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<h1 id="title">
<span class="main">CALCURSE - text-based organizer</span></h1>

<div class="warn">
<h1>Abstract</h1> This manual describes <code>calcurse</code> functionnalities,
and how to use them. The installation from source is first described, together
with the available command line arguments. The user interface
is then presented, with all of the customizable options that change
<code>calcurse</code> behavior. Last, bug reporting procedure is explained, as
well as the way one can contribute to <code>calcurse</code> development.
</div>

<div id="toc">
<h1>Table of Contents</h1>
<ul>
    <li><a href="#intro">1. Introduction</a></li>
    <li><a href="#overview">2. Overview</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#overview_history">2.1 Creation history</a></li>
	<li><a href="#overview_features">2.2 Important features</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#install">3. Installation</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#install_requirements">3.1 Requirements</a>
	<ul>
	    <li><a href="#install_requirements_ncurses">3.1.1 <code>ncurses</code> library</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#install_requirements_gettext">3.1.2 <code>gettext</code> library</a></li>
	</ul></li>
	<li><a href="#install_process">3.2 Install process</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#basics">4. <code>calcurse</code> basics</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#basics_invocation">4.1 Invocation</a>
	<ul>
	    <li><a href="#basics_invocation_commandline">4.1.1 Command line arguments</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#basics_invocation_variable">4.1.2 Environment variable for i18n</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#basics_invocation_environment">4.1.3 Other environment variables</a></li>
	</ul></li>
	<li><a href="#basics_interface">4.2 User interface</a>
	<ul>
	    <li><a href="#basics_interface_noninteractive">4.2.1 Non-interactive mode</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#basics_interface_interactive">4.2.2 Interactive mode</a></li>
	</ul></li>
	<li><a href="#basics_files">4.3 <code>calcurse</code> files</a></li>
        <li><a href="#basics_import_export">4.4 Import/Export capabilities</a>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="#basics_import">4.4.1 Import</a></li>
            <li><a href="#basics_export">4.4.2 Export</a></li>
        </ul></li>
	<li><a href="#basics_help">4.5 Online help</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#options">5. Options</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#options_general">5.1 General options</a></li>
	<li><a href="#options_colors">5.2 Color themes</a></li>
	<li><a href="#options_layout">5.3 Layout configuration</a></li>
	<li><a href="#options_notify">5.4 Notify-bar settings</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#known_bugs">6. Known bugs</a></li>
    <li><a href="#bugs">7. Reporting bugs and feedback</a></li>
    <li><a href="#contribute">8. How to contribute?</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#contribute_documentation">8.1 Translating documentation</a></li>
	<li><a href="#contribute_i18n">8.2 <code>calcurse</code> i18n</a>
	<ul>
	    <li><a href="#contribute_i18n_overview">8.2.1 Overview</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#contribute_i18n_translator">8.2.2 Translator tasks</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#contribute_i18n_po-files">8.2.3 po-files</a></li>
	</ul></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#links">9. Links</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#links_homepage">9.1 <code>calcurse</code> homepage</a></li>
	<li><a href="#links_list">9.2 <code>calcurse</code> announce list</a></li>
	<li><a href="#links_rss">9.3 <code>calcurse</code> RSS feed</a></li>
        <li><a href="#links_others">9.4 Other links</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#thanks">10. Thanks</a></li>
</ul>
</div>

<h1>1. Introduction<a name="intro"></a></h1>
<p>
<code>calcurse</code> is a text-based calendar and scheduling application. It helps
keeping track of events, appointments and everyday tasks. 
A configurable notification system reminds user of upcoming deadlines,
and the curses based interface can be customized to suit user needs.
All of the commands are documented within an online help system.  
</p>

<h1>2. Overview<a name="overview"></a></h1>
<h2>2.1 Creation history<a name="overview_history"></a></h2>
<p>
  	I started thinking about this project when I was finishing 
	my Ph.D.  in Astrophysics... It started to be a little hard 
	to organize myself, and I really needed a good tool to help 
	me in that difficult task ;)
</p>
<p>
	I like programs which use Text User Interfaces, because they 
	are simple, fast, portable and efficient, so I thought about 
	working on coding a simple calendar using such an interface. 
	Moreover, I wanted to go on learning the <code>C</code> 
	language, which I only used for a while during my undergraduate 
	studies. So I thought that would be the good project to start 
	in order to get organized and to learn about a few 
	<code>C</code> things !
</p>
<p>
	Unfortunately, I finished my Ph.D. before finishing 
	<code>calcurse</code>, 
	but anyway, I still wanted to work on it, hoping it would
	be helpful to other people.  So here it is...
</p>
<p>
  	But why 'calcurse' anyway ?  Well, it is simply the 
	concatenation of 'CALendar' and 'nCURSEs', the name of the 
	library used to build the user interface.
</p>

<h2>2.2 Important features<a name="overview_features"></a></h2>
<p>
        <code>Calcurse</code> is multi-platform and intended to be
        lightweight, fast and reliable. It is to be used inside a 
        console or terminal, locally or on a distant machine within 
        an ssh (or similar) connection.
</p>
<p>
        <code>Calcurse</code> can be run in two different modes : 
        interactive or non-interactive mode. The first mode allows 
        oneself to view its own personal organizer almost everywhere,
        thanks to the text-based interface. 
        The second mode permits to easily build reminders just by adding 
        <code>calcurse</code> with appropriate command line arguments 
        inside a cron tab or within a shell init script.
</p>
<p>
        Moreover, <code>calcurse</code> was created with the end-user 
        in mind, and tends to be as friendly as possible. This means 
        a complete on-line help system, together with having all of 
        the possible actions displayed at any time inside a status bar. 
        The user interface is also configurable, and one can choose 
        between several color and layout combinations.
	Last, a configurable notification system reminds user of upcoming
	appointments. 
</p>

<h1>3. Installation<a name="install"></a></h1>
<h2>3.1 Requirements<a name="install_requirements"></a></h2>
<h3>3.1.1 <code>ncurses</code> library<a name="install_requirements_ncurses"></a></h3>
<p>
	<code>Calcurse</code> requires only a <code>C</code> compiler, such as 
        <code>cc</code> or <code>gcc</code>, and the <code>ncurses</code>
        library. 
        It would be very surprising not to have a valid <code>ncurses</code>
        library already installed on your computer, but if not, you can 
        find it at the following url :</p>
	<pre>http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/</pre>

<h3>3.1.2 <code>gettext</code> library<a name="install_requirements_gettext"></a></h3>
<p>
        <code>calcurse</code> supports internationalization
        (<span class="emp">i18n</span> hereafter) through the <code>gettext</code>
        utilities. This means <code>calcurse</code> can produce
        multi-lingual messages if compiled with native language
        support (i.e. <span class="emp">NLS</span>). 
</p>
<p>
	However, 
	<span class="emp">NLS</span> is
        optionnal and if you do not want to have support for
        multi-lingual messages, you can disable this feature.  This is
        done by giving the <code>--disable-nls</code> option to
        <code>configure</code> (see section <a
        href="#install_process">Install process</a>).
        To check if the <code>gettext</code> utilities are
        installed on your system, you can search for the
        <code>libintl.h</code> header file for instance:</p>
        <pre>locate libintl.h</pre>
<p>
        If this header file is not found, then you can obtain the
        <code>gettext</code> sources at the following url :</p>
        <pre>http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gettext/</pre>
<p>
        <p class="rq"><span class="valorize">Note:</span> 
	Even if <code>libintl.h</code> is found on your
        system, it can be wise to specify its location during the <a
        href="#install_process">install process</a>, by using the
        <code>--with-libintl-prefix</code> option with
        <code>configure</code>. Indeed, the <code>configure</code>
        could fail to locate this library if installed in an uncommon
        place.</p>
 

<h2>3.2 Install process<a name="install_process"></a></h2>
<p>
	First you need to gunzip and untar the source archive:</p>
	<pre>tar zxvf calcurse-2.3.tar.gz</pre>
<p>
  	Once you meet the requirements and have extracted the archive, 
	the install process is quite simple, and follows the standard 
	three steps process:
  	<ol>	
	    <li><code>./configure</code></li>
	    <li><code>make</code></li>
	    <li><code>make install</code> (may require root privilege)</li>
	</ol>
</p>
<p>
	Use <code>./configure --help</code> to obtain a list of 
	possible options.
</p>

<h1>4. <code>calcurse</code> basics<a name="basics"></a></h1>
<h2>4.1 Invocation<a name="basics_invocation"></a></h2>
<h3>4.1.1 Command line arguments<a name="basics_invocation_commandline"></a></h3>
<p>
        <code>calcurse</code> takes the following options from the 
        command line (both short and long options are supported):</p>
	<p>

        <dl>
	    <dt><code>-a, --appointment</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print the appointments and events for the current day and exit.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> the calendar from 
	    which to read the  appointments can be specified using the '-c'
	    flag.</p>
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-c &lt;file&gt;, --calendar &lt;file&gt;</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Specify the calendar file to use.
	    The default  calendar is <code>~/.calcurse/apts</code> 
	    (see section <a href="#basics_files"><code>calcurse</code>
	    files</a>).
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-d &lt;date|num&gt;, --day &lt;date|num&gt;</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print the appointments for the given date  or  for  the
	    given  number  of upcoming days, depending on the argument
	    format. Two possible formats are supported:
	    <ul>
	        <li>a date of the form 'mm/dd/yyyy'.</li>
	        <li>a number 'n'.</li>
	    </ul>
	    In the first  case,  the  appointment  list  for  the
	    specified  date will be returned, while in the second
	    case the appointment list for the 'n'  upcoming  days
	    will be returned.
	    As an example, typing <code>calcurse -d  3</code>  
	    will  display your  appointments  for  today, tomorrow, 
	    and the day after tomorrow.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> as for the '-a' 
	    flag, the calendar  from which to  read  the appointments 
	    can be specified using the '-c' flag.</p>
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-D &lt;dir&gt;, --directory &lt;dir&gt;</code></dt>
	    <dd>
            Specify  the  data directory to use. This option is
            incompatible  with  -c.   If  not  specified,   the
            default directory is <code>'~/.calcurse/'</code>.
            </dd>
	    <dt><code>-h, --help</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print  a  short  help  text  describing  the  supported
	    command-line options, and exit.</dd>
            <dt><code>-i &lt;file&gt;, --import &lt;file&gt;</code></dt>
            <dd>
            Import the icalendar data contained in <code>file</code>.
            </dd>
	    <dt><code>-n, --next</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print the next appointment within upcoming 24 hours and exit.
	    The indicated time is the number of hours and minutes left 
	    before this appointment.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> the calendar 
	    from which to read the appointments can be specified using the 
	    '-c' flag.</p>
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-N, --note</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    When used with the '-a' or '-t' flag, also print note content
	    if one is associated with the displayed item.
	    </dd>
            <dt><code>-r[num], --range[=num]</code></dt>
            <dd>
            Print events and appointments for the num number of
            days and exit. If no num is given, a range of 1 day
            is considered.
            </dd>
            <dt><code>-s[date], --startday[=date]</code></dt>
            <dd>
            Print  events  and appointments from date and exit.
            If no date is given, the current day is considered.
            </dd>
	    <dt><code>-t[num], --todo[=num]</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print the 'todo' list and exit. If the optional number
	    <code>num</code> is given, then only todos having a priority
	    equal to <code>num</code> will be returned.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> proprity number 
	    must be between 1 (highest) and 9 (lowest).</p>
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-v, --version</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Display <code>calcurse</code> version and exit.
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-x[format], --export[=format]</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Export user data to specified format. Events, appointments and
	    todos are converted and echoed to stdout.
            Two possible formats are available: ical and pcal 
            (see section <a href="#links_others">Links</a> below). 
            If the optional argument <code>format</code> is not given,
            ical format is selected by default.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> 
	    redirect standard output to export data to a file,
	    by issuing a command such as:
	    <code>$ calcurse --export &gt; my_data.dat</code></p>
	    </dd>
	</dl>

<h3>4.1.2 Environment variable for i18n<a name="basics_invocation_variable"></a></h3>
<p>
        <code>calcurse</code> can be compiled with native language
        support (see <a
        href="#install_requirements_gettext"><code>gettext</code>
        library</a>). Thus, if you wish to have messages displayed
        into your native language, first make sure it is available by
        looking at the <code>po/LINGUAS</code> file. 
        This file indicates the set of available languages by showing
        the two-letters corresponding code (for exemple, 
	<span class="emp">fr</span>
        stands for french).  If you do not find your language, it
        would be greatly appreciated if you could help translating
        <code>calcurse</code> (see the <a href="#contribute">How to
        contribute?</a> section).</p>
<p>
        If your language is available, run
        <code>calcurse</code> with the following command:</p>
        <pre>LC_ALL=fr_FR calcurse</pre>
<p>        
	where <span class="emp">fr_FR</span> is the locale name in this exemple, but
        should be replaced by the locale corresponding to the desired
        language.</p>
<p>
	You should also specify the charset to be used, because in some
	cases the accents and such are not displayed correctly. 
	This charset is indicated at the beginning of the po file 
	corresponding to the desired language. For instance, you can see 
	in the fr.po file that it uses the iso-8859-1 charset, so you 
	could run <code>calcurse</code> using the following command:</p>
	<pre>LC_ALL=fr_FR.ISO8859-1 calcurse</pre>

<h3>4.1.3 Other environment variables<a name="basics_invocation_environment"></a></h3>
<p>
	The following environment variables affect the way <code>calcurse</code>
	operates:</p>
        <dl>
	    <dt><code>VISUAL</code></dt>
	    <dd>Specifies the external editor to use for writing notes.
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>EDITOR</code></dt>
	    <dd>If the <code>VISUAL</code> environment variable 
	    is not set, then <code>EDITOR</code> will be used as 
	    the default external editor. If none of those variables are set, 
	    then <code>/usr/bin/vi</code> is used instead.
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>PAGER</code></dt>
	    <dd>Specifies the default viewer to be used for reading notes. 
	    If this variable is not set, then <code>/usr/bin/less</code> is used.
	    </dd>
	</dl>

<h2>4.2 User interface<a name="basics_interface"></a></h2>
<h3>4.2.1 Non-interactive mode<a name="basics_interface_noninteractive"></a></h3>
<p>
        When called with at least one of the following arguments:
        <code>-a</code>, <code>-d</code>, <code>-h</code>, 
	<code>-n</code>, <code>-t</code>, <code>-v</code>,
	<code>-x</code>,
        <code>calcurse</code> is started in non-interactive mode.
        This means the desired information will be displayed, and 
        after that, <code>calcurse</code> simply quits and you are 
        driven back to the shell prompt.</p>
<p>
        That way, one can add a line such as 
	<code>'calcurse --todo --appointment'</code> 
        in its init config file to display at logon the list of tasks 
        and appointments scheduled for the current day. </p>


<h3>4.2.2 Interactive mode<a name="basics_interface_interactive"></a></h3>
<p>
        When called without any argument or only with the
        <code>-c</code> option, <code>calcurse</code> is started in
        interactive mode. In this mode, you are shown an interface
	containing three different panels which you can browse using 
        the 'TAB' key, plus a notification bar and a status bar 
	(see figure below).</p>
        <pre>

 appointment panel---.                                   .---calendar panel
                     |                                   |  
                     v                                   v
 +------------------------------------++----------------------------+
 |          Appointments              ||          Calendar          |
 |------------------------------------||----------------------------|
 |                 (|)  April 6, 2006 ||         April 2006         |
 |                                    ||Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun |
 |                                    ||                      1   2 |
 |                                    ||  3   4   5   6   7   8   9 |
 |                                    || 10  11  12  13  14  15  16 |
 |                                    || 17  18  19  20  21  22  23 |
 |                                    || 24  25  26  27  28  29  30 |
 |                                    ||                            |
 |                                    |+----------------------------+
 |                                    |+----------------------------+
 |                                    ||            ToDo            | todo
 |                                    ||----------------------------| panel
 |                                    ||                            |   |
 |                                    ||                            |   |
 |                                    ||                            |&lt;--.
 |                                    ||                            |
 +------------------------------------++----------------------------+
 |---[ Mon 2006-11-22 | 10:11:43 ]---(apts)----&gt; 01:20 :: lunch &lt;---|&lt;--.
 +------------------------------------------------------------------+ notify-bar
 | ? Help     R Redraw    H/L -/+1 Day      G GoTo       C Config   | 
 | Q Quit     S Save      J/K -/+1 Week   Tab Chg View              |&lt;-. 
 +------------------------------------------------------------------+  |
                                                                       |
                                                                 status bar

        </pre>
<p>
        The first panel represents a calendar which allows to highlight 
        a particular day, the second one contains the list of the events 
        and appointments on that day, and the last one contains a list 
        of tasks to do but which are not assigned to any specific day.</p>
<p>
	In the appointment panel, one can notice the <span
	class="emp">'(|)'</span> sign just in front of the date. 
	This indicates the current phase of the moon.
	Depending on which is the current phase, the following signs can be
	seen:
	<dl class="compact">
		<dt>'<code>  |) </code>':</dt>
		<dd>first quarter</dd>
		<dt>'<code> (|) </code>':</dt>
		<dd>full moon</dd>
		<dt>'<code>  (| </code>':</dt>
		<dd>last quarter</dd>
		<dt>'<code>  |  </code>':</dt>
		<dd>new moon</dd>
		<dt>no sign:</dt>
		<dd>phase of the moon does not correspond to any of
		the above ones</dd>
	</dl>
	</p>
	<p>
	At the very bottom of the screen there is a status bar, which 
	indicates the possible actions and the corresponding keystrokes.</p>
	<p>
        Just above this status bar is the notify-bar, which indicates
	from left to right : the current date, the current time, the 
	calendar file currently in use (apts on the above example, which
	is the default calendar file, see the following section), and 
	the next appointment within the upcoming 24 hours. Here it says
	that it will be lunch time in one hour and twenty minutes.</p>
	<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span>
	Some actions, such as editing or adding an item,
	require to type in some text. This is done with the help of 
	the built-in input line editor.</p>
	<p>
	Within this editor, if a line is longer than the screen width,
	a '&gt;', '*', or '&lt;' character is displayed in the last
	column indicating that there are more character after, before and 
	after, or before the current position, respectively. The line is
	scrolled horizontally as necessary.</p>
	<p>
	Moreover, some editing commands are bound to particular control
	characters. Hereafter are indicated the available editing commands
	('^' stands for the control key):
	<dl class="compact">
		<dt><code>^a</code>:</dt>
		<dd>moves the cursor to the beginning of the input line</dd>
		<dt><code>^b</code>:</dt>
		<dd>moves the cursor backward</dd>
		<dt><code>^d</code>:</dt>
		<dd>deletes one character forward</dd>
		<dt><code>^e</code>:</dt>
		<dd>moves the cursor to the end of the input line</dd>
		<dt><code>^f</code>:</dt>
		<dd>moves the cursor forward</dd>
		<dt><code>^h</code>:</dt>
		<dd>deletes one character backward</dd>
		<dt><code>^k</code>:</dt>
		<dd>deletes the input from the cursor to the end of the line</dd>
		<dt><code>ESCAPE</code>:</dt>
		<dd>cancels the editing</dd>
	</dl> 	
</p>

<h2>4.3 <code>calcurse</code> files<a name="basics_files"></a></h2>
<p>
        The following structure is created in your <code>$HOME</code>  
	directory (or in the directory you specified with  the  -D  option)
        the first time <code>calcurse</code> is run :</p>
	<pre>
$HOME/.calcurse/
           |___notes/
           |___conf
           |___apts
           |___todo
        </pre>
	<dl class="compact">
		<dt><code>notes/</code>:</dt>
		<dd>this subdirectory contains descriptions of the notes 
		which are attached to appointments, events or todos. One text file is
		created per note, whose name is built using mkstemp(3) and should be
		unique, but with no relation with the corresponding item's description.</dd>
		<dt><code>conf</code>:</dt>
	        <dd>this file contains the user configuration</dd>
		<dt><code>apts</code>:</dt>
	        <dd>this file contains  all  of the events and user's appointments</dd>
		<dt><code>todo</code>:</dt>
	        <dd>this file contains the todo list</dd>
	</dl>

<h2>4.4 Import/Export capabilities<a name="basics_import_export"></a></h2>
<p>
        The import and export capabilities offered by <code>calcurse</code>
        are described below.
</p>

<h3>4.4.1 Import<a name="basics_import"></a></h3>
<p>
        Data in icalendar format as described in the rfc2445 specification
        (see <a href="#links_others">links</a> section below) can be imported
        into calcurse. Calcurse ical parser is based on version 2.0 of this 
        specification, but for now on, only a subset of it is supported.
</p>
<p>
        The following icalendar properties are handled by calcurse:
        <ul>
            <li><code>VTODO</code> items:<br>
            "PRIORITY", "VALARM", "SUMMARY", "DESCRIPTION"</li>
            <li><code>VEVENT</code> items:<br>
            "DTSTART", "DTEND", "DURATION", "RRULE", "EXDATE", "VALARM", "SUMMARY",
            "DESCRIPTION"</li>
        </ul>
</p>
<p>
        The icalendar "DESCRIPTION" property will be converted into calcurse format
        by adding a note to the item. If a "VALARM" property is found, the item
        will be flagged as important and the user will get a notification (this is
        only applicable to appointments).
</p>
<p>
        Here are the properties that are not implemented:
        <ul>
            <li>negative time durations are not taken into account (item is skipped)</li>
            <li>some recurence frequences are not recognize:<br>
            "SECONDLY" / "MINUTELY" / "HOURLY"</li>
            <li>some recurrence keywords are not recognized 
            (all those starting with 'BY'):<br>
            "BYSECOND" / "BYMINUTE" / "BYHOUR" / "BYDAY" / "BYMONTHDAY"<br>
            "BYYEARDAY" / "BYWEEKNO" / "BYMONTH" / "BYSETPOS"<br>
            plus "WKST"</li>
            <li>the recurrence exception keyword "EXRULE" is not recognized</li>
            <li>timezones are not taken into account</li>
        </ul>
</p>

<h3>4.4.2 Export<a name="basics_export"></a></h3>
<p>
        Two possible export formats are available: <code>ical</code> and 
        <code>pcal</code> (see section <a href="#links_others">Links</a> below
        to find out about those formats). 
</p>

<h2>4.5 Online help<a name="basics_help"></a></h2>
<p>
        At any time, the built-in help  system  can  be  invoked  by
        pressing the '?'  key. Once viewing the help screens,
        informations on a specific command can be  accessed  by  pressing
        the keystroke corresponding to that command.
	</p>

<h1>5. Options<a name="options"></a></h1>
<p>
	All of the <code>calcurse</code> parameters are configurable from the 
	Configuration menu available when pressing 'C'. You are then 
	driven to a submenu with four possible choices : pressing 'C' 
	again will lead you to the Color scheme configuration, 
	pressing 'L' allows you to choose the layout of the main 
	<code>calcurse</code> screen (in other words, where to put the three 
	different panels on screen), pressing 'G' permits you to choose between
	different general options, and last you can modify the notify-bar
	settings by pressing 'N'.</p>

<h2>5.1 General options<a name="options_general"></a></h2>
<p>
        These options control <code>calcurse</code> general behavior,
        as described below:</p>
        <dl>
		<dt><code>auto_save</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
		<dd>This option allows to automatically save the user's data 
		(if set to <span class="emp">yes</span>) when quitting.
		<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">warning:</span> 
		No data will be automatically saved if 
		<code>auto_save</code> is set to <span class="emp">no</span>. 
		This means the user must press 'S' (for saving) in order to 
		retrieve its modifications.</p>
		</dd>
		<dt><code>confirm_quit</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
		<dd>If set to <span class="emp">yes</span>, confirmation is required before 
		quitting, otherwise pressing 'Q' will cause <code>calcurse</code> 
		to quit without prompting for user confirmation.
		</dd>
		<dt><code>confirm_delete</code> (default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
		<dd>If this option is set to <span class="emp">yes</span>, pressing 'D' for 
		deleting an item (either a <span class="emp">todo</span>, 
		<span class="emp">appointment</span>, 
		or <span class="emp">event</span>), will lead to a prompt asking for user 
		confirmation before removing the selected item from the list. 
		Otherwise, no confirmation will be needed before deleting the item.
		</dd>
		<dt><code>skip_system_dialogs</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">no</span>)</dt>
		<dd>Setting this option to <span class="emp">yes</span> will result in 
		skipping the 
		system dialogs related to the saving and loading of data. 
		This can be useful to speed up the input/output processes.
		</dd>
		<dt><code>skip_progress_bar</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">no</span>)</dt>
		<dd>If set to <span class="emp">yes</span>, this will cause the disappearing of the 
		progress bar which is usually shown when saving data to file. 
		If set to <span class="emp">no</span>, this bar will be displayed, together with 
		the name of the file being saved 
		(see section <a href="#basics_files"><code>calcurse</code> files</a>).
		</dd>
		<dt><code>week_begins_on_monday</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
		<dd>One can choose between Monday and Sunday as the first day of the
		week. If the option <code>week_begins_on_monday</code> is set to
		<span class="emp">yes</span>, Monday will be first in the calendar view. Else if
		the option is set to <span class="emp">no</span>, then Sunday will be the first
		day of the week.</dd>
                <dt><code>output_datefmt</code>
                (default: <span class="emp">%D</span>)</dt>
                <dd>This option indicates the format to be used when displaying dates
                in non-interactive mode. Using the default values, dates are displayed the
                following way: <span class="emp">mm/dd/aa</span>.
                You can see all of the possible formats by typing <code>man 3 strftime</code>
                inside a terminal.</dd>
                <dt><code>input_datefmt</code>
                (default: <span class="emp">1</span>)</dt>
                <dd>This option indicates the format that will be used to enter dates in
                <span class="emp">calcurse</span>. Three choices are available:
                <ol>
                  <li>mm/dd/yyyy</li>
                  <li>dd/mm/yyyy</li>
                  <li>yyyy/mm/dd</li>
                  </ol>
                </dd>
	</dl>


<h2>5.2 Color themes<a name="options_colors"></a></h2>
<p>
	<code>calcurse</code> color theme can be customized to suit user's 
	needs. To change the default theme, the configuration page
	displays possible choices for foreground and background colors.
	Using arrows or calcurse displacement keys to move, and 'X' or space
	to select a color, user can preview the theme which will be applied.
	It is possible to keep the terminal's default colors by selecting the
       corresponding choice in the list.</p>
<p>
        The chosen color theme will then be applied to the panel borders,
        to the titles, to the keystrokes, and to general informations
        displayed inside status bar. A black and white theme is also
        available, in order to support non-color terminals.</p>
	<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Notes:</span>
        Depending on your terminal type and on the value of the
        <code>$TERM</code> environnement variable, color could or
        could not be supported. An error message will appear if you
        try to change colors whereas your terminal does not support
        this feature.
        If you do know your terminal supports colors but could
        not get <code>calcurse</code> to display them, try to set your
        <code>$TERM</code> variable to another value (such as
        <span class="emp">xterm-xfree86</span> for instance).
        </p>

      
<h2>5.3 Layout configuration<a name="options_layout"></a></h2>
<p>
        The layout corresponds to the position of the panels inside
        <code>calcurse</code> screen. The default layout makes the 
        calendar panel to be displayed on the top-right corner of the
        terminal, the todo panel on the bottom-right corner, while the
        appointment panel is displayed on the left hand-side of the
        screen (see the figure in section 
        <a href="#basics_interface_interactive">Interactive mode</a>
        for an exemple of the default layout).
        By choosing another layout in the configuration screen, user
        can customize <code>calcurse</code> appearence to best suit 
        his needs by placing the different panels where needed.</p>


<h2>5.4 Notify-bar settings<a name="options_notify"></a></h2>
<p>
	The following options are used to modify the notify-bar behavior:</p>
	<dl>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_show</code> 
	(default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
	<dd>This option indicates if you want the notify-bar to be displayed
	or not.</dd>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_date</code> 
	(default: <span class="emp">%a %F</span>)</dt>
	<dd>With this option, you can specify the format to be used to 
	display the current date inside the notification bar. You can
	see all of the possible formats by typing <code>man 3 strftime</code>
	inside a terminal.</dd>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_time</code> 
	(default: <span class="emp">%T</span>)</dt>
	<dd>With this option, you can specify the format to be used to 
	display the current time inside the notification bar. You can
	see all of the possible formats by typing <code>man 3 strftime</code>
	inside a terminal.</dd>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_warning</code>
	(default: <span class="emp">300</span>)</dt>
	<dd>When there is an appointment which is flagged as 'important'
	within the next 'notify-bar_warning'
	seconds, the display of that appointment inside the notify-bar 
	starts to blink. 
	Moreover, the command defined by the <code>notify-bar_command</code>
	option will be launched.
	That way, the user is warned and knows there
	will be soon an upcoming appointment.
	</dd>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_command</code> 
	(default: <span class="emp">printf '\a'</span>)</dt>
	<dd>This option indicates which command is to be launched when there is an
	upcoming appointment flagged as 'important'. This command will be
	passed to the user's shell which will interpret it. To know what shell
	must be used, the content of the <code>$SHELL</code> environment variable
	is used. If this variable is not set, <code>/bin/sh</code> is used
	instead.
	<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Example:</span>
	Say the <code>mail</code> command is available on
	the user's system, one can use the following command to get notified by
	mail of an upcoming appointment (the appointment description will also
	be mentioned in the mail body):</p>
	<code>
calcurse --next | mail -s "[calcurse] upcoming appointment!" user@host.com
	</code>
	</dd>
	</dl>

<h1>6. Known bugs<a name="known_bugs"></a></h1>
<p>
        Incorrect highlighting of items appear when using calcurse 
        black and white theme together with a <code>$TERM</code> 
        variable set to <span class="emp">xterm-color</span>.
        To fix this bug, and as advised by Thomas E. Dickey 
        (<code>xterm</code> maintainer), <span class="emp">xterm-xfree86</span> 
        should be used instead of <span class="emp">xterm-color</span> to set 
        the <code>$TERM</code> variable:</p>
        <blockquote class="rq">
        "The xterm-color value for $TERM is a bad choice for XFree86 xterm
        because it is commonly used for a terminfo entry which happens to
        not support bce. Use the xterm-xfree86 entry which is distributed 
        with XFree86 xterm (or the similar one distributed with ncurses)."
        </blockquote>

<h1>7. Reporting bugs and feedback<a name="bugs"></a></h1>
<p>
        Please send bug reports and feedback to:</p>
        <pre>calcurse .at. culot .dot. org</pre>
<p>
        or to the author:</p>
        <pre>frederic .at. culot .dot. org</pre>

<h1>8. How to contribute?<a name="contribute"></a></h1>
<p>
        If you would like to contribute to the project,
        you can first send your feedback on what you like or dislike,
        and if there are features you miss in <code>calcurse</code>.
        For now on, possible contributions concern the translation
        of <code>calcurse</code> messages and documentation. </p>
	<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span>
        any help in getting <code>calcurse</code>
        internationalized would be very welcomed, but before
        contributing, send a mail to
        <code>calcurse-i18n .at. culot .dot. org</code> to know if someone
        already started the translation process into your language.</p>

<h2>8.1 Translating documentation<a name="contribute_documentation"></a></h2>
<p>
        The <span class="emp">doc/</span> directory of the source package already
        contains translated version of <code>calcurse</code>
        manual. However, if the manual is not yet available into your 
        native language, it would be appreciated if you could help
        translating it.</p>
<p>
        To do so, just copy one of the existing manual
        file to <code>manual_XX.html</code>, where <span class="emp">XX</span>
        identifies your language. Then translate this newly created
        file and send it to the author (see <a href="#bugs">Reporting
        bugs and feeback</a>), so that it can be included in the
        next <code>calcurse</code> release.</p>

<h2>8.2 <code>calcurse</code> i18n<a name="contribute_i18n"></a></h2>
<p>
        As already mentioned, <code>gettext</code> utilities are used
        by <code>calcurse</code> to produce multi-lingual
        messages. This section provides informations about how to
        translate those messages into your native language. However,
        this howto is deliberately incomplete, focusing on working
        with <code>gettext</code> for <code>calcurse</code>
        specifically.  For more comprehensive informations or to grasp
        the Big Picture of Native Language Support, you should refer
        to the <code>GNU gettext</code> manual at:</p>
        <pre>http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/ </pre>
<p>
        Basically, three different people get involved in the
        translation chain: coders, language coordinator, and
        translators. After a quick overview of how things work, the
        translator tasks will be described hereafter.</p>


<h3>8.2.1 Overview<a name="contribute_i18n_overview"></a></h3>
<p>
        To be able to display texts in the native language of the
        user, two steps are required: <span class="emp">internationalization</span>
        (i18n) and <span class="emp">localization</span> (l10n).</p>
<p>	
	i18n is about making
        <code>calcurse</code> support multiple languages. It is
        performed by coders, who will mark translatable texts and
        provide a way to display them translated at runtime.</p>
<p>
	l10n is
        about making the i18n'ed <code>calcurse</code> adapt to the
        specific language of the user, ie translating the strings
        previously marked by the developers, and setting the
        environment correctly for <code>calcurse</code> to use the
        result of this translation.</p>
<p>
        So, translatable strings are first marked by the coders within
        the <code>C</code> source files, then gathered in a template
        file (<span class="emp">calcurse.pot</span> - the <span class="emp">pot</span> extension
        meaning <span class="emp">portable object template</span>). The content of
        this template file is then merged with the translation files
        for each language (<span class="emp">fr.po</span> for french, for instance -
        with <span class="emp">po</span> standing for <span class="emp">portable object</span>, ie
        meant to be read and edited by humans). A given translation
        team will take this file, translate its strings, and send it
        back to the developers. At compilation time, a binary version
        of this file (for efficiency reasons) will be produced
        (<span class="emp">fr.mo</span> - <span class="emp">mo</span> stands for 
	<span class="emp">machine
        object</span>, ie meant to be read by programs), and then
        installed.  Then <code>calcurse</code> will use this file at
        runtime, translating the strings according to the locale
        settings of the user.</p>


<h3>8.2.2 Translator tasks<a name="contribute_i18n_translator"></a></h3>
<p>
        Suppose someone wants to initiate the translation of a new
        language. Here are the steps to follow:</p>
        <ul>
        <li>First, find out what the locale name is. For instance, for
        french, it is 'fr_FR', or simply 'fr'. This is the value the
        user will have to put in his <code>LC_ALL</code> environment
        variable for software to be translated (see <a
        href="#basics_invocation_variable">Environment variable for
        i18n</a>).</li>
        <li>Then, go into the <span class="emp">po/</span> directory, and create a new po-file
        from the template file using the following command: 
        <code>'msginit -i calcurse.pot -o fr.po -l fr --no-translator'</code>
        If you do not have <code>msginit</code> installed on your
        system, simply copy the <span class="emp">calcurse.pot</span> file to
        <span class="emp">fr.po</span> and edit the header by hand.</li>
	</ul>
<p>
        Now, having this <span class="emp">fr.po</span> file, the translator is ready
        to begin.</p>


<h3>8.2.3 po-files<a name="contribute_i18n_po-files"></a></h3>
<p>
        The format of the po-files is quite simple. Indeed, po-files
        are made of four things:</p>
        <ol>
        <li><span class="emp">location lines:</span> tells you where the strings can
        be seen (name of file and line number), in case you need to
        see a bit of context.</li>
        <li><span class="emp">msgid lines:</span> the strings to translate.</li>
        <li><span class="emp">msgstr lines:</span> the translated strings.</li>
        <li><span class="emp">lines prefixed with '#':</span> comments (some with a
        special meaning, as we will see below).</li>
        </ol>
<p>
        Basically, all you have to do is fill the <span class="emp">msgstr</span>
        lines with the translation of the above <span class="emp">msgid</span>
        line.</p>
<p>
        <span class="valorise">A few notes:</span>
        <dl>
        <dt><span class="emp">Fuzzy strings</span></dt>
        <dd>You will meet strings marked with a <code>"#, fuzzy"</code>
        comment. <code>calcurse</code> won't use the translations of
        such strings until you do something about them.  A string
        being fuzzy means either that the string has already been
        translated but has since been changed in the sources of the
        program, or that this is a new string for which
        <code>gettext</code> made a 'wild guess' for the translation,
        based on other strings in the file.  It means you have to
        review the translation. Sometimes, the original string has
        changed just because a typo has been fixed. In this case, you
        won't have to change anything. But sometimes, the translation
        will no longer be accurate and needs to be changed.  Once you
        are done and happy with the translation, just remove the
        <code>"#, fuzzy"</code> line, and the translation will be used
        again in <code>calcurse</code>.</dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">c-format strings and special sequences</span></dt>
	<dd>Some strings have the following comment: <code>"#,
        c-format"</code>.  This tells that parts of the string to
        translate have a special meaning for the program, and that you
        should leave them alone.  For instance, %-sequences, like
        <code>"%s"</code>. These means that <code>calcurse</code> will
        replace them with another string. So it is important it
        remains.  There are also \-sequences, like <code>\n</code> or
        <code>\t</code>. Leave them, too. The former represents an end
        of line, the latter a tabulation.</dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">Translations can be wrapped</span></dt>
        <dd>If lines are too long, you can just break them like this:
        <pre>
msgid ""
"some very long line"
"another line"
        </pre></dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">po-file header</span></dt>
        <dd>At the very beginning of the po-file, the first string form a
        header, where various kind of information has to be filled
        in. Most important one is the charset. It should resemble
        <pre>
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n"
        </pre>
        You should also fill in the Last-Translator field, so that
        potential contributors can contact you if they want to join
        you in the translation team, or have remarks/typo fixes to
        give about the translations. You can either just give your
        name/nick, or add an email address, for exemple:
        <pre>
"Last-Translator: Frederic Culot &lt;frederic@culot.org&gt;\n"
        </pre></dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">Comments</span></dt>
        <dd>Adding comments (lines begining with the '#' character) can be
        a good way to point out problems or translation difficulties
        to proofreaders or other members of your team.</dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">Strings size</span></dt>
        <dd><code>calcurse</code> is a curses/console program, thus it can
        be heavily dependant on the terminal size (number of
        columns). You should think about this when translating. Often,
        a string must fit into a single line (standard length is 80
        characters). Don't translate blindly, try to look where your
        string will be displayed to adapt your translation.</dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">A few useful tools</span></dt>
        <dd>The po-file format is very simple, and the file can be edited
        with a standard text editor.  But if you prefer, there are few
        specialized tools you may find convenient for translating:
           <ul>
           <li><code>poEdit</code> (<a 
           href="http://www.poedit.org/" target="_blank">
           http://www.poedit.org/</a>)</li>
           <li><code>KBabel</code> (<a
           href="http://i18n.kde.org/tools/kbabel/" target="_blank">
           http://i18n.kde.org/tools/kbabel/</a>)</li>
           <li><code>GTranslator</code> (<a
           href="http://gtranslator.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">
           http://gtranslator.sourceforge.net/</a>)</li>
           <li><code>Emacs</code> po mode</li>
           <li><code>Vim</code> po mode</li>
           </ul>
        </dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">And finally</span></dt>
        <dd>I hope you'll have fun contributing to a more
        internationalized world. :) If you have any more questions,
        don't hesitate to contact me at 
	<span class="emp">frederic .at. culot .dot. org</span>.</dd>
        </dl>


<h1>9. Links<a name="links"></a></h1>
<p>
	This section contains links and references that may be of 
	interest to you.</p>

<h2>9.1 <code>calcurse</code> homepage<a name="links_homepage"></a></h2>
<p>
	The <code>calcurse</code> homepage can be found at </p>
	<pre>http://culot.org/calcurse</pre>

<h2>9.2 <code>calcurse</code> announce list<a name="links_list"></a></h2>
<p>
	If you are interested in the project and want to be warned 
	when a new release comes out, you can subscribe to the 
	<code>calcurse</code> announce list. In doing so, you will 
        receive an email as soon as a new feature appears in 
        <code>calcurse</code>.</p>
<p>
	To subscribe to this list, send a message to 
	<span class="emp">calcurse-announce .at. culot .dot. org</span> 
	with "subscribe" in the subject field.</p>

<h2>9.3 <code>calcurse</code> RSS feed<a name="links_rss"></a></h2>
<p>
	Another possibility to get warned when new releases come out
	is to follow the RSS feed at:</p>
	<pre>http://culot.org/calcurse/news_rss.xml</pre>
<p>
	This RSS feed is updated each time a new version of calcurse is
	available, describing newly added features.</p>

<h2>9.4 Other links<a name="links_others"></a></h2>
<p>
        You may want to look at the ical format specification (rfc2445) at:
        <pre>http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2445</pre>
<p>
        The pcal project page can be found at:
        <pre>http://pcal.sourceforge.net/</pre>

<h1>10. Thanks<a name="thanks"></a></h1>
<p>
	Its time now to thank other people without whom this program 
	would not exist! So here is a list of contributing persons I 
	would like to thank :
	<ul>
	<li>Alex for its patches, help and advices with <code>C</code> programming</li>
	<li>Gwen for testing and general discussions about how to 
	improve <code>calcurse</code></li>
	<li>Herbert for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for FreeBSD</li>
	<li>Zul for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for NetBSD</li>
	<li>Wain, Steffen and Ronald for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Archlinux</li>
	<li>Kevin, Ryan, and fEnIo for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Debian
	and Ubuntu</li>
	<li>Pascal for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Slackware</li>
	<li>Alexandre and Markus for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Mac OsX
	and Darwin</li>
	<li>Igor for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for ALT Linux</li>
	<li>Joel for its calendar script which inspired <code>calcurse</code> 
	calendar view</li>
        <li>Michael Schulz and Chris M. for the german translation of
	<code>calcurse</code> and its manual</li>
	<li>Jose Lopez for the spanish translation of
	<code>calcurse</code> and its manual</li>
	<li>Neil Williams for the english translation</li>
	<li>Leandro Noferini for the italian translation</li>
	<li>Tony for its patch which helped improving the
	recur_item_inday() function, and for implementing the date format configuration 
        options</li>
	<li>Jeremy Roon for the dutch translation</li>
	<li>Erik Saule for its patch implementing the '-N', '-s', '-r' and '-D' flags</li>
	<li>people who write softwares I like and which inspired me, 
	especially :
		<ul>
		<li><code>vim</code> for the displacement keys</li>
		<li><code>orpheus</code> and <code>abook</code> for documentation</li>
		<li><code>pine</code> and <code>aptitude</code> 
	        for the text user interface</li>
		</ul></li>
	</ul>
</p>
<p>
        And last, many many thanks to all of the <code>calcurse</code>
        users who sent me their feedback.</p>

<div class="footer">
	Copyright (c) 2004-2008 Fr�d�ric Culot<br>
	Calcurse version 2.3 - Last change: September 21, 2008<br>
</div>
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<h1 id="title">
<span class="main">CALCURSE - text-based organizer</span></h1>

<div class="warn">
<h1>Abstract</h1> This manual describes <code>calcurse</code> functionnalities,
and how to use them. The installation from source is first described, together
with the available command line arguments. The user interface
is then presented, with all of the customizable options that change
<code>calcurse</code> behavior. Last, bug reporting procedure is explained, as
well as the way one can contribute to <code>calcurse</code> development.
</div>

<div id="toc">
<h1>Table of Contents</h1>
<ul>
    <li><a href="#intro">1. Introduction</a></li>
    <li><a href="#overview">2. Overview</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#overview_history">2.1 Creation history</a></li>
	<li><a href="#overview_features">2.2 Important features</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#install">3. Installation</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#install_requirements">3.1 Requirements</a>
	<ul>
	    <li><a href="#install_requirements_ncurses">3.1.1 <code>ncurses</code> library</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#install_requirements_gettext">3.1.2 <code>gettext</code> library</a></li>
	</ul></li>
	<li><a href="#install_process">3.2 Install process</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#basics">4. <code>calcurse</code> basics</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#basics_invocation">4.1 Invocation</a>
	<ul>
	    <li><a href="#basics_invocation_commandline">4.1.1 Command line arguments</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#basics_invocation_variable">4.1.2 Environment variable for i18n</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#basics_invocation_environment">4.1.3 Other environment variables</a></li>
	</ul></li>
	<li><a href="#basics_interface">4.2 User interface</a>
	<ul>
	    <li><a href="#basics_interface_noninteractive">4.2.1 Non-interactive mode</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#basics_interface_interactive">4.2.2 Interactive mode</a></li>
	</ul></li>
	<li><a href="#basics_files">4.3 <code>calcurse</code> files</a></li>
        <li><a href="#basics_import_export">4.4 Import/Export capabilities</a>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="#basics_import">4.4.1 Import</a></li>
            <li><a href="#basics_export">4.4.2 Export</a></li>
        </ul></li>
	<li><a href="#basics_help">4.5 Online help</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#options">5. Options</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#options_general">5.1 General options</a></li>
	<li><a href="#options_colors">5.2 Color themes</a></li>
	<li><a href="#options_layout">5.3 Layout configuration</a></li>
	<li><a href="#options_notify">5.4 Notify-bar settings</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#known_bugs">6. Known bugs</a></li>
    <li><a href="#bugs">7. Reporting bugs and feedback</a></li>
    <li><a href="#contribute">8. How to contribute?</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#contribute_documentation">8.1 Translating documentation</a></li>
	<li><a href="#contribute_i18n">8.2 <code>calcurse</code> i18n</a>
	<ul>
	    <li><a href="#contribute_i18n_overview">8.2.1 Overview</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#contribute_i18n_translator">8.2.2 Translator tasks</a></li>
	    <li><a href="#contribute_i18n_po-files">8.2.3 po-files</a></li>
	</ul></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#links">9. Links</a>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#links_homepage">9.1 <code>calcurse</code> homepage</a></li>
	<li><a href="#links_list">9.2 <code>calcurse</code> announce list</a></li>
	<li><a href="#links_rss">9.3 <code>calcurse</code> RSS feed</a></li>
        <li><a href="#links_others">9.4 Other links</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="#thanks">10. Thanks</a></li>
</ul>
</div>

<h1>1. Introduction<a name="intro"></a></h1>
<p>
<code>calcurse</code> is a text-based calendar and scheduling application. It helps
keeping track of events, appointments and everyday tasks. 
A configurable notification system reminds user of upcoming deadlines,
and the curses based interface can be customized to suit user needs.
All of the commands are documented within an online help system.  
</p>

<h1>2. Overview<a name="overview"></a></h1>
<h2>2.1 Creation history<a name="overview_history"></a></h2>
<p>
  	I started thinking about this project when I was finishing 
	my Ph.D.  in Astrophysics... It started to be a little hard 
	to organize myself, and I really needed a good tool to help 
	me in that difficult task ;)
</p>
<p>
	I like programs which use Text User Interfaces, because they 
	are simple, fast, portable and efficient, so I thought about 
	working on coding a simple calendar using such an interface. 
	Moreover, I wanted to go on learning the <code>C</code> 
	language, which I only used for a while during my undergraduate 
	studies. So I thought that would be the good project to start 
	in order to get organized and to learn about a few 
	<code>C</code> things !
</p>
<p>
	Unfortunately, I finished my Ph.D. before finishing 
	<code>calcurse</code>, 
	but anyway, I still wanted to work on it, hoping it would
	be helpful to other people.  So here it is...
</p>
<p>
  	But why 'calcurse' anyway ?  Well, it is simply the 
	concatenation of 'CALendar' and 'nCURSEs', the name of the 
	library used to build the user interface.
</p>

<h2>2.2 Important features<a name="overview_features"></a></h2>
<p>
        <code>Calcurse</code> is multi-platform and intended to be
        lightweight, fast and reliable. It is to be used inside a 
        console or terminal, locally or on a distant machine within 
        an ssh (or similar) connection.
</p>
<p>
        <code>Calcurse</code> can be run in two different modes : 
        interactive or non-interactive mode. The first mode allows 
        oneself to view its own personal organizer almost everywhere,
        thanks to the text-based interface. 
        The second mode permits to easily build reminders just by adding 
        <code>calcurse</code> with appropriate command line arguments 
        inside a cron tab or within a shell init script.
</p>
<p>
        Moreover, <code>calcurse</code> was created with the end-user 
        in mind, and tends to be as friendly as possible. This means 
        a complete on-line help system, together with having all of 
        the possible actions displayed at any time inside a status bar. 
        The user interface is also configurable, and one can choose 
        between several color and layout combinations.
	Last, a configurable notification system reminds user of upcoming
	appointments. 
</p>

<h1>3. Installation<a name="install"></a></h1>
<h2>3.1 Requirements<a name="install_requirements"></a></h2>
<h3>3.1.1 <code>ncurses</code> library<a name="install_requirements_ncurses"></a></h3>
<p>
	<code>Calcurse</code> requires only a <code>C</code> compiler, such as 
        <code>cc</code> or <code>gcc</code>, and the <code>ncurses</code>
        library. 
        It would be very surprising not to have a valid <code>ncurses</code>
        library already installed on your computer, but if not, you can 
        find it at the following url :</p>
	<pre>http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/</pre>

<h3>3.1.2 <code>gettext</code> library<a name="install_requirements_gettext"></a></h3>
<p>
        <code>calcurse</code> supports internationalization
        (<span class="emp">i18n</span> hereafter) through the <code>gettext</code>
        utilities. This means <code>calcurse</code> can produce
        multi-lingual messages if compiled with native language
        support (i.e. <span class="emp">NLS</span>). 
</p>
<p>
	However, 
	<span class="emp">NLS</span> is
        optionnal and if you do not want to have support for
        multi-lingual messages, you can disable this feature.  This is
        done by giving the <code>--disable-nls</code> option to
        <code>configure</code> (see section <a
        href="#install_process">Install process</a>).
        To check if the <code>gettext</code> utilities are
        installed on your system, you can search for the
        <code>libintl.h</code> header file for instance:</p>
        <pre>locate libintl.h</pre>
<p>
        If this header file is not found, then you can obtain the
        <code>gettext</code> sources at the following url :</p>
        <pre>http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gettext/</pre>
<p>
        <p class="rq"><span class="valorize">Note:</span> 
	Even if <code>libintl.h</code> is found on your
        system, it can be wise to specify its location during the <a
        href="#install_process">install process</a>, by using the
        <code>--with-libintl-prefix</code> option with
        <code>configure</code>. Indeed, the <code>configure</code>
        could fail to locate this library if installed in an uncommon
        place.</p>
 

<h2>3.2 Install process<a name="install_process"></a></h2>
<p>
	First you need to gunzip and untar the source archive:</p>
	<pre>tar zxvf calcurse-2.3.tar.gz</pre>
<p>
  	Once you meet the requirements and have extracted the archive, 
	the install process is quite simple, and follows the standard 
	three steps process:
  	<ol>	
	    <li><code>./configure</code></li>
	    <li><code>make</code></li>
	    <li><code>make install</code> (may require root privilege)</li>
	</ol>
</p>
<p>
	Use <code>./configure --help</code> to obtain a list of 
	possible options.
</p>

<h1>4. <code>calcurse</code> basics<a name="basics"></a></h1>
<h2>4.1 Invocation<a name="basics_invocation"></a></h2>
<h3>4.1.1 Command line arguments<a name="basics_invocation_commandline"></a></h3>
<p>
        <code>calcurse</code> takes the following options from the 
        command line (both short and long options are supported):</p>
	<p>

        <dl>
	    <dt><code>-a, --appointment</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print the appointments and events for the current day and exit.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> the calendar from 
	    which to read the  appointments can be specified using the '-c'
	    flag.</p>
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-c &lt;file&gt;, --calendar &lt;file&gt;</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Specify the calendar file to use.
	    The default  calendar is <code>~/.calcurse/apts</code> 
	    (see section <a href="#basics_files"><code>calcurse</code>
	    files</a>).
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-d &lt;date|num&gt;, --day &lt;date|num&gt;</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print the appointments for the given date  or  for  the
	    given  number  of upcoming days, depending on the argument
	    format. Two possible formats are supported:
	    <ul>
	        <li>a date of the form 'mm/dd/yyyy'.</li>
	        <li>a number 'n'.</li>
	    </ul>
	    In the first  case,  the  appointment  list  for  the
	    specified  date will be returned, while in the second
	    case the appointment list for the 'n'  upcoming  days
	    will be returned.
	    As an example, typing <code>calcurse -d  3</code>  
	    will  display your  appointments  for  today, tomorrow, 
	    and the day after tomorrow.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> as for the '-a' 
	    flag, the calendar  from which to  read  the appointments 
	    can be specified using the '-c' flag.</p>
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-D &lt;dir&gt;, --directory &lt;dir&gt;</code></dt>
	    <dd>
            Specify  the  data directory to use. This option is
            incompatible  with  -c.   If  not  specified,   the
            default directory is <code>'~/.calcurse/'</code>.
            </dd>
	    <dt><code>-h, --help</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print  a  short  help  text  describing  the  supported
	    command-line options, and exit.</dd>
            <dt><code>-i &lt;file&gt;, --import &lt;file&gt;</code></dt>
            <dd>
            Import the icalendar data contained in <code>file</code>.
            </dd>
	    <dt><code>-n, --next</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print the next appointment within upcoming 24 hours and exit.
	    The indicated time is the number of hours and minutes left 
	    before this appointment.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> the calendar 
	    from which to read the appointments can be specified using the 
	    '-c' flag.</p>
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-N, --note</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    When used with the '-a' or '-t' flag, also print note content
	    if one is associated with the displayed item.
	    </dd>
            <dt><code>-r[num], --range[=num]</code></dt>
            <dd>
            Print events and appointments for the num number of
            days and exit. If no num is given, a range of 1 day
            is considered.
            </dd>
            <dt><code>-s[date], --startday[=date]</code></dt>
            <dd>
            Print  events  and appointments from date and exit.
            If no date is given, the current day is considered.
            </dd>
	    <dt><code>-t[num], --todo[=num]</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Print the 'todo' list and exit. If the optional number
	    <code>num</code> is given, then only todos having a priority
	    equal to <code>num</code> will be returned.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> proprity number 
	    must be between 1 (highest) and 9 (lowest).</p>
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-v, --version</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Display <code>calcurse</code> version and exit.
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>-x[format], --export[=format]</code></dt>
	    <dd>
	    Export user data to specified format. Events, appointments and
	    todos are converted and echoed to stdout.
            Two possible formats are available: ical and pcal 
            (see section <a href="#links_others">Links</a> below). 
            If the optional argument <code>format</code> is not given,
            ical format is selected by default.
	    <p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span> 
	    redirect standard output to export data to a file,
	    by issuing a command such as:
	    <code>$ calcurse --export &gt; my_data.dat</code></p>
	    </dd>
	</dl>

<h3>4.1.2 Environment variable for i18n<a name="basics_invocation_variable"></a></h3>
<p>
        <code>calcurse</code> can be compiled with native language
        support (see <a
        href="#install_requirements_gettext"><code>gettext</code>
        library</a>). Thus, if you wish to have messages displayed
        into your native language, first make sure it is available by
        looking at the <code>po/LINGUAS</code> file. 
        This file indicates the set of available languages by showing
        the two-letters corresponding code (for exemple, 
	<span class="emp">fr</span>
        stands for french).  If you do not find your language, it
        would be greatly appreciated if you could help translating
        <code>calcurse</code> (see the <a href="#contribute">How to
        contribute?</a> section).</p>
<p>
        If your language is available, run
        <code>calcurse</code> with the following command:</p>
        <pre>LC_ALL=fr_FR calcurse</pre>
<p>        
	where <span class="emp">fr_FR</span> is the locale name in this exemple, but
        should be replaced by the locale corresponding to the desired
        language.</p>
<p>
	You should also specify the charset to be used, because in some
	cases the accents and such are not displayed correctly. 
	This charset is indicated at the beginning of the po file 
	corresponding to the desired language. For instance, you can see 
	in the fr.po file that it uses the iso-8859-1 charset, so you 
	could run <code>calcurse</code> using the following command:</p>
	<pre>LC_ALL=fr_FR.ISO8859-1 calcurse</pre>

<h3>4.1.3 Other environment variables<a name="basics_invocation_environment"></a></h3>
<p>
	The following environment variables affect the way <code>calcurse</code>
	operates:</p>
        <dl>
	    <dt><code>VISUAL</code></dt>
	    <dd>Specifies the external editor to use for writing notes.
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>EDITOR</code></dt>
	    <dd>If the <code>VISUAL</code> environment variable 
	    is not set, then <code>EDITOR</code> will be used as 
	    the default external editor. If none of those variables are set, 
	    then <code>/usr/bin/vi</code> is used instead.
	    </dd>
	    <dt><code>PAGER</code></dt>
	    <dd>Specifies the default viewer to be used for reading notes. 
	    If this variable is not set, then <code>/usr/bin/less</code> is used.
	    </dd>
	</dl>

<h2>4.2 User interface<a name="basics_interface"></a></h2>
<h3>4.2.1 Non-interactive mode<a name="basics_interface_noninteractive"></a></h3>
<p>
        When called with at least one of the following arguments:
        <code>-a</code>, <code>-d</code>, <code>-h</code>, 
	<code>-n</code>, <code>-t</code>, <code>-v</code>,
	<code>-x</code>,
        <code>calcurse</code> is started in non-interactive mode.
        This means the desired information will be displayed, and 
        after that, <code>calcurse</code> simply quits and you are 
        driven back to the shell prompt.</p>
<p>
        That way, one can add a line such as 
	<code>'calcurse --todo --appointment'</code> 
        in its init config file to display at logon the list of tasks 
        and appointments scheduled for the current day. </p>


<h3>4.2.2 Interactive mode<a name="basics_interface_interactive"></a></h3>
<p>
        When called without any argument or only with the
        <code>-c</code> option, <code>calcurse</code> is started in
        interactive mode. In this mode, you are shown an interface
	containing three different panels which you can browse using 
        the 'TAB' key, plus a notification bar and a status bar 
	(see figure below).</p>
        <pre>

 appointment panel---.                                   .---calendar panel
                     |                                   |  
                     v                                   v
 +------------------------------------++----------------------------+
 |          Appointments              ||          Calendar          |
 |------------------------------------||----------------------------|
 |                 (|)  April 6, 2006 ||         April 2006         |
 |                                    ||Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun |
 |                                    ||                      1   2 |
 |                                    ||  3   4   5   6   7   8   9 |
 |                                    || 10  11  12  13  14  15  16 |
 |                                    || 17  18  19  20  21  22  23 |
 |                                    || 24  25  26  27  28  29  30 |
 |                                    ||                            |
 |                                    |+----------------------------+
 |                                    |+----------------------------+
 |                                    ||            ToDo            | todo
 |                                    ||----------------------------| panel
 |                                    ||                            |   |
 |                                    ||                            |   |
 |                                    ||                            |&lt;--.
 |                                    ||                            |
 +------------------------------------++----------------------------+
 |---[ Mon 2006-11-22 | 10:11:43 ]---(apts)----&gt; 01:20 :: lunch &lt;---|&lt;--.
 +------------------------------------------------------------------+ notify-bar
 | ? Help     R Redraw    H/L -/+1 Day      G GoTo       C Config   | 
 | Q Quit     S Save      J/K -/+1 Week   Tab Chg View              |&lt;-. 
 +------------------------------------------------------------------+  |
                                                                       |
                                                                 status bar

        </pre>
<p>
        The first panel represents a calendar which allows to highlight 
        a particular day, the second one contains the list of the events 
        and appointments on that day, and the last one contains a list 
        of tasks to do but which are not assigned to any specific day.</p>
<p>
	In the appointment panel, one can notice the <span
	class="emp">'(|)'</span> sign just in front of the date. 
	This indicates the current phase of the moon.
	Depending on which is the current phase, the following signs can be
	seen:
	<dl class="compact">
		<dt>'<code>  |) </code>':</dt>
		<dd>first quarter</dd>
		<dt>'<code> (|) </code>':</dt>
		<dd>full moon</dd>
		<dt>'<code>  (| </code>':</dt>
		<dd>last quarter</dd>
		<dt>'<code>  |  </code>':</dt>
		<dd>new moon</dd>
		<dt>no sign:</dt>
		<dd>phase of the moon does not correspond to any of
		the above ones</dd>
	</dl>
	</p>
	<p>
	At the very bottom of the screen there is a status bar, which 
	indicates the possible actions and the corresponding keystrokes.</p>
	<p>
        Just above this status bar is the notify-bar, which indicates
	from left to right : the current date, the current time, the 
	calendar file currently in use (apts on the above example, which
	is the default calendar file, see the following section), and 
	the next appointment within the upcoming 24 hours. Here it says
	that it will be lunch time in one hour and twenty minutes.</p>
	<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span>
	Some actions, such as editing or adding an item,
	require to type in some text. This is done with the help of 
	the built-in input line editor.</p>
	<p>
	Within this editor, if a line is longer than the screen width,
	a '&gt;', '*', or '&lt;' character is displayed in the last
	column indicating that there are more character after, before and 
	after, or before the current position, respectively. The line is
	scrolled horizontally as necessary.</p>
	<p>
	Moreover, some editing commands are bound to particular control
	characters. Hereafter are indicated the available editing commands
	('^' stands for the control key):
	<dl class="compact">
		<dt><code>^a</code>:</dt>
		<dd>moves the cursor to the beginning of the input line</dd>
		<dt><code>^b</code>:</dt>
		<dd>moves the cursor backward</dd>
		<dt><code>^d</code>:</dt>
		<dd>deletes one character forward</dd>
		<dt><code>^e</code>:</dt>
		<dd>moves the cursor to the end of the input line</dd>
		<dt><code>^f</code>:</dt>
		<dd>moves the cursor forward</dd>
		<dt><code>^h</code>:</dt>
		<dd>deletes one character backward</dd>
		<dt><code>^k</code>:</dt>
		<dd>deletes the input from the cursor to the end of the line</dd>
		<dt><code>ESCAPE</code>:</dt>
		<dd>cancels the editing</dd>
	</dl> 	
</p>

<h2>4.3 <code>calcurse</code> files<a name="basics_files"></a></h2>
<p>
        The following structure is created in your <code>$HOME</code>  
	directory (or in the directory you specified with  the  -D  option)
        the first time <code>calcurse</code> is run :</p>
	<pre>
$HOME/.calcurse/
           |___notes/
           |___conf
           |___apts
           |___todo
        </pre>
	<dl class="compact">
		<dt><code>notes/</code>:</dt>
		<dd>this subdirectory contains descriptions of the notes 
		which are attached to appointments, events or todos. One text file is
		created per note, whose name is built using mkstemp(3) and should be
		unique, but with no relation with the corresponding item's description.</dd>
		<dt><code>conf</code>:</dt>
	        <dd>this file contains the user configuration</dd>
		<dt><code>apts</code>:</dt>
	        <dd>this file contains  all  of the events and user's appointments</dd>
		<dt><code>todo</code>:</dt>
	        <dd>this file contains the todo list</dd>
	</dl>

<h2>4.4 Import/Export capabilities<a name="basics_import_export"></a></h2>
<p>
        The import and export capabilities offered by <code>calcurse</code>
        are described below.
</p>

<h3>4.4.1 Import<a name="basics_import"></a></h3>
<p>
        Data in icalendar format as described in the rfc2445 specification
        (see <a href="#links_others">links</a> section below) can be imported
        into calcurse. Calcurse ical parser is based on version 2.0 of this 
        specification, but for now on, only a subset of it is supported.
</p>
<p>
        The following icalendar properties are handled by calcurse:
        <ul>
            <li><code>VTODO</code> items:<br>
            "PRIORITY", "VALARM", "SUMMARY", "DESCRIPTION"</li>
            <li><code>VEVENT</code> items:<br>
            "DTSTART", "DTEND", "DURATION", "RRULE", "EXDATE", "VALARM", "SUMMARY",
            "DESCRIPTION"</li>
        </ul>
</p>
<p>
        The icalendar "DESCRIPTION" property will be converted into calcurse format
        by adding a note to the item. If a "VALARM" property is found, the item
        will be flagged as important and the user will get a notification (this is
        only applicable to appointments).
</p>
<p>
        Here are the properties that are not implemented:
        <ul>
            <li>negative time durations are not taken into account (item is skipped)</li>
            <li>some recurence frequences are not recognize:<br>
            "SECONDLY" / "MINUTELY" / "HOURLY"</li>
            <li>some recurrence keywords are not recognized 
            (all those starting with 'BY'):<br>
            "BYSECOND" / "BYMINUTE" / "BYHOUR" / "BYDAY" / "BYMONTHDAY"<br>
            "BYYEARDAY" / "BYWEEKNO" / "BYMONTH" / "BYSETPOS"<br>
            plus "WKST"</li>
            <li>the recurrence exception keyword "EXRULE" is not recognized</li>
            <li>timezones are not taken into account</li>
        </ul>
</p>

<h3>4.4.2 Export<a name="basics_export"></a></h3>
<p>
        Two possible export formats are available: <code>ical</code> and 
        <code>pcal</code> (see section <a href="#links_others">Links</a> below
        to find out about those formats). 
</p>

<h2>4.5 Online help<a name="basics_help"></a></h2>
<p>
        At any time, the built-in help  system  can  be  invoked  by
        pressing the '?'  key. Once viewing the help screens,
        informations on a specific command can be  accessed  by  pressing
        the keystroke corresponding to that command.
	</p>

<h1>5. Options<a name="options"></a></h1>
<p>
	All of the <code>calcurse</code> parameters are configurable from the 
	Configuration menu available when pressing 'C'. You are then 
	driven to a submenu with four possible choices : pressing 'C' 
	again will lead you to the Color scheme configuration, 
	pressing 'L' allows you to choose the layout of the main 
	<code>calcurse</code> screen (in other words, where to put the three 
	different panels on screen), pressing 'G' permits you to choose between
	different general options, and last you can modify the notify-bar
	settings by pressing 'N'.</p>

<h2>5.1 General options<a name="options_general"></a></h2>
<p>
        These options control <code>calcurse</code> general behavior,
        as described below:</p>
        <dl>
		<dt><code>auto_save</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
		<dd>This option allows to automatically save the user's data 
		(if set to <span class="emp">yes</span>) when quitting.
		<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">warning:</span> 
		No data will be automatically saved if 
		<code>auto_save</code> is set to <span class="emp">no</span>. 
		This means the user must press 'S' (for saving) in order to 
		retrieve its modifications.</p>
		</dd>
		<dt><code>confirm_quit</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
		<dd>If set to <span class="emp">yes</span>, confirmation is required before 
		quitting, otherwise pressing 'Q' will cause <code>calcurse</code> 
		to quit without prompting for user confirmation.
		</dd>
		<dt><code>confirm_delete</code> (default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
		<dd>If this option is set to <span class="emp">yes</span>, pressing 'D' for 
		deleting an item (either a <span class="emp">todo</span>, 
		<span class="emp">appointment</span>, 
		or <span class="emp">event</span>), will lead to a prompt asking for user 
		confirmation before removing the selected item from the list. 
		Otherwise, no confirmation will be needed before deleting the item.
		</dd>
		<dt><code>skip_system_dialogs</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">no</span>)</dt>
		<dd>Setting this option to <span class="emp">yes</span> will result in 
		skipping the 
		system dialogs related to the saving and loading of data. 
		This can be useful to speed up the input/output processes.
		</dd>
		<dt><code>skip_progress_bar</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">no</span>)</dt>
		<dd>If set to <span class="emp">yes</span>, this will cause the disappearing of the 
		progress bar which is usually shown when saving data to file. 
		If set to <span class="emp">no</span>, this bar will be displayed, together with 
		the name of the file being saved 
		(see section <a href="#basics_files"><code>calcurse</code> files</a>).
		</dd>
		<dt><code>week_begins_on_monday</code> 
		(default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
		<dd>One can choose between Monday and Sunday as the first day of the
		week. If the option <code>week_begins_on_monday</code> is set to
		<span class="emp">yes</span>, Monday will be first in the calendar view. Else if
		the option is set to <span class="emp">no</span>, then Sunday will be the first
		day of the week.</dd>
                <dt><code>output_datefmt</code>
                (default: <span class="emp">%D</span>)</dt>
                <dd>This option indicates the format to be used when displaying dates
                in non-interactive mode. Using the default values, dates are displayed the
                following way: <span class="emp">mm/dd/aa</span>.
                You can see all of the possible formats by typing <code>man 3 strftime</code>
                inside a terminal.</dd>
                <dt><code>input_datefmt</code>
                (default: <span class="emp">1</span>)</dt>
                <dd>This option indicates the format that will be used to enter dates in
                <span class="emp">calcurse</span>. Three choices are available:
                <ol>
                  <li>mm/dd/yyyy</li>
                  <li>dd/mm/yyyy</li>
                  <li>yyyy/mm/dd</li>
                  </ol>
                </dd>
	</dl>


<h2>5.2 Color themes<a name="options_colors"></a></h2>
<p>
	<code>calcurse</code> color theme can be customized to suit user's 
	needs. To change the default theme, the configuration page
	displays possible choices for foreground and background colors.
	Using arrows or calcurse displacement keys to move, and 'X' or space
	to select a color, user can preview the theme which will be applied.
	It is possible to keep the terminal's default colors by selecting the
       corresponding choice in the list.</p>
<p>
        The chosen color theme will then be applied to the panel borders,
        to the titles, to the keystrokes, and to general informations
        displayed inside status bar. A black and white theme is also
        available, in order to support non-color terminals.</p>
	<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Notes:</span>
        Depending on your terminal type and on the value of the
        <code>$TERM</code> environnement variable, color could or
        could not be supported. An error message will appear if you
        try to change colors whereas your terminal does not support
        this feature.
        If you do know your terminal supports colors but could
        not get <code>calcurse</code> to display them, try to set your
        <code>$TERM</code> variable to another value (such as
        <span class="emp">xterm-xfree86</span> for instance).
        </p>

      
<h2>5.3 Layout configuration<a name="options_layout"></a></h2>
<p>
        The layout corresponds to the position of the panels inside
        <code>calcurse</code> screen. The default layout makes the 
        calendar panel to be displayed on the top-right corner of the
        terminal, the todo panel on the bottom-right corner, while the
        appointment panel is displayed on the left hand-side of the
        screen (see the figure in section 
        <a href="#basics_interface_interactive">Interactive mode</a>
        for an exemple of the default layout).
        By choosing another layout in the configuration screen, user
        can customize <code>calcurse</code> appearence to best suit 
        his needs by placing the different panels where needed.</p>


<h2>5.4 Notify-bar settings<a name="options_notify"></a></h2>
<p>
	The following options are used to modify the notify-bar behavior:</p>
	<dl>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_show</code> 
	(default: <span class="emp">yes</span>)</dt>
	<dd>This option indicates if you want the notify-bar to be displayed
	or not.</dd>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_date</code> 
	(default: <span class="emp">%a %F</span>)</dt>
	<dd>With this option, you can specify the format to be used to 
	display the current date inside the notification bar. You can
	see all of the possible formats by typing <code>man 3 strftime</code>
	inside a terminal.</dd>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_time</code> 
	(default: <span class="emp">%T</span>)</dt>
	<dd>With this option, you can specify the format to be used to 
	display the current time inside the notification bar. You can
	see all of the possible formats by typing <code>man 3 strftime</code>
	inside a terminal.</dd>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_warning</code>
	(default: <span class="emp">300</span>)</dt>
	<dd>When there is an appointment which is flagged as 'important'
	within the next 'notify-bar_warning'
	seconds, the display of that appointment inside the notify-bar 
	starts to blink. 
	Moreover, the command defined by the <code>notify-bar_command</code>
	option will be launched.
	That way, the user is warned and knows there
	will be soon an upcoming appointment.
	</dd>
	<dt><code>notify-bar_command</code> 
	(default: <span class="emp">printf '\a'</span>)</dt>
	<dd>This option indicates which command is to be launched when there is an
	upcoming appointment flagged as 'important'. This command will be
	passed to the user's shell which will interpret it. To know what shell
	must be used, the content of the <code>$SHELL</code> environment variable
	is used. If this variable is not set, <code>/bin/sh</code> is used
	instead.
	<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Example:</span>
	Say the <code>mail</code> command is available on
	the user's system, one can use the following command to get notified by
	mail of an upcoming appointment (the appointment description will also
	be mentioned in the mail body):</p>
	<code>
calcurse --next | mail -s "[calcurse] upcoming appointment!" user@host.com
	</code>
	</dd>
	</dl>

<h1>6. Known bugs<a name="known_bugs"></a></h1>
<p>
        Incorrect highlighting of items appear when using calcurse 
        black and white theme together with a <code>$TERM</code> 
        variable set to <span class="emp">xterm-color</span>.
        To fix this bug, and as advised by Thomas E. Dickey 
        (<code>xterm</code> maintainer), <span class="emp">xterm-xfree86</span> 
        should be used instead of <span class="emp">xterm-color</span> to set 
        the <code>$TERM</code> variable:</p>
        <blockquote class="rq">
        "The xterm-color value for $TERM is a bad choice for XFree86 xterm
        because it is commonly used for a terminfo entry which happens to
        not support bce. Use the xterm-xfree86 entry which is distributed 
        with XFree86 xterm (or the similar one distributed with ncurses)."
        </blockquote>

<h1>7. Reporting bugs and feedback<a name="bugs"></a></h1>
<p>
        Please send bug reports and feedback to:</p>
        <pre>calcurse .at. culot .dot. org</pre>
<p>
        or to the author:</p>
        <pre>frederic .at. culot .dot. org</pre>

<h1>8. How to contribute?<a name="contribute"></a></h1>
<p>
        If you would like to contribute to the project,
        you can first send your feedback on what you like or dislike,
        and if there are features you miss in <code>calcurse</code>.
        For now on, possible contributions concern the translation
        of <code>calcurse</code> messages and documentation. </p>
	<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span>
        any help in getting <code>calcurse</code>
        internationalized would be very welcomed, but before
        contributing, send a mail to
        <code>calcurse-i18n .at. culot .dot. org</code> to know if someone
        already started the translation process into your language.</p>

<h2>8.1 Translating documentation<a name="contribute_documentation"></a></h2>
<p>
        The <span class="emp">doc/</span> directory of the source package already
        contains translated version of <code>calcurse</code>
        manual. However, if the manual is not yet available into your 
        native language, it would be appreciated if you could help
        translating it.</p>
<p>
        To do so, just copy one of the existing manual
        file to <code>manual_XX.html</code>, where <span class="emp">XX</span>
        identifies your language. Then translate this newly created
        file and send it to the author (see <a href="#bugs">Reporting
        bugs and feeback</a>), so that it can be included in the
        next <code>calcurse</code> release.</p>

<h2>8.2 <code>calcurse</code> i18n<a name="contribute_i18n"></a></h2>
<p>
        As already mentioned, <code>gettext</code> utilities are used
        by <code>calcurse</code> to produce multi-lingual
        messages. This section provides informations about how to
        translate those messages into your native language. However,
        this howto is deliberately incomplete, focusing on working
        with <code>gettext</code> for <code>calcurse</code>
        specifically.  For more comprehensive informations or to grasp
        the Big Picture of Native Language Support, you should refer
        to the <code>GNU gettext</code> manual at:</p>
        <pre>http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/ </pre>
<p>
        Basically, three different people get involved in the
        translation chain: coders, language coordinator, and
        translators. After a quick overview of how things work, the
        translator tasks will be described hereafter.</p>


<h3>8.2.1 Overview<a name="contribute_i18n_overview"></a></h3>
<p>
        To be able to display texts in the native language of the
        user, two steps are required: <span class="emp">internationalization</span>
        (i18n) and <span class="emp">localization</span> (l10n).</p>
<p>	
	i18n is about making
        <code>calcurse</code> support multiple languages. It is
        performed by coders, who will mark translatable texts and
        provide a way to display them translated at runtime.</p>
<p>
	l10n is
        about making the i18n'ed <code>calcurse</code> adapt to the
        specific language of the user, ie translating the strings
        previously marked by the developers, and setting the
        environment correctly for <code>calcurse</code> to use the
        result of this translation.</p>
<p>
        So, translatable strings are first marked by the coders within
        the <code>C</code> source files, then gathered in a template
        file (<span class="emp">calcurse.pot</span> - the <span class="emp">pot</span> extension
        meaning <span class="emp">portable object template</span>). The content of
        this template file is then merged with the translation files
        for each language (<span class="emp">fr.po</span> for french, for instance -
        with <span class="emp">po</span> standing for <span class="emp">portable object</span>, ie
        meant to be read and edited by humans). A given translation
        team will take this file, translate its strings, and send it
        back to the developers. At compilation time, a binary version
        of this file (for efficiency reasons) will be produced
        (<span class="emp">fr.mo</span> - <span class="emp">mo</span> stands for 
	<span class="emp">machine
        object</span>, ie meant to be read by programs), and then
        installed.  Then <code>calcurse</code> will use this file at
        runtime, translating the strings according to the locale
        settings of the user.</p>


<h3>8.2.2 Translator tasks<a name="contribute_i18n_translator"></a></h3>
<p>
        Suppose someone wants to initiate the translation of a new
        language. Here are the steps to follow:</p>
        <ul>
        <li>First, find out what the locale name is. For instance, for
        french, it is 'fr_FR', or simply 'fr'. This is the value the
        user will have to put in his <code>LC_ALL</code> environment
        variable for software to be translated (see <a
        href="#basics_invocation_variable">Environment variable for
        i18n</a>).</li>
        <li>Then, go into the <span class="emp">po/</span> directory, and create a new po-file
        from the template file using the following command: 
        <code>'msginit -i calcurse.pot -o fr.po -l fr --no-translator'</code>
        If you do not have <code>msginit</code> installed on your
        system, simply copy the <span class="emp">calcurse.pot</span> file to
        <span class="emp">fr.po</span> and edit the header by hand.</li>
	</ul>
<p>
        Now, having this <span class="emp">fr.po</span> file, the translator is ready
        to begin.</p>


<h3>8.2.3 po-files<a name="contribute_i18n_po-files"></a></h3>
<p>
        The format of the po-files is quite simple. Indeed, po-files
        are made of four things:</p>
        <ol>
        <li><span class="emp">location lines:</span> tells you where the strings can
        be seen (name of file and line number), in case you need to
        see a bit of context.</li>
        <li><span class="emp">msgid lines:</span> the strings to translate.</li>
        <li><span class="emp">msgstr lines:</span> the translated strings.</li>
        <li><span class="emp">lines prefixed with '#':</span> comments (some with a
        special meaning, as we will see below).</li>
        </ol>
<p>
        Basically, all you have to do is fill the <span class="emp">msgstr</span>
        lines with the translation of the above <span class="emp">msgid</span>
        line.</p>
<p>
        <span class="valorise">A few notes:</span>
        <dl>
        <dt><span class="emp">Fuzzy strings</span></dt>
        <dd>You will meet strings marked with a <code>"#, fuzzy"</code>
        comment. <code>calcurse</code> won't use the translations of
        such strings until you do something about them.  A string
        being fuzzy means either that the string has already been
        translated but has since been changed in the sources of the
        program, or that this is a new string for which
        <code>gettext</code> made a 'wild guess' for the translation,
        based on other strings in the file.  It means you have to
        review the translation. Sometimes, the original string has
        changed just because a typo has been fixed. In this case, you
        won't have to change anything. But sometimes, the translation
        will no longer be accurate and needs to be changed.  Once you
        are done and happy with the translation, just remove the
        <code>"#, fuzzy"</code> line, and the translation will be used
        again in <code>calcurse</code>.</dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">c-format strings and special sequences</span></dt>
	<dd>Some strings have the following comment: <code>"#,
        c-format"</code>.  This tells that parts of the string to
        translate have a special meaning for the program, and that you
        should leave them alone.  For instance, %-sequences, like
        <code>"%s"</code>. These means that <code>calcurse</code> will
        replace them with another string. So it is important it
        remains.  There are also \-sequences, like <code>\n</code> or
        <code>\t</code>. Leave them, too. The former represents an end
        of line, the latter a tabulation.</dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">Translations can be wrapped</span></dt>
        <dd>If lines are too long, you can just break them like this:
        <pre>
msgid ""
"some very long line"
"another line"
        </pre></dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">po-file header</span></dt>
        <dd>At the very beginning of the po-file, the first string form a
        header, where various kind of information has to be filled
        in. Most important one is the charset. It should resemble
        <pre>
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n"
        </pre>
        You should also fill in the Last-Translator field, so that
        potential contributors can contact you if they want to join
        you in the translation team, or have remarks/typo fixes to
        give about the translations. You can either just give your
        name/nick, or add an email address, for exemple:
        <pre>
"Last-Translator: Frederic Culot &lt;frederic@culot.org&gt;\n"
        </pre></dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">Comments</span></dt>
        <dd>Adding comments (lines begining with the '#' character) can be
        a good way to point out problems or translation difficulties
        to proofreaders or other members of your team.</dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">Strings size</span></dt>
        <dd><code>calcurse</code> is a curses/console program, thus it can
        be heavily dependant on the terminal size (number of
        columns). You should think about this when translating. Often,
        a string must fit into a single line (standard length is 80
        characters). Don't translate blindly, try to look where your
        string will be displayed to adapt your translation.</dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">A few useful tools</span></dt>
        <dd>The po-file format is very simple, and the file can be edited
        with a standard text editor.  But if you prefer, there are few
        specialized tools you may find convenient for translating:
           <ul>
           <li><code>poEdit</code> (<a 
           href="http://www.poedit.org/" target="_blank">
           http://www.poedit.org/</a>)</li>
           <li><code>KBabel</code> (<a
           href="http://i18n.kde.org/tools/kbabel/" target="_blank">
           http://i18n.kde.org/tools/kbabel/</a>)</li>
           <li><code>GTranslator</code> (<a
           href="http://gtranslator.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">
           http://gtranslator.sourceforge.net/</a>)</li>
           <li><code>Emacs</code> po mode</li>
           <li><code>Vim</code> po mode</li>
           </ul>
        </dd>
        <dt><span class="emp">And finally</span></dt>
        <dd>I hope you'll have fun contributing to a more
        internationalized world. :) If you have any more questions,
        don't hesitate to contact me at 
	<span class="emp">frederic .at. culot .dot. org</span>.</dd>
        </dl>


<h1>9. Links<a name="links"></a></h1>
<p>
	This section contains links and references that may be of 
	interest to you.</p>

<h2>9.1 <code>calcurse</code> homepage<a name="links_homepage"></a></h2>
<p>
	The <code>calcurse</code> homepage can be found at </p>
	<pre>http://culot.org/calcurse</pre>

<h2>9.2 <code>calcurse</code> announce list<a name="links_list"></a></h2>
<p>
	If you are interested in the project and want to be warned 
	when a new release comes out, you can subscribe to the 
	<code>calcurse</code> announce list. In doing so, you will 
        receive an email as soon as a new feature appears in 
        <code>calcurse</code>.</p>
<p>
	To subscribe to this list, send a message to 
	<span class="emp">calcurse-announce .at. culot .dot. org</span> 
	with "subscribe" in the subject field.</p>

<h2>9.3 <code>calcurse</code> RSS feed<a name="links_rss"></a></h2>
<p>
	Another possibility to get warned when new releases come out
	is to follow the RSS feed at:</p>
	<pre>http://culot.org/calcurse/news_rss.xml</pre>
<p>
	This RSS feed is updated each time a new version of calcurse is
	available, describing newly added features.</p>

<h2>9.4 Other links<a name="links_others"></a></h2>
<p>
        You may want to look at the ical format specification (rfc2445) at:
        <pre>http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2445</pre>
<p>
        The pcal project page can be found at:
        <pre>http://pcal.sourceforge.net/</pre>

<h1>10. Thanks<a name="thanks"></a></h1>
<p>
	Its time now to thank other people without whom this program 
	would not exist! So here is a list of contributing persons I 
	would like to thank :
	<ul>
	<li>Alex for its patches, help and advices with <code>C</code> programming</li>
	<li>Gwen for testing and general discussions about how to 
	improve <code>calcurse</code></li>
	<li>Herbert for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for FreeBSD</li>
	<li>Zul for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for NetBSD</li>
	<li>Wain, Steffen and Ronald for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Archlinux</li>
	<li>Kevin, Ryan, and fEnIo for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Debian
	and Ubuntu</li>
	<li>Pascal for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Slackware</li>
	<li>Alexandre and Markus for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Mac OsX
	and Darwin</li>
	<li>Igor for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for ALT Linux</li>
	<li>Joel for its calendar script which inspired <code>calcurse</code> 
	calendar view</li>
        <li>Michael Schulz and Chris M. for the german translation of
	<code>calcurse</code> and its manual</li>
	<li>Jose Lopez for the spanish translation of
	<code>calcurse</code> and its manual</li>
	<li>Neil Williams for the english translation</li>
	<li>Leandro Noferini for the italian translation</li>
	<li>Tony for its patch which helped improving the
	recur_item_inday() function, and for implementing the date format configuration 
        options</li>
	<li>Jeremy Roon for the dutch translation</li>
	<li>Erik Saule for its patch implementing the '-N', '-s', '-r' and '-D' flags</li>
	<li>people who write softwares I like and which inspired me, 
	especially :
		<ul>
		<li><code>vim</code> for the displacement keys</li>
		<li><code>orpheus</code> and <code>abook</code> for documentation</li>
		<li><code>pine</code> and <code>aptitude</code> 
	        for the text user interface</li>
		</ul></li>
	</ul>
</p>
<p>
        And last, many many thanks to all of the <code>calcurse</code>
        users who sent me their feedback.</p>

<div class="footer">
	Copyright (c) 2004-2008 Fr�d�ric Culot<br>
	Calcurse version 2.3 - Last change: September 21, 2008<br>
</div>
</div>

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