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Calendar.txt

terokarvinen.com

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Re: Calendar.txt

#2

Post by ndegruchy »

I like this. It's a lot like Emacs `diary` system. Though, you can group multiple events under one day heading. I will say that I like how `grep`-able this is. As long as you know the rules, it's pretty easy to parse. You could probably whip up an alarm system in bash and cron/systemd and let it alert you like all those big-box programs do.

Re: Calendar.txt

#3

Post by smikhanov »

Sorry to be a Luddite, but isn’t this completely useless?

- one line per event, so good luck finding multi-day events like “Grandma is visiting”;

- rigid metadata (dates, week numbers, weekdays) stored right next to the editable data (events), so copy-pasting errors are inevitable;

- the most important feature of the real calendar software (reminders) is thrown out;

- grepping is really not how most people interact with a calendar.

If you’re ready to ditch reminders, attachments, locations, use the paper diary planner. At least it won’t let you screw the dates with botched copy-paste.

Update: also, sorting by date must be done manually, my god.

Re: Calendar.txt

#4

Post by lifeisstillgood »

smikhanov wrote: post #3

Sorry to be a Luddite, but isn’t this completely useless? - one line per event, so good luck finding multi-day events like “Grandma is visiting”; - rigid metadata (dates, week numbers, weekdays) stored right next to the editable data (events), so copy-pasting errors are inevitable; - the most important feature of the real calendar software (reminders) is thrown out; - grepping is really not how most people interact w…

Oh I agree … but

I believe software is a form of literacy, not engineering. And I believe everyone should be literate it brings great benefits socially and individually

And if this works for him/her it’s a calendar on a piece of paper stuck to the fridge. Great, it works for them and some people might find it good for them too

But yeah.

“One day I will get organisssseed”

Re: Calendar.txt

#5

Post by lblume »

> 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.

Re: Calendar.txt

#6

Post by emacsen »

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 with plain text calendar software, but it would still need to do things such as provide a mechanism to work on my desktop and mobile device. It would need to handle recurring events automatically, and it would need to allow me to invite others to events and ideally to track when they've accepted or rejected my invites.

I'd need to be able to update, cancel or propose to move events in such a way that others would be updated.

I wish I knew of a good command line tool to interact with CalDav or similar servers, or that I could maintain my calendar in a file format and then handle the synchronization automatically.

Maybe calendar.txt could play a role in that, but on its own, it's not quite enough for me.

Re: Calendar.txt

#8

Post by guessmyname »

I created a super-simple CalDav-esque web endpoint in my personal website that receives HTTP requests from a command line tool, stores the calendar events, and then returns them as a dynamic ICS file. Then, I use Apple’s Calendar app to subscribe to a “hidden” URL and iCloud automatically distributes the subscription to all my devices.

It sounds super dumb but it works so well.

The main feature is that I can categorize the events (personal, family, work, friends, etc.) and share individual URL’s with other people. Admitedly, I didn’t try solving this problem with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or any other calendar service, mostly because I wanted to own my data and also learn a bit more about CalDav itself.

Re: Calendar.txt

#9

Post by neilv »

For a few years, I evolved a slightly-modified Todo.txt format for this purpose, to represent both tasks and appointments.

http://todotxt.org/

https://www.neilvandyke.org/todotxt/

In some ways it worked well, but there were a few drawbacks, and eventually I switched to native calendar programs on desktop and mobile.

Drawbacks I personally felt:

* In the text file, recurring tasks didn't show up when I looked into the future, such as to schedule an appointment.

* Calendar invites over email weren't integrated, so I had to enter and update those manually anyway. (Though one advantage over the native calendar programs I use now is that todo.txt doesn't force the appointment headline someone else wrote into my calendar view, and refuse to let me edit it in my local copy.)

* I had to keep editing dates on tasks manually, every day, for my "current day view" of top of the file to work with priorities.

* No visual calendar views with the tools I was using.

* No device sync with the tools I was using (though possible).

* There are only so many ways in which I was willing to be a weirdo at once, and this one didn't make the cut.

I don't discourage anyone from trying todo.txt or calendar.txt. Just a heads-up of some things you might want to find solutions/workarounds for.

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