battle-plan.el is a personal to do/checklist manager for GNU Emacs. It is designed to be non-intrusive and not interfere with editing. Of course, it uses a plain text format that plays nicely with other tools, such as Git and grep.
Each item is a single line. There are three types of items. Lines are prefixed with - for pending items, + for completed items, and / for "won't do" (when you change your mind, but still wish to document your history). Items are color-coded, providing a quick and visually satisfying overview.
M-c toggles the current item between pending/completed, with automatic sorting. Completed items drop to the bottom, while pending items (perhaps you needed to re-open a bug?) pop to the top. Use empty lines to group items logically; toggling will only relocate an item within its local group.
There's also a shorthand for adding stand-out :: Headers, which has no programmatic meaning but helps arrange items in a meaningful way.
Items can have any number of #tags which can be used to track progress. Found a bug that needs to be fixed for version 1.3? Tag it #bug #1.3.
C-c ; generates a report listing all tags and how many pending/completed items there are for each. Selecting a line in the report with RET or mouse-2 will open an occur buffer listing all items with the selected tag. Selecting a line in the occur buffer (as per standard occur behaviour) will jump to that specific line in the to do-list. DEL (that is; backspace) in the occur buffer will return to the report buffer.
Installation is simple:
battle-plan.el (or copy it from below)~/.emacs.d/)(require 'battle-plan) to your ~/.emacs configOnce installed, battle-plan will automatically detect filenames containing the phrase TODO. It can also be manually activated with M-x battle-plan-mode.
I strongly recommend using move-lines.el (or something that provides the same functionality). I personally have S-up and S-down bound to move the current line or region up and down, which lets me quickly rearrange to do-items (transpose-lines is kinda dodgy). However, this is purely in the realm of text editing and outside the scope for battle-plan, so no such routines are included here.
I also recommend using volatile-highlights-mode, as it will provide visual feedback where items end up as they are toggled and relocated.
;;
;; Happy Pony Land presents
;;
;; ▛▀▖ ▞▀▖ ▀▛▘ ▀▛▘ ▌ ▛▀▘ ▛▀▖ ▌ ▞▀▖ ▛▖▐ ▐▀▀ ▐
;; ▛▀▖ ▛▀▌ ▌ ▌ ▌ ▛▘ ▝▀ ▛▀ ▌ ▛▀▌ ▌▝▟ ▐▀ ▐
;; ▀▀ ▘ ▘ ▘ ▘ ▀▀▘ ▀▀▘ ▘ ▀▀▘ ▘ ▘ ▘ ▝ ▝ ▝▀▀ ▝▀▀
;;
;; battle-plan.el is a personal to do manager for GNU Emacs.
;;
;; See http://www.happyponyland.net/battle-plan for more information.
;;
;; Version: 2018-09-08
;;
;; Author: ulf.astrom@gmail.com
;;
;; License: By using, modifying or distributing this Software,
;; you pledge your Soul to be consumed by the Dark One.
;;
;;;###autoload
(defvar battle-plan-mode-map nil "Keymap for battle-plan-mode.")
(setq battle-plan-mode-map (make-sparse-keymap))
(define-key battle-plan-mode-map [M-c] 'bplan-dwim)
(define-key battle-plan-mode-map (kbd "C-c ;") 'bplan-report)
;; Face definitions: the colors used for items, tags and headers.
(defface bplan-pending
'((t :foreground "light goldenrod"))
"Face for battle-plan pending tasks."
:group 'battle-plan-mode)
(defface bplan-done
'((t :foreground "spring green"))
"Face for battle-plan completed tasks."
:group 'battle-plan-mode)
(defface bplan-wont-do
'((t :foreground "coral4"))
"Face for battle-plan tasks that won't be done."
:group 'battle-plan-mode)
(defface bplan-tag
'((t :foreground "cyan3"
:weight extra-bold))
"Face for battle-plan #tags in to do tasks."
:group 'battle-plan-mode)
(defface bplan-header
'((t :foreground "light salmon"
:underline t
:weight extra-bold
))
"Face for battle-plan headers."
:group 'battle-plan-mode)
(defvar bplan-pending 'bplan-pending "")
(defvar bplan-done 'bplan-done "")
(defvar bplan-wont-do 'bplan-wont-do "")
(defvar bplan-tag 'bplan-tag "")
(defvar bplan-header 'bplan-header "")
;; Syntax highlighting: used by font lock to set the faces above.
(setq battle-plan-format
'(("^- .*$" . bplan-pending)
("^\+ .*$" . bplan-done)
("^\/ .*$" . bplan-wont-do)
("^:: .*$" . bplan-header)
("#[[:graph:]]*" . (0 'bplan-tag t))
)
)
(define-derived-mode battle-plan-mode nil "Battle-Planner"
"Major mode for managing personal to do-lists."
(setq bplan-report-buf-name "*battle-plan-report*"
bplan-occur-buf-name "*battle-plan-occur*"
font-lock-keywords-only t
font-lock-defaults '(battle-plan-format))
)
(defun bplan-rewind-markers ()
"Determine where -+/ lines should end up relative to the current
line. Returns a list with three markers."
(beginning-of-line)
;; At this point we don't know what the caller wants to use the
;; markers for, but to determine proper placement we need to
;; calculate all of them anyway, so we'll just return all three.
;; Default: start of current line
(setq bplan-pending-insert (point-marker)
bplan-done-insert (point-marker)
bplan-wont-insert (point-marker))
;; Move forward so we can match prefixes backwards on this line.
(forward-char 2)
;; Decide where to insert a - line (ideally at the start of the
;; current - line block). This can match several different patterns:
;;
;; (note: "whitespace" here refers to space and tab)
;;
;; - an empty line (w/ or w/o whitespace) followed by "/ ", "+ " or "- "
;; - a line with a header (:: + any text) and a newline
;; - two empty lines (to break free from a non-to do block)
;; - an empty line at the start of buffer, followed by /, + or -
;; - a header at the start of buffer
;; - the start of buffer
;;
;; The value returned by cond is how many lines we must skip forward
;; to get to the proper position, e.g. if we match to the start of
;; buffer, there is only one newline between point and desired
;; insertion position. If we match _only_ start of buffer, we don't
;; need to move at all.
;;
;; We match "/ " and "+ " before "- " since if these are preceeded
;; by empty lines, they are considered the start of the group, even
;; if there are "- " blocks further up in the buffer.
(forward-line
(cond ((search-backward-regexp "\n[ \t]*\n/ " nil t) 2)
((search-backward-regexp "\n[ \t]*\n\\+ " nil t) 2)
((search-backward-regexp "\n[ \t]*\n- " nil t) 2)
((search-backward-regexp "\n:: .*\n" nil t) 2)
((search-backward-regexp "\n[ \t]*\n" nil t) 1)
((search-backward-regexp "\\`[ \t]*\n/ " nil t) 1)
((search-backward-regexp "\\`[ \t]*\n\\+ " nil t) 1)
((search-backward-regexp "\\`[ \t]*\n- " nil t) 1)
((search-backward-regexp "\\`:: .*\n" nil t) 1)
((search-backward-regexp "\\`" nil t) 0)
))
;; This is where we want to insert - lines
(setq bplan-pending-insert (point-marker))
;; Start searching forward for the first line that doesn't start
;; with "- ", or the end of buffer.
(if (or (re-search-forward "\n[^-]" nil t)
(re-search-forward "\\'" nil t))
(progn
;; If we matched the end of buffer, make sure it ends with a
;; newline. Otherwise, back up a char.
(if (eq (point) (point-max))
(unless (eq (point) (line-beginning-position))
(insert "\n"))
(forward-char -1))
;; This is where we want to insert + lines. It is ALSO where
;; we want to insert / lines, UNLESS we find a better place
;; for them below.
(setq bplan-done-insert (point-marker)
bplan-wont-insert (point-marker))
;; Look for a line that doesn't start with +
(if (re-search-forward "\n[^\\+]" nil t)
(progn (forward-char -1)
(setq bplan-wont-insert (point-marker))))
)
;; else; couldn't find any - lines
((setq bplan-done-insert (point-marker)
bplan-wont-insert (point-marker)))
)
(list bplan-pending-insert bplan-done-insert bplan-wont-insert)
)
(defun bplan-modify-item (prefix)
"Change the -+/ prefix (any kind) of the current line to PREFIX."
;; Get positions to insert -+/ lines.
;; bplan-rewind-markers moves point, so save start-pos for later.
(setq start-pos (point-marker)
markers (bplan-rewind-markers)
pending-insert (nth 0 markers)
done-insert (nth 1 markers)
wont-insert (nth 2 markers))
;; Go to the start of the current line, remove any existing prefix,
;; add the desired prefix and a space.
(goto-char start-pos)
(beginning-of-line)
(if (bplan-is-todo-item) (delete-char 2))
(insert prefix)
(insert " ")
;; Sort line
(beginning-of-line)
(kill-line)
;; Kill the remaining newline, but not if we're at the end of buffer
(cond ((eq (point) (point-min)) (delete-char 1))
((not (eq (point) (point-max))) (delete-char 1))
)
;; Go to the insert point for this prefix
(cond ((eq prefix ?\-) (goto-char pending-insert))
((eq prefix ?\+) (goto-char done-insert))
((eq prefix ?\/) (goto-char wont-insert))
)
(yank)
(insert "\n")
)
(defun bplan-is-todo-item ()
"Returns t if point is at a -+/ prefix."
(and (eq ?\s (char-after (+ (point) 1)))
(or (bplan-following ?\+)
(bplan-following ?\-)
(bplan-following ?\/)))
)
(defun bplan-following (ch)
"Returns t if the character following point equals CH."
(eq (following-char) ch)
)
(defun bplan-mark-done ()
"Marks the current line/item as done."
(interactive)
(bplan-modify-todo-line ?\+)
)
(defun bplan-mark-pending ()
"Marks the current line/item as pending."
(interactive)
(bplan-modify-pending-line ?\-)
)
(defun bplan-dwim ()
"Toggles the current line/item prefix (- to +, + to -, / to -)."
(interactive)
(save-excursion
(beginning-of-line)
(if (bplan-is-todo-item)
(cond ((bplan-following ?\-) (bplan-modify-item ?\+))
((bplan-following ?\+) (bplan-modify-item ?\-))
((bplan-following ?\/) (bplan-modify-item ?\-))
)
)
)
)
(defun bplan-incr-todo-counter (status alist)
"Increments the key STATUS in association list ALIST and returns ALIST."
(incf (alist-get status alist))
alist
)
(defun bplan-report ()
"Generates a report of all #tags present in the current buffer."
(interactive)
(let ((lines (split-string (buffer-string) "\n" t))
(tags (make-hash-table :test 'equal)))
(while lines
(setq line (substring-no-properties (car lines)))
(if (setq status (cond ( (eq (string-to-char line) ?\+) 'done )
( (eq (string-to-char line) ?\-) 'pending )
( (eq (string-to-char line) ?\/) 'wont )
( t nil )))
(progn
(setq start-pos 0)
(while (setq pos (string-match "#[[:alnum:]]+" line start-pos))
(let ((tag (match-string 0 line)))
(puthash tag (bplan-incr-todo-counter status (gethash tag tags
(list 'list
(cons 'done 0)
(cons 'pending 0)
(cons 'wont 0))))
tags)
)
(setq start-pos (+ 1 pos))
)
)
)
(setq lines (cdr lines))
)
(setq generated-from (current-buffer)) ;; Keep track of where we came from
(with-current-buffer-window
bplan-report-buf-name nil nil
(make-local-variable 'tab-stop-list) ;; Set up the tabs to align against
(setq tab-stop-list '(15 30 50 100))
(maphash 'bplan-list-todo-tag tags)
;; Make a keymap to open an occur buffer; apply it to all lines
(let ((map (make-sparse-keymap))
(begin (point-min))
(end (point-max)))
(define-key map (kbd "RET") 'bplan-occur)
(define-key map [mouse-2] 'bplan-occur)
(put-text-property begin end 'keymap map)
(add-text-properties begin end
'(mouse-face highlight
help-echo
"mouse-2: find occurences of this tag"))
)
)
)
)
(defun bplan-switch-to-report ()
"Switches the current window (back) to the battle-plan report.
This is intended to be mapped in the occur buffer."
(interactive)
(switch-to-buffer bplan-report-buf-name)
)
(defun bplan-occur ()
"In the report buffer, opens an occur buffer for the currently selected tag."
(interactive)
(goto-char (line-beginning-position))
(if (re-search-forward "#[[:alnum:]]+" (line-end-position) t)
(let ((tag (match-string 0 nil)))
(goto-char (line-beginning-position))
(switch-to-buffer bplan-occur-buf-name)
(occur-1 tag 0 (list generated-from) bplan-occur-buf-name)
;; Bind *backspace* to return to report
(local-set-key (kbd "DEL") 'bplan-switch-to-report)
)
)
)
(defun bplan-list-todo-tag (key value)
"Format and display a line for #tag KEY, with done/pending/wont
count retrieved from VALUE."
(let ((done (alist-get 'done value))
(pending (alist-get 'pending value))
(wont (alist-get 'wont value)))
(bplan-insert-face-tab key bplan-tag t)
(bplan-insert-face-tab (format "%3d" done) bplan-done nil)
(bplan-insert-face-tab " / " nil nil)
(bplan-insert-face-tab (number-to-string pending) bplan-pending t)
(bplan-insert-face-tab (format "(total: %3s) " (number-to-string (+ done pending))) nil nil)
(bplan-insert-face-tab (format "(won't do: %s)" (number-to-string wont)) bplan-wont-do nil)
(let ((begin (line-beginning-position))
(end (line-end-position)))
(add-face-text-property begin end '(:underline "gray20")))
(insert "\n"))
)
(defun bplan-insert-face-tab (text face tab)
"Inserts TEXT in the current buffer and apply FACE to it. If TAG is t, skip to the next tabstop."
(let ((begin (point-marker)))
(insert text)
(let ((end (point-marker)))
(if tab (tab-to-tab-stop))
(add-face-text-property begin end face)
)
)
)
;; Associate buffers called TODO with battle-plan
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("TODO" . battle-plan-mode))
(provide 'battle-plan)
Note: This was my first substantial elisp project. The code might not be optimal.
org-mode is too complicated and I don't like it.
battle-plan.php was last modified on 2019-09-07 and should be valid XHTML 1.0 Strict.