage Poll (WAS) Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Alan Shutko]

ruhl@4dv.net (Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>) writes:

> How do you get the small ones?  I'm sure that there's an option
> somewhere.

Look for "memo"-sized ones.  That's 4x6, which is what I use.

> Is there a BBDB->LaTeX function somewhere?  I don't recall one from
> the docs but...

bbdb-print.  I don't recall if it's stock with bbdb or in its contrib
directory, or off its site somewhere.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
I like Triple A SEX, (Anything, Anytime, Anywhere!!!)

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Janusz S. Bień]

On Sun, 03 Nov 2002  Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> wrote:

> "Alfred M. Szmidt" <ams@kemisten.nu> writes:
> 
> >    Each of the standard sexp diary entries takes an optional parameter
> > specifying the name of a face or a single-character string to use when
> > marking the entry in the calendar.  
> 
> Note that this is only in Emacs CVS right now.  It makes me happy to
> see someone else using it!  It should hit the street in 21.4.

I use diary for several years now and I am generally satisfied.

What I am missing most is the possibility to have several diary files:
one with professional appointment used at home and at work, one for
private purposes kept only at home. Of course, the files should be
merged before displaying.

Best regards

Janusz

-- 
                     ,   
dr hab. Janusz S. Bien, prof. UW
Prof. Janusz S. Bien, Warsaw Uniwersity
http://www.orient.uw.edu.pl/~jsbien/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Na tym koncie czytam i wysylam poczte i wiadomosci offline.
On this account I read/post mail/news offline.

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Alan Shutko]

jsbien@mimuw.edu.pl (Janusz S. Bień) writes:

> What I am missing most is the possibility to have several diary files:
> one with professional appointment used at home and at work, one for
> private purposes kept only at home. Of course, the files should be
> merged before displaying.

You should take a look in the elisp manual at the diary customization
sections.  Much of the more-advanced diary tools are described
there.  Specifically, under Fancy Diary Display it mentions the
ability to use #include "filename" to include a diary file.

If you hit i d in the calendar it'll still go into the main file, but
you can then move things around to suit.  I have a main diary file,
one where I move historical stuff, and a third for all the cyclic
things like anniversaries.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
My decision is MAYBE ... and that's FINAL.

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Edward M. Reingold]

>>>>> "JS=" == Janusz S =?iso-8859-2?q?Bie=F1?= <jsbien@mimuw.edu.pl> writes:

    JS=> What I am missing most is the possibility to have several diary
    JS=> files: one with professional appointment used at home and at work,
    JS=> one for private purposes kept only at home. Of course, the files
    JS=> should be merged before displaying.

Multiple diary files are supported in three ways: the #include mechanism, the
setting of `diary-file', and the `D' command in the calendar.

-- 

Professor Edward M. Reingold                Email: reingold@iit.edu
Chairman, Department of Computer Science    Voice: (312) 567-3309
Illinois Institute of Technology            Assistant: (312) 567-5152
Stuart Building                             Fax:   (312) 567-5067
10 West 31st Street, Suite 236
Chicago, IL  60616-3729  U.S.A.

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[David S Goldberg]

>>>>> On Wed, 06 Nov 2002 08:35:28 -0500, Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> said:

> If you hit i d in the calendar it'll still go into the main file, but
> you can then move things around to suit.  I have a main diary file,
> one where I move historical stuff, and a third for all the cyclic
> things like anniversaries.

I trivially advised insert-diary-entry to help me deal with the
multiple diary files I #include.

(defadvice insert-diary-entry (around insert-in-alternate-file first (arg
				      altfile) activate)
  (interactive "P\nfFile: ")
  (let ((diary-file altfile)
	(calendar-date-display-form
	 '((format "%02s/%02s/%4s" month day year))))
    ad-do-it))

I don't recall why I need to set calendar-date-display-form in the
let and I don't feel like breaking things to jog my memory.

-- 
Dave Goldberg
david.goldberg6@verizon.net

Re: Diary Usage Poll (WAS) Re: enhanced diary mode?

[ken]

I used to use emacs' diary, for years in fact, and liked it a lot, but
now use gnomecal.  I switched because I believe gnomecal will be the
dominant calendaring app in Linux, and especially as Linux becomes more
popular on the desktop.  While it could use some more development, it
has a lot of nice and easy to use features.  I especially like its
ability to pop up reminders, send email, and run any executable, all at
a user-designated day/time.  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... this from a guy who generally favors a CLI 
to a GUI and who's been an emacs devotee since the '80s.

I should add a little story.  A couple years ago no one at work could
agree on which date fell an upcoming holiday (I don't remember just now
which holiday it was, but anyway...).  People checked published paper
calendars, MS calendaring apps, and I used emacs' diary.  As it turned
out, they were all wrong and emacs was right.  So hang on to that app.  
We still gneed it.


Committed gnu guy,
ken

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

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."

Re: enhanced diary mode?

[Janusz S. Bień]

Thanks to Alan and Edward for answers.

On Wed, 06 Nov 2002  Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> wrote:

> jsbien@mimuw.edu.pl (Janusz S. Bień) writes:
> 
> > What I am missing most is the possibility to have several diary files:
> > one with professional appointment used at home and at work, one for
> > private purposes kept only at home. Of course, the files should be
> > merged before displaying.
> 
> You should take a look in the elisp manual at the diary customization
> sections.  Much of the more-advanced diary tools are described
> there.  

Placing all this crucial information about diary capabilities in Emacs
Lisp Reference Manual qualifies in my opinion to be reported as a
documentation bug. Here is how the manual proper refers to the section
in question:

           The command `M-x diary' displays the diary entries for the
        current date, independently of the calendar display, and
        optionally for the next few days as well; the variable
        `number-of-diary-entries' specifies how many days to include.
        *Note Customizing the Calendar and Diary: (elisp)Calendar.

Nobody can guess that this is a link to the description of advanced
diary tools!

> Specifically, under Fancy Diary Display it mentions the
> ability to use #include "filename" to include a diary file.

That is what I have been loooking for.

> 
> If you hit i d in the calendar it'll still go into the main file, but
> you can then move things around to suit.  I have a main diary file,
> one where I move historical stuff, and a third for all the cyclic
> things like anniversaries.

Thanks for the hint.

On 06 Nov 2002  reingold@emr.cs.iit.edu (Edward M. Reingold) wrote:

> The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
> that has been posted to gnu.emacs.help as well.
> 
> >>>>> "JS=" == Janusz S =?iso-8859-2?q?Bie=F1?= <jsbien@mimuw.edu.pl> writes:
> 
>     JS=> What I am missing most is the possibility to have several diary
>     JS=> files: one with professional appointment used at home and at work,
>     JS=> one for private purposes kept only at home. Of course, the files
>     JS=> should be merged before displaying.
> 
> Multiple diary files are supported in three ways: the #include mechanism, the
> setting of `diary-file', and the `D' command in the calendar.

I was aware of `diary-file' but considered it too cumbersome for the
purpose, I forgot about `D' but I consider it also too cumbersome.

Regards

Janusz

-- 
                     ,   
dr hab. Janusz S. Bien, prof. UW
Prof. Janusz S. Bien, Warsaw Uniwersity
http://www.orient.uw.edu.pl/~jsbien/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Na tym koncie czytam i wysylam poczte i wiadomosci offline.
On this account I read/post mail/news offline.