--- /dev/null
+This is notes-mode.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.13 from notes-mode.texi.
+
+START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
+* Notes-mode: (notes-mode). Organizing on-line note-taking.
+END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
+
+ Notes-mode: Organizing on-line note-taking.
+
+ This file documents notes-mode, a package for organizing on-line
+note-taking.
+
+ Copyright (C) 1994-1996 by John Heidemann
+
+ Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
+manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
+preserved on all copies.
+
+ Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
+this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
+the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
+permission notice identical to this one.
+
+ Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
+manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
+versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
+translation approved by John Heidemann.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Top, Next: Introduction, Prev: (dir), Up: (dir)
+
+ This file documents notes-mode, a package for organizing on-line
+note-taking. This is edition $Revision: 1.40 $, for notes-mode version
+1.16, last updated $Date: 2010/06/20 18:30:34 $.
+
+* Menu:
+
+* Introduction::
+* Basics::
+* Advanced Features::
+* History::
+* Installation::
+* Keystroke index::
+* Concept index::
+
+ --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
+
+Introduction
+
+* What is it?::
+* Why keep notes at all?::
+* Why keep notes on-line?::
+* Why use notes-mode?::
+* Y2K Statement::
+* Related work::
+* Staying on top::
+
+Basics
+
+* Getting started::
+* A notes file::
+* The notes index::
+* The notes directories::
+
+Advanced Features
+
+* Notes files::
+* Notes indices::
+* Notes-mode configuration::
+
+Notes files
+
+* Getting around::
+* Subject summary::
+* Encryption::
+* Useful conventions::
+
+History
+
+* Notes-mode history::
+* Credits::
+* Changes::
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Introduction, Next: Basics, Prev: Top, Up: Top
+
+1 Introduction
+**************
+
+What is notes-mode and why should you (perhaps) use it?
+
+* Menu:
+
+* What is it?::
+* Why keep notes at all?::
+* Why keep notes on-line?::
+* Why use notes-mode?::
+* Y2K Statement::
+* Related work::
+* Staying on top::
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: What is it?, Next: Why keep notes at all?, Prev: Introduction, Up: Introduction
+
+1.1 What is it?
+===============
+
+Notes-mode is an indexing system for on-line note-taking. Notes-mode
+is composed of two parts, the visible part, a major-mode for emacs to
+aid note-taking; and the invisible part, scripts which periodically
+index your notes for you.
+
+ Note that notes-mode provides tools to "index" your notes, not to
+"search" them. (Other existing tools such as `grep', `agrep', and
+`glimpse' already allow file search.)
+
+ A digression about indexing vs. searching: Indexing in this sense
+means organize them according to categories you give, while searching
+looks through all text for arbitrary strings. Drawing on the World
+Wide Web for examples, Yahoo (`http://www.yahoo.com/') is an index,
+while Alta Vista (`http://www.altavista.digital.com/') is a
+search-engine. In (potentially) more familiar terms, the yellow pages
+(1) are an index, while directory information (411 in the USA) is sort
+of a search-engine.
+
+ ---------- Footnotes ----------
+
+ (1) Trademarked, in Great Britain, Sunone tells me.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Why keep notes at all?, Next: Why keep notes on-line?, Prev: What is it?, Up: Introduction
+
+1.2 Why keep notes at all?
+==========================
+
+So why should you use notes-mode? Well, first, consider why you should
+(perhaps) keep your notes on line. First, I assume that you take notes
+as part of your work or school. If you don't, you can stop reading now
+and go back to watching TV.
+
+ If you keep notes, ask yourself why you keep them. Reasons vary for
+different people, but some include:
+
+ * To remember what is said or done.
+
+ * To focus on what is important about what is said.
+
+ * To provide proof of having done something at a particular time or
+ date.
+
+ * I know there were other reasons here, but they slipped my mind.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Why keep notes on-line?, Next: Why use notes-mode?, Prev: Why keep notes at all?, Up: Introduction
+
+1.3 Why keep notes on-line?
+===========================
+
+OK, I've talked you into keeping notes. Why do it on-line? Again,
+there are different reasons for different people. If you don't want to
+consider keeping your notes on-line, you're welcome to go back to your
+(clay tablets) paper notes.
+
+ However, if you do much of your work on-line, or if you have
+portable computer, then you might want to consider keeping your notes
+on-line.
+
+ * It's faster to type than write, and possibly more legible at high
+ speed.
+
+ * Often information is already on-line. For example, in software
+ development, bug reports, measurement results, and everything else
+ that's useful is on-line.
+
+ * You can take down more detail than you otherwise would (especially
+ if the data is already on-line). Taking more copious notes can be
+ helpful when you go back to figure out why that strange thing was
+ happening.
+
+ * On-line notes are easy to search. Full-text search with grep,
+ agrep, and glimpse are all much faster and are often more accurate
+ than paging through paper notes looking for a particular keyword.
+
+ * On-line notes are easy to index. (At least with notes-mode!) In
+ addition to full-text search, it's helpful to organize notes by
+ category. If you keep a table-of-contents of your paper notes,
+ you are either extremely fastidious or a librarian (Nadia?).
+
+ * You can keep all of your notes with you at all times (if you have
+ a portable computer). Even at a page a day, paper notes quickly
+ become bulky and awkward to carry around. On-line notes fit on
+ your computer's hard disk, an extraordinarily compact medium by
+ comparison.
+
+ * Your notes can be automatically backed up. Paper notes can become
+ damaged with time, and as a graduate student one of my fears was
+ fire in Boelter Hall consuming all my research experiments and and
+ therefore hopes of a degree. Electronic notes are extremely easy
+ to duplicate and can be automatically backed up with the rest of
+ your computer. (You _do_ back up your computer, don't you?)
+
+
+ While these advantages are undoubtedly clear to any right-thinking
+computer user, it should be said that there are a few disadvantages for
+on-line note-taking.
+
+ * If you don't have a computer with you most of the time, it's
+ difficult take notes on-line (because you're off-line, of course).
+ (1)
+
+ * Computers require power. If your portable computer runs out of
+ juice, you're on your own. Corollary: watch your power, or bring
+ paper. Better corollary: watch your power, _and_ bring paper.
+
+ * Social limitations. It's not always socially acceptable to take
+ notes-on-line. For example, at a party, few people would use a
+ computer to take down the phone number of a person to whom they're
+ attracted (at least, if they wanted the attraction to be mutual).
+ (2) Sometimes other people find the sound of typing distracting.
+
+ * Health issues. Repetitive stress injuries do occur writing
+ (slower) by hand is at least an alternate motion than typing.
+
+ * Legal limitations. If you want to use your electronic notes to
+ justify a patent or invention, you may be breaking legal ground.
+ Being on the legal cutting-edge is rarely an easy thing for the
+ person involved.(3)
+
+
+ ---------- Footnotes ----------
+
+ (1) I consider myself pretty anal about this subject, often typing
+notes in from paper after-the-fact, and _I_ certainly don't manage to
+back-enter my notes all time time.
+
+ (2) On the other hand, some folks at MIT are working on this problem
+from both the hardware and the social side of things
+(`http://wearables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables/') (Perhaps
+they have wild parties with computers, too.)
+
+ (3) My hat is off to Rosa Parks and the many other normal people who
+triggered landmark cases.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Why use notes-mode?, Next: Y2K Statement, Prev: Why keep notes on-line?, Up: Introduction
+
+1.4 Why use notes-mode?
+=======================
+
+OK, I've sold you on note-taking and even on on-line note-taking. What
+about notes-mode? Naturally, it slices, dices, and makes julienne
+fries. But wait, there's more:
+
+ * It automates indexing your notes, linking notes with the same
+ subject together.
+
+ * It supports embedded links, allowing you to manually link together
+ different topics and external files.
+
+ * It includes a number of convenience-features in emacs. Subjects
+ can be completed based on existing subjects. The usual emacs
+ customization mechanisms are available.
+
+ * Notes containing sensitive information can be encrypted.
+
+ * Notes-mode seems better than the other, currently available
+ alternatives.
+
+ What are the alternatives? I'm glad you asked. (1)
+
+ * *HTML*. HTML has better formatting capabilities than notes-mode,
+ and it has excellent linking capabilities. Unfortunately, HTML's
+ tags are fairly intrusive (each is at least four characters long
+ and most come with a pair), tags can get confused with normal
+ text, errors in HTML can be bad (obscuring data), and there's no
+ automatic indexing feature (at least with plain HTML). Besides,
+ all data should be kept as close to the ASCII from whence it came,
+ as God Intended (hi, Steve).
+
+ * *Word Processors*. Word processors are strong in the formatting
+ department, but most don't really have linking capabilities, and
+ have poor or restricted indexing.
+
+
+ ---------- Footnotes ----------
+
+ (1) If you think I'm missing an alternative, please let me know.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Y2K Statement, Next: Related work, Prev: Why use notes-mode?, Up: Introduction
+
+1.5 Y2K Statement
+=================
+
+Notes mode uses dates extensively, both two-digit years and
+seconds-since-1970. However, notes-mode has been coded to function
+correctly through the year 2038.
+
+ To avoid problems with the year 2000, notes-mode assumes that any
+two-digit years before "70" are 20xx, not 19xx. Notes-mode should
+therefore work correctly in both the year 1999 and 2000.
+
+ (Notes-mode 1.17 released February 1999 fixes a lingering Y2K
+problem.)
+
+ Because notes-mode uses seconds-since-1970 for some date calculations
+it will fail beyond the year 2038 on computers with 32-bit integers.
+
+ If I'm still using notes-mode then on a 32-bit machine I'll see what
+I can do.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Related work, Next: Staying on top, Prev: Y2K Statement, Up: Introduction
+
+1.6 Related work
+================
+
+What would a document be without related work?
+
+ Notes-mode is not related in any way to Lotus Notes.
+
+ I am told (by David Weisman) that it's something like the now
+defunct Lotus Agenda.
+
+ Ashvin Goel, one of the contributors to notes-mode, has gone off
+and done a from-scratch reimplementation called records-mode. It's
+very similar to notes mode, and emphasizes on-the-fly updates to entry
+links but lacks a manual. You may want to check it out at
+`http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~ashvin/software.html'.
+
+ Hyperbole (by Bob Weiner) offers better linking facilities than
+notes-mode, but it has a bunch of stuff notes-mode doesn't need and
+it's missing notes-specific indexing provided by notes-mode. For
+people already using Hyperbole it would be interesting to replace
+notes-mode's linking with Hyperbole's. Contributions in this area are
+welcome, provided they make Hyperbole optional.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Staying on top, Prev: Related work, Up: Introduction
+
+1.7 Staying on top
+==================
+
+The most recent distribution of notes-mode is always available via
+`http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/SOFTWARE/NOTES_MODE/'.
+
+ After you've installed notes mode you're encouraged to subscribe to
+the mailing lists. To subscribe, go to the web page Send the message
+"subscribe" to
+`http://www.heidemann.la.ca.us/mailman/listinfo/notes-mode-announce' or
+`http://www.heidemann.la.ca.us/mailman/listinfo/notes-mode-talk'.
+
+ The announce list will contain only release announcements and so is
+guaranteed to be very low bandwidth.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Basics, Next: Advanced Features, Prev: Introduction, Up: Top
+
+2 Basics
+********
+
+All you need to use notes-mode in a chapter. (Except for
+installation, *Note Installation::.)
+
+* Menu:
+
+* Getting started::
+* A notes file::
+* The notes index::
+* The notes directories::
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Getting started, Next: A notes file, Prev: Basics, Up: Basics
+
+2.1 Getting started
+===================
+
+To get started with notes-mode, read the introduction this chapter,
+then either:
+
+ * Start emacs, do `M-x' `load-library' `RET' `notes-mode' `RET'
+ This approach will set up notes-mode with the default parameters.
+
+ * OR, from the shell, run the program `notesinit'. This approach
+ will ask you some questions about how you want to configure notes
+ mode.
+
+
+ Either way these should set up everything notes-mode needs. This
+program will modify your environment (as described in this section),
+or it will give you the exact commands you should run yourself.
+
+ After you've done one of these, start up emacs and note-away. I
+usually begin a day of note-taking by running the command `M-x'
+`notes-index-todays-link' to jump directly to today's note. You may
+even wish to bind this to something, perhaps with `(define-key
+global-map "\C-cn" 'notes-index-todays-link)' in your `.emacs'.
+
+ If you want to browse your existing notes, you might instead want
+to edit the `~/NOTES/index'. (What is a notes file and the index?
+Hurry up and finish reading this chapter.)
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: A notes file, Next: The notes index, Prev: Getting started, Up: Basics
+
+2.2 A notes file
+================
+
+The notes file is the focus of most of the activity in notes-mode,
+it's where you take your notes. Notes files are mostly free-form text
+broken up into "entries". Here's an example:
+
+ 8-Jun-95 Thursday
+ -----------------
+
+ * Today
+ -------
+ prev: <none>
+ next: <file:///~/NOTES/199506/950609#* Today>
+
+ next week - release notes-mode
+
+
+ * Environment/notes
+ -------------------
+
+ I explained notes mode to Ashvin and Geoff.
+ ...
+
+ Each entry has a subject-block, (maybe) some links, and then (maybe)
+some text.
+
+ The subject-block must begin with an asterisk-space (`* ') at the
+beginning of a line, followed by the subject itself. Subjects must be
+underlined with a row of dashes (if they're not exact, that's OK;
+notes-mode will fix them periodically). For convenience, notes-mode
+will automatically add the underlines when you hit `<RTN>'
+(`notes-electric-return'), and `<TAB>' on a partially completed
+subject will invoke completion based on indexed subjects
+(`notes-complete-subject').
+
+ Following the subject may be links. (In the example, the "Today"
+entry has links, the "Environment/notes" entry doesn't.) These links
+will be automatically updated by notes-mode when your notes are
+re-indexed; just leave a blank line when writing the note.
+
+ Links are made with pseudo-URLs, sort of like those in the World
+Wide Web. Any of these URLs can be followed in notes-mode files by
+clicking `S-mouse-2' on the pseudo-URL (`notes-w3-follow-link-mouse').
+
+ Finally comes the text. Go wild, but just don't include text that
+looks like a subject. You can embed pseudo-URLs to link notes together
+manually.
+
+ The more anal of you may have noticed that the lines before the
+first subject are not part of any entry. These lines are "front
+matter". They're not usually used for much, but they can be a good
+place to label the file.
+
+ There are a number of useful conventions that can be adopted to
+organize your notes. The most common is the "Today" entry. If you
+keep an entry with the same subject at the beginning of each file,
+you link all of your notes together. Notes-mode will help you out with
+some of these convetions by automatically creating or copying some
+fields for you; see *note Useful conventions:: for details.
+
+ Finally, notes-mode can also work with outline-minor-mode (thanks
+to Tim Carroll for pointing this out). Outline-mode supports hiding
+and revealing text and other helpful features beyond the scope of this
+document. *Note Outline Mode: (emacs)Outline Mode, for details.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: The notes index, Next: The notes directories, Prev: A notes file, Up: Basics
+
+2.3 The notes index
+===================
+
+The notes index lists all subjects you've kept notes about, and each
+date of each note. Impress your friends, show your advisor why you're
+worth the _big_ peanuts, you'll soon have the biggest index of all.
+
+ The index has one line per subject, listing the subject and each
+day a note was made about that subject. For example:
+
+ Bicycle: 950314, 950316
+ Bicycle/maintenance/books: 951028
+ Bridge/hands: 951113, 951114, 951116, 951117
+ Bridge/UCLA: 960222, 960409
+
+ Clicking on any of the dates with `mouse-2' will take you to that
+note (`notes-index-mouse-follow-link'). (You can also move the point
+over the date and hit `<RTN>' if you're musaphobic
+[`notes-index-follow-link'].)
+
+ The notes index is automatically updated by the program `mkall'.
+Typically `mkall' is run nightly by `cron'. On most modern versions of
+Unix, you can add this command to cron by running `crontab -e' and
+adding the line:
+
+ 0 4 * * * /usr/local/lib/notes-mode/mkall
+
+ (Assuming that your notes programs are installed in
+/usr/local/lib/notes-mode, the default location.)
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: The notes directories, Prev: The notes index, Up: Basics
+
+2.4 The notes directories
+=========================
+
+The final thing needed to tie basic notes-mode together his how the
+pieces fit together. Since my graduate work is in file systems, you
+can bet that directories are involved.
+
+ Notes-mode keeps its files in a two-level hierarchy:
+
+ ~/NOTES
+ ~/NOTES/index
+ ~/NOTES/rawindex
+ ~/NOTES/199603
+ ~/NOTES/199603/960329
+ ~/NOTES/199603/960330
+ ~/NOTES/199604
+ ~/NOTES/199604/960401
+
+ The top level, `~/NOTES', is the notes directory. It keeps all
+notes in one place. (The name of this directory is configurable, *Note
+Notes-mode configuration::.)
+
+ Inside the notes directory are two files and a number of directories.
+The files are `index', the index of all entries (*note The notes
+index::), and `rawindex', used internally.
+
+ The notes directory also contains a number of subdirectories,
+sometimes called "intermediate directories". These directories group
+the actual notes files into manageable chunks, keeping any directory
+from getting too large. Intermediate directories are named by the
+four-digit year and the two-digit month of the entries they contain.
+(The format of intermediate directories is configurable, *Note
+Notes-mode configuration::.)
+
+ Finally, each intermediate directory are the notes files themselves,
+named according to the two-digit year, month, and day-of-month.
+
+ For the most part, notes-mode will automatically maintain this
+organization of files, once you create the top-level directory.
+Notes-mode will also automatically insure that all files in the notes
+directory are unreadable by anyone other than their owner. Notes are
+personal things. (This behavior is not currently configurable, but it
+probably should be.)
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Advanced Features, Next: History, Prev: Basics, Up: Top
+
+3 Advanced Features
+*******************
+
+Notes-mode, the minutiae, and some other good stuff.
+
+* Menu:
+
+* Notes files::
+* Notes indices::
+* Notes-mode configuration::
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Notes files, Next: Notes indices, Prev: Advanced Features, Up: Advanced Features
+
+3.1 Notes files
+===============
+
+* Menu:
+
+* Getting around::
+* Subject summary::
+* Encryption::
+* Useful conventions::
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Getting around, Next: Subject summary, Prev: Notes files, Up: Notes files
+
+3.1.1 Getting around
+--------------------
+
+Moving between notes entries and around the hierarchy is fairly common,
+so there are some accelerators.
+
+`C-c C-i'
+ Jump to the index entry for the current entry's subject
+ (`notes-goto-index-entry').
+
+`C-c C-n'
+
+`C-c C-p'
+ Move to the next or prior note with the same subject
+ (`notes-follow-next-link' and `notes-follow-prev-link'). These
+ functions follow the links in the note, if they're defined. If
+ not, they look through the index file. This approach usually
+ works, but will fail if there are multiple new entries created
+ with the given subject between when the index is recomputed.
+
+`C-c<RTN>'
+ Follow the link under the point (`notes-w3-follow-link'), a
+ keyboard equivalent of <S-mouse-2>.
+
+`M-C-a'
+
+`M-C-e'
+ Jump to the beginning or end of the current note entry
+ (`notes-beginning-of-defun' and `notes-end-of-defun').
+
+`C-c C-k'
+ Copies the pseudo-URL for the current note into the kill-ring
+ (`current-url-as-kill'). To link two entries, go to the target,
+ grab its URL with `C-c C-k', go to where you want to make the
+ link, and yank the URL with `C-y'.
+
+
+ Notes mode supports imenu, if you have it bound to something (I
+use `(global-set-key [down-mouse-3] 'imenu)').
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Subject summary, Next: Encryption, Prev: Getting around, Up: Notes files
+
+3.1.2 Subject summary
+---------------------
+
+It's often helpful to look at all entries for a given subject `C-c C-s'
+collects all entries with the subject of the current entry in a new
+buffer (`notes-summarize-subject').
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Encryption, Next: Useful conventions, Prev: Subject summary, Up: Notes files
+
+3.1.3 Encryption
+----------------
+
+Notes occasionally contain private material. While Unix has strong
+services for file protection (compared to other, say, more
+wide-selling operating systems), in many systems root passwords are
+shared, while other systems are vulnerable to physical compromise. In
+such systems, properly used encryption is the best approach to
+security.
+
+ Notes-mode encryption is based Phill Zimmerman's PGP (Pretty Good
+Privacy) (see `http://www.mantis.co.uk/pgp/pgp.html') and either with
+Rick Campbell's emacs interface, PAM (PGP Augmented Messaging) (from
+`ftp://h.gp.cs.cmu.edu/usr/rfb/pam/') (note that as of January 1997,
+PAM is no longer at this ftp site and appears to not be publicly
+available), or LoPresti and Choi's mailcrypt (from
+`http://cag-www.lcs.mit.edu/mailcrypt/').
+
+`C-c C-e'
+ Encrypt the current note (`notes-encrypt-note'). By default this
+ function encrypts the whole entry. With a prefix argument, only
+ the part from the point to the end of the entry is encrypted.
+
+`C-c C-d'
+ Decrypt the current note (`notes-decrypt-note').
+
+ By default notes-mode determines your public key by looking up your
+`user-full-name' in your PGP keyring. You can override this default by
+setting `notes-encryption-key-id' to the desired key-id.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Useful conventions, Prev: Encryption, Up: Notes files
+
+3.1.4 Useful conventions
+------------------------
+
+There are a number of conventions which can make notes-mode easier to
+use. These conventions are a matter of personal taste, of course. Do
+what works for you.
+
+ First, I find it helpful to keep the date of each notes-file at the
+top of the file. This makes the file self-identifying if the
+filename is lost.
+
+ Second, I find it useful to have the first entry of each file have
+the same subject (perhaps "Today"). This entry then links all notes
+together, making it easy to go to yesterday and tomorrow. I keep a
+to-do list on this entry, bringing the list forward each day.
+
+ A third useful convention is to keep an entry with the name based
+on the day of the week in each file. Analogous to "Today", this entry
+links together weeks.
+
+ Notes-mode supports these conventions. When you make a new
+notes-file in emacs, notes-mode searches for the preceding file. If
+it follows any of these conventions, the new file is initialized
+appropriately. Currently the approach to do this process (in the
+program `mknew') is fairly sensitive, so it may not work in all cases.
+In particular, the date convention works only on for English-language
+dates. (If you use notes-mode with a non-English language, let me
+know and I'll work with you to fix this limitation.)
+
+ If you find other helpful conventions, please let me know.
+Modifications to `mknew' to implement new conventions are also invited.
+
+ If you don't want to use these conventions, or if you want to use
+different ones, set the emacs variable
+notes-mode-initialization-program to nil or the name of your
+initialization program.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Notes indices, Next: Notes-mode configuration, Prev: Notes files, Up: Advanced Features
+
+3.2 Notes indices
+=================
+
+Only two features of notes index mode haven't yet been described.
+First, you can open any notes-file based on date with
+`notes-index-link', normally bound to <o>.
+
+ Second, you can get a subject-summary with <C-c C-s> (*note
+Subject summary::). The subject defaults to that of the current index
+line.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Notes-mode configuration, Prev: Notes indices, Up: Advanced Features
+
+3.3 Notes-mode configuration
+============================
+
+Several aspects of notes mode are particularly visible to the user.
+Because I'm not a fascist, a user can change most of these.
+
+ Preferences are specified in `~/.notesrc'. This file lists things
+to change:
+
+ # lines beginning with a hash are comments
+ dir: ~/NOTES
+ int_form: %Y%m
+
+ Currently, two things can be changed:
+
+`dir'
+ Specifies the root of the notes directory hierarchy (*note The
+ notes directories::).
+
+`int_form'
+ Specifies the form of the intermediate directory. A limited
+ subset of `strftime(3)' formatting is allowed.
+
+ The subset of `strftime(3)' supported in `int_form' is:
+`%Y'
+ The four-digit year.
+
+`%y'
+ The two-digit year.
+
+`%m'
+ A two-digit numeric month.
+
+`%d'
+ A two-digit day.
+
+ In addition to `.notesrc', there are a number of emacs-specific
+variables. These variables are documented in the file
+`notes-variables.el'.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: History, Next: Installation, Prev: Advanced Features, Up: Top
+
+4 History
+*********
+
+More about notes-mode than you wanted to know, and some thanks.
+
+* Menu:
+
+* Notes-mode history::
+* Credits::
+* Changes::
+* Suggested features::
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Notes-mode history, Next: Credits, Prev: History, Up: History
+
+4.1 Notes-mode history
+======================
+
+Briefly, I started keeping notes on-line shortly after I got a
+portable computer in January, 1994. After a month-and-a-half of
+notes, I realized that one does not live by grep alone, so I started
+adding indexing facilities.
+
+ In June of 1995 some other Ficus-project members started keeping
+and indexing on-line notes using other home-grown systems. After some
+discussion, we generalized my notes-mode work and they started using
+it.
+
+ Over the next 18 months notes-mode grew. Finally, in April, 1996 I
+wrote documentation, guaranteeing that innovation on notes-mode will
+now cease or the documentation will become out of date.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Credits, Next: Changes, Prev: Notes-mode history, Up: History
+
+4.2 Credits
+===========
+
+I (John Heidemann, <johnh@isi.edu>) started, documented, and currently
+maintain notes-mode. I take ultimate responsibility for the code,
+especially for the ugly parts that I won't let others change.
+
+ Ashvin Goel <ashvin@ficus.cs.ucla.edu> has been a very
+enthusiastic notes-mode user and contributor. He is responsible for at
+least the ideas behind `notes-summarize-subject' and the ideas and
+initial implementations of some of the original generalization and
+modularity improvements, `notes-follow-next-link' and
+`notes-follow-prev-link', `notes-goto-index-entry', programmed
+subject completion, and context-sensitive mouse-2 handling. In
+addition, he is an invaluable second opinion about what and how
+things should be done (even if I don't always agree with him).
+
+ Geoff Kuenning <geoff@ficus.cs.ucla.edu> has been another
+enthusiastic notes-mode user and victim. He is responsible for
+finding several bugs, motivation for mouse-less operation, comments
+about the documentation, the day-of-week convention, and an initial
+implementation and the idea of multiple entries with the same subjects
+in a single notes-file.
+
+ Ramesh Govindan <govindan@isi.edu> did the xemacs port.
+
+ Since it's release on Usenet in April 1996 several other folks have
+contributed. Thanks to David Weisman <weisman@app1.osf.org>, Martin
+L. Smith <martin@ner.com>, Jason Bastek <jason@aai.com>, Ulrich
+Herbst <Ulrich.Herbst@t-systems.com>. See the next section (*Note
+Changes::.) for details of their exploits.
+
+ Thanks to Larry Ayers <layers@marktwain.net> for popularizing
+notes-mode with reviews in the Linux Gazette (at
+<http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue22/notes-mode.html> and
+<http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue35/ayers.html>).
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Changes, Next: Suggested features, Prev: Credits, Up: History
+
+4.3 Changes
+===========
+
+For the bored:
+
+ First semi-public release. 12-Jul-95: version 0.1 Shared a version
+with Ashvin and Geoff.
+
+ Changed 6-Dec-95: version 0.3 Ashvin's changes for note traversal
+added (C-c C-p and C-c C-n now move to the prev/next note in note-mode).
+URL parsing changed so that "localhost" is optional.
+
+ Changed 19-Dec-95: version 0.4 More robust prev/next code added,
+both to handle going back and forward in the middle of chains through
+the index file, and to handle back/forward in a single file. URL
+parsing changed so that notes-goto-index-entry correctly handles
+lookups on notes names such as "252A".
+
+ Changed 20-Dec-95: version 0.5. Fixed a missing variable in
+notes-url.el. Added a work-around to a bug in emacs-19.30's
+define-derived-mode.
+
+ Changed 24-Dec-95: version 0.6. Prev/next code re-re-written to be
+more robust.
+
+ Changed 26-Dec-96: version 0.7. Bug fix release.
+
+ Changed 23-Jan-96: version 0.8. Initialization code added to set
+up a new note. New variable: notes-bin-dir.
+
+ I'm skipping version 0.9 because I erroneously release version 0.1
+as version 0.9 (only on the web, not on Usenet).
+
+ I'm bumping from version "0" to version "1" since the code is has
+been in production use for more than a year by several people. Minor
+numbers are the same.
+
+ Changed 26-Mar-96: version 1.10. Setup code completely re-written.
+Several incompatible changes have been made: - the lisp and Perl code
+must be installed via make install, not by copying. - some data is
+specified in a .notesrc file; copy and modify sample.notesrc. -
+several internal elisp changes. - catsubject added (bound to C-cC-s):
+collect all notes about the current subject. - new notes-files are
+initialized with fields based on the prior day's notes; see mknew for
+details. - daily_work is gone; mkall is rewritten to use .notesrc.
+
+ Changed 29-Apr-96: version 1.11. Real documentation. Mknew
+caching added.
+
+ Changed 9-Aug-96: version 1.12. Added notesinit to do all setup
+for new users.
+
+ Changed 24-Aug-96: version 1.13. Minor documentation fixes.
+
+ Changed 20-Dec-97: version 1.14. Autoconf support.
+
+ Fontification of the index buffer is now pre-computed in perl other
+than done when the file is needed (in elisp with slow regular
+expressions). 2000-line index files are now 1-2 seconds rather than
+15-30 on a 100MHz Pentium. If necessary (the pre-computed version
+isn't up-to-date) we fall back on the slower code.
+
+ Related work improved (suggestion by David Weisman
+<weisman@app1.osf.org>).
+
+ Documentation improvement (problem found by Martin L. Smith
+<martin@ner.com>).
+
+ Installation improved (code by Jason Bastek <jason@aai.com>).
+
+ Bug in notes-index mode with subjects containing colons fixed
+(johnh).
+
+ Encryption now supports mailcrypt.el.
+
+ Support for emacs 20 (a small font-lock change).
+
+ Changed 5-Jan-98: version 1.15. Bug in decryption for non-PAM
+users fixed (suggestion by Kevin Davidson <tkld@quadstone.com>).
+
+ Y2K statement added (suggestion by Kevin Davidson
+<tkld@quadstone.com>).
+
+ Pointer to mailcrypt added (as a supported encryption package).
+Problem pointed out by K. Ueda <kueda@jupiter.qse.tohoku.ac.jp>.
+
+ Changed 4-Nov-98: version 1.16. Bug in kill-ring handling of
+notes-old-underline-line fixed by Tim Potter <timp@jna.com.au>. Bug
+in whitespace handling after PGP encryption fixed by Tim Potter. Bugs
+in handling of entries with hash signs in their name fixed (found by
+Tim Potter). Fontification of index buffer further improved (mapcar
+is your friend). Xemacs support added based on code contributed by
+Ramesh Govindan.
+
+ Changed 28-Feb-99: version 1.17: Improvement: notes-electric-return
+now fixes up the prev/next links of new entries (only). Code
+contributed by Takashi Nishimoto.
+
+ Bug fix: reversed options -batch and -q in configure.in to placate
+XEmacs 20.0; changed notesinit to not downcase the pathname (bugs
+found by Thierry Bezecourt).
+
+ Clarification: Autofilling of new notes more clear in the manual
+(hopefully, suggested by Solofo Ramangalahy).
+
+ Bug fix: a y2k bug in was found and fixed in mkindex. Sigh.
+
+ New: Two mailing lists for notes-mode have been created:
+`notes-mode-announce@heidemann.la.ca.us' and
+`notes-mode-talk@heidemann.la.ca.us'. Send the line "subscribe
+notes-mode-announce" (or "subscribe notes-mode-talk") to
+`majordomo@heidemann.la.ca.us' to join them. [_These instructions are
+now superceeded; to subscribe, go to
+`http://www.heidemann.la.ca.us/mailman/listinfo/notes-mode-talk' and
+`http://www.heidemann.la.ca.us/mailman/listinfo/notes-mode-announce'._]
+
+ Changed 6-Oct-99: version 1.18: Bug fix: handling of
+electric-prevnext is better when there are existing prev/next links.
+
+ Clarification: I added some pointers in the code to the installation
+instructions. (Apparently people can't RTF README.)
+
+ Extension: mailcrypt-3.5.x suported including pgp, pgp5 and gpg.
+
+ Changed (date 23-Dec-00): version 1.19: Bug fix (cosmetic): suppress
+comments in encrypted nodes.
+
+ Install fixes from Kannan Varadhan: elisp directories changed on
+install.
+
+ Added C-j as a synonym for RET in notes-mode to parallel C++ or perl
+mode. (Suggested by Fred Jaggi `jaggi@rsn.hp.com'.)
+
+ Outline-minor-mode support added and documented. (Suggested by Tim
+Carroll `tim@boomboom.com'.)
+
+ Bug/typo fixes in gpg support (Contributed by William A. Perkins
+`wa_perkins@pnl.gov', with separate patches from Knut Anders Hatlen
+`kahatlen@online.no'.)
+
+ Installation improvements suggested by Christophe Troestler
+`Ch.Troestler@linkline.be': use install-info to update the info dir,
+warn users of -prefix that lisp files go elsewhere.
+
+ Changed (date 1-Feb-01): version 1.20: Bug fix: missing file
+notes-first.el added to the distribution. (Bug found by Michael
+Totschnig `michaelt@supernet.ca'.)
+
+ Changed ( 5-Dec-01): version 1.21: (backed-out--didn't work with
+spaced URLs) URL lookup now uses thing-at-point.
+
+ Fix to make notes-mode work with emacs-21.1 (Fix from Klaus Zeitler
+`kzeitler@lucent.com'.)
+
+ Changed ( 3-Jan-02): version 1.22: Several bugs in `notesinit' for
+stricter Perl implementations (bug found by Paul Craven"
+`pcraven@yorku.ca', and Kasper van Wijk `kasper@acoustics.mines.edu')
+and to make it run cleanly more often.
+
+ Notes-first now autoinitializes notes mode from emacs. (As
+instisted by rms, unfortunately about two years later than requested.)
+
+ Changed (20-Feb-05): version 1.23: Outline mode is now forcebly
+turned on to avoid interactions with user's text-mode hooks (bug and
+fix from Nils Ackermann `nils@nieback.de').
+
+ Install bug involving ordering of scripts and byte-compilation fixed
+(bug and fix from Mark Allman `mallman@grc.nasa.gov').
+
+ Fix obscure bug in configure, reported by Klaus Zeitler
+`kzeitler@lucent.com'.
+
+ Fix for notes-summarize-subject when no subject is specified (bug
+and fix from Geoff Kuenning).
+
+ Changed (14-Jan-06): version 1.24:
+
+ install-info bug documented with the Debian install-info (bug
+reported by Aaron Falk `falk@isi.edu').
+
+ Automatic date completion in new days is now done in the current
+locale, so it should now work for non-English languages. Bug reported
+by Torsten Bronger `bronger@physik.rwth-aachen.de'.
+
+ Fixed a bug in mkindexcache, triggered by subjects with percent signs
+in them. Bug reported by Philip Austin `paustin@eos.ubc.ca'.
+
+ We're a bit more robust about subjects, I hope. Warnings should
+appear about embedded number signs, and leading spaces should be
+filtered. Bug reported by Philip Austin `paustin@eos.ubc.ca'.
+
+ Notes-mode now dervies from indented-text-mode rather than
+paragraph-indent-text mode. Unfortunatley this is not customizable
+because of limitations of define-derived-mode. Change suggested by
+Aaron Falk `falk@isi.edu'.
+
+ Provide better hints about how to get started after installation or
+running notes-mode in emacs for the first time.
+
+ In notes init, the default path for dir was the full path, not the
+tilde version of the path. Now it defaults to using tidle for home
+directory. Bug reported by Mark Allman `allman@icir.org'.
+
+ Changed (26-May-06): version 1.25:
+
+ fixed a bug in the release tar.gz file that had a additional copies
+copy nested.
+
+ Changed (30-Jun-08): version 1.26:
+
+ Force unicode I/O in `mkindexcache' to fix highlighting mis-alignment
+when using emacs-21 with unicode subject lines.
+
+ Changed mkprevnext and mkrawindex to optionally take the list of
+notes files to index from stdin rather than from the command line.
+Yes, I finally have 4093 notes files, overflowing the Unix command line
+buffer.
+
+ Changes notes-mode.el to put path in quotes, allowing spaces to
+appear in home directory names (bug fix from Ulrich Herbst).
+
+ Added a suggested features section.
+
+ Changed ( 8-Aug-08): version 1.27:
+
+ Change I/O in `mkindexcache' to use locale (the sadly correct thing)
+rather than forcing utf-8 (the Righteous Path). Bug report from Geoff
+Kuenning, a man with an older Unix environment than I.
+
+ Changed (20-Jun-10): version 1.28:
+
+ Changed a regular expression in `notes-index-mode.el' that was
+causing emacs-v23 (a pre-release version) to regular expression
+infinite recursion.
+
+ Changed (2012-04-04): version 1.29
+
+ (2011-08-23) Changed `run-hooks' to `run-mode-hooks'. Bug report
+from Geoff Kuenning.
+
+ Changed some handling of PGP encryption to account for some apparent
+API changes.
+
+ (2012-04-04) Fixed encyrption to handle encrypting empty notes at
+the end of buffers without going into an infinite loop. Clearly wrong
+code, but you have to ask this guy for why he tried: Bug report from
+Geoff Kuenning.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Suggested features, Prev: Changes, Up: History
+
+4.4 Suggested features
+======================
+
+Features suggested by users but not yet implemented:
+
+ 21-Feb-08: (from Xavier Maillard): should support "disconnected"
+notes that are indexed but not date-based.
+
+ 21-Feb-08: (from John Heidemann): should switch all notes files to
+have an extension (maybe `.notes').
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Installation, Next: Keystroke index, Prev: History, Up: Top
+
+5 Installation
+**************
+
+To install notes-mode,
+
+ 1. Unpack and extract the distribution (gunzip notes-mode-xxx.tar.gz;
+ tar xvf notes-mode-xxx.tar; cd notes-mode-xxx).
+
+ 2. Run configure (./configure).
+
+ 3. Type "make install".
+
+ (To control what's installed where, use -prefix=/where, or
+-with-lisp-dir=/where, -datadir=/where (for scripts), and
+-infodir=/where.)
+
+ For each user:
+ 1. Run notesinit
+
+ If you have problems with paths being incorrect, please be aware that
+you _cannot_ run notes directly out of where you untar it. The
+installation process customizes the programs for where things are on
+your system. Make sure you move out of the directory where you
+untarred it before running it.
+
+ The most recent distribution of notes-mode is always available via
+`http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/SOFTWARE/NOTES_MODE/'.
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Keystroke index, Next: Concept index, Prev: Installation, Up: Top
+
+Keystroke index
+***************
+
+This index lists notes-mode keystrokes.
+
+\0\b[index\0\b]
+* Menu:
+
+* C-c C-d: Encryption. (line 28)
+* C-c C-e: Encryption. (line 24)
+* C-c C-i: Getting around. (line 11)
+* C-c C-k: Getting around. (line 37)
+* C-c C-n: Getting around. (line 21)
+* C-c C-p: Getting around. (line 21)
+* C-c C-s <1>: Notes indices. (line 12)
+* C-c C-s: Subject summary. (line 8)
+* C-c<RTN>: Getting around. (line 25)
+* M-C-a: Getting around. (line 31)
+* M-C-e: Getting around. (line 31)
+* mouse-2: The notes index. (line 21)
+* o: Notes indices. (line 8)
+* RTN <1>: The notes index. (line 21)
+* RTN: A notes file. (line 37)
+* S-mouse-2: A notes file. (line 46)
+* TAB: A notes file. (line 37)
+
+\1f
+File: notes-mode.info, Node: Concept index, Prev: Keystroke index, Up: Top
+
+Concept index
+*************
+
+This index lists notes-mode concepts.
+
+\0\b[index\0\b]
+* Menu:
+
+* .notesrc: Notes-mode configuration.
+ (line 6)
+* configuration: Notes-mode configuration.
+ (line 6)
+* conventions: Useful conventions. (line 6)
+* Crontab: The notes index. (line 29)
+* Decryption: Encryption. (line 6)
+* Directory hierarchy: The notes directories.
+ (line 6)
+* Encryption: Encryption. (line 6)
+* Font matter: A notes file. (line 55)
+* imenu: Getting around. (line 41)
+* Intermediate directories: The notes directories.
+ (line 35)
+* key-id: Encryption. (line 31)
+* mailcrypt: Encryption. (line 19)
+* mkall: The notes index. (line 29)
+* mknew: Useful conventions. (line 6)
+* Notes directories: The notes directories.
+ (line 6)
+* Notes entries: A notes file. (line 10)
+* Notes file permissions: The notes directories.
+ (line 45)
+* Notes files <1>: The notes directories.
+ (line 38)
+* Notes files: A notes file. (line 6)
+* Notes files, font matter: A notes file. (line 55)
+* Notes index: The notes index. (line 6)
+* Notes links: A notes file. (line 42)
+* Notes subjects: A notes file. (line 37)
+* notes-mode-initialization-program: Useful conventions. (line 38)
+* notesinit: Getting started. (line 6)
+* PAM: Encryption. (line 19)
+* PGP: Encryption. (line 19)
+* PGP Augmented Messaging: Encryption. (line 19)
+* Pretty good privacy: Encryption. (line 19)
+* Pseudo-URLs: A notes file. (line 46)
+* re-indexing: The notes index. (line 29)
+* Root directory: The notes directories.
+ (line 27)
+* setup: Getting started. (line 6)
+* Subject summary: Subject summary. (line 8)
+* Today: Useful conventions. (line 17)
+* URLs: A notes file. (line 46)
+
+
+\1f
+Tag Table:
+Node: Top\7f1028
+Node: Introduction\7f1953
+Node: What is it?\7f2283
+Ref: What is it?-Footnote-1\7f3376
+Node: Why keep notes at all?\7f3432
+Node: Why keep notes on-line?\7f4217
+Ref: Why keep notes on-line?-Footnote-1\7f7770
+Ref: Why keep notes on-line?-Footnote-2\7f7946
+Ref: Why keep notes on-line?-Footnote-3\7f8185
+Node: Why use notes-mode?\7f8284
+Ref: Why use notes-mode?-Footnote-1\7f9975
+Node: Y2K Statement\7f10044
+Node: Related work\7f10857
+Node: Staying on top\7f11905
+Node: Basics\7f12555
+Node: Getting started\7f12861
+Node: A notes file\7f14100
+Node: The notes index\7f16843
+Node: The notes directories\7f18095
+Node: Advanced Features\7f19955
+Node: Notes files\7f20215
+Node: Getting around\7f20452
+Node: Subject summary\7f21882
+Node: Encryption\7f22218
+Node: Useful conventions\7f23651
+Node: Notes indices\7f25422
+Node: Notes-mode configuration\7f25898
+Node: History\7f26971
+Node: Notes-mode history\7f27235
+Node: Credits\7f28027
+Node: Changes\7f29908
+Node: Suggested features\7f39761
+Node: Installation\7f40163
+Node: Keystroke index\7f41103
+Node: Concept index\7f42542
+\1f
+End Tag Table