Tutorial for Emacs Diary Mode for use as a Journal?

Tutorial for Emacs Diary Mode for use as a Journal?

[Raymond Zeitler]

I'm a fan of Emacs 21.2 (running under Windows) and interested in
keeping a personal journal.  I was wondering if there are others who
use Emacs to compose and read their journals.

I'm aware of calendar mode and the diary facility, but I'm not
comfortable with it.  For instance, when I invoke "C-u i b" to insert
a block diary entry, I can easily create the entry on the current
date.  But then when I invoke "d" on that date to view the diary
entry, I get only the first line of text.  (I have auto-fill-mode
turned on when visiting the diary file.)

I'm sure there are other programs out there for journal writers, but
what could be better than Emacs?  Besides, I like the fact that
~/diary is plain text.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or recommendations you can give me.

For my real email addy, replace rayz with rzeitler.

Re: Tutorial for Emacs Diary Mode for use as a Journal?

[Phillip Lord]

>>>>> "Raymond" == Raymond Zeitler <rayz@phonon.com> writes:

  Raymond> I'm a fan of Emacs 21.2 (running under Windows) and
  Raymond> interested in keeping a personal journal.  I was wondering
  Raymond> if there are others who use Emacs to compose and read their
  Raymond> journals.

  Raymond> I'm aware of calendar mode and the diary facility, but I'm
  Raymond> not comfortable with it.  For instance, when I invoke "C-u
  Raymond> i b" to insert a block diary entry, I can easily create the
  Raymond> entry on the current date.  But then when I invoke "d" on
  Raymond> that date to view the diary entry, I get only the first
  Raymond> line of text.  (I have auto-fill-mode turned on when
  Raymond> visiting the diary file.)

  Raymond> I'm sure there are other programs out there for journal
  Raymond> writers, but what could be better than Emacs?  Besides, I
  Raymond> like the fact that ~/diary is plain text.

  Raymond> Thanks in advance for any ideas or recommendations you can
  Raymond> give me.

  Raymond> For my real email addy, replace rayz with rzeitler.




record-mode. 

It's on sourceforge I think. 


Phil

Re: Tutorial for Emacs Diary Mode for use as a Journal?

[Raymond Zeitler]

Phillip Lord <p.lord@russet.org.uk> wrote in message news:<vf8yegq1no.fsf@rpc71.cs.man.ac.uk>...
> >>>>> "Raymond" == Raymond Zeitler <rayz@phonon.com> writes:
> 
>   Raymond> I'm a fan of Emacs 21.2 (running under Windows) and
>   Raymond> interested in keeping a personal journal.  I was wondering
>   Raymond> if there are others who use Emacs to compose and read their
>   Raymond> journals.
> [snip]
> 
> record-mode. 
> 
> It's on sourceforge I think. 

records-mode looked promising.  Unfortunately I couldn't install it. 
Excellent documentation, but barely any activity in the list/support
archives.

Thanks, anyway.

(For my real email addy, replace rayz with rzeitler.)

Re: Tutorial for Emacs Diary Mode for use as a Journal?

[Mathias Dahl]

rayz@phonon.com (Raymond Zeitler) writes:

> I'm a fan of Emacs 21.2 (running under Windows) and interested in
> keeping a personal journal.  I was wondering if there are others who
> use Emacs to compose and read their journals.
> 
> I'm aware of calendar mode and the diary facility, but I'm not
> comfortable with it.  For instance, when I invoke "C-u i b" to insert
> a block diary entry, I can easily create the entry on the current
> date.  But then when I invoke "d" on that date to view the diary
> entry, I get only the first line of text.  (I have auto-fill-mode
> turned on when visiting the diary file.)
> 
> I'm sure there are other programs out there for journal writers, but
> what could be better than Emacs?  Besides, I like the fact that
> ~/diary is plain text.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any ideas or recommendations you can give me.
> 
> For my real email addy, replace rayz with rzeitler.

There is quite much information about this on the EmacsWiki:

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/CategoryJournaling

Re: Tutorial for Emacs Diary Mode for use as a Journal?

[Raymond Zeitler]

Thanks, but most of these are clients for web-based journals.  By
"personal journal," I meant one that doesn't reside on a remote,
public server.

Also records-mode didn't install for me properly, and seems to have
been abandoned.

For now I'll edit separate text files and use my file manager to
maintain them.

Mathias Dahl <brakjoller@hotmail.com> wrote in message  news:<uisdkokto.fsf@hotmail.com>...
> rayz@phonon.com (Raymond Zeitler) writes:
> 
> > I'm a fan of Emacs 21.2 (running under Windows) and interested in
> > keeping a personal journal.  I was wondering if there are others who
> > use Emacs to compose and read their journals.
> > 
> > I'm aware of calendar mode and the diary facility, but I'm not
> > comfortable with it.  For instance, when I invoke "C-u i b" to insert
> > a block diary entry, I can easily create the entry on the current
> > date.  But then when I invoke "d" on that date to view the diary
> > entry, I get only the first line of text.  (I have auto-fill-mode
> > turned on when visiting the diary file.)
> > 
> > I'm sure there are other programs out there for journal writers, but
> > what could be better than Emacs?  Besides, I like the fact that
> > ~/diary is plain text.
> > 
> > Thanks in advance for any ideas or recommendations you can give me.
> > 
> > For my real email addy, replace rayz with rzeitler.
> 
> There is quite much information about this on the EmacsWiki:
> 
> http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/CategoryJournaling

Re: Tutorial for Emacs Diary Mode for use as a Journal?

[Thomas Gehrlein]

rayz@phonon.com (Raymond Zeitler) writes:

> Thanks, but most of these are clients for web-based journals.  By
> "personal journal," I meant one that doesn't reside on a remote,
> public server.

You might want to try planner-mode:

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/emacs-en/PlannerMode

planner-mode allows you to publish your journal, but you don't have to do it.

I use it for a personal diary with a couple of entries (typically 2 - 5
paragraphs) for every day.  I don't publish anything.

Thomas

Re: Tutorial for Emacs Diary Mode for use as a Journal?

[Raymond Zeitler]

Thomas Gehrlein <thomas.gehrlein@t-online.de> wrote in message news:<m3n02udb8e.fsf@luzi-zwei.local>...
> rayz@phonon.com (Raymond Zeitler) writes:
> 
> > Thanks, but most of these are clients for web-based journals.  By
> > "personal journal," I meant one that doesn't reside on a remote,
> > public server.
> 
> You might want to try planner-mode:
> 
> http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/emacs-en/PlannerMode
> 
> planner-mode allows you to publish your journal, but you don't have to do it.
> 
> I use it for a personal diary with a couple of entries (typically 2 - 5
> paragraphs) for every day.  I don't publish anything.
> 
> Thomas

Thank you so much for suggesting this.  It's just what I've always
wanted!  It's easy to install and comes with the best readme file I've
ever seen.  :-)

(For my real email addy, replace rayz with rzeitler.)

Re: Tutorial for Emacs Diary Mode for use as a Journal?

[Kai Grossjohann]

rayz@phonon.com (Raymond Zeitler) writes:

> I'm aware of calendar mode and the diary facility, but I'm not
> comfortable with it.  For instance, when I invoke "C-u i b" to insert
> a block diary entry, I can easily create the entry on the current
> date.  But then when I invoke "d" on that date to view the diary
> entry, I get only the first line of text.  (I have auto-fill-mode
> turned on when visiting the diary file.)

Subsequent lines of text need to start with whitespace.

My officemate likes ChangeLog files: C-x C-f ~/ChangeLog RET, then
C-x 4 a.  WDYT?

Kai