#MTL

!!!THIS IS HEAVILY WORK IN PROGRESS!!!

Simple bash/*ix based backend for notes/todo tool for my work. Inspired partially by how I imagine Git works, but trying to be 1 level simpler for end users (because the problem is simpler).

On top of it a parser will be built based on ideas from http://www.qwikitodo.com and other prototypes I made.

##Core goals / ideas

• Your todos/notes should be where your work is (in the directory of your project) or if it's todo for You (generally) in your home directory
• Your todos should give you not just direction for the future, but overview of your past
• Your todos should work well in in-zone state of mind (for me that means no clicking around, nowysiwyg, writing them in the same environment as I code my code)
• we TRY to use functional prog. principles (like immutability) and old Unix soul to gain simplicity of mechanics, implementation and workflow ;)

##State

We are making the basic backend work. On a proof of concept level we prooved it can work OK, so we are making it usable so we can start using as soon as possible (and then develop further).

##Few example workflows

###Personal daily todos

We have one personal todo per day in our home folder. Each day we create new one from what was left undone from the day before (and from planned things for immediate future "~").

A new day, you go to your home dir and check out what you have done yesterday, and what was left undone:

  cd ~
  mtl cat done :yesterday
  mtl cat todonow :yesterday

Then you extract undone things, store the new file, link it and (because we added unlink at the end) unlink the todo of previous day:

  mtl extract :yesterday to :today unlink

During the day you edit the daily todo, and store modifications when you wish (there are shortucts to do it inside emacs or vim):

  emacs 2012-02-14
  mtl store :today

###Multiple todos/docs for a project

We have multiple continious (not daily) todos for our project ABC. Let's go into it's directory and look at what todos are there.

 cd Work/ABC
 mtl ls			#shows 'code' and 'design' docs
 mtl cat code
 mtl cat design | less

Is there anything urgent in the design todo? Where are we with code todo?

 mtl cat design urgent	#is there anything urgent in design todo?	
 mtl log code   		#see the history of code todo
 mtl cat code todo		#see what's there to do in code

Start working on code, store between changes (usually done from within emacs /

  emacs code
  mtl store code

###Cooperating on a todo

From previous example. We cooperate with a designer. So let's check if he has made any changes to his todo.

 mtl sync design from janko@projabc.net:~/mojcas-repo

The design todo merged with his changes, let's check the changes and if we like it we can store it.

 mtl diff design
 mtl store design

We add new task to his todo, and mirror changes to our online mirror so he will be able to get it.

   emacs design        #add another task
   mtl mirror design to janko@projabc.net:~/my-repo

##Commands dictionary

###Doc naming conventions

:today - gets changed with date of today (2012-02-12 - usefull for daily todos/notes)

:yesterday , :yday - get exchanged with date of yesterday

:tomorrow - the same

doc~w - working version

doc, doc~, doc~0 - last stored version

doc1 , docN - previous, version N stores back

###log

 mtl log doc

###cat

cat whole doc

 mtl cat doc
 mtl cat today
 mtl cat today~w
 mtl cat today~5 

cat with filters

 mtl cat doc done
 mtl cat doc todo
 mtl cat doc todonow
 mtl cat doc urgent

cat to another doc

 mtl cat doc todo to doc2
 mtl cat :yday todo to :today

###...more to come...

##Platforms

Runs on Linux and Cygwin (should work on macs too.. if you try please report).

##License

GNU GPL v2

##. ##. ##. ##. ##. ##. ##. ##. ##.

##----PART OF OLD README -----

Things will of course get streamlined and automated as much as it makes sense. This is heavily WIP!

  # cd to the dir of your project and start
  mtl init   	    	#creates the .mtl dir structure
  mtl create work	#creates doc work in .mtl dir and index/src files
  mtl link work 	#creates a local symlink to the doc so you can edit it like local file

  # work on todo
  emacs work		#edit the file
  mtl store work	#store the changes again
  mtl diff work		#compare the working file with last stored
  mtl log work		#show the log of stores
  mtl cat work		#cat the last stored version (TODO: same numbers logic as diff and get)

  # previous stores
  mtl diff work 0	#compare working to last stored
  mtl diff work 0 1	#compare the last 2 stored
  mtl get work	  	#set working version from the last stored version
  mtl get work 1	#set working version from previously stored version

  # more docs
  mtl ls		#list the docs
  mtl cat todo doc	#cat extraction of doc (extract is doc without done items)
  mtl cat todo doc to doc2 	#extract todo items from yesterday to today
  mtl cat notes doc	     	#see the notes in some doc
  mtl cat done doc	     	#see the done things in some doc

  # daily use
  mtl create :today
  mtl link :today
  mtl cat :yesterday
  mtl cat :tomorrow

  #copy (from) and copy to repo (locally and remotely)
  mtl copy from ../projectY				# copy whole repo (all docs)
  mtl copy from projectx@work.com:~/repo		
  mtl copy to projectx@work.com:~/newrepo
  mtl copy doc to repo@someserv.com:~/myrepodoc	# copy specific document to some repo

  #sync two repos (locally or remotely)
  mtl sync ../projectx/work				#2way sync all docs with another repo
  mtl sync projectx@work.com:~/work			#2way sync all docs with remote repo over ssh
  mtl sync designtodo projectx@host.com:~/projectxcoop  #sync specific doc to the remote repo