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<title>CALCURSE documentation</title>
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<body>
<div id="mainContent">
<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_daemon">4.3 Background mode</a></li>
<li><a href="#basics_files">4.4 <code>calcurse</code> files</a></li>
<li><a href="#basics_import_export">4.5 Import/Export capabilities</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#basics_import">4.5.1 Import</a></li>
<li><a href="#basics_export">4.5.2 Export</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="#basics_help">4.6 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_keys">5.2 Key bindings</a></li>
<li><a href="#options_colors">5.3 Color themes</a></li>
<li><a href="#options_layout">5.4 Layout configuration</a></li>
<li><a href="#options_notify">5.5 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 configurable, and one can choose
between several color and layout combinations.
Key bindings are also configurable, to fit everyone's needs.
Last, a configurable notification system reminds user of upcoming
appointments. The reminders are sent even if the user's interface
is not running, as calcurse is able to run in background.
</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>
<p>
<p class="rq"><span class="valorize">Note:</span>
It is also possible to link <code>calcurse</code> against the
<code>ncursesw</code> library (ncurses with support for unicode).
However, UTF-8 is not yet supported by <code>calcurse</code>.</p>
<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-2.7.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 <file>, --calendar <file></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 <date|num>, --day <date|num></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 (possible formats described below).</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.
Possible formats for specifying the date are defined inside the
general configuration menu (see
<a href="#options_general">General options</a>), using the
<code>input_datefmt</code> variable.
<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 <dir>, --directory <dir></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 <file>, --import <file></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>-S<regex>, --search=<regex></code></dt>
<dd>
When used with the '-a', '-d', '-r', '-s', or '-t' flag,
print only the items having a description that matches the given
regular expression.
</dd>
<dt><code>--status</code></dt>
<dd>
Display the status of running instances of calcurse. If
calcurse is running, this will tell if the interactive
mode was launched or if calcurse is running in background.
The process pid will also be indicated.
</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. The priority number
must be between 1 (highest) and 9 (lowest). It is also possible
to specify '0' for the priority, in which case only completed
tasks will be shown.</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 > 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>
<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span>
Key bindings that are indicated in this manual correspond to
the default ones, defined when <code>calcurse</code> is launched
for the first time. If those key bindings do not suit user's needs,
it is possible to change them within the keys configuration menu
(see <a href="#options_keys">key bindings</a>).</p>
<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
| || | |
| || | |
| || |<--.
| || |
+------------------------------------++----------------------------+
|---[ Mon 2006-11-22 | 10:11:43 ]---(apts)----> 01:20 :: lunch <---|<--.
+------------------------------------------------------------------+ notify-bar
| ? Help R Redraw H/L -/+1 Day G GoTo C Config |
| Q Quit S Save J/K -/+1 Week Tab Chg View |<-.
+------------------------------------------------------------------+ |
|
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 '>', '*', or '<' 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 Background mode<a name="basics_daemon"></a></h2>
<p>When the daemon mode is enabled in the notification configuration menu
(see <a href="#options_notify">Notify-bar settings</a>), <code>calcurse</code> will stay
in background when the user interface is not running. In background mode,
<code>calcurse</code> checks for upcoming appointments and runs the user-defined
notification command when necessary. When the user interface is started again,
the daemon automatically stops.</p>
<p><code>calcurse</code> background activity can be logged (set the
<code>notify-daemon_log</code> variable in the notification configuration
<a href="#options_notify">menu</a>), and in that case, information about the daemon
start and stop time, reminders' command launch time, signals received... will be written
in the <code>daemon.log</code> file (see section <a href="#basics_files">files</a>).</p>
<p>
Using the <code>--status</code> command line option (see section
<a href="#basics_invocation_commandline">Command line arguments</a>),
one can know if <code>calcurse</code> is currently running in background or not.
If the daemon is running, a message like the following one will be displayed (the pid of
the daemon process will be shown):
<pre>calcurse is running in background (pid 14536)</pre>
<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span>
To stop the daemon, just send the <code>TERM</code> signal to it, using a command such as:
<code>'kill daemon_pid'</code>, where <span class="emp">daemon_pid</span> is the process id
of the daemon (14536 in the above example).
</p>
</p>
<h2>4.4 <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
|___keys
|___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>keys</code>:</dt>
<dd>this file contains the user-defined key bindings</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>
<p class="rq"><span class="valorise">Note:</span>
If the logging of calcurse daemon activity was set in the notification
configuration menu, the extra file <code>daemon.log</code> will appear
in calcurse data directory. This file contains logs about calcurse activity
when running in background.
</p>
<h2>4.5 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>4.5.1 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>4.5.2 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>4.6 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 five 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, pressing 'K' opens the key bindings configuration
menu, 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>periodic_save</code>
(default: <span class="emp">0</span>)</dt>
<dd>If different from '0', user's data will be automatically
saved every <span class="emp">periodic_save</span> minutes.
When an automatic save is performed, two asterisks
(i.e. '<code>**</code>') will appear on the top right-hand side
of the screen).</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>. Four choices are available:
<ol>
<li>mm/dd/yyyy</li>
<li>dd/mm/yyyy</li>
<li>yyyy/mm/dd</li>
<li>yyyy-mm-dd</li>
</ol>
</dd>
</dl>
<h2>5.2 Key bindings<a name="options_keys"></a></h2>
<p>
One can define it's own keybindings within the 'Keys' configuration
menu. The default keys look like the one used by the <code>vim</code>
editor, especially the displacement keys. Anyway, within this
configuration menu, users can redefine all of the keys available from
within calcurse's user interface.</p>
<p>
To define new keybindings, first highlight the action to which it will
apply. Then, delete the actual key binding if necessary, and add a new
one. You will then be asked to press the key corresponding to the new
binding. It is possible to define more than one key binding for a single
action.</p>
<p>
An automatic check is performed to see if the new key binding
is not already set for another action. In that case, you will be asked
to choose a different one. Another check is done when exiting from this
menu, to make sure all possible actions have a key associated with it.</p>
<p>
The following keys can be used to define bindings:
<ul>
<li>lower-case, upper-case letters and numbers, such as 'a', 'Z', '0'</li>
<li>CONTROL-key followed by one of the above letters</li>
<li>escape, horizontal tab, and space keys</li>
<li>arrow keys (up, down, left, and right)</li>
<li>'HOME' and 'END' keys</li>
</ul> </p>
<p>
While inside the key configuration menu, an online help is available for
each one of the available actions. This help briefly describes what the
highlighted action is used for.</p>
<h2>5.3 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>5.4 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>5.5 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>
<dt><code>notify-daemon_enable</code>
(default: <span class="emp">no</span>)</dt>
<dd>If set to yes, daemon mode will be enabled, meaning <code>calcurse</code>
will run into background when the user's interface is exited. This will allow the
notifications to be launched even when the interface is not running. More details
can be found in section <a href="#basics_daemon">'Background mode'</a>.
</dd>
<dt><code>notify-daemon_log</code>
(default: <span class="emp">no</span>)</dt>
<dd>If set to yes, <code>calcurse</code> daemon activity will be logged (see section
<a href="#basics_files">files</a>).
</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 <frederic@culot.org>\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', '-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 © 2004-2009 Frédéric Culot<br>
Calcurse version 2.7 - Last change: August 18, 2009<br>
</div>
</div>
</body>
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