howm: Write fragmentarily and read collectively.

• Download howm-1.5.0.tar.gz (snapshot: / git )
• Introduction by Leah Neukirchen (thx!)
• Russian manual over 80 pages by Andrei Sukhovskii (thx!)
• Tutorial
• Wiki, BBS, mailing list

(Title bar? See rich-title.)

Hyperlinks

• goto link: file name or keyword

        >>> ~/BabyloniaWave.txt
        >>> highway planet
  

• come-from link: If you write

        <<< crystal star cluster
  

  in file A, all strings 'crystal star cluster' in other files are automatically linked to A.

Full-text search

• Everything is based on full-text search (grep); the above 'links' are shortcuts to grep.
• Write fragmentarily and read collectively; you can concatenate all matched notes into a single buffer.

No conversion

• text file and free format
• implemented as a minor mode; can be combined with other modes.

Todo list with magic sorting

• Reminder: sinks slowly.
• Todo: floats slowly.
• Deadline: floats rapidly when the date is approaching.

Install

• './configure', 'make', and 'make install'. Files are installed to /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/howm/ and /usr/local/share/howm/.
• Write below in your .emacs.

          (require 'howm)
        

• If you see 'cannot open load file' error, put this before the above description.

          (add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/howm/")
        

• (Optional) When howm runs too slow, try 'M-x customize-group RET howm-efficiency RET'. In particular, the below settings will be necessary for heavy users.

          (setq howm-view-use-grep t)  ;; use external grep
          (setq howm-menu-refresh-after-save nil)
          (setq howm-menu-expiry-hours 6)  ;; cache menu N hours
          (setq howm-menu-file "0000-00-00-000000.txt")  ;; don't *search*
        

Customization

Update from old version

1.4.8 to 1.5.0

• "u" key (uniq) in summary buffer is now togglable. You can hit "u" again to cancel "uniq".
• If you are interested in the incremental search, try M-x customize-group RET howm-iigrep RET and set howm-iigrep-show-what. It will be turned on by default in the next release.

1.4.7 to 1.4.8

fix for Emacs 28.1

1.4.6 to 1.4.7

fix a warning in byte compilation, etc. (`font-lock-fontify-buffer' is for interactive use only; use `font-lock-ensure' or `font-lock-flush' instead.)

1.4.5 to 1.4.6

fix C-c , : (howm-find-yesterday) for newer Emacs.

1.4.4 to 1.4.5

add French menu thx thx

1. Delete the old menu file 0000-00-00-000000.txt in your howm-directory.
2. Add (setq howm-menu-lang 'fr) into your .emacs.
3. Start Emacs and howm.

1.4.3 to 1.4.4

fix for warnings in byte-compilation, etc.

1.4.2 to 1.4.3

fix for emacs-25, etc.

1.4.1 to 1.4.2

fix for emacs-24.3, etc.

1.4.0 to 1.4.1

small bug fix, etc.

1.3.9.2 to 1.4.0

INCOMPATIBLE update. If you need compatibility with 1.3.*, put (setq howm-compatible-to-ver1dot3 t) before (require 'howm) in your .emacs. See M-x customize-group RET howm-compatibility RET for details.

Though howm-1.4.0 has a new menu file, your old menu file is not updated automatically. Copy en/0000-00-00-000000.txt into howm/ directory if you like. Alternatively, you can cut and paste some parts of it to your howm/0000-00-00-000000.txt by hand.

1.3.9.1 to 1.3.9.2

small bug fix.

1.3.9 to 1.3.9.1

bug fix for emacs-24.0.50.

1.3.8 to 1.3.9

small bug fix, etc.

1.3.7 to 1.3.8

highlight late deadlines. small bug fix, etc.

1.3.6 to 1.3.7

Maintenance release (internal cleaning). The variable howm-list-normalizer is obsolete now. Use howm-normalizer instead:

• (Case 0) What is howm-list-normalizer? I don't know it at all. --- You need to do nothing. :-)
• (Case 1) I've set it in M-x customize-variable. --- M-x customize-variable howm-list-normalizer RET and select Off. Then M-x customize-variable howm-normalizer RET and select the corresponding item again.
• (Case 2) I've written (setq howm-list-normalizer 'howm-view-sort-by-XXX) in my .emacs. --- Rewrite it to (setq howm-normalizer 'howm-sort-items-by-XXX).
• (Case 3) I've written (setq howm-list-normalizer ...my_original_elisp...). --- Modify it correspondingly with the below change.
  • Old (howm-list-normalizer): Specify a function that sorts and REDISPLAYS CURRENT items.
  • New (howm-normalizer): Specify a function that RETURNS the sorted list of items for the GIVEN items.
  Or, Ask me in howm-eng ML.

1.3.5 to 1.3.6

Maintenance release. Font-lock problem was fixed for CVS-head emacs.

1.3.4 to 1.3.5

Maintenance release. Today's schedule didn't appear on menu on the last day of DST. (cf. patch for 1.3.4)

1.3.3 to 1.3.4

Maintenance release (security fix). All symbols are marked as risky-local-variable.

1.3.2 to 1.3.3

Maintenance release. Several bugs are fixed (for CVS-head emacs, etc). From this version, sleeping reminders can appear in todo list in menu buffer. If you don't like this behavior, please try M-x customize-variable howm-menu-todo-priority.

1.3.1 to 1.3.2

Maintenance release. A few bugs are fixed (mainly for xemacs). Default value of an option is changed so that [Today] function will show titles instead of matched lines themselves. If you don't like this change, try below steps.

• M-x customize-variable RET howm-list-title RET
• Remove check mark on howm-action-lock-date-search.
• [Save for Future Sessions]

1.3.0 to 1.3.1

Maintenance release. A few bugs (locale, xemacs) are fixed.

1.2.* to 1.3.0

Though howm-1.3.0 has a new menu file, your old menu file is not updated automatically. Copy en/0000-00-00-000000.txt into howm/ directory if you like. Alternatively, you can cut and paste some parts of it to your howm/0000-00-00-000000.txt by hand.

Among several new features in howm-1.3.0, the most useful one will be 'aliases'. See README for details.

Contact