tero · HackerTrans

My favourite would be 'sudo apt-get autoupgrade'. It does not exist, but would upgrade everything, right now, no questions asked.

I wonder why 'sudo unattended-upgrade -v' does not do an unattended upgrade when run.

ps. Thanks for linking my article, speckx.

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

I have found Leaf [1] to be a simple and plain spaced repetition program. It has very few features compared to Anki.

It does not have a large ecosystem of stack sharing, it's mostly aimed for those who write their own decks. You can compile it to a static binary and be sure that the decks you create work for a long time.

[1] https://github.com/ap4y/leaf

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

Those pta example files you linked, marttt, really make the case for this software. It looks simple, transparent, auditable, versionable and unixy.

Dpifke, beancounter looks nice, big and well tought out. I bookmarked the docs/ to have a more troughout look at it later.

Update: Had a more detailed look on Beancount.

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

Nice!

Static binaries generated by Go are indeed large, even if the source code here is under 30 lines with support to some additional minor features (US and Finnish day names, command line help, optional week headings, day counts and parameter handling).

Here are some more scripts to generate calendar.txt date format:

https://terokarvinen.com/2024/format-date-calendar-txt/

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

SimpleTask Cloudless has been my favourite todo.txt app for Android. Unfortunately, SimpleTask is in low maintenance mode [1], and does not work well in my setup.

According to mpcjanssen: "The suspending of the applications by Google #1102 and the continuously fixing breakage by Android API changes have reduced my Simpletask motivation to a very low level." [1].

[1] https://github.com/mpcjanssen/simpletask-android/issues/1110

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

Based on the man page, calendar(3) would not suit my use well. It's quite different from calendar.txt. But I'm happy to hear that you use it.

I installed it just to read the man page: """

           LANG=C
           Easter=Ostern

           #include <calendar.usholiday>
           #include <calendar.birthday>

           6/15\tJune 15 (if ambiguous, will default to month/day).
           Jun. 15\tJune 15.
           15 June\tJune 15.
           Thursday\tEvery Thursday.
           June\tEvery June 1st.
           15 *\t15th of every month.

           May Sun+2\tsecond Sunday in May (Muttertag)
           04/SunLast\tlast Sunday in April,
           \tsummer time in Europe
           Easter\tEaster
           Ostern-2\tGood Friday (2 days before Easter)
           Paskha\tOrthodox Easter

"""

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

Yes [1]. In the unlikely event you need a calendar after 2038-01-19 w03 Tue, the program can generate you templates [2] for hundreds of years [3].

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

[2] https://terokarvinen.com/2024/format-date-calendar-txt/dateg...

[2] https://terokarvinen.com/2024/format-date-calendar-txt/

Update: Added the template until 2400.

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

Mdq seems just what I've been looking for. I have yet to test it.

Based on documentation, you can mdq for the chapter whose heading is "## Foobar"; or extract all lists in chapter "### Xyzzy".

Thanks, abound!

Update: mdq discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43152704

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

I use a template [1] that includes week numbers.

With some traditional GUI calendar software, I was often hunting and miscopying week numbers. Some software also had a weird (non ISO-8601) idea of week numbers.

In case you need calendar.txt after 2033, I wrote a small tool [2] to generate more templates.

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

[2] https://terokarvinen.com/2021/calendar-txt/calendartxt-gener...

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

So many tempting options...

Can you recommend a tool and open your accounting workflow, marttt?

Are there any pain points, like filling tax forms or handling travel paperwork?

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

I recommend https://syncthing.net/

Works with all file formats, from photos and movies to text files. Cross platform: Linux, Windows, Android, probably also Mac and BSD.

Update: And it's end-to-end encrypted and free, open-source software.

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

It's unfair to computers how well paper planners worked. Among with todo.txt, paper calendars were an inspiration and a benchmark for writing calendar.txt.

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

I especially like your 'mgrep', please do write it!

I have considered similar tools that make use of MarkDown syntax, I feel that there are many tools waiting to be written here.

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

As you guessed, roland35, I do track my calendar.txt in git.

One main benefit from git is also to work as an insurance against (user) errors, and make the whole process much more transparent. When I have used calendars with automatic synchronization, I would have enjoyed a "change log" to make sure that my timezones and meetings are not mistakenly modified by software.

For your dentist example, I would probably just use 'grep' or find in my text editor. After all, six months of days is very little text.

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

Interesting ideas for formalization and metadata, jeroendh. Some comments on those:

Calendar.txt is indeed a personal calendar. So feel free to violate the spec as much as you need or want to. My main use for calendar.txt is editing with text editor, and thus, I have not given emphasis to automatic modification.

Time notation is ISO-8601 date and week number. In my view, ISO-8601 is an international standard and not tied to a specific country. I find it convenient to read and sort.

I use local time for physical events. For international calls, I just write down the timezone "13:00Z" or "11:00EET" (update: or mark it in my local time).

At-sign "@" for context was chosen to match todo.txt, as I also use that. As the calendar is personal, it does not need to be fully machine readble. But for your example on email addresses, you could still do it: @WORK email [email protected]. The context starts with an at "@", email does not.

Full stop "." is easy to type on a cell phone. It's true that a rare char would be more suitable for automatic parsing.

Thanks for the ideas!

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

Such an alarm system would be interesting (and even sounds feasible), even though I don't use reminders myself.

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

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...

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

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.

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

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

tero

anno scorsodiscuss

You're quite right, oneeyedpigeon. The main audience of calendar.txt are people who always have terminal open, and who are using grep, sort and similar all the time anyway.

I use +plustags for multiday and recurring events. So for each line +grandma is visiting, I would add the tag +grandma.

I take similar approach with my courses, +tt for pentesting (from the word in Finnish). I found that for me, creating and validating recurring and multiday events was easier for me. Of course, your mileage may vary.

Smikhanov, you found copy pasting challenging. For me, copy pasting from some dedicated calendar software was a challenge. Copy-pasting with calendar .txt makes it easier for me to keep date, week number, weekday and the event together. And your comment on paper planners was on the spot, I wanted to catch some of their benefits, transparency and reliability with calendar.txt.