Lightweight PIM recommendations

gladstone · 2010-09-23 09:07:57

This is one of those circular holy grails for me; before I attempt to write one for myself, I'm looking for an all-in-one PIM (or a suite of apps with a consistent feel) that meets the following:

Plain text backend storage
Synchronisation (perhaps SyncML)
Organisation (tagging and the like)
Timestamping
CLI interface (but not restricted to)

for these applications:

Reading list (offline books, online bookmarks)
Notes
Todo lists
Calendar
Generic lists

(probably more).

zenlord · 2010-09-23 12:16:59

I don't think such a thing exists. If you want a plain text backend, you'll get a long way with the CardDAV and CalDAV-specs for both contacts and calendar/tasks/notes. A very good backend (in PostgreSQL) is davical (you'll need the git-version to use carddav). Davical can be made to synchronize through Funambol.

There is someone developing a PHP-frontend for the calendar-part of davical, but I have not used that - I'm using a PHP-frontend that I'm developing myself (but development is very slow and all I've got is an incomplete piece of code.

The use of PHP makes it possible to use it on the CLI.

A tagging-system is something I have not thought about, but it might come in handy if/when I rethink my own frontend...

ngoonee · 2010-09-23 22:59:58

Why not use (at least for the email related parts) maildir? I use that here, sync it with gmail through offlineimap, serve it through dovecot to Evolution (which supports SyncML as well).

No text backend for the PIM stuff though.

ozzolo · 2010-09-24 08:47:56

you could write a plugin for (e.g.) Zim Wiki (expecially calendar e syncro). I use it for notes, todo, etc.

Dieter@be · 2010-09-24 11:00:31

i use vim, vim outliner and git. I'm still figuring out what's the most flexible way of representing things so that I can "parse out" to-do lists etc.

okay maybe I should explain my idea first: i love GTD, but it focuses too much on todo's, not about random notes or documentation (this goes for all task management systems, not just GTD), in my experience, i track all my stuff as text in $XDG_DATA_HOME/pim, with some todo's "in the middle of" documentation. so I basically maintaing lists and textfiles with some todo's here and there. and then with tags I parse them out. but it gets more complicated since some of my files are in a tree structure, I'm working on some "fast input scripts" that can programatically add a string to a list, but it gets harder when the list is part of a bigger document, etc. (to enter text in a gtd inbox I use something like http://dieter.plaetinck.be/a_fast_way_t … _gtd_inbox, but I have some scripts to enter something in "list of urls I need to visit", "bands I need to check out", etc)

Last edited by Dieter@be (2010-09-24 11:07:44)

bernarcher · 2010-09-24 11:25:10

I basically use the same tools as Dieter@be plus vimwiki for more content oriented structuring and (but rather seldomly now) a mind manager (since several years: freemind) as a structuring help.

Basically it is all in text files mainly laid out in a flatly stuctured "notes" directory and the main tools (urxvt - e vim todo.otl, urxvt -e vim notes.otl, etc., with ".otl" designating vim outliner files) bound to certain keystrokes in openbox, so they are readily usable without distracting from current work.

Last edited by bernarcher (2010-09-24 11:29:47)

kinhodder · 2010-09-24 17:20:49

You might like hnb - it's an outliner with a todo list mode and address book features, and it works well as a dumping ground for notes.

You can store everything in plain text but (IIRC) you'll lose some features compared to the default XML backend.

http://hnb.sourceforge.net/

olvar · 2010-09-24 18:49:03

If you are familiar with emacs, or want to try it out, take a look at org-mode (http://orgmode.org/)
I think it fits well to your requirements.

skanky · 2010-09-24 19:28:04

There was a recent thread on the mutt mailing list by someone who uses mutt as a note taking app. Using hooks, you could get all sorts of functionality. Storage will be in mail file formats in whichever mail format you wish from (maildir, mh, mbox). There's pretty good filtering functionality and a number of other tools that will work on mail folders (eg mairix). Timestamping is automatic (sent date & time) and tags could be put in the subject.

Here's the email:

I made an alias for Postfix to send mails to a black hole, /dev/null so I can send clean mails to a phantom address in aliases notes@localhost and with a fcc-hook all of them go to mailbox =notes
I have mutt with "set sort=reverse-threads" so I can see my Notes threads with nice sorting and order. Reply to a Notes Subject is a new note about it.
I can have as many Subjects as I will need.
I can Search in body notes or Subject.
With a macro F12 show me the =notes mailbox.
I choose to have all my important writings in pure text, it is universal, faster than other, so I will be always able to read and edit my papers, and Notes with Mutt is pure text.

EDIT: not sure how it could work with a calendar, but mutt integrates well with abook for contacts.

Last edited by skanky (2010-09-24 19:29:47)

bernarcher · 2010-09-24 19:33:35

I forgot the calendar. I use pal from extra. It is simple, text based and allows for easter relative long term repeating dates, which is a necessity to me.

skanky · 2010-09-24 19:37:43

pal is very good, so is remind (fwiw I moved from pal to remind, I forget why) and there's another very good one out there, can't remember what it's called.

Dieter@be · 2010-09-27 16:42:25

skanky wrote:

pal is very good, so is remind (fwiw I moved from pal to remind, I forget why) and there's another very good one out there, can't remember what it's called.

I find remind weird. it just feels awkward to use. I.e. the 'REM' part and the need to always put '%b' at the end. Is there a sane way to use remind (without a frontend like wyrd?)

Also, I've had a look at vimwiki, it looks nice, although I miss outlining (hierarchies) in it. I know vim outliner, but that one only does outlining. No todo lists or tags.
And when I tried out the example from the official vimwiki website (http://code.google.com/p/vimwiki/), when i press enter on a link that doesn't have a file yet, I don't get taken to the new file, i just go to the next line. And I read on the blog I should be able to create tables with `VimwikiTable` but vim doesn't recognize that command. (using 1.1.1 - latest - from AUR), so ...

skanky · 2010-09-27 17:00:38

I find remind weird. it just feels awkward to use. I.e. the 'REM' part and the need to always put '%b' at the end. Is there a sane way to use remind (without a frontend like wyrd?)

I guess it's something you get used to. remind is geared towards being able to program in otherwise difficult dates (eg UK Christmas bank holidays) which are difficult or impossible in other systems (without importing holiday lists, or manually setting up). The holidays are trivial, but odd meeting or other recurring event set-ups are better examples - eg every first Monday in the month, unless that's a holiday, then it's Tuesday.

For basic stuff, the extra bits to add for this can make it seem more of a pfaff, but I guess it's something you get used to, or not. On an old machine, I had some simple functions to add basic entries and inserted the REM, MSG and % bits for me. I lost them at the time and keep meaning to re-write them. Incidentally, there are other % codes that give different outputs, apart from %b (you probably know that). The REM part is necessary to distinguish it from other entry types.

If you don't need repeating entries, then pal is probably a better bet than remind (remind is semi-actively developed, pal is "just" maintained).

quigybo · 2010-09-28 17:36:38

I hope this isn't diverging too far from the OP's request, but one thing I like about remind is that it can run as a daemon, notifying you of upcoming events that have a time specified. By using -k and specifying notify-send as the command to run I get a nice notification of upcoming meetings during the day.

jdarnold · 2010-09-28 18:22:03

+1 on Emacs Org-mode. Randall Schwartz interviews Carsten Dominik, the main guy behind org-mode, on the wonderful podcast, FLOSS Weekly #136 :

http://twit.tv/floss136

He makes a great point that it doesn't matter what editor you use (even if you're one of the vi people - shudder ), emacs makes a great application platform and the org-made pkg here is great.

mir · 2010-10-01 18:38:36

for todo-lists, I like "task" from the AUR - CLI only, but no sync. Can export ical.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-23 09:07:57

Lightweight PIM recommendations

#2 2010-09-23 12:16:59

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

#3 2010-09-23 22:59:58

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

#4 2010-09-24 08:47:56

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

#5 2010-09-24 11:00:31

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

#6 2010-09-24 11:25:10

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

#7 2010-09-24 17:20:49

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#8 2010-09-24 18:49:03

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

#9 2010-09-24 19:28:04

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#10 2010-09-24 19:33:35

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

#11 2010-09-24 19:37:43

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

#12 2010-09-27 16:42:25

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

#13 2010-09-27 17:00:38

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#14 2010-09-28 17:36:38

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#15 2010-09-28 18:22:03

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#16 2010-10-01 18:38:36

Re: Lightweight PIM recommendations

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