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Calendar.txt

terokarvinen.com

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Re: Calendar.txt

#22

Post by JohnKemeny »

lblume wrote: post #5

> Unix philosophy. It's one day, one line. The Unix philosophy is often recited as "do one thing, and do it well". This does one thing, but doesn't do it well at all.

It even says:

> Unix philosophy. It's one day, one line. You can grep (only show lines).

Surprisingly, grep is able to output several lines, so even if you were to use a (say) more sensible format of one line per event, grep could still output all lines, and display them.

Re: Calendar.txt

#23

Post by TZubiri »

emacsen wrote: post #6

As a file format, this is just fine, but I feel like there's some conflation between a file format and software meant to interact with that format. I use plain text accounting for my business, and it's lovely to be able to enter bookkeeping data with a plain text editor and keep it all under version control, but the next step is using a program such as hledger or beancount to work with that data. I'd love to work wit…

This is definitely in the camp of oversimplifying by missing the whole problem domain.

Re: Calendar.txt

#24

Post by tero »

tero wrote: post #13

Thank you for bringing up calendar.txt. My homepage is feeling the hug. In the meanwhile: https://web.archive.org/web/20250216110151/https://terokarvi...

Now my homepage should answer in under 300 ms again. Thanks for visiting!

Re: Calendar.txt

#25

Post by jaza »

I don't like that week numbers are (documented as) mandatory. I wouldn't see myself grepping on a week number. I'd end up constantly looking up the correct week number in order to annotate each event properly, with no benefit in return. Then again, could write a macro/plugin thingy for one's editor of choice, to fill in the week number for you (ditto for day of week, which I would at least find quite useful, but which would similarly be a right pain to have to fill in manually all the time).

Also: claims to be "one thing per line", yet allows and encourages multiple events on one line (as long as they're on the same day). This is a calendar - is an event not the main "thing" we're dealing with?!

Re: Calendar.txt

#26

Post by tero »

emacsen wrote: post #6

As a file format, this is just fine, but I feel like there's some conflation between a file format and software meant to interact with that format. I use plain text accounting for my business, and it's lovely to be able to enter bookkeeping data with a plain text editor and keep it all under version control, but the next step is using a program such as hledger or beancount to work with that data. I'd love to work wit…

For reminders and other automated actions, pydry suggested "orgzly revived with org mode"; and kruffalon suggested 'remind'. I have not tried those, but they might be better options for notifications and reminding than calendar.txt.

I use calendar.txt on a cell phone with Markor text editor. For my desktop, I just use micro editor on terminal, the same I use for most text editing tasks.

Bookkeeping using plain text files sounds both interesting and challenging.

Re: Calendar.txt

#27

Post by tero »

jaza wrote: post #25

I don't like that week numbers are (documented as) mandatory. I wouldn't see myself grepping on a week number. I'd end up constantly looking up the correct week number in order to annotate each event properly, with no benefit in return. Then again, could write a macro/plugin thingy for one's editor of choice, to fill in the week number for you (ditto for day of week, which I would at least find quite useful, but whic…

I use a template [1] that has the dates (including week numbers) there already. That way, I only need a text editor.

In my work, similar events happen on the same week numbers in different years. The importance of week numbers probably depends on your area of work.

For me, one thing is a day. That's also the context I need when reviewing and planning. But if I remember correctly, previous HN thread on calendar.txt had a suggestion where someone had an event-per-line format, if you prefer that.

[1] https://terokarvinen.com/2021/calendar-txt/calendar-txt-unti...

Re: Calendar.txt

#28

Post by sunshine-o »

I love it but I believe I am deeper in that rabbit hole.

I just create files in a folder with the `yyyy-MM-dd-hh:mm` format. I use `XX` for recurring events.

I use `at` for reminders/notifications.

Re: Calendar.txt

#29

Post by bArray »

My format used to be as follows:

    * [ ] YYYY-MM-DD
      * [ ] 1800: Dinner with parents
      * [x] Walk the dog
    * [ ] YYYY-MM-DD
      * [ ] 0900: Interview new recruit
        * [ ] Prepare interview questions
        * [ ] Upload result to HR system
This worked really well for me and was easily searchable. One benefit would be that it is easily trackable in Git.

These days I have a little A6 lined notebook and manually list tasks there. Each page is a new day and the tasks are listed similarly. The only modification is that sometimes I put some letters to theme a task, i.e.:

    * [ ] YYYY-MM-DD
      * [x] Home: Walk the dog
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