This document contains the release notes for each tagged commit on the project’s main git repository: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote.
The newest release is at the top. For further details, please consult the manual: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote.
Denote is stable and reliable though we keep adding minor refinements to it. Remember that many—if not all—of these are intended for experienced users who have developed their own workflow and want to adapt Denote to its particularities. We may call them “power users”.
New users do not need to know about every single feature. A basic
configuration is enough and is why the original video I did about
Denote (from even before I published version 0.1.0) is still relevant.
For example:
;; Start with something like this.
(use-package denote
:ensure t
:bind
(("C-c n n" . denote)
("C-c n r" . denote-rename-file)
("C-c n i" . denote-link) ; "insert" mnemonic
("C-c n b" . denote-backlinks))
:config
(setq denote-directory (expand-file-name "~/Documents/notes/")))And here is the same idea with a little bit more convenience:
;; Another basic setup with a little more to it.
(use-package denote
:ensure t
:hook (dired-mode . denote-dired-mode)
:bind
(("C-c n n" . denote)
("C-c n r" . denote-rename-file)
("C-c n l" . denote-link)
("C-c n b" . denote-backlinks))
:config
(setq denote-directory (expand-file-name "~/Documents/notes/"))
;; Automatically rename Denote buffers when opening them so that
;; instead of their long file name they have a literal "[D]"
;; followed by the file's title. Read the doc string of
;; `denote-rename-buffer-format' for how to modify this.
(denote-rename-buffer-mode 1))The denote-sort-dired command asks for a literal string or regular
expression and then produces a fully fledged Dired listing of matching
files in the denote-directory. Combined with the efficient Denote
file-naming scheme, this is a killer feature to collect your relevant
files in a consolidated view and have the full power of Dired available.
By default denote-sort-dired prompts for the file name component to
sort by and then asks whether to reverse the sorting or not. Users who
want a more streamlined experience can configure the user option
denote-sort-dired-extra-prompts.
It is possible to skip the prompts altogether and use the default values for (i) which component to sort by and (ii) whether to reverse the sort. To this end, users can have something like this in their configuration:
;; Do not issue any extra prompts. Always sort by the `title' file
;; name component and never do a reverse sort.
(setq denote-sort-dired-extra-prompts nil)
(setq denote-sort-dired-default-sort-component 'title)
(setq denote-sort-dired-default-reverse-sort nil)For me, Dired is one of the best things about Emacs and I like how it combines so nicely with Denote file names (this is the cornerstone of Denote, after all).
Power users may want to control how the sorting works and what it is matching on a per file-name-component basis. The user options are these:
denote-sort-title-comparison-function.denote-sort-keywords-comparison-function.denote-sort-signature-comparison-function.
One use-case is to match specific patterns inside of file names, such as Luhmann-style signatures. I wrote about this in the manual as well as on my blog (with screenshots): https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-08-01-emacs-denote-luhmann-signature-sort/.
Thanks to Riccardo Giannitrapani for discussing this with me and helping me understand the use-case better. This was done via a private channel and I am sharing it with permission.
All our Org dynamic blocks that produce links to files now read the
parameter :include-date. When it is set to t, the listed files
will include their corresponding date inside of parentheses after the
file’s title.
Thanks to Sergio Rey for describing this idea to me. This was done via a private channel and the information is shared with permission.
The optional Org dynamic blocks we define let users collect links to other files (and more) in a quick and effective way. Each block accepts parameters which control its output, such as how to sort files.
All our dynamic blocks now accept the :excluded-dirs-regexp. This is
a regular expression which is matched against directory file system
paths. Matching directories and their files are not included in the
data handled by the dynamic block.
Note that we have the user option denote-excluded-punctuation-regexp
which defines a global preference along the same lines.
I did a video about this feature: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-07-30-emacs-denote-exclude-dirs-org-blocks/.
Thanks to Claudio Migliorelli for discussing this idea with me. It was done via a private channel and this information is shared with permission.
We already had an Org dynamic block that would insert file contents.
Though that one inserts files as they are, optionally without their
front matter. However, users may have a workflow where they want to
eventually copy some of the block’s output into the main file they are
editing, at which point it is easier for the entire inserted file to
appear as a series of headings. The #+title of the inserted file
becomes a top-level heading and every other heading is pushed deeper
one level.
To this end, we provide the Org dynamic block known as denote-files-as-headings.
Insert it with the command denote-org-extras-dblock-insert-files-as-headings
or select it with the minibuffer after calling Org’s own command
org-dynamic-block-insert-dblock.
The top-level headings (those that were the #+title) can optionally
link back to the original file. Though please read the manual for all
the parameters this dynamic block takes.
The Org dynamic block for backlinks can now read the optional
:this-heading-only parameter. When it is set to t, the block will
only include links that point to the specific heading inside of the
current file. Otherwise, backlinks are about the whole file.
To insert such a dynamic block, use the command
denote-org-extras-dblock-insert-backlinks.
By default, the buffer produced by the command denote-backlinks has
a compact view of showing the file names linking to the current file.
With the user option denote-backlinks-show-context set to a non-nil
value, the backlinks buffer produces a detailed listing of matching
results, where the links are shown in their original context.
Users can now choose to have this on-demand by calling the command
denote-backlinks-toggle-context which switches between the detailed
and compact views.
This blog post I wrote about it include screenshots: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-07-25-emacs-denote-backlinks-context-toggle/.
The denote-templates variable allows the user to specify one or more
named templates which can then be inserted during the creation of a
new note. One way to be prompted for a template among those specified
is to modify the denote-prompts user option and then use the regular
denote command. Another way is to use the command denote-template
(alias denote-create-note-with-template), which will prompt for the
template to use.
Templates ordinarily have a string as their value, though now their value can also be the symbol of a function. This function takes no arguments and is expected to return a string. Denote takes care to insert that below the front matter of the new note.
So it can look like this:
(setq denote-templates
`((report . "* Some heading\n\n* Another heading") ; A string with newline characters
(blog . my-denote-template-function-for-blog) ; the symbol of a function that will return a string
(memo . ,(concat "* Some heading" ; expand this `concat' into a string
"\n\n"
"* Another heading"
"\n\n"))))Thanks to skissue (Ad) for the contribution in pull request 398: #398. The change is small, meaning that its author does not need to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
Also thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for extending this to
denote-org-capture. Done in pull request 399:
#399. Jean-Philippe is a
long-time contributor who has assigned copyright to the Free Software
Foundation.
This global minor mode takes care to rename the buffers of Denote files to a pattern that is easier for users to read. As with everything, it is highly configurable. The default value now includes an indicator that shows if the current file has backlinks (other files linking to it).
The exact characters used in this indicator are specified in the new
user option denote-rename-buffer-backlinks-indicator. The default
value is "<-->", which hopefully communicates the idea of a link
(but, yeah, symbolism is hard). Users may want to modify this to add
some fancier Unicode character.
Thanks to Ashton Wiersdorf for the original contribution in pull request 392: #392. Ashton has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
In the same theme as above, the user option denote-rename-buffer-format
has a new default value. Before, it would only show the title of the
file. Now it shows the aforementioned denote-rename-buffer-backlinks-indicator,
if there are backlinks, plus the title, plus a literal "[D]" prefix.
The prefix should make it easier to spot Denote files in a buffer
listing.
Read the documentation of denote-rename-buffer-format for how to
tweak this to your liking.
This controls whether and when Denote should automatically kill any buffer it generates while creating a new note or renaming an existing file. The manual describes the details.
By default, Denote does not kill any buffers to give users the chance to review what is on display and confirm any changes or revert them accordingly.
Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution in pull request 426: #426. This is related to issues 273 and 413, so also thanks to Vineet C. Kulkarni and mentalisttraceur for their participation and/or questions.
Version 3.0.0 of Denote introduced a new option to rearrange the
file name components. All Denote commands should respect it. We did,
however, have a problem with the command denote-journal-extras-new-or-existing-entry
which was not recognising the date properly.
Thanks to Jakub Szczerbowski for the contribution in pull request 395: #395. The change is small, meaning that Jakub does not need to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
While I am documenting this here, users should already have the fix as
I published a minor release for it in July (in fact, there were 8
minor releases in the aftermath of the 3.0.0 release, which
addressed several small issues).
This makes it consistent with how denote-rename-file works. I am
implemented this in response to issue 401 where Alp Eren Kose assumed
it was the default behaviour: #401.
I think it makes sense to have it this way to avoid such confusion.
Still, it seems easier to edit the file and call denote-rename-file-using-front-matter
directly, rather do an intermediate step through Dired.
The workflow for this command is that the user modifies the front matter, invokes the command, and Denote takes care to rename the file accordingly. We had a regression were this would happen as expected, but Denote would still prompt if it was okay to update the front matter. That made no sense.
As with the change mentioned above, this was also fixed in a minor release so that users would not have to wait all this time.
This was always the intended behaviour, though there was an issue with the implementation that prevented the directory-local value from being read.
Thanks to yetanotherfossman for reporting the problem with
denote-add-links in issue 386 and to Kolmas for doing the same for
denote-find-link:
Also thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for following up with a change to the code that should address the underlying problem with temporary buffers. This was done in pull request 419: #419.
A case we already handled was org-capture buffers. Another one is
the buffer produced by the command org-tree-to-indirect-buffer.
Thanks to coherentstate for bringing this matter to my attention in issue 418: #418.
Also thanks to skissue for noting another edge case that prevented
denote-rename-buffer-mode from doing the right thing. This was
reported in issue 393: #393.
If the org-capture template does not include one of the specifiers
which produce a link, then we take care to not include a CUSTOM_ID
in the properties of the current heading. We do this to make it
possible to link directly to a heading inside of a file (a feature
that is documented in the manual).
Before, we were creating the CUSTOM_ID unconditionally, which was
not the desired behaviour. Thanks to Jonas Großekathöfer for bringing
this matter to my attention in issue 404:
#404.
All the Denote minibuffer prompts have the appropriate completion
metadata to integrate with core Emacs functionalities and with
third-party packages that leverage them. One such case pertains to the
completion category our prompts report. This is used by a package such
as embark to infer the set of relevant actions to perform or by the
marginalia package to produce the appropriate annotations.
Users will now notice a difference while using commands such as
denote-silo-extras-create-note if they have marginalia-mode
enabled: all completion candidates will have file-related annotations.
This is a small change which goes to show how the little things contribute to a more refined experience.
The user option is now called denote-backlinks-display-buffer-action.
The old name denote-link-backlinks-display-buffer-action is an alias
for it and will thus work the same way. Though you are encouraged to
rename it in your configuration as I will eventually remove those
obsolete symbols from the Denote code base.
I made several tweaks to the underlying code to ensure that reverting
a backlinks buffer will always reuse the original parameters that
generated it. Backlinks buffers are produced by the denote-backlinks
command, among others.
The manual of Denote is a rich resource of knowledge for how to use this package and how to extend it with custom code. I have written the following entries to further help you improve your productivity:
- A custom
denote-regionthat references the source - Custom sluggification to remove non-ASCII characters
- Sort signatures that include Luhmann-style sequences
- Why are some Org links opening outside Emacs?
The following functions are now public, meaning that they are safe to be used in the code of other packages or incorporated in user configurations:
denote-identifier-p.denote-get-identifier-at-point. I am implementing this in response to a question by Alan Schmitt in issue 400: #400.denote-org-extras-outline-prompt.denote-silo-extras-directory-prompt.
Consult their respective doc strings for the technicalities.
Note that the Elisp convention is that private functions (intended for
use only inside the package) have a double dash (--) in their name.
In principle, these are undocumented and can change at any moment
without any notice. I do try to avoid such cases and even add warnings
when I make changes to them. Still, you should not use private
functions without understanding the risks involved.
- Wrote more unit tests for various functions.
- Improve the doc strings of several symbols (everything in the Denote code base is documented).
- Fix some typos thanks to Nicolas Semrau and bryanrinders:
- Commented on all sorts of issues on the GitHub repository and many more in private.
I have many ideas for how to further refine Denote. Maybe you do too. Though we must all wait a couple of weeks in case someone reports a bug. This way, it is easy to fix it and publish a new minor version. Otherwise, we may have to bundle the fix with some in-development feature that we have not fully tested yet.
This is just an overview of the Git commits, though remember that there is more that goes into a project, such as the reporting of inconsistencies, discussion of new ideas, etc.. Thanks to everybody involved!
~/Git/Projects/denote $ git shortlog 3.0.0..3.1.0 --summary --numbered
104 Protesilaos Stavrou
7 Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay
3 Ashton Wiersdorf
1 Ad
1 Jakub Szczerbowski
1 bryanrinders
This major release comes about two years after the first version of Denote, which was published on 2022-06-27. A lot of technicalities have changed in the meantime, though the core idea remains the same. In fact, the original video presentation I did is still relevant, especially for those looking to get started with Denote (but remember to consult the latest documentation for up-to-date information—and ask me if you have any questions).
Version 3 iterates on refinements that we made over the life cycle of version 2. Existing users will find that their workflow remains the same, though they now have even more options at their disposal.
As usual, my release notes are detailed. Please take your time to read them: they are here for you.
Special thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay, a long-time contributor to the project, for working on some of the items covered herein. I am not covering everything, as many important changes are not user-facing. Please consult the Git log for further details.
[ Relevant blog post: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-05-19-emacs-denote-reorder-file-name-components/.]
Users can now change the variable denote-file-name-components-order
to affect how Denote file names are constructed. By default, file
names are written using this scheme (consult the manual for the
details):
IDENTIFIER--TITLE__KEYWORDS.EX
An optional SIGNATURE field can be added, thus:
IDENTIFIER==SIGNATURE--TITLE__KEYWORDS.EXT
By modifying the denote-file-name-components-order, users can
produce file names like these:
--TITLE__KEYWORDS@@IDENTIFIER.EXT __SIGNATURE--TITLE__KEYWORDS@@IDENTIFIER.EXT __SIGNATURE--TITLE@@IDENTIFIER__KEYWORDS.EXT
Note that when the DATE is not the first component, it gets the @@
prefix to (i) remain unambiguous and (ii) make it easy to target it
directly for search purposes.
Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution in pull request 360: #360.
We discussed the possible delimiters for the IDENTIFIER in issue
332: #332. Thanks to
Jean-Philippe, Nick Bell, Maikol Solis, and mentalisttraceur for their
insights. Our concern was to use characters that are stylistically
fine, while they are not special symbol in regular expressions (as
those make searching a bit less convenient).
Please remember that the file-naming scheme is the cornerstone of Denote. If you do change how your notes are named, make sure to be consistent throughout, otherwise you will likely make it harder for yourself to find what you need.
Sometimes users keep files in their denote-directory that they do
not want to interactive with. These can, for example, be what Org
produces when exporting to another file format or when archiving a
heading.
The user option denote-excluded-files-regexp makes is possible to
omit all those files from the relevant Denote prompts.
This is in response to requests for such a user option done by Samuel W. Flint and zadca123 in issues 376 and 384, respectively:
[ Please let me know if you need this feature but do not know how to write a regular expression. I can include concrete examples in the manual, though I need to know about them first. ]
Before we were using the function denote-link-buttonize-buffer,
which would create “buttons” for all the denote: links it would.
Users probably had something like this in their configuration:
;; DEPRECATED method
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook #'denote-link-buttonize-buffer)We now provide an approach that is technically better by using Emacs’ fontification mechanism. All the user needs is to add this to their configuration:
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook #'denote-fontify-links-mode-maybe)The notion of “maybe” in the symbol of that function is because this will take care to be activated only in the right context.
Thanks to Abdul-Lateef Haji-Ali for the contribution in pull request 344 (further changes by me): #344.
Abdul-Lateef has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
[ Relevant blog post: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-06-18-emacs-denote-silos-org-export/. ]
This is not a change in Denote per se, though I have added the
relevant details in the manual. Basically, the Org export machinery
dismisses directory-local variables, thus breaking how Denote silos
work. We can work around this by having an extra #+bind directive in
the front matter of each file. The manual, or the aforementioned blog
post, describe the technicalities.
[ Relevant blog: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-04-21-emacs-denote-heading-backlinks/. ]
Denote could already link to an Org heading directly. Now it can also
generate a backlinks buffer for the current heading, using the
command denote-org-extras-backlinks-for-heading.
This is part of the optional extension denote-org-extras.el (it is
part of the Denote package, but not loaded by default if you use
something like (require 'denote)).
I am providing this as an option for those who absolutely need it, though in my opinion it is better to have atomic notes, such that each file contains information that is relevant as a whole. In this workflow, individual headings can be added or removed, but the big picture idea of the file remain intact.
At any rate, this change is possible due to the requisite refactoring of the code that handles the backlinks. We can technically produce backlinks to any pattern in files, though this may be more of interest to developers rather than foreshadow future features in core Denote.
The denote-rename-no-confirm is deprecated and superseded by the
more flexible user option denote-rename-confirmations.
The command denote-rename-file (and others like it) prompts for
confirmation before changing the name of a file and updating its front
matter. The user option denote-rename-confirmations controls what
the user is prompted for, if anything. Please consult its
documentation for the technicalities.
Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution in pull request 324: #324.
Please update your configuration accordingly, if you were using the old name.
2.8 The commands denote-keywords-add and denote-keywords-remove are replaced by denote-rename-file-keywords
The new command can add or remove keywords. It does this by
prepopulating the minibuffer prompt with the existing keywords. Users
can then use the crm-separator (normally a comma), to write new
keywords or edit what is in the prompt to rewrite them accordingly. An
empty input means to remove all keywords.
[ NOTE: Please check with your minibuffer user interface how to
provide an empty input. The Emacs default setup accepts the empty
minibuffer contents as they are, though popular packages like
vertico use the first available completion candidate instead. For
vertico, the user must either move one up to select the prompt and
then type RET there with empty contents, or use the command
vertico-exit-input with empty contents. That Vertico command is
bound to M-RET as of this writing on 2024-06-30 10:37 +0300. ]
Technically, denote-rename-file-keywords is a wrapper for
denote-rename-file, doing all the things that does.
These are like the denote-rename-file-keywords we just covered.
There are wrappers of the denote-rename-file command, which are used
to change on the file name component they reference.
If that component exists, its text is included in the minibuffer. The user can then modify it accordingly. If there is no text, the user is adding a new one. An empty input means to remove the title/signature from the file altogether (again, check your minibuffer for how to provide an empty input).
Two new specialised commands are available to help users add or remove keywords from many files at once. These are:
denote-dired-rename-marked-files-add-keywordsdenote-dired-rename-marked-files-remove-keywords.
They complement the denote-dired-rename-marked-files-with-keywords,
which we have had for a long time already, and which rewrites all the
keywords (instead of only adding/removing from the list).
All three of those commands operate only on the KEYWORDS component
of the file name, leaving everything else as-is (while respecting the
aforementioned denote-file-name-components-order).
Thanks to Vedang Manerikar for the contribution in pull request 316: #316. Vedang has already assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
The previous implementation would always return an absolute file path,
ignoring the Org user option org-link-file-path-type. Whereas now it
will return a relative path if that user option is set to a value of
either 'adaptive or 'relative.
Thanks to Alexandre Rousseau for the contribution in pull request 325: #325. The change is small, meaning that Alexandre does not need to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
This is used to let bind any additional prompts that should be used
by the denote command. Check the source code for how we are using
this function.
This is used internally but the commands denote-find-link,
denote-find-backlink. Refer to the implementation of those commands
to get an idea of how to use this prompt.
It simply calls the denote-retrieve-front-matter-title-value or
denote-retrieve-filename-title. We do not want it to return the
file-name-base, as it used to, because this will duplicate the text
of the file name when there is no TITLE component, as demonstrated by
duli in issue 347: #347.
We have made this function show relative file paths for the convenience of the user, but we take care to internally return and store the full file path (which is unambiguous). Thanks to Alan Schmitt for noting that the history was not working properly. This was done in issue 339: #339. A series of commits dealt with the implementation details, including a contribution by Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay in pull request 342: #342. Also read 353 for a further set of tweaks from my side: #353.
As part of these changes, the denote-file-prompt now takes a
NO-REQUIRE-MATCH argument. It also respects the aforementioned user
option of denote-excluded-files-regexp.
These include the denote-rename-file-prompt and
denote-rewrite-front-matter, as well as the new
denote-add-front-matter-prompt.
This has the meaning of what I mentioned above. Commands that need to
deviate from the user option denote-rename-confirmations can let
bind it accordingly: we even do this for some commands in denote.el,
because certain prompts do not make sense there.
We define a new series of variables which can be set to a lexically
scoped value to control what the denote function parses. These are:
denote-use-datedenote-use-directorydenote-use-file-typedenote-use-keywordsdenote-use-signaturedenote-use-templatedenote-use-title
Employ those for custom extensions you may have.
Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for adding those in pull request 365: #365.
- All the Org dynamic blocks defined by Denote in the optional
denote-org-extras.elare now autoloaded. This means that evaluating such a code block will work even if the user has not explicitly used something like(require 'denote-org-extras). Thanks to Julian Hoch for asking for a relevant clarification in issue 337: #337. Thanks to Kolmas for reporting some missing autoloads in issue 371: #371. - The value of the user option
denote-link-backlinks-display-buffer-actionis slightly modified to (i) make the buffer dedicated to its window and (ii) try to preserve its size during automatic recombinations of the frame’s layout. - There was a regression in version
2.3.0relative to2.2.0where thedenote-linkcommand would fail in Org capture buffers. Thanks to Sven Seebeck for reporting this bug in issue 298: #298. - The
denote-filetype-heuristicsfunction no longer chokes if it gets a nil value (such as in Org capture buffers). - The
denote-journal-extras-directory(part of the optionaldenote-journal-extrasfile) falls back todenote-directoryif its value is nil. This is what the user optiondenote-journal-extras-directorypromises in its doc string. - All prompts should have their scope of application in all capital
letters, such as
Select TEMPLATE key. The idea is to make it easier for the user to quickly spot for the prompt is about. - The user option
denote-link-description-functionis documented in the manual. Thanks to Sven Seebeck for noticing that we did not document this for the2.3.0release. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for helping me refine the code. This was all done in issue 298: #298. - As part of internal changes to how our various “rename” commands work, Kolmas reported a regression with wrongly assigned file extensions. This was done in issue 343: #343.
- In the
denote-org-extras.elwe now always jump to the correct Org heading line, instead of missing it by 1 under certain conditions. Thanks to kilesduli for bringing this matter to my attention in issue 354: #354.
The next few days or weeks are reserved for bug fixes. We first want to make sure that the current code base is rock solid, before making any further changes. Any bugs will be addressed outright and new point releases will be published (though those are not accompanied by a change log entry).
Just an overview of what we did. Thanks again to everyone involved.
~/Git/Projects/denote $ git shortlog 2.3.0..3.0.0 --summary --numbered
169 Protesilaos Stavrou
52 Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay
3 Al Haji-Ali
2 Alan Schmitt
1 Alexandre Rousseau
1 Jianwei Hou
1 Vedang ManerikarThis release brings a host of user-facing refinements to an already stable base, as well as some impressive new features. There is a lot to cover, so take your time reading these notes.
Special thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the numerous refinements to parts of the code base. Some of these are not directly visible to users, but are critical regardless. In the interest of brevity, I will not be covering the most technical parts here. I mention Jean-Philippe’s contributions at the outset for this reason. Though the Git commit log is there for interested parties to study things further.
This package provides several neat extensions that help you make
better sense of your knowledge base, while keeping it in good order.
The denote-explore package has commands to summarise the usage of
keywords, visualise connections between notes, spot infrequently used
keywords, and jump to previous historical entries.
- Git repository: https://github.com/pprevos/denote-explore.
- Documentation: https://lucidmanager.org/productivity/denote-explore.
Now on to Denote version 2.3.0!
Denote creates links to files by using their unique identifier. As Org
provides the CUSTOM_ID property for per-heading identifiers, we now
leverage this infrastructure to compose links that point to a file and
then to a heading therein. This only works for Org, as no other plain
text major mode has a concept of heading identifiers (and it is not
Denote’s job to create such a feature).
I demonstrated the functionality in a video: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-01-20-emacs-denote-link-org-headings/
Technically, the denote: link type has the same implementation
details as Org’s standard file: and has always had this potential to
jump to a section inside the given file.
The user option denote-org-store-link-to-heading determines whether
org-store-link links to the current Org heading (such links are
merely “stored” and need to be inserted afterwards with the command
org-insert-link). Note that the org-capture command uses the
org-link internally if it has to store a link.
When its value is non-nil, org-store-link stores a link to the
current Org heading inside the Denote Org file. If the heading does
not have a CUSTOM_ID, it creates it and includes it in the heading’s
PROPERTIES drawer. If a CUSTOM_ID exists, org-store-link use it
as-is.
This makes the resulting link a combination of the denote: link type,
pointing to the identifier of the current file, plus the value of the
heading’s CUSTOM_ID, such as:
[[denote:20240118T060608][Some test]][[denote:20240118T060608::#h:eed0fb8e-4cc7-478f-acb6-f0aa1a8bffcd][Some test::Heading text]]
Both lead to the same Denote file, but the latter jumps to the heading
with the given CUSTOM_ID. Notice that the link to the heading also
has a different description, which includes the heading text.
The value of the CUSTOM_ID is determined by the Org user option
org-id-method. The sample shown above uses the default UUID
infrastructure.
If denote-org-store-link-to-heading is set to a nil value, the
command org-store-link only stores links to the Denote file (using
its identifier), but not to the given heading. This is what Denote was
doing in all versions prior to 2.3.0.
Thanks to Kristoffer Balintona for discussing with me how
org-capture interfaces with org-store-link. I updated the
documentation accordingly. This was done in issue 267:
#267.
As part of the optional denote-org-extras.el extension that comes
with the denote package, the command denote-org-extras-link-to-heading
prompts for a link to an Org file and then asks for a heading therein,
using minibuffer completion. Once the user provides input at the two
prompts, the command inserts a link at point which has the following
pattern: [[denote:IDENTIFIER::#ORG-HEADING-CUSTOM-ID]][Description::Heading text]].
Because only Org files can have links to individual headings, the
command denote-org-extras-link-to-heading prompts only for Org files
(i.e. files which include the .org extension). Remember that Denote
works with many file types.
This feature is similar to the concept of the aforementioned user
option denote-org-store-link-to-heading. It is, however, interactive
and differs in the directionality of the action. With that user
option, the command org-store-link will generate a CUSTOM_ID for
the current heading (or capture the value of one as-is), giving the
user the option to then call org-insert-link wherever they see fit.
By contrast, the command denote-org-extras-link-to-heading prompts
for a file, then a heading, and inserts the link at point.
The scope of the denote-prompts user option is broadened to make it
more useful. In the past, this variable would only affect the
behaviour of the denote command. For example, the user would make
the command prompt for a subdirectory, then keywords, then a title.
But all other commands were not following this setting, as they were
hardcoding the prompts for title and keywords.
Take the denote-subdirectory command as an example. It would first
prompt for a subdirectory to place the new note in, then for a title,
and then for keywords. Whereas now, it prepends the subdirectory
prompt to the list of denote-prompts. So if the user has configured
their denote-prompts to, for example, ask for a signature and a file
type, the denote-subdirectory will do just that with the addition of
the subdirectory prompt.
Same idea for all commands that either create or modify file names,
wherever conformity with denote-prompts makes sense. For example,
the denote-rename-file will never ask for a subdirectory because
our renaming policy is to always rename in place (to avoid
mistakes—you can always move the file afterwards).
This also means that the denote-rename-file and its multi-file
counterpart, denote-dired-rename-files, will only prompt for a
signature if it is part of the denote-prompts. Whereas in the
previous version this was unconditional, thus burdening users who do
not need the SIGNATURE file name component (more about renaming
further into the release notes).
Lots of Git commits went into this redesign, per my initiave in issue
247: #247. Thanks to
Vedang Manerikar for the changes to the convenience wrappers of the
denote command (like denote-subdirectory), which were done in pull
request 248: #248.
Vedang has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
Also thanks to Max Brieiev for joining the technical discussion therein.
The renaming commands are more intuitive now, which addresses a discussion point raised by user babusri in issue 204: #204.
The text of each prompt now has all capital letters for the word
referencing its scope of its application, like TITLE, KEYWORDS,
SIGNATURE. The idea is to make it easier to quickly scan the text,
especially while working through multiple prompts. For example, the
prompt for a title now reads:
New file TITLE:
This paradigm is followed by all prompts. It is a small yet effective tweak to get a better sense of context.
In previous versions of Denote, the minibuffer prompt to pick a file
(such as a file to link to) would show relative file names: the name
without the full file system path. The functionality depended on the
built-in project.el library, which did not allow us to do everything
we wanted with our prompts, such as to have a dedicated minibuffer
history or to easily enable the workflow of commands like
denote-open-or-create.
In the previous version, I made the decision to remove the
project.el dependency and the concomitant presentation of relative
names in order to add the functionality we want. I did it with the
intention to find a better solution down the line. Et voilá! Relative
file names are back. We now have all the functionality we need. Sorry
if in the meantime you had to deal with those longer names! It was a
necessary intermediate arrangement for the greater good.
For the technicalities, refer to the source code of the function
denote-title-prompt.
All our minibuffer prompts have their dedicated history (you can
persist histories with the built-in savehist-mode). They store
previous values, giving the user easy access to their past input
values. Some of our commands not only record a history, but also
leverage it to provide completion. These commands are named in the
variable denote-prompts-with-history-as-completion. As of this
writing, they are:
denote-title-promptdenote-signature-promptdenote-files-matching-regexp-prompt
Users who do not want to use completion for those can set the new user
option denote-history-completion-in-prompts to a nil value.
One of the pillars of the denote package is its ability to rename
any file to use the efficient Denote file-naming scheme (makes file
names predictable and easy to retrieve even with rudimentary tools).
To this end, we provide several commands that affect file names,
beside the commands that create new files.
As noted above, the commands which rename files to follow the Denote
file-naming scheme now conform with the user option denote-prompts,
but there is more!
The implementation of this user option is redone (i) to save the underlying buffer outright if the user does not want to provide their confirmation for a rename each time and (ii) to cover all relevant commands that perform a rename operation. The assumption is that the user who opts in to this feature is familiar with the Denote renaming modalities and knows they are reliable.
The default is still the same: Denote always asks for confirmation
before renaming a file, showing the difference between the old and new
names, as well as any changes to the file’s contents. In this light,
buffers are not saved to give the user the chance to further inspect
the changes (such as by running diff-buffer-with-file).
Commands that will now skip all confirmation prompts to rename the file and, where relevant, save the corresponding buffer outright:
denote-rename-filedenote-dired-rename-filesdenote-dired-rename-marked-files-with-keywordsdenote-rename-file-using-front-matterdenote-rename-add-keywordsdenote-rename-remove-keywordsdenote-rename-add-signature(new, more below)denote-rename-remove-signature(new, more below)
The SIGNATURE is an optional free-form field that is part of a
Denote file name. A common use-case is to write sequence notes with
it, though Denote does not enforce any particular convention (you may
prefer to have it as a special kind of keyword for certain files that
simply stands out more due to its placement).
[ Besides, the denote-sort-dired command lets you filter and sort
files while putting them in a fully fledged Dired buffer, so
manually sequencing notes via their signature may not be needed. ]
We now provide two commands to add or remove a signature from file names:
- The
denote-rename-add-signatureprompts for a file and a signature. The default value for the file prompt is the file of the currently open buffer or the file-at-point in a Dired buffer. The signature is an ordinary string, defaulting to the selected file’s signature, if any. - The
denote-rename-remove-signatureuses the same file prompt as above. It performs its action only if the selected file has a signature. Otherwise, it does nothing.
Files that do not have a Denote file name are renamed accordingly.
Though for such cases it is better to use denote-rename-file or
denote-dired-rename-files as they are more general.
All renaming commands run the denote-after-rename-file-hook after a
successful operation. This is meant for users who want to do something
specific after the renaming is done.
I already covered the denote-org-extras-link-to-heading, though the
file denote-org-extras.el has some more optional goodies for those
who work with Org files.
In Org parlance, an entry with all its subheadings and other contents is a “subtree”. Denote can operate on the subtree to extract it from the current file and create a new file out of it. One such workflow is to collect thoughts in a single document and produce longer standalone notes out of them upon review.
The command denote-org-extras-extract-org-subtree (part of the
optional denote-org-extras.el extension) is used for this purpose.
It creates a new Denote note using the current Org subtree. In doing
so, it removes the subtree from its current file and moves its
contents into a new file.
The text of the subtree’s heading becomes the #+title of the new
note. Everything else is inserted as-is.
Read the documentation string of denote-org-extras-extract-org-subtree
or consult the manual for further details.
Sometimes the user needs to translate all denote: link types to
their file: equivalent. This may be because some other tool does not
recognise denote: links (or other custom links types—which are a
standard feature of Org, by the way). The user thus needs to (i)
either make a copy of their Denote note or edit the existing one, and
(ii) convert all links to the generic file: link type that
external/other programs understand.
The optional extension denote-org-extras.el contains two commands
that are relevant for this use-case:
- Convert
denote:links tofile:links - The command
denote-org-extras-convert-links-to-file-typegoes through the buffer to find alldenote:links. It gets the identifier of the link and resolves it to the actual file system path. It then replaces the match so that the link is written with thefile:type and then the file system path. The optional search terms and/or link description are preserved. - Convert
file:links todenote:links - The command
denote-org-extras-convert-links-to-denote-typebehaves like the one above. The difference is that it finds the file system path and converts it into its identifier.
As part of this version, all our dynamic blocks are defined in the
file denote-org-extras.el. The file which once contained these block
definitions, denote-org-dblock.el, now only has aliases for the new
function names and dipslays a warning about its deprecation.
There is no need to require the denote-org-extras feature because
all of Denote’s Org dynamic blocks are autoloaded (meaning that they
work as soon as they are used). For backward compatibility, all
dynamic blocks retain their original names as an alias for the newer
one.
We will not remove denote-org-dblock.el anytime soon to avoid any
potential breakage with people’s existing notes. Though if you are new
to this functionality, you better avoid the deprecated symbols.
The denote-missing-links block is available with the command
denote-org-extras-dblock-insert-missing-links. It is like the
denote-links block (documented at length in the manual), except it
only lists links to files that are not present in the current buffer.
The parameters are otherwise the same:
#+BEGIN: denote-missing-links :regexp "YOUR REGEXP HERE" :sort-by-component nil :reverse-sort nil :id-only nil
:
#+END:
Remember to type C-c C-x C-u (org-dblock-update) with point on the
#+BEGIN line to update the block.
This brings back a feature that was deprecated in version 2.2.0, but makes changes to it so that (i) it is more limited in scope and (ii) available as a standalone Org dynamic block.
Thanks to Stephen R. Kifer, Peter Prevos, and Elias Storms for the discussion which made it clear to me that users do have a need for such functionality. This was done in the now-defunct mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C1db2104e-70bd-47f9-a7ed-b8d4bb370a7f%40app.fastmail.com%3E.
Also thanks to Vedang Manerikar for fixing an edge case bug. This was done in pull request 260: #260.
Org dynamic blocks are a powerful feature which also showcases how far we can go with Denote’s efficient file-naming scheme.
Here I include other changes we made to existing functionality.
In the previous version, we introduced the user option
denote-file-name-letter-casing. This was used to control the letter
casing of file name components, but was ultimately not flexible enough
for our purposes. We are thus retiring it and replacing it with the
more powerful, but also more advanced, user option
denote-file-name-slug-functions.
For existing users of the deprecated functionality, you can still preserve the input of a prompt verbatim with something like this:
(setq denote-file-name-slug-functions
'((title . denote-sluggify-title)
(keyword . identity)
(signature . denote-sluggify-signature)))The manual explains the details and shows ready-to-use code samples.
Remember that deviating from the default file-naming scheme of Denote will make things harder to use in the future, as files will have permutations that create uncertainty. The sluggification scheme and concomitant restrictions we impose by default are there for a very good reason: they are the distillation of years of experience. Here we give you what you wish, but bear in mind it may not be what you need. You have been warned.
Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for introducing this variable, among other tweaks, in pull request 217: #217. Jean-Philippe has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
The user option denote-save-buffer-after-creation controls whether
commands that create new notes save their buffer right away.
The default behaviour of commands such as denote (or related) is to
not save the buffer they create. This gives the user the chance to
review the text before writing it to a file. The user may choose to
delete the unsaved buffer, thus not creating a new file on disk.
If denote-save-buffer-after-creation is set to a non-nil value, such
buffers are saved automatically and so the file is written to disk.
The command denote-menu-bar-mode toggles the inclusion of the
submenu with the Denote entries in the Emacs menu bar (which is on
display when menu-bar-mode is enabled).
This submenu is now shown after the Tools entry.
Thanks to Joseph Turner for sending me the relevant patches. Joseph has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
In files whose major mode is markdown-mode, the default key binding
C-c C-o (which calls the command markdown-follow-thing-at-point)
correctly resolves denote: links. This method works in addition to
the RET key, which is made available by the buttonization that we
also provide. Interested users can refer to the function
denote-link-markdown-follow for the implementation details.
Thanks to user pmenair for noting a case where this was breaking general Markdown linking functionality. This was done in issue 290: #290.
We now define more faces for fine-grained control of the identifier in Dired. Thanks to mentalisttraceur for suggesting the idea in issue 276: #276.
Before you ask, no, none of my themes will cover those faces because
extra colouration is something only the user can decide if they want
or not. In the above link I provide a sample with a screenshot (apart
from the modus-themes, my ef-themes and standard-themes have
similar functionality):
(defun my-modus-themes-denote-faces (&rest _)
(modus-themes-with-colors
(custom-set-faces
`(denote-faces-year ((,c :foreground ,cyan)))
`(denote-faces-month ((,c :foreground ,magenta-warmer)))
`(denote-faces-day ((,c :foreground ,cyan)))
`(denote-faces-time-delimiter ((,c :foreground ,fg-main)))
`(denote-faces-hour ((,c :foreground ,magenta-warmer)))
`(denote-faces-minute ((,c :foreground ,cyan)))
`(denote-faces-second ((,c :foreground ,magenta-warmer))))))
(add-hook 'modus-themes-post-load-hook #'my-modus-themes-denote-faces)The command denote-journal-extras-link-or-create-entry links to the
journal entry for today or creates it in the background, if missing,
and then links to it from the current file. If there are multiple
journal entries for the same day, it prompts to select one among them
and then links to it. When called with an optional prefix argument
(such as C-u with default key bindings), the command prompts for a
date and then performs the aforementioned. With a double prefix
argument (C-u C-u), it also produces a link whose description
includes just the file’s identifier.
Thanks to Alan Schmitt for contributing this command, based on previous discussions. It was done in pull request 243: #243.
These has new parameters or are new symbols altogether. Please read their respective doc string for the details.
- Function
denote-convert-file-name-keywords-to-crm. - Function
denote-valid-date-p. - Function
denote-parse-date. - Function
denote-retrieve-title-or-filename. - Function
denote-get-identifier. - Function
denote-signature-prompt. - Function
denote-file-prompt. - Function
denote-keywords-prompt. - Function
denote-title-prompt. - Function
denote-rewrite-front-matter. - Function
denote-rewrite-keywords. - Function
denote-update-dired-buffers. - Function
denote-format-string-for-org-front-matter. - Function
denote-format-string-for-md-front-matter. - Variable
denote-link-signature-format. - Function
denote-link-description-with-signature-and-title. - Variable
denote-link-description-function.
- The
denote-sort-diredfunction no longer errors out when there is no match for the given search terms. Thanks to Vedang Manerikar for the initial patch! This was done in the now-defunct mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/47625. Further changes by me. - The
denote-keywords-sortfunction no longer tries to sort keywords that are not a list. Thanks to Ashton Wiersdorf for the patch. The change is small. As such, Ashton does not need to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation. - Documented in the manual that custom convenience commands can be
accessed by the
denote-command-prompt. Thanks to Glenna D. for clarifying the language. - The
denote-user-enforced-denote-directoryis obsolete. Those who used it in their custom code can simplyletbind the value of the variabledenote-directory. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for making the relevant changes (the Git history is not direct here and I cannot quickly find the pull request—the commit isa48a1da). - The
denote-link-return-linksno longer keeps buffers around. Thanks to Matteo Cavada for the patch. This was done in pull request 252: #252. The change is small and so Matteo does not need to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation. - Thanks to user jarofromel (recorded in Git as “random” author) for
fixing a mismatched parenthesis in
denote-parse-date. This was done in pull request 258: #258. - The
denote-rename-buffer-modenow works as expected with non-editable files, like PDFs. Thanks to Alan Schmitt for bringing this matter to my attention and then refining the implementation details in pull request 268: #268. - All the Denote linking functions can be used from any file outside
the
denote-directory(links are still resolved to files inside thedenote-directory). Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution in pull request 236: #236. - We removed all glue code that integrated Denote with the built-in
ffap,xref, andprojectlibraries. We may reconsider how best to organise such features in the future. Thanks to Noboru Ota (nobiot), who originally contributed those extensions, for suggesting their removal from our code base. We did this by evaluating all use-cases. The discussion with Noboru happened in issue 264: #264. Also thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay and Alan Schnmitt for checking the impact of this on how we generate backlinks. The latest iteration of this was done in pull request 294, by Jean-Philippe: #294. - While renaming files, signatures no longer lose consecutive spaces. Thanks to Wesley Harvey for the contribution in pull request 207: #207. The change is within the ~15 line limit and so Wesley does not need to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
- All of the above and lots more are documented at length in the manual. This is a big task in its own right (as are release notes, by the way), though it ensures we keep a high standard for the entire package and can communicate all our knowledge to the user.
Development continues on GitHub with GitLab as a mirror. I explained my reasons here: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2024-01-27-sourcehut-no-more/.
This is a change that affects all my Emacs packages.
We will not any new features until mid-April or a bit later if
necessary. This gives users enough time to report any potential issues
with version 2.3.0. If there are any bugs, they will be fixed right
away and new minor releases will be introduced (though without release
notes).
Once we are done with this release cycle, we want to prepare for the next major version of Denote. The plan is to make the placement of file name components entirely customisable, among many other power user features. Though the defaults will remain intact.
For the immediate future, please prioritise bug reports/fixes. Then see you around for another round of hacking. The Denote code base is a pleasure to work with due to how composable everything is. I happy to make it even better for developers and users alike.
Just an overview of what we did. Thanks again to everyone involved.
~/Git/Projects/denote $ git shortlog 2.2.0..2.3.0 --summary --numbered
246 Protesilaos Stavrou
46 Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay
6 Vedang Manerikar
3 Joseph Turner
2 Alan Schmitt
2 Max
2 Peter Prevos
1 Ashton Wiersdorf
1 Glenna D.
1 Matteo Cavada
1 mattyonweb
1 random
1 wlharvey4I encourage you to provide feedback on any of the functionality of the Denote package. You do not need to be a developer or indeed an expert in Emacs. When you have an idea in mind on how you use Denote, or you think something could be done differently, please speak your mind. I do listen to feedback and am interested in further improving this package. Everybody is welcome!
The present version covers four broad themes:
- Denote rename commands are more user-friendly and featureful.
- An optional sorting facility makes it possible to produce a filtered and sorted Dired buffer with Denote files.
- The optional Denote Org dynamic blocks have received a lot of attention.
- Bug fixes and internal refinements.
[ Remember that you do not need to be a programmer to contribute to Denote. Report a bug, make a suggestion, or just describe how you want to use this package. Every idea counts and we may implement it if we can. ]
The commands we provide to rename files using the Denote file-naming
scheme—~denote-rename-file~, denote-dired-rename-files, and
denote-dired-rename-marked-files-with-keywords—can now remove
Denote file name components. This is done by providing an empty string
at the relevant prompt.
For example, to remove the TITLE component from a file called
20231209T110322==sig--title__keywords.ext we provide an empty string
at the title prompt. The end result will look something like this:
20231209T110322==sig__keywords.ext.
All prompts now include a hint that leaving them empty will ignore the given field if it does not exist or remove it if it does exist.
Note that you must check how to input an empty string with your
minibuffer user interface of choice. For instance, with the vertico
package you can do that with the M-RET key binding or by selecting
the prompt line directly (notice the counter showing something like
*/5 instead of 1/5). Please make sure to consult the documentation
of the package you are using as this behaviour is not controlled by
Denote. Vertico, and others like it, selects the first candidate if
you type RET without any input, which is not the same as an empty
string—it is the first candidate.
Also read the Denote manual on the matter of Renaming files. In short, we use this facility to name all our files, regardless of file type, in a consistent way that makes them easier to find (I do this with my videos, for example, and I do it across my filesystem for all personal files).
The commands denote-rename-file and denote-dired-rename-files
show the name of the file they are operating on in the minibuffer
prompt. This is now produced relative to the current directory,
meaning that instead of /some/rather/long/path/to/file-name.txt
Denote only displays file-name.txt.
Our rename commands never move files to another directory, anyway, so we do not need to remind the user of the entire file system path.
To make things easier for users/themes, file names highlighted in Denote prompts are fontified with either of following faces, depending on the specifics of the case:
denote-faces-prompt-old-namedenote-faces-prompt-new-namedenote-faces-prompt-current-name
These faces inherit the attributes of basic faces, so they should look decent without further tweaks across all themes.
The prompts defined by Denote that apply to file name components all
accept an empty string. This has the effect of skipping the given
component. For example, we can create a file without a title and
keywords, with the following sequence of actions (I assume you are
using vertico for the minibuffer user interface):
- Type
M-x denote. - Type
M-RETat the title prompt to input an empty string. - Now type
M-RETat the keywords prompt for another empty string.
The resulting file name is something like 20231209T110950.org.
The new optional denote-sort.el library provides facilities to sort
Denote files by any of their file name components. Users can benefit
from this facility to produce a filtered and sorted listing of Denote
files with the command denote-sort-dired.
denote-sort-dired produces a fully fledged Dired buffer. It asks for a
regular expression that matches file names in the denote-directory.
It then prompts for a sort key and finally checks with the user
whether to reverse the order or not.
[ Do not be discouraged by the term “regular expression”. Ordinary
words work fine. Plus, with Denote’s file-naming scheme we have
semantics such as _keyword, -title, =signature, as explained
in the manual. This is the whole point of using a thoughtful naming
scheme. ]
The resulting Dired listing is flat, meaning that files inside of
subdirectories are bundled together with those present at the root of
the denote-directory. In this case, files inside of a subdirectory
include the directory component as a prefix. So we have something like
this:
test-subdir/20230320T105950--a-new-note__testing.txt 20231202T095629--rename-works-as-intended__one_test_two.org
I think this is a killer feature, as the fully fledged Dired buffer allows us to perform all supported operations on our Denote sorted+filtered files (e.g. change file permissions, move files to another directory, or open them in an external application).
I recorded a video to show how this works: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2023-12-04-emacs-denote-sort-mechanism/.
[ Remember that we can rename any file using the Denote file-naming scheme, meaning that our files can include stuff like PDFs and videos. Combine this with the concept of “silos”, which is covered in the Denote manual, to organise your long-term storage and retrieve it efficiently. ]
The new denote-files Org dynamic block produces a continuous stream
of file contents. It joins together the contents of files inside the
denote-directory whose name matches the given regular expression.
Optional parameters control whether to include links to those files,
omit their front matter, sort by a given file name component, or tweak
the separator between each file’s contents.
I produced a video to demonstrate the functionality: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2023-11-25-emacs-denote-org-dynamic-blocks/.
Use the command denote-org-dblock-insert-files to insert such a
block directly at point. Read the Denote manual for the
technicalities: Org dynamic block to insert file contents.
[ Videos I do will eventually be out-of-date. The manual is the source of truth. ]
Bear in mind that this feature is not “transclusion”. We are simply printing a copy of the contents of the files in the current buffer. Changes made to this copy are not reflected in the original files.
The denote-files Org dynamic block is an excellent way to quickly
collect your thoughts on a given topic. Although dynamic blocks are a
feature of Org, the contents of the files do not need to be in Org
syntax (I write most of my notes in plain text (.txt)).
Thanks to Claudiu Tănăselia for proposing this idea and discussing it with me. This was done via a private channel and the information is shared with permission.
All Denote Org dynamic blocks make use of denote-sort.el (described
further above). It powers the :sort-by-component and :reverse-sort
parameters.
Thanks to Glenna D. for suggesting this feature and discussing it with
me. This was done via a private channel and the information is shared
with permission. It is what inspired me to start work on
denote-sort.el, which I then extended to cover Dired, as noted
above.
I am removing it because the underlying functionality of
denote-add-missing-links was not always reliable.
In general, we provide the command denote-link-with-signature to let
the user pick a file that has a signature and link to it. The
description of such a link contains the signature text as well as the
file title. The denote-link-with-signature is distinct from the
standard denote-link, as it allows the user to express intent about
the inclusion of the signature.
In Org dynamic blocks for links/backlinks, we make this happen automatically since there can be no manual intervention to express intent on a link-by-link basis.
The user option denote-dired-directories activates the
denote-dired-mode in the specified list of directories when the user
sets this in their init file:
(add-hook 'dired-mode-hook #'denote-dired-mode-in-directories)The new user option denote-dired-directories-include-subdirectories
extends the reach of this feature to all subdirectories thereof.
Thanks to Henrik Hörmann for discussing this with me and contributing a patch. This was originally done in pull request 191 on the GitHub mirror: #191. Subsequent refinements by me.
The file name signature component is now sluggified properly. This means that multiple words are separated by the equals sign, in accordance with the Denote file-naming scheme where a word separator is the same as the given field separator (this is the low-tech feature that makes Denote files so easy to retrieve without fancy extras).
Vedang Manerikar fixed two relevant bugs in the “rename” commands, while I rewrote internal functions and tests in the interest of consistency. Vedang’s patches: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/46790.
[ The “signature” is a free form component of the file name. Users can add anything they want there, such as to use it as a “category” that is different from “tags/keywords”, or to introduce sequences in their notes, or to just have an extra marker for files they need to spot quickly. ]
There is a section in the manual titled “For developers or advanced users”. There we document functions or variables that are public-facing, meaning that we test and document their behaviour and encourage others to use them for code they write on top of Denote. Refer to this section if you are looking to extend Denote. Though you can also just check the source code, which is designed to be readable and hackable.
- The
denote-directory-filesfunction gains new functionality that subsumes that of the now-deprecated functionsdenote-directory-files-matching-regexp,denote-all-files,denote-directory-text-only-files. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution, which was done in pull request 195 on the GitHub mirror: #195. - The font-lock keywords we define are consolidated into a single
variable:
denote-faces-file-name-keywordsinstead of being split into two variables. This means that we cover all our fontification needs in the backlinks buffer as well as thedenote-dired-modewith this one point of entry. It also works fordenote-sort-dired, which can include files with their subdirectory component in the same flat listing. - Use the function
denote-retrieve-filename-keywordsto extract keywords from the file name alone, without going into the file contents. - The
denote-retrieve-filename-titlefunction now returns an empty string if no title is present. Its behaviour is thus consistent withdenote-retrieve-filename-keywordsanddenote-retrieve-filename-signature. - The
denote-retrieve-filename-titlewill now use thefile-name-basefunction as a fallback subject to a non-nil optional argument. This case come into effect when the file does not have a title component. The new optional argument allows the caller to handle such cases as they see fit. - The
denote-signature-promptanddenote-title-promptfunctions accept an optionalDEFAULT-SIGNATUREorDEFAULT-TITLEargument. Internally, this is used as theINITIAL-INPUTofcompleting-readinstead of theDEFargument. This matters because we want the prompt to return an empty string if there is no input, whereas the presence ofDEFmeans thatDEFis returned when the prompt is empty. - All our functions that interactively match file names with a regular
expression now use the
denote-files-matching-regexp-promptfunction. When called from Lisp, it takes aREGEXPargument as well as an optionalPROMPT-TEXT.
For the purposes of this release cycle, I am not documenting the
points of entry provided by denote-sort.el. It is a new feature that
I may eventually incorporate in denote.el. If you are interested in
the functionality (e.g. to have more elaborate sorting algorithms),
please take a look at the source code and then let us discuss the
implementation details.
- Rewrote the manual on the topic of Org dynamic blocks. Same idea for
practically the entirety of
denote-org-dblock.el. - Marked the interactive specification of a few commands with the
major mode they belong to. This means that
M-X(note the capital X), which callsexecute-extended-command-for-bufferby default, will only show those commands in the relevant context. - Made internal refinements and simplified the implementation of a few functions. This is important work to keep the code base clean and easy to read/maintain. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution. It was done in pull request 193 on the GitHub mirror: #193.
- Improved the doc string of the
denote-format-file-namefunction. Also introduced a unit test for it to be sure it does what we expect (I eventually want to have tests for everything we do, but this is a long-term project).
Just an overview of what we did. Thanks again to everyone involved.
~/Git/Projects/denote $ git shortlog 2.1.0..2.2.0 --summary --numbered
125 Protesilaos Stavrou
17 Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay
2 Vedang Manerikar
1 Henrik HörmannI will give a ~1 week pause on Denote development before making any feature changes. This is to ensure that we catch possible bugs and push fixes right away. If there are other changes in place, it is not possible to make point updates of this sort, as we must first wait for the new features to be tested in real-world scenaria.
The general theme of this release is improvements to the quality of
life with Denote. While these release notes and the overall
documentation are comprehensive, make no mistake: Denote can be used
with M-x denote, M-x denote-link, M-x denote-backlinks, M-x
denote-rename-file. These have been rock solid from the beginning.
Everything else is for more specialised workflows.
I hope to produce a companion video to this changelog in the coming days. Though I am still reeling from the injury to my left hand (I wrote all this to not delay the package any longer). Please check back in my website’s coding blog section to find the follow-up video: https://protesilaos.com/codelog.
[ Remember to consult the manual whenever you have a question about Denote. It is comprehensive and, in my opinion, a paradigm of how free software should be done for the benefit of users. I document everything in detail and am eager to continue this way. If something is unclear, contact me in person, use the mailing list, or open an issue on the GitHub/GitLab mirror. I do not check other fora or media and will thus not help you there. If you are writing custom code, remember to read the doc strings. I write them for you too. ]
This user option enabled the use of keywords that consisted of
multiple words. Those would be separated by hyphens. Such keywords do
not work as Org #+filetags and also mess up with the neat search
semantics of Denote’s file-naming scheme where a hyphen prefix
anchors the query to the TITLE component of the name.
Users who absolutely need multi-word keywords are encouraged to use
the new denote-file-name-letter-casing option. More below.
By default, Denote downcases all components of the file name. The user
option denote-file-name-letter-casing provides granular control over
this behaviour.
The value it accepts is an alist where each element is a cons cell of
the form (COMPONENT . METHOD). The manual, or the variable’s doc
string, cover the details. The gist is that we can now instruct Denote
to accept input verbatim, such as because we want to apply a
camelCase convention or variants thereof.
Here is an example, where we downcase the title, but preserve the letter casing of the signature and keyword components with this:
(setq denote-file-name-letter-casing
'((title . downcase)
(signature . verbatim)
(keywords . verbatim)
(t . downcase)))Users of the now-deprecated denote-allow-multi-word-keywords are
encouraged to implement a letter casing convention with the help of
this new user option.
Relevant sections in the manual:
- The file-naming scheme: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:4e9c7512-84dc-4dfb-9fa9-e15d51178e5d.
- Contol the letter casing of file names: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:6ae1ab8c-5e36-4216-8e93-f37f4447582c
The writable version of Dired would break the colouration applied by
denote-dired-mode. I have arranged for this to not happen anymore,
although it means that I had to add an advice to relevant wdired
symbols because no proper hook is on offer.
Denote provides several commands with a “do or create” logic. For
example, the denote-open-or-create prompts for a file to visit: if
something matches the user’s input, it is visited in a buffer,
otherwise a new note is created with the given input. Same for
denote-link-or-create, mutatis mutandis.
Before, the “… or create” step did not make it obvious how the
previous search terms could be reused. Whereas now those are set as
the default minibuffer value at the title prompt, meaning that typing
RET at the empty prompt will use that value, while M-n
(next-history-element with default settings) will put the text into
the prompt for further editing.
I will answer this because I get asked about it: we still refrain from
creating the new note outright because the search terms are not
necessarily suitable for a new title. Remember that Denote’s file name
is optimised for searching: -word is specific to the title, _word
to the keywords, and ==word= to the signature. Combine this with the
orderless package and you frequently type something like _jou -he
to match a file with the journal keyword and the word hesitation
in its title.
IMPORTANT NOTE: some minibuffer completion User Interfaces preselect
the first completion candidate, which is not always the same as the
default value. Check with your UI of choice how to pass a default
value and/or provide an empty input. For example, with the vertico
package one can move up from the first candidate to select the prompt
itself (the counter switches from 1/N to */N).
Relevant sections in the manual:
- Open an existing note or create it if missing: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:ad91ca39-cf10-4e16-b224-fdf78f093883.
- Link to a note or create it if missing: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:9e41e7df-2aac-4835-94c5-659b6111e6de.
As part of the wider “do or create” feature set, Denote provides the
option to run a specific note-creating command instead of just using
the standard denote one. For example, it is possible to call the
denote-subdirectory command to pick a subdirectory of the
denote-directory for the new note. Commands providing this facility
are denote-open-or-create-with-command and denote-link-after-creating-with-command.
Thanks to Vedang Manerikar for fixing a broken if clause during
development: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/46087.
All Denote minibuffer prompts come with their own history. This means
that M-p (previous-history-element) and M-n
(next-history-element) always return relevant input.
The title and signature prompts now reuse their input history to provide completion. This means that the user can quickly access previous inputs, either to pass them directly or edit them further before inputting them.
[ Use the built-in savehist-mode to persist histories across sessions. ]
Remember to check with your minibuffer UI on how to input empty values at the prompt, should you ever need to do so.
For posterity, I first implemented this in commit 0d855bb. However,
it did not work with the default minibuffer because the SPC key
performs completion (popping up the Completions buffer). So users
could not easily input an arbitrary string for the title/signature. I
thus reverted that commit in 9f692cb.
[ The bug was reported by Suhail Singh on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C652d82c0.c80a0220.e6282.dc47%40mx.google.com%3E#%[email protected]%3E. ]
Stefan Monnier suggested the use of the minibuffer-with-setup-hook,
which lets us disable SPC completion for the purposes of these
functions. This is most welcome as the functionality is nice to have.
Stefan’s feedback was provided on the emacs-devel mailing list:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2023-10/msg00631.html.
The command denote-region takes the contents of the active region
and then prompts for a title and keywords. Once a new note is
created, it inserts the contents of the region therein. This is
useful to quickly elaborate on some snippet of text or capture it for
future reference.
It also provides the denote-region-after-new-note-functions abnormal
hook. Read the manual for more:
https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:2f8090f1-50af-4965-9771-d5a91a0a87bd.
This is an opt-in feature that automatically renames the buffer of newly visited Denote files according to the user’s preferences. Not to be confused with renaming files: buffers are internal to Emacs. Enable it at startup by adding this to your configuration file:
(denote-rename-buffer-mode 1)Relevant entries in the manual:
- Automatically rename Denote buffers: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:3ca4db16-8f26-4d7d-b748-bac48ae32d69.
- The
denote-rename-buffer-formatoption: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:35507c18-35b1-41b9-9d80-52f54fcef3cb.
The user option denote-rename-buffer-format controls how the
function denote-rename-buffer chooses the name of the
buffer-to-be-renamed. This function is the one used by the
denote-rename-buffer-mode.
Users may want, for example, to include some text that makes Denote
buffers stand out, such as a [D] prefix. Examples:
;; Use the title (default)
(setq denote-rename-buffer-format "%t")
;; Use the title and keywords with some emoji in between.
(setq denote-rename-buffer-format "%t 🤨 %k")
;; Use the title with a literal "[D]" before it
(setq denote-rename-buffer-format "[D] %t")Users who need yet more flexibility are best served by writing their
own function and assigning it to the denote-rename-buffer-function
(in such a case, please contact me as I am curious to know what the
underlying need is).
The manual or doc string of denote-rename-buffer-format cover the
technicalities of the available format specifiers.
Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for intermediately refining parts of the code. This was done in pull request 177 on the GitHub mirror: #177.
Thanks to Vedang Manerikar for ensuring that the string of the buffer is trimmed so that it never starts with an empty space (those buffers count as “internal” to Emacs and are not shown to the user): https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/46243.
Internal refinements to a Denote Lisp macro make this minor mode also work with new and unsaved Denote buffers. Whereas before only the buffers of existing files would be renamed.
Denote’s value proposition is its efficient file-naming scheme that makes it easier to retrieve files even with rudimentary search tools. We provide several commands to rename existing files according to this scheme. The underlying file type does not matter (e.g. I use Denote to name my video files).
Relevant sections in the manual:
- Renaming files: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:532e8e2a-9b7d-41c0-8f4b-3c5cbb7d4dca.
- Front matter: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:13218826-56a5-482a-9b91-5b6de4f14261.
By default, the denote-rename-file command asks for a final
confirmation before carrying out its function. The new user option
denote-rename-no-confirm can be bound to a non-nil value to skip
that step.
This only applies to denote-rename-file. Other commands that rename
files in bulk never prompt for such confirmation (it would make them
cumbersome to use, plus it is assumed that the user who performs a
batch operation understands the implications).
This command used to only ask for a title and keywords. Now it allows to use a signature as well. An empty input means that the signature is ignored. AGAIN, please check with your minibuffer completion UI on how to input an empty value, otherwise you will not get what you expect.
This provides the same interface as denote-rename-file, only it
works over a list of marked Dired files.
Internally, the prompts for title, keywords, and signature are improved to display the underlying file that is affected by the current operation. As the user renames files, the prompts reflect which one is current.
It is now called denote-dired-rename-marked-files-with-keywords to
better communicate what it does. In short, this is a quick way to add
the given keywords to a list of files, converting them to the Denote
file-naming scheme in case they are not already using it. For the full
interactive power, use the aforementioned denote-dired-rename-files.
This is now possible because of changes to underlying functions (a Denote Lisp macro—not to bother you with technicalities).
Same principle for denote-rename-file-using-front-matter.
It is now called denote-change-file-type-and-front-matter to avoid
confusion as to whether Denote converts files from one format to
another (there are specialised tools for that).
Thanks to mentalisttraceur for requesting this feature in issue 183 on the GitHub mirror: #183.
The denote-link-with-signature command prompts for a file that has a
SIGNATURE component and links to it. The link’s description includes
the text of the signature as well as the title.
Thanks to Mark Olson for mentioning this idea. It was done in issue 167 on the GitHub mirror: #167.
I implemented it live, while also refactoring relevant parts of the code to be more abstract/reusable: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2023-09-25-emacs-live-mostly-denote/.
Thanks to Alan Schmitt for spotting and fixing a regression caused by the above: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm2cyy5rt68.fsf%40mac-03220211.irisa.fr%3E.
Emacs can seamlessly visit a .gpg or .age file. Denote has nothing
to do with encryption, though it takes care to recognise the
underlying file type and to perform its work accordingly. However,
prior versions of Denote contained a bug in how file extensions were
handled: it would keep the encryption extension but remove the file
type extension before it (so “.org.gpg” would wrongly become “.gpg”).
Thanks to Jens Östlund for reporting a bug with denote-keywords-add
on an encrypted file, which prompted me to investigate this further
and fix the issue holistically. This was done in issue 172 on the
GitHub mirror: #172.
Interested parties are advised to check the two new public functions,
denote-get-file-extension and denote-get-file-extension-sans-encryption,
for the implementation details. In short, we had a problem with all
operations that needed to retrieve the file extension when that
included an encryption component.
The manual of Denote has long provided code samples to achieve particularised results. Among those were snippets to streamline the use of Denote for journaling.
To make things even easier for users, we now have the
denote-journal-extras.el. It consolidates the rich corpus of
documented snippets into an easy-to-use and formally maintained
package. Thanks to Vedang Manerikar for providing the impetus for this
process. This was done on the mailing list:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/43255#%[email protected]%3E.
The new file is optional. It can be loaded thus:
(require 'denote-journal-extras)The main idea is to quickly create journal entries. Check the manual for the details, including the commands to use and the variables to configure: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:4a6d92dd-19eb-4fcc-a7b5-05ce04da3a92.
Thanks to Kostas Andreadis for working on a comment I had included in
a working state of the code about the inclusion of templates. Kostas
made it possible to use the Denote template prompt (per the
denote-templates user option) as part of the creation of a new
journal entry. This was done in pull request 173 on the GitHub mirror:
#173. The change is less
than 15 lines and thus Kostas does not need to assign copyright to the
Free Software Foundation.
Also thanks to TJ Stankus for reporting a case where
denote-journal-extras-title-format did not accept a nil value (as
it should). This was done in issue 176 on the GitHub mirror:
#176.
This is the same idea as with the denote-journal-extras.el: we had
the code in the manual and are now formally distributing it. Thanks
again to Vedang Manerikar for initiating this process. It was done on
the mailing list:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/43255.
Use this optional feature with:
(require 'denote-silo-extras)Consult the manual for the details: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:e43baf95-f201-4fec-8620-c0eb5eaa1c85.
For Denote version 2.0.0 I introduced a general scheme intended to
avoid scenaria where duplicate identifiers could be created (thus
breaking a premise of Denote). Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay iterated over
the code to make it more robust and to fix some of the cases I had not
accounted for. This was done in pull request 159 on the GitHub mirror:
#159. Same idea in pull
request 187: #187.
Denote has a clean code base with small and composable functions. This encourages hackability. Each definition in the source is documented, while the manual provides an overview of every public symbol.
- Added
denote-get-file-extension,denote-get-file-extension-sans-encryption,denote-keywords-combine,denote-retrieve-keywords-value-as-string,denote-title-prompt-current-default,denote-command-prompt.- Refactored
denote-all-files,denote-signature-prompt,denote-file-prompt,denote-title-prompt,denote-rewrite-front-matter.
Please read their documentation strings for the details. Or check the manual: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:c916d8c5-540a-409f-b780-6ccbd90e088e.
Peter posted this on the mailing list and I asked if it was okay to mention it in the release notes of Denote. If you have a relevant announcement to make, consider sending it to our mailing list.
Hi folks,
I have just updated the denote-explore package: https://github.com/pprevos/denote-explore
It does three things:
- Summary statistics: Count and visualise keywords and note types
- Random walks: Generate new ideas using serendipity
- Network visualisation: Visualise your Denote network of links
It contains a rudimentary network visualisation function, relying on the R language. I will need some D3.js expertise to improve the visualisation.
There should be a way to generate the basic network structure just using Elisp and feeding a JSON to D3.js.
Regards
P:)
- During this release cycle, I made lots of changes that in one way or
another related to the
denote-file-prompt. It was relying on aproject.elmechanism that did not allow us to do everything we needed. I have thus arranged for it to use the standardcompleting-readmechanism. There are subtle differences in behaviour, though the core idea is the same. This change fixes a few not-so-obvious bugs. Interested parties are advised to refer to the message in commit50d1bbdf1e8ffe0f449f2f5da02f9b70322fff7d. - All commands that use the
denotefunction internally (i.e. anything that creates a new note) call thedenote-after-new-note-hookas part of their work. This hook is mostly intended for advanced users who want to do something after a new note is produced. - The
menu-bar-modesubmenu of Denote is now positioned where it should be after the “Tools”. Thanks to Noboru Ota for the patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/44738. - The
menu-bar-modeentry of Denote includes the new commands. This is a nice way to discover more of what Denote can do. - The commands
denote-backlinks-prevanddenote-backlinks-nextare only meant to be used inside the Denote backlinks buffer. As such, they now produce an error when called elsewhere (I wish I could hide them fromM-xaltogether). - The
denote-extract-keywords-from-front-matteralways returns a list, thus avoiding an erroneous case. Thanks to Vedang Manerikar for fixing the bug: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/46420. - The
Tin the Denote identifier component now has its own face:denote-faces-time-delimiter. This is used by the backlinks buffer and thedenote-dired-mode. The idea is to introduce a subtle distinction between the date and time constituents of the identifier. Those who want theTto be the same colour as the rest of the identifier, can make thedenote-faces-time-delimiterinherit thedenote-faces-date. For example:(set-face-attribute 'denote-faces-time-delimiter nil :inherit 'denote-faces-date)
Thanks to Jean-Charles Bagneris for sending this patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/43072.
- Fixed a
nilfile expansion in the functiondenote--extract-title-from-file-history. Thanks to ezchi for bringing this matter to my attention. It was done in issue 166 on the GitHub mirror: #166. - A link can be created from inside an
org-capturebuffer. This means that we can calldenote-link(and related) while capturing a new note withorg-capture. Thanks to Peter Smith for reporting the bug in issue 186 on the GitHub mirror: #186. - We stopped using
vc-rename-fileto rename files. The reason is that it requires the buffer to be saved, but we do not want that after modifying the front matter because we want to give the user a chance to confirm what happened. Thanks to Frédéric Willem for reporting the problem in issue 185 on the GitHub mirror: #185. - Thanks to Ivan Sokolov for removing a double negative logic in a snippet. This was done in pull request 162 on the GitHub mirror: #162.
Just an overview of what we did. Every contribution matters.
~/Git/Projects/denote $ git shortlog 2.0.0..2.1.0 --summary --numbered
153 Protesilaos Stavrou
15 Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay
5 Vedang Manerikar
1 Alan Schmitt
1 Ivan Sokolov
1 Jean-Charles Bagneris
1 Kostas Andreadis
1 Noboru Ota
1 Peter Prevos
This is the second major version of Denote, close to one year after its initial release. The video demo I did back then remains relevant, even though lots of details have changed.
It is now possible to create notes that include a SIGNATURE field in
their file name. Either use the convenience command denote-signature
or configure the user option denote-prompts to affect what the denote
command should prompt for.
Signatures are arbitrary strings of characters that enable the user to
further qualify their documents. One possible workflow is to write
relational notes, such that 1a1 is the first extension of another
note with a 1a signature.
The design of the SIGNATURE field is consistent with the Denote
file-naming scheme. The field separator is the double equals sign
(==), while words that comprise the signature are joined together by
a single equals sign. As such, the user can prefix a search with an
equals sign to match words in the SIGNATURE, just as they would use
dashes for the TITLE and underscores for the KEYWORDS.
[ Read the manual for the technicalities of the Denote file-naming scheme. This is not limited to “notes”: any file can be named accordingly (I do it with my videos, for example). ]
Signatures are not included in a file’s front matter. This is a strategic decision to preserve backward compatibility, while not introducing a feature that has not enjoyed widespread usage. I want to make signatures behave the same as the rest of the file name fields, though I am interested to learn how users employ them in their workflow.
The signature extension was discussed at length on the GitHub mirror in issue 115: #115. Thanks to Stefan Thesing, Mirko Hernandez, Noboru Ota (nobiot), Xiaoxing Hu, nbehrnd, Elias Storms, and 101scholar for helping me reason about this feature, understand its scope, and prototype its implementation.
Also thanks to Alfredo Borrás and Jeremy Friesen for discussing with me the field delimiter of signatures on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C2A597B4E-5F18-4D97-9457-B3C859DAA020%40zoho.eu%3E. Thanks to Kai von Fintel for doing the same on the GitHub mirror in issue 147: #147.
Read the original announcement: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2023-03-20-emacs-denote-signature-feature/.
As part of the development, I fixed a case where
denote-rename-file-using-front-matter would fail if it could not
find a signature
The idea is that we want the command to behave the way it always did when the file has no signature and to preserve the signature when it is present.
Thanks to relict for reporting the issue on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87zg86lru9.fsf%40kotlak.com%3E.
Denote provides commands to rename an existing file to one that
follows the Denote file-naming scheme (videos, PDFs, other text
documents, …). Check, for example, the denote-rename-file and
denote-dired-rename-marked-files. The idea is to make everything
easier to search.
In prior versions, these commands could produce duplicate identifiers
if the modification date of the underlying files was the same. Such a
scenario occurs when the files are modified programmatically, as with
the touch command or the various git operations.
Denote will now take care to increment the identifier until it becomes unique within the current scope.
Thanks to Felipe Balbi for reporting this bug in issue 105 on the GitHub mirror: #105.
Thanks to Vedang Manerikar and Jean-Charles Bagneris for commenting on this feature on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87v8emeus0.fsf%40protesilaos.com%3E.
Thanks to Ashton Wiersdorf for noticing a mistake I made that caused a
regression in denote-rename-file:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm2lefbbzl1.fsf%40wiersdorfmail.net%3E.
The denote-dired-rename-marked-files now accepts two optional
arguments. When called interactively, these are interpreted as a
single or double universal prefix argument (C-u by default, though
do M-x where-is and search for universal-argument).
The first argument, named SKIP-FRONT-MATTER-PROMPT, skips the “yes
or no” prompt requested at the outset of the operation, passing to it
an affirmative response. Thanks to Jay Rajput for asking the question
that inspired me to implement this. It was done in issue 155 on the
GitHub mirror: #155.
The second argument, named NO-UNIQUE-ID-CHECK, will not perform any
checks for potential duplicate identifiers. The default is to check
for duplicates and increment them such that they become unique. The
reason this optional argument exists is for those who want to speed up
the process, perhaps because they know ahead of time all identifiers
will be unique or do not care about them.
Thanks to Bruno Boal for refining how the prefix argument is processed. The patch was sent via a private channel. The change is small and thus does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation.
Users of menu-bar-mode and/or context-menu-mode will now find a
submenu with points of entry to Denote. Refer to the publication I
made on my website, as it includes a picture:
https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2023-03-31-emacs-denote-menu/. I
will save the thousand words for the following sections. 🙃
There is a known issue where the menu-bar-mode entry is positioned
before the File submenu. Apparently, there exists an inelegant way
to place the menu elsewhere, but I am not willing to maintain hacks
for missing functionality. If someone knows a clear way to put the
submenu elsewhere, please contact me: I want it to be after Tools.
Thanks to Kai von Fintel and Noboru Ota (nobiot) for discussing the placement of the submenu: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C2B60992C-0FC9-42CC-B669-69A544450FEF%40mit.edu%3E.
Originally, Denote was organised as a collection of several files,
each of which had its own prefix like denote-dired.el, and
denote-link.el. This arrangement was deemed surplus to requirements
and all core code was consolidated in denote.el. An artefact of
that design was the presence of symbols that retained their admittedly
awkward names, like the command denote-link-backlinks or
denote-link-add-missing-links.
All such commands are deprecated. They are replaced with more discoverable names. The deprecation is done in such a way that the old names are aliases for the new ones, but the user is warned not to rely on them.
The new names in detail:
| Old name 🤨 | New name 🤩 |
|---|---|
denote-link-add-links | denote-add-links |
denote-link-add-missing-links | denote-add-missing-links |
denote-link-backlinks | denote-backlinks |
denote-link-find-file | denote-find-link |
denote-link-insert-link | denote-insert-link (alias for denote-link) |
denote-link-show-backlinks-buffer | denote-show-backlinks-buffer (alias for denote-backlinks) |
The Denote file-naming scheme is designed to be a low-tech way of
embedding information in files, making them easier to find. A
downside is that the names are longer than blah.txt and so the
default Emacs behaviour is to derive a buffer name from the file name.
The new optional denote-rename-buffer.el provides a minor mode to
automatically rename the buffer of an existing file, such that it
reflects the file’s TITLE field. Users must enable
denote-rename-buffer-mode.
The renaming procedure is controlled by the user option
denote-rename-buffer-function. By default, it provides the means to
rename using (i) the title, (ii) the identifier, or (iii) a custom
function that returns a string. Experienced users can refer to
denote-rename-buffer-with-title to draw inspiration on the design of
such a function.
Thanks to Morgan Davidson for asking a question that inspired me to implement this feature. The discussion took place in issue 151 on the GitHub mirror #151.
Denote provides a feature to isolate files in to their own silos, each
of which functions as its own denote-directory variable. The
technicalities are explained in the manual. Silos have proven to be a
valuable aspect of file management and I have thus expanded their
scope to work as fully fledged directory trees. This means that we no
longer assume a silo to be a flat directory listing, but instead
recognise any subdirectories inside of it.
Thanks to relict007, Hilde Rhyne, Mirko Hernández, Noboru Ota (nobiot), Alan Schmitt, hapst3r, and Hilde Rhyne for their participation in the relevant discussions:
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87fsb72nge.fsf%40protesilaos.com%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C80CBB671-D812-4EA8-8C80-85F9F4144051%40disroot.org%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87pma6t59i.fsf%40kotlak.com%3E
- #129 (GitHub mirror)
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%[email protected]%3E#%[email protected]%3E.
The idea is to have short keywords and then use more than one, if
necessary. We do not want to encourage the habit of long keywords
that become overly specific, while we want to avoid the use of
dashes as delimited in the file name’s KEYWORDS field.
Technically, this changes the default value of the user option
denote-allow-multi-word-keywords. Users who preferred the old
behaviour can simply toggle it on.
Denote is not an extension of Org mode, though it can integrate with
org-capture. I now make it possible to design a capture template
that uses specific prompts. Consult the section in the manual titled
“Create note with specific prompts using Org capture”.
Thanks to Aditya Yadav for asking about this in issue 132 on the GitHub mirror: #132.
The command denote-change-file-type changes the file type of an
existing note. The available options are those among
denote-file-type. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the
contribution, which was done in pull request 137 on the GitHub mirror:
#137.
Denote can leverage the Org feature of “dynamic blocks” to produce lists of links/backlinks. This is especially useful for metanotes (read the Denote manual—I document everything for a reason).
Before, regular expressions were implemented only as strings while now
they can also be written using the rx notation. Thanks to Mirko
Hernandez for proposing this feature and discussing it with me in
issue 122 on the GitHub mirror:
#122.
Thanks to Elias Storms, the author of denote-org-dblock.el, for
iterating on this functionality. This was done in pull request 130 on
the GitHub mirror: #130.
The function denote-get-path-by-id is refactored to accept any file
with an identifier. This always was its intended purpose. The user
was always able to create denote: Org link types to, for example,
jpg files but denote-get-path-by-id was refusing to resolve the
otherwise valid path. Thanks to user relict007 for reporting the
problem and discussing it with me in issue 135 on the GitHub mirror:
#135.
The change was not trivial. It was followed up by a patch from Noboru
Ota (nobiot) which elaborated on the conditionality. Quoting from
commit 9ce9a24:
fix(denote-get-path-by-id): #135
Reference: #135
This patch change function ‘denote-get-path-by-id’ to allow for the following:
- A single ID points to multiple files with different extensions
- Denote needs to find a single file out of the multiple files
- This is not necessarily a user error (export an Org file to an HTML)
- Denote should let user decide their “primary” file extension
The case the patch is intended to fix goes something like this:
- You have 20230216__mynotes–tag.org.
- You export it to 20230216__mynotes–tag.html.
- Both files are in denote-directory
- This means you have two files with the same ID with different extensions denote-link-find-file, denote-link-find-backlink, and xref integration might find the html file INSTEAD OF the .org file
This is because html is earlier in the alphabetical order than org. Because the function uses seq-find, it will find the .html file first and returns it.
Keywords are an optional field in the Denote file-naming scheme. However, an earlier version of the command mentioned in this heading was considering them mandatory and would refuse to proceed if the keywords were nil. Thanks to Eduardo Grajeda for fixing this: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/39896.
The change is within the ~15 line limit and does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation.
Denote implements minibuffer histories for all its relevant functions. This makes it easier for users to retrieve their previous inputs and to not get irrelevant ones.
Before, the denote-title-prompt was not using its own history but
was instead relying on another one that was intended only for file
paths, thus mixing unrelated inputs.
Thanks to Jonathan Sahar for bringing this matter to my attention. This was done in issue 144 on the GitHub mirror: #144.
The helper function denote--directory-all-files-recursively accepts
predicates to help speed up its work.
Thanks to Wade Mealing for reporting the issue about the performance
of the built-in function directory-files-recursively in large,
nested directories. And thanks to Graham Marlow for the patch, which
was prepared as part of an extended discussion with me:
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/40370
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C20230414000311.1981-1-graham%40mgmarlow.com%3E#%[email protected]%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/40384
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87edonhvy0.fsf%40protesilaos.com%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C76ed9fe2-d597-f7b9-5e59-717aeb77c3c3%40mgmarlow.com%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87zg75q4er.fsf%40protesilaos.com%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3CCAO4UgPQtxhhqW0tB7eZnVh4nF9vLvnVGx+5oB_78_dg32URSLA%40mail.gmail.com%3E
The following are now public symbols that we commit to support and document henceforth:
- Function
denote-file-type-extensions - Return all file type
extensions in
denote-file-types. - Variable
denote-encryption-file-extensions - List of strings specifying file extensions for encryption.
- Function
denote-file-type-extensions-with-encryption - Derive
denote-file-type-extensionsplusdenote-encryption-file-extensions. - Function
denote-link-return-links - Return list of links in
current or optional
FILE. Also seedenote-link-return-backlinks. - Function
denote-link-return-backlinks - Return list of links in
current or optional
FILE. Also seedenote-link-return-links. - Function
denote-rewrite-front-matter - Rewrite front matter of
note after
denote-rename-file(or related) TheFILE,TITLE,KEYWORDS, andFILE-TYPEarguments are given by the renaming command and are used to construct new front matter values if appropriate. - Function
denote-rewrite-keywords - Rewrite
KEYWORDSinFILEoutright according toFILE-TYPE. Do the same asdenote-rewrite-front-matterfor keywords, but do not ask for confirmation. This is for use indenote-keywords-add,denote-keywords-remove,denote-dired-rename-marked-files, or related.
I am publicising the denote-link-return-links and its counterpart in
response to the mailing list thread started by relict007:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%[email protected]%3E.
relict007 is the developer of the denote-cache package (in
progress): https://git.sr.ht/~relict007/denote-cache.
Similarly, the denote-rewrite-keywords is made public upon the
request of Alan Schmitt:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm2ttzgn2wu.fsf%40m4x.org%3E.
- Revised
denote-link-return-{links,backlinks}to not produce auser-error. The errors are reserved for the interactive functions. The others are for developers. Thanks to Elias Storms for bringing this matter to my attention: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/commit/694c1517be73949edbc3993c105c764da8e2571f#commitcomment-112677876. - Refrained from trying to find forward links in non-text-files. If a
file extension is not in
denote-file-types, we have no way of parsing or finding outgoing links in it. This change checks for the file extension early on in ‘when-let*’ block and avoids opening the file which is a relatively costly operation (and would fail finding links anyway). Thanks to relict007 for the patch. This was done on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87r0riffdx.fsf%40kotlak.com%3E The change is small and thus does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation. - Explained how to troubleshoot Denote. Refer to the section in the manual titled “Troubleshoot Denote in a pristine environment.” While this is about Denote, the skills apply to all Emacs packages.
- Ensured backlinks get correct
denote-directorypath. The backlinks buffer will now get the correct path when it is generated inside a silo. This is related to issue 129 reported by hapst3r on the GitHub mirror: #129. The change is necessary because.dir-locals.eldo not work for buffers, so we must get the value from the file that callsdenote-link-backlinks. - Added missing underscore from examples in exporting section. Thanks to Peter Prevos for bringing this matter to my attention: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87fs8b85tq.fsf%40prevos.net%3E#%[email protected]%3E.
- Made the command
denote-open-or-creatework with an emptydenote-directory. Thedenote-file-promptwould throw an error before. The correct behaviour is to proceed to the “Create” phase if thedenote-directoryis empty. Thanks to user drcxd for reporting the bug in issue 131 on the GitHub mirror and for testing my sample code: #131. - Documented how to use tree-based file prompt on demand. This is my
solution to a request made by Mirko Hernandez on the possible use of
the old Denote file prompt. It is better not to introduce a user
option for this case, nor to keep multiple variants of the
denote-file-promptin denote.el, as we want to keep things simple. Mirko’s feedback was provided in issue 121 on the GitHub mirror: #121. - Added the variable
denote-user-enforced-denote-directory. This is intended for users who write custom code to extend Denote. The value of this variable should beletbound around calls to the functiondenote-directory, thus overriding its return value. This was discussed on the mailing list and then introduced by Vedang Manerikar in commit977c757, with further changes by me in20ddc97: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/41776. Vedang has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation. - Fixed
my-denote-org-extract-subtreesection of the documentation. This is part of some sample code that is not part ofdenote.el, but we provide as a convenience/inspiration for interested parties.The provided function did not work correctly.
- Tags are extracted before deleting the region from the source file.
- The function
org-end-of-subtreeis called to calculate the point we should delete up to. The previously used functionorg-entry-end-positionends at the first sub-heading under the tree, which is not what we want. Instead, we want to cut the whole subtree. - The date information available in the subtree is retained. We
look for three common places for this information: the
CREATEDorDATEproperties in thePROPERTIESdrawer, and theCLOSEDcookie at the element level itself.
Thanks to Vedang Manerikar for the contribution: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3CCABzEscbPx24LCUCc7JsMmQtVGwhou5fUH_5h+%3Dt%3Dqi4396NqNQ%40mail.gmail.com%3E
- Removed the dependency on the built-in
xdglibrary and updated the default value of the user optiondenote-directory. The reason is that XDG is a Linux standard that does not work on other operating systems, according to private feedback I received. - Fixed a regression for
M-p(previous-history-element) in “do or create” commands. Read the doc string of the commandsdenote-open-or-createordenote-link-or-createfor how this is supposed to work. In short:- Invoke the “do or create” command.
- Type something that does not match a file.
- In the following title prompt, hit
M-pto bring back the last input.
I realised there was a regression when I read issue 152 on the GitHub mirror, which was created by user “ustcpxy”: #152. The issue is about skipping the file title prompt.
- Simplified the internal
denote--buffer-file-names. Thanks to Adam Růžička for noting that my change was not compatible with older Emacs versions, and for preparing the change. This was discussed in pull request 158 on the GitHub mirror, with my suggestion to not useseq-filteras it affected the return value: #158. The change is below the 15 line limit, meaning that Adam does have to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation. - Documented custom code in the manual on how to interactively select a silo. I am providing this in response to a request from GitHub user rbenit68. The discussion took place in issue 127 on the GitHub mirror, with the participation of Mirko Hernandez: #127. The custom code I provide is the expanded version of an idea put forth by Mirko, to whom I am thankful.
- Fixed an outdated reference in the
denote-file-typesdoc string. Thanks to user doolio for spotting the error and reporting it in issue 139 on the GitHub mirror: #139. - Cited in the manual’s section “Publications about Denote” an article by Mohamed Suliman titled Managing a bibliography of BiBTeX entries with Denote (2022-12-20): https://www.scss.tcd.ie/~sulimanm/posts/denote-bibliography.html. If you have published something related to Denote, please let me know and I will add to the list.
- Cited the essay by Summer Emacs titled An explanation of how I use Emacs (2023-05-04): https://github.com/summeremacs/howiuseemacs/blob/main/full-explanation-of-how-i-use-emacs.org
- Cited the video series by Stefan Thesing titled Denote as a Zettelkasten: https://www.thesing-online.de/blog/denote-as-a-zettelkasten/.
- Added link to Karl Voit’s work in the manual’s section “Alternative implementations and further reading.” Thanks to Norwid Behrnd for the contribution in pull request 123 on the GitHub mirror: #123.
- Fixed the broken link to jao’s blog. Thanks to Tomasz Hołubowicz for the contribution, which was done in pull request 145 on the GitHub mirror: #145.
- Authored lots of other ancillary changes/features to the code base or the manual (yes, this change log is how I “cut the long story short”).
With the help of Noboru Ota (nobiot), we realised that Denote was broken on Emacs 27 for quite a while. The fact that we received no feedback about it suggests that this change is the best course of action going forward. Discussion: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C86r0yvzm12.fsf%40nobiot.com%3E#%[email protected]%3E
Emacs 27 lacks certain Xref facilities that we need for the backlinking facility. It was holding us back for no good reason, while also adding to the maintenance burden.
If you are using Denote on Emacs 27 and things are working for you, there is no need to update the package. Do it when you also upgrade Emacs to a newer version.
By default, the generic backlinks’ buffer, which can be displayed with
the command denote-link-backlinks (alias denote-link-show-backlinks-buffer),
only shows the file names of the linked notes.
We have made it possible to produce a more informative view by showing
the context of the link and also listing all links per file. This is
done by setting the user option denote-backlinks-show-context to a
non-nil value.
To illustrate the difference, this is the default backlinks’ buffer:
Backlinks to "On being honest" (20220614T130812) ------------------------------------------------ 20220614T145606--let-this-glance-become-a-stare__journal.txt 20220616T182958--feeling-butterflies-in-your-stomach__journal.txt
And this is the one with denote-backlinks-show-context enabled:
Backlinks to "On being honest" (20220614T130812) ------------------------------------------------ 20220614T145606--let-this-glance-become-a-stare__journal.txt 37: growing into it: [[denote:20220614T130812][On being honest]]. 64: As I said in [[denote:20220614T130812][On being honest]] I have never 20220616T182958--feeling-butterflies-in-your-stomach__journal.txt 62: indifference. In [[denote:20220614T130812][On being honest]] I alluded
Granted, here we show plain text though in Emacs the results have the appropriate colours of the active theme and are easier to read.
Thanks to Noboru Ota (nobiot) for implementing this feature. We discussed it at length on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C86r0yvzm12.fsf%40nobiot.com%3E.
Noboru has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
Denote now includes the denote-org-dblock library. Activate it
thus:
;; Register Denote's Org dynamic blocks
(require 'denote-org-dblock)A dynamic block gets its contents by evaluating a given function,
depending on the type of block. The type of block and its parameters
are stated in the opening #+BEGIN line of the block. Typing C-c
C-c with point on that line runs the function, with the given
arguments, and populates the block’s contents accordingly.
What Denote has is ways to write blocks that produce a list of links matching a given regular expression while conforming with some other parameters. The manual explains how to use this powerful feature (which is necessarily specific to the Org file type): https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:8b542c50-dcc9-4bca-8037-a36599b22779.
Thanks to Elias Storms for authoring denote-org-dblock and for
discussing this issue at length with me on the mailing list:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm2sfisexx7.fsf%40MBA21.fritz.box%3E.
Elias has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
Denote was already using Xref internally but has now gained more
capabilities which help it find files more effectively. With the help
of Emacs’ standard project library, all file-related prompts (e.g. to
add a link) search all items in the denote-directory regardless of
whether the user is in a subdirectory or not.
All Denote commands benefit from this refactoring. One such request
to “Make denote-open-or-create work better across subfolders” was
made in issue 114 on the GitHub mirror:
#114.
Thanks to Noboru Ota (nobiot) for introducing this feature together with a new system of “modules” for incorporating additional built-in functionality:
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C86a64ooxyi.fsf%40nobiot.com%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C86k03f4iq6.fsf%40nobiot.com%3E
I will not document the new user option denote-modules right now as
my ongoing job search prevented me from exploring the full potential
of this feature. I promise to do it for the next version of Denote
and update the manual accordingly. Nevertheless, the doc string of
denote-modules already provides all one needs to get started.
The commands denote-open-or-create, denote-link-or-create first
prompt for an existing note. If they find it, they act on it,
otherwise they prompt for the creation of a new note to operate on.
At the first prompt, it is common to use regular expressions and
out-of-order pattern matching (such as with the orderless package),
so the input can be something like _test ^2022 some title, which we
obviously don’t want to automatically reuse as the new note’s actual
title.
To this end, and to accommodate all workflows, we leverage Emacs’
minibuffer history to make the last input accessible with M-p at the
minibuffer prompt (M-x previous-history-element). The text is
available for further editing before it is submitted as the new note’s
title. Simple, effective, and flexible!
Thanks to Guo Yong for starting the discussion that led me to this improvement: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3CNF6pFBq–3-9%40tutanota.com%3E.
Denote provides the user option denote-file-type which specifies the
file type to use for new notes. Options include Org mode (the
default), Markdown+YAML, Markdown+TOML, and plain text. Furthermore,
there exists the convenience command denote-type (alias
denote-create-note-using-type) which prompts for a file type to use
when creating a new note (I normally write in plain text, but
sometimes switch to Org or Markdown).
The variable denote-file-types (which is NOT a user option)
specifies all the parameters of what a “file type” means, such as how
to format its front matter, what style of date+time to use, which file
type extension to write, how to rename the file, what style of link to
apply, and so on. Advanced users can now edit this variable to either
register new file types or redefine the behaviour of existing ones.
Read this comprehensive guide on how to do it:
https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-10-30-demo-denote-custom-file-type/.
I repeat: this is for advanced users or, anyhow, for those who are prepared to maintain some custom code in their setup. The guide is accessible though and I am always willing to help anyone in need of assistance.
A relevant request for such a feature can be found in issue 86 on the GitHub mirror: #86.
The denote-file-types were introduced by Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay in
pull request 89 at the GitHub mirror and were part of Denote version
0.6.0: #89. I have made
lots of changes since then to make all parts of Denote work with it
and to parameterise its various facets.
The user option denote-excluded-directories-regexp instructs all
Denote functions that read or check file/directory names to omit
directories that match the given regular expression. The regexp needs
to match only the name of the directory, not its full path.
Affected operations include file prompts and functions that return the
available files in the denote-directory. File prompts are used by
several commands, such as denote-link and denote-subdirectory.
Functions that check for files include denote-directory-files and
denote-directory-subdirectories.
Thanks to Graham Marlow for the contribution which was done in pull request 112 on the GitHub mirror: #112.
The original contribution, with the subsequent tweaks I made to it, is within the eligible line count and thus does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation.
The user option denote-excluded-keywords-regexp omits keywords that
match a regular expression from the list of inferred keywords.
Keywords are inferred from file names and provided at relevant prompts
as completion candidates when the user option denote-infer-keywords
is non-nil.
Thanks to Stefan Thesing for proposing this idea in issue 115 on the GitHub mirror: #115.
[ Other people participate in that thread and there may be something more coming out of it. ]
Peter Prevos has produced the citar-denote package which makes it
possible to write notes on BibTeX entries with the help of the citar
package. These notes have the citation’s unique key associated with
them in the file’s front matter. They also get a configurable keyword
in their file name, making it easy to find them in Dired and/or
retrieve them with the various Denote methods.
With citar-denote, the user leverages standard minibuffer completion
mechanisms (e.g. with the help of the vertico and embark packages)
to manage bibliographic notes and access those notes with ease. The
package’s documentation covers the details: https://github.com/pprevos/citar-denote/.
Thanks to Peter Prevos for developing this package and for mentioning it on the Denote mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C877cz0e96r.fsf%40prevos.net%3E.
Developers or users who maintain custom code now have access to:
- Function
denote-keywords-sort - Function
denote-keywords-prompt
Plus all the following which are related to the aforementioned denote-file-types:
- Variable
denote-org-link-format - Variable
denote-md-link-format - Variable
denote-id-only-link-format - Variable
denote-org-link-in-context-regexp - Variable
denote-md-link-in-context-regexp - Variable
denote-id-only-link-in-context-regexp - Function
denote-date-org-timestamp - Function
denote-date-rfc3339 - Function
denote-date-iso-8601
Again, users can implement support for ANY FILE TYPE and use it to write notes in, either as their default choice or on-demand. If anything, this highlights the flexibility of Denote.
- Added the
denote-keywords-sortfunction. The intent is to abstract the task of sorting the keywords. Before, it was handled by thedenote-keywords-prompt, which meant that keywords were not sorted when thedenotefunction was called from Lisp. Thanks to Florian for bringing this matter to my attention, providing relevant feedback, and fixing an omission of mine indenote-rename-file: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C166689879712.8.6808878344988686135.71824507%40aboulafia.org%3E. - Expanded the manual’s entry on directory “silos” to include more code examples. Thanks to Viktor Haag for asking a question on the mailing list that inspired me to produce this entry: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3CCANnkwC6NLd0VneUEqFrjh7TCUBLBgEtLCcPwM37JDvJXJCShVQ%40mail.gmail.com%3E.
- Included a section in the manual with a non-exhaustive list of references to publications about Denote. As of this writing, it includes entries from David Wilson (SystemCrafters), Jack Baty, Jeremy Friesen, and Peter Prevos. If you have an article about Denote, please contact me about it directly or on the Denote mailing list and I will add it to the manual.
- Tweaked how Org’s HTML export produces links in order to avoid
broken subdirectory paths. Thanks to Thibaut Benjamin for the
contribution, which was done in pull request 116 on the GitHub
mirror: #116.
The change concerns a single line and thus Thibaut requires no copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation.
- Expanded the manual where necessary.
- The
denote-link-add-missing-linksis a companion to what we already provide to produce a list of links to Denote files matching a regular expression (thedenote-link-add-links). This new command adds links that are not already present in the current file. So if you have a metanote that references, say, your journal entries but have not updated it in a month, you can revisit the metanote, invokedenote-link-add-missing-links, and then type the search terms (e.g._journal) to include what remains.Thanks to Elias Storms for the initial contribution, which was done in pull request 108 on the GitHub mirror: #108.
Elias has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation. It is required for changes that exceed 15 lines in total.
- The
denote-link-find-backlinkprovides a minibuffer interface that shows all backlinks to the current note. It complements the existingdenote-link-backlinkscommand (which also has the aliasdenote-link-show-backlinks-buffer). Each command has its own niche: the minibuffer lets the user leverage powerful pattern matching styles, such as those provided by theorderlesspackage, while the bespoke buffer provides an easy overview of what links to the current note.Thanks to Elias Storms for the original patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm2fsg6o2t6.fsf%40MBA21.fritz.box%3E#%[email protected]%3E.
- The
denote-keywords-addanddenote-keywords-removeare two commands that interactively operate on the current note’s front matter to add or remove keywords. They use the familiar keywords’ prompt which means, among others, that they can read more than one keyword at a time. To specify multiple keywords, separate each input with a comma (or whatever the value ofcrm-separatoris, which should be a comma unless something out-of-the-ordinary is in force).Thanks to Elias Storms for the original patch, which was done as part of a discussion on the mailing list and then iterated on: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm24jwvpbt2.fsf%40MBA21.fritz.box%3E#%[email protected]%3E.
- The
denote-linkcommand will now recognise an active region and use its text as the description of the inserted link. The default behaviour is to use the file’s title from its front matter or file name. Thanks to Charanjit Singh for the original contribution, which was done as part of pull request 109 on the GitHub mirror: #109. A subsequent tweak was implemented in pull request 110, following a discussion with me: #110.Charanjit’s contribution is below the ~15 line threshold and thus does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation.
- The renaming operations are now aware of the underlying version
control system and will use the appropriate command when a VCS is
available. In practice, renaming a file under, say, Git will
register it as a “rename” instead of two separate actions of
deletion and addition.
Thanks to Florian for the patch. It was discussed on the mailing list and then underwent some changes: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%[email protected]%3E.
- The
denote-rename-file-using-front-matterno longer fails to carry out its intended task when the front matter has no keywords. If no keywords are available, this is interpreted as a request to remove the KEYWORDS component of the file name. This was always technically possible and could be achieved with various permutations of the user optiondenote-prompts(as explained in its doc string or the manual). Denote only needs an identifier in the file name to establish unique links (although I strongly encourage you to stick to the standard file-naming scheme as it is informative, reliable, and can work even if you access your data without Emacs).
- The variable
denote-file-typeshas been tweaked to respond directly to changes in its value done withsetq. Thanks to Noboru Ota for the patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C86k05gsqsg.fsf%40nobiot.com%3E.Noboru has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
- The
:front-matterproperty of thedenote-file-typesnow accepts a nil value. Denote could always work without front matter, but this was not implemented flexibly in thedenote-file-types. Thanks to Noboru Ota (nobiot) for pointing this out on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C86k05gsqsg.fsf%40nobiot.com%3E. - The
denote-file-promptfunction now reads an optionalINITIAL-TEXTargument. This is a string that prepopulates the minibuffer. It is useful for custom commands the user may have where, for example, there is a need to automatically filter to entries matching_journal. Thanks to Alan Schmitt for suggesting the idea: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%[email protected]%3E. - The
denote-rename-file-using-front-matteraccepts an optionalAUTO-CONFIRMargument. It can either be passed interactively or via Lisp. The doc string (or the manual) explains the details. Thanks to Elias Storms for the initial patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm2a667aeku.fsf%40gmail.com%3E. - The
denote-prompt-for-date-return-idfunction uses the familiardenote-date-promptand returns the appropriate identifier. It is used internally by some of our function, but we also provide it for anyone who wants to write their own custom code. - The
denote-retrieve-or-create-file-identifierfunction reads and optionDATEargument to its mandatoryFILEargument. IfFILEdoes not have an identifier and optionalDATEis non-nil, the function invokes thedenote-prompt-for-date-return-id, as mentioned above. - The
denote-rename-filecommand accepts an optionalDATEargument. It functionally does what is described right above, with the exception that this is for an interactive function (a “command”). Read the detailed doc string or the manual for everything that pertains to this powerful command.Thanks to Florian for suggesting the idea on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C166521684647.7.5483179875879361874.67576870%40aboulafia.org%3E.
- The
denote-directory-text-only-filesfunction filters thedenote-directory-filesto only return a list of text files. This leaves out, say, mp3 files. The function is used internally, though it may also prove useful in custom user code.
- Implemented a
revert-buffer-functionfor the backlinks’ buffer, which is produced by the commanddenote-link-backlinks. This revert function is what thegkey invokes with the default key bindings (the command isrevert-buffer). It produces the buffer anew, updating the list of backlinks accordingly. - Documented how to speed up the creation of the backlinks’ buffer.
As this depends on the built-in
xreflibrary, the change is done by specifying the value of the user optionxref-search-programin Emacs 28 or higher. For example:(setq xref-search-program 'ripgrep)
For something more elaborate:
;; Prefer ripgrep, then ugrep, and fall back to regular grep. (setq xref-search-program (cond ((or (executable-find "ripgrep") (executable-find "rg")) 'ripgrep) ((executable-find "ugrep") 'ugrep) (t 'grep)))
- Removed some minor duplication of effort in how the buttonisation of links is done (what makes them clickable).
- Made refinements to the definition of functions such as
denote-link-add-links. There should be no noticeable change for users, though this shows we care about code quality. - With Eshel Yaron, we tried to remove the empty indices for functions
and variables from the HTML version of the manual. These indices
are useful in the Info version, which can be accessed directly from
Emacs when the
denotepackage is installed (for example, evaluate(info "(denote) Top")), but they do not work with HTML. Alas, what we tried to do did not work. Maybe Org has a way to control what is exported where. We shall see. At any rate, thanks to Eshel for the effort: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/36028. - All code that integrates the
denote:custom hyperlink type with Org’s link facility is now assignedautoloadcookies. These are done to ensure thatdenoteis loaded and is available in cases where Org needs to access adenote:link at some early stage (e.g. at startup before using Denote). Thanks to Sven Seebeck for reporting the problem: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87r0zovwix.fsf%40svenseebeck.me%3E. Although Sven could not reproduce a bug reliably, I believe this prevents such an eventuality. - Expanded or otherwise updated the manual to account for all of the above, where appropriate.
This is the first major release of Denote. A part of the changes documented herein is for advanced users or developers who wish to extend Denote with their custom code. Though we first cover what applies to everyone.
- The custom Org hyperlink type of
denote:can be visited from outside thedenote-directory. We now provide the necessary glue code that Org needs to store thesedenote:links. Storing them can be done with anorg-capturetemplate or via the commandorg-store-link. Use this to, for example, capture a TODO that references one of your notes.denote:links work for as long as the referenced file is somewhere in thedenote-directoryor one of its subdirectories.Thanks to Marc Fargas for the contribution. Marc did not need to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation, as the patch was within the ~15 line limit that is permissible.
The contribution was discussed on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/35137. A prior exchange took place in issue 104 over at the GitHub mirror: #104.
Some further tweaks were made to the relevant function. Thanks to Elias Storms for reporting on the mailing list a bug which revealed a regression I introduced to the Org link storing mechanism: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C15D55F4B-64D1-4083-AD5E-B5BACA8F1909%40ap.be%3E.
- Following from above, the command
denote-link-find-filefinds files reliably, regardless of where the link is stored. All it needs is for the target file to be inside thedenote-directory.I discovered this while exchanging views with Marc Fargas regarding the aforementioned patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/35137.
- The command
denote-link-buttonize-buffer, which “buttonizes”denote:links in plain text and Markdown files, now performs its task regardless of where the current file is stored. Those links work for as long as the file they reference is somewhere inside thedenote-directory. - The commands
denote-link-after-creating,denote-link-or-createprovide a convenience for users who need to create link to notes that may not exist yet. The idea is that one is expounding on a given topic and wants to create a link to a relevant issue. They are not sure if they have written anything about it yet, so they invoke the relevant command. Consult their doc strings or read the manual: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:9e41e7df-2aac-4835-94c5-659b6111e6de.Thanks to user sienic for suggesting the idea and for testing the prototypes. And thanks to Juanjo Presa for participating in the discussion to share the view that this functionality should be part of denote.el. This happened in issue 96 over at the GitHub mirror: #96.
- The command
denote-open-or-createoffers the convenience of visiting a file, if it exists, else prompting for its creation. Thanks to Alan Schmitt for the contribution. The patch was sent on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87fsgvddny.fsf%40protesilaos.com%3E. It is within the limit of what is allowed without assigning copyright to the Free Software Foundation, though Alan has done the relevant paperwork. - The manual expands on two sections: (1) Variants of
denote-open-or-create, (2) Variants ofdenote-link-or-create. They show how one can use the above “do or create” commands with different permutations of the Denote prompts for new note creation. - The manual includes a section titled “Create a note with the
region’s contents”. Quote:
Sometimes it makes sense to gather notes in a single file and later review it to make multiple notes out of it. With the following code, the user marks a region and then invokes the command
my-denote-create-new-note-from-region: it prompts for a title and keywords and then uses the region’s contents to fill in the newly created note.This is not part of denote.el, though we provide it in the manual for users that may need it. Thanks to sundar bp for suggesting the idea. This was done via a private channel and the information is shared with permission.
- The manual has another entry titled “Split an Org subtree into its
own note”, which is similar to the above idea of using the region’s
contents but has some extra niceties provided by Org. Quote:
With Org files in particular, it is common to have nested headings which could be split off into their own standalone notes. In Org parlance an entry with all its subheadings is a “subtree”. With the following code, the user places the point inside the heading they want to split off and invokes the command
my-denote-split-org-subtree. It will create a note using the heading’s text and tags for the new file. The contents of the subtree become the contents of the new note and are removed from the old one.Thanks to Sven Seebeck for suggesting the idea and for testing my prototypes. This information is shared with permission, as it was provided via a private channel.
- The manual describes how a user can leverage the built-in
dired-virtual-modeto perform arbitrary sorting of their list of notes. It also includes code for Eshell to quickly “export” a command’s output into a dedicated buffer (which can then be used to derive a “virtual” Dired). Thanks to Yi Liu for asking the question that inspired this entry: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%[email protected]%3E. - The
denote-faces-broken-linkhas been removed. It was used for Org links. The idea was to apply a different style if the link was broken. However, the way fontification works means that there may be a performance penalty as Org tries to check again and again if the link is broken or note. Asdenote:links are robust (unless the user tries to break them), this penalty is unacceptable. Thanks to Peter Prevos for reporting the issue and discussing it with me on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87k05umyyo.fsf%40prevos.net%3E. - The “denote” group in Custom UI buffers now provides a link to the
Info manual that is shipped with the package. To read the manual,
evaluate
(info "(denote) Top"). Else visit the official web page: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote. - Fixed a case where an internal check for a note would throw an error
if the buffer was not visiting a file. Thanks to Hilde Rhyne was
the patch: it is below the ~15 line threshold and thus does not
require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation. The
issue was discussed on the mailing list and was pushed to users as
version
0.6.1: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm035d7nq22.fsf%40disroot.org%3E. - When linking to a file that has no front matter, Denote tries to use
the TITLE component of the file name (per our file-naming scheme) as
the link’s descriptive text. We now make this look a bit better, by
capitalising only the first letter while dehyphenating the text,
converting
this-is-a-testtoThis is a test. Before, we would capitalise all words. Thanks to Clemens Radermacher for the patch. It was sent via a private channel. Clemens has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
Lots of functions and variables which once were for “private” use (the
presence of double hyphens in the symbol) are now made public.
Concretely this means that they no longer have double hyphens in their
name and we pledge to support them henceforth. “Support” means that
we (i) consider them stable, (ii) document them properly, (iii) will
record any changes made to them such as in a change log, a blog post
on my website, and via make-obsolete.
The manual provides a complete reference of what is on offer. The section is titled “For developers or advanced users”: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:c916d8c5-540a-409f-b780-6ccbd90e088e.
Normally, we do not support private forms and can delete/modify them without notice. However, I decided to write obsoletion aliases for all forms I made public or otherwise revised, in an effort not to break any existing custom code. The following table covers all obsolete symbols and their new counterparts. PLEASE UPDATE YOUR CODE as those aliases will be removed in the near future.
| Index | Old symbol | New symbol |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | denote–id-format | denote-id-format |
| 2 | denote–id-regexp | denote-id-regexp |
| 3 | denote–title-regexp | denote-title-regexp |
| 4 | denote–keywords-regexp | denote-keywords-regexp |
| 5 | denote–punctuation-regexp | denote-excluded-punctuation-regexp |
| 6 | denote-punctuation-excluded-extra-regexp | denote-excluded-punctuation-extra-regexp |
| 7 | denote–sluggify | denote-sluggify |
| 8 | denote–sluggify-and-join | denote-sluggify-and-join |
| 9 | denote–sluggify-keywords | denote-sluggify-keywords |
| 10 | denote–desluggify | denote-desluggify |
| 11 | denote–only-note-p | denote-file-is-note-p |
| 12 | denote–file-has-identifier-p | denote-file-has-identifier-p |
| 13 | denote–file-supported-extension-p | denote-file-has-supported-extension-p |
| 14 | denote–writable-and-supported-p | denote-file-is-writable-and-supported-p |
| 15 | denote–file-name-relative-to-denote-directory | denote-get-file-name-relative-to-denote-directory |
| 16 | denote-link–id-from-string | denote-extract-id-from-string |
| 17 | denote–directory-files | denote-directory-files |
| 18 | denote–subdirs | denote-directory-subdirectories |
| 19 | denote–get-note-path-by-id | denote-get-path-by-id |
| 20 | denote–directory-files-matching-regexp | denote-directory-files-matching-regexp |
| 21 | denote–retrieve-read-file-prompt | denote-file-prompt |
| 22 | denote–extract-keywords-from-path | denote-extract-keywords-from-path |
| 23 | denote–keywords-prompt | denote-keywords-prompt |
| 24 | denote–retrieve-filename-identifier | denote-retrieve-filename-identifier |
| 25 | denote–file-name-id | denote-retrieve-or-create-file-identifier |
| 26 | denote–retrieve-filename-title | denote-retrieve-filename-title |
| 27 | denote–retrieve-title-value | denote-retrieve-title-value |
| 28 | denote–retrieve-title-line | denote-retrieve-title-line |
| 29 | denote–retrieve-keywords-value | denote-retrieve-keywords-value |
| 30 | denote–retrieve-keywords-line | denote-retrieve-keywords-line |
| 31 | denote–format-file | denote-format-file-name |
| 32 | denote–barf-duplicate-id | denote-barf-duplicate-id |
| 33 | denote–title-prompt | denote-title-prompt |
| 34 | denote–file-type-prompt | denote-file-type-prompt |
| 35 | denote–date-prompt | denote-date-prompt |
| 36 | denote–subdirs-prompt | denote-subdirectory-prompt |
| 37 | denote–template-prompt | denote-template-prompt |
| 38 | denote–filetype-heuristics | denote-filetype-heuristics |
| 39 | denote–rename-file | denote-rename-file-and-buffer |
| 40 | denote–rename-file-prompt | denote-rename-file-prompt |
If you are writing code that extends Denote and feel that something is either missing or has remained private, please contact us on the mailing list, the GitHub/GitLab mirror, or send me an email directly. I always respond in a timely fashion.
The most common feedback I get about Denote is that its documentation is good. As you can tell from these change logs, the plan is to continue on this path.
Please note that the communication channels for Denote (mailing list, mirrors, my personal email) are open to users of all levels. Do not hesitate to contact us/me.
Thanks again to everyone for their contributions, direct or indirect, either in the form of code or the discussion of ideas. Quoting from the “Acknowledgements” section of the manual (all my packages have such a section):
Denote is meant to be a collective effort. Every bit of help matters.
- Author/maintainer
- Protesilaos Stavrou.
- Contributions to code or the manual
- Abin Simon, Alan Schmitt, Benjamin Kästner, Clemens Radermacher, Colin McLear, Damien Cassou, Eshel Yaron, Hilde Rhyne, Jack Baty, Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay, Jürgen Hötzel, Kaushal Modi, Kyle Meyer, Marc Fargas, Peter Prevos, Philip Kaludercic, Quiliro Ordóñez, Stefan Monnier.
- Ideas and/or user feedback
- Abin Simon, Alan Schmitt, Alfredo Borrás, Benjamin Kästner, Colin McLear, Damien Cassou, Elias Storms, Frank Ehmsen, Hanspeter Gisler, Jack Baty, Juanjo Presa, Kaushal Modi, M. Hadi Timachi, Paul van Gelder, Peter Prevos, Shreyas Ragavan, Summer Emacs, Sven Seebeck, Taoufik, Yi Liu, Ypot, atanasj, hpgisler, pRot0ta1p, sienic, sundar bp.
Special thanks to Peter Povinec who helped refine the file-naming scheme, which is the cornerstone of this project.
Special thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the numerous contributions to the code base.
Denote is in a stable state. I consider it feature-complete, without
prejudice to possible refinements to its existing feature set. The next
version shall be 1.0.0.
- The Denote linking facility can now link to any file that has the
Denote file-naming scheme. Before, we limited this feature to what we
consider “note” files, else the supported plain text formats (per
denote-file-type). Thanks to Peter Prevos for the discussion on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87fsi1m5ze.fsf%40prevos.net%3E. - Date prompts may optionally use the familiar Org date-selection
mechanism that leverages the calendar. This feature is subject to the
user option
denote-date-prompt-use-org-read-date. A date prompt is used by thedenote-datecommand or, optionally, by thedenotecommand when the user optiondenote-promptsis configured accordingly. The manual elaborates on the specificities. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution in pull request 97 at the GitHub mirror: #97. - Leading empty spaces at the
denoteTITLEprompt no longer produce hyphens: they are simply ignored to keep file names consistent. Thanks to Peter Prevos for the contribution in pull request 99 at the GitHub mirror: #99.[ Peter has started the process for copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation, though the total contributions are still within the permitted boundaries. ]
- When linking to files that have no front matter, the link’s anchor
text (the human-readable part) is derived from the file name
TITLEcomponent. We apply a de-hyphenation and capitalisation of its constituent words. This is not always perfect, but it is better than something likethis-is-the-title. Thanks to Peter Prevos for the original idea in pull request 93 at the GitHub mirror: #93. - The active region is now used as the default value of the
denotecommandTITLEprompt. The idea behind this Do-What-I-Mean-flavoured patch is to be able to take a note about a subject that appears in a buffer by simply marking it before invoking thedenotecommand.Thanks to Eshel Yaron for the patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/34870. It is below the ~15 line threshold that thus requires no copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation.
- The
denote-rename-file-using-front-mattercommand now offers to save the buffer if appropriate. In the past, it would simply produce an error asking the user to save the buffer. Thanks to Peter Prevos for the contribution in pull request 103 at he GitHub mirror: #103. - Fixed the text of the confirmation prompt in the command
denote-migrate-old-markdown-yaml-tags. Thanks to Abin Simon for the patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/34632.This patchset also fixes (i) how a tag is identified for the purposes of migrating old to new front matter, (ii) the regular expression for Org front matter keywords
[ The total changes are below the ~15 line threshold and thus do not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation. ]
- Fixed a bug that prevented the creation of new notes. Thanks to
Juergen Hoetzel for the contribution in pull request 84 at the GitHub
mirror: #84. This was
done immediately after the release of version
0.5.0on 2022-08-10 and was provided to users as version0.5.1[ The change is below the ~15 line threshold. ]
These make the code simpler and more predictable. As the individual changes are not user-facing, I invite interested parties to consult the Git log. Special thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the multiple contributions (and relevant discussions) over at the GitHub mirror:
[ Jean-Philippe has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation. It is required for non-trivial changes. ]
The variable denote-file-types is an alist of plists which
substantiates the supported file types (per the user option
denote-file-type). Properties pertain to the formatting of front
matter and the retrieval of relevant values. The doc string of
denote-file-types explains the details, while the default value uses
the ancillary functions we define. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay
for the relevant contributions in pull request 89 at the GitHub mirror:
#89.
The general theme of this release is to refine what we already offer. As I explained in some discussions, Denote is feature-complete. We can always improve the code or add some ancillary function/command/variable, though all the main ideas have already been implemented. Additional functionality can be provided by other packages: I remain at the disposal of anyone willing to write such a package.
The present release covers more than 150 commits since version 0.4.0 on 2022-07-25.
All release notes: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote-changelog.
We now provide the denote-templates user option. A “template” is
arbitrary text that Denote will add to a newly created note right below
the front matter.
Templates are expressed as a (KEY . STRING) association.
- The
KEYis the name which identifies the template. It is an arbitrary symbol, such asreport,memo,statement. - The
STRINGis ordinary text that Denote will insert as-is. It can contain newline characters to add spacing. The manual of Denote contains examples on how to use theconcatfunction, beside writing a generic string: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:f635a490-d29e-4608-9372-7bd13b34d56c.
The user can choose a template either by invoking the new command
denote-template or by changing the user option denote-prompts to
always prompt for a template when calling the denote command.
Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for refinements to this facility. Done in pull request 77 on the GitHub mirror: #77.
[ Jean-Philippe has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation. ]
Denote used to format tags in Org files by separating them with two spaces:
#+filetags: tag1 tag2
While this worked for some obvious use-cases, it is not supported by Org. The Org documentation stipulates that tags be separated by the colon sign. The above would then be written thus:
#+filetags: :tag1:tag2:
Denote now conforms with Org’s specifications. To help users update
their existing notes, we provide the denote-migrate-old-org-filetags
command. It will perform the conversion in all Org files that had the
old notation. As with all Denote operations that rewrite file contents,
it DOES NOT SAVE BUFFERS. The user is expected to review the changes,
such as by using diff-buffer-with-file. Multiple buffers can be saved
with save-some-buffers (check its doc string).
This command is provided for the convenience of the user. It shall be deprecated and eventually removed from future versions of Denote.
If you need help with any of this, please do not hesitate to contact me either in private or in one of Denote’s official channels (mailing list, GitHub/GitLab mirror).
Thanks to Alan Schmitt for bringing this matter to my attention:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C871qu0jw5l.fsf%40protesilaos.com%3E.
Also thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for commenting on it as it
helped me decide to include the command in denote.el:
#83 (comment).
This is the same idea as above. Before, we were making the mistake of using incorrect YAML notation:
tags: tag1 tag2Now we do:
tags: ["tag1", "tag2"]This is how the TOML variant always worked.
For the user’s convenience, we provide a command to migrate from the old
to the new syntax: denote-migrate-old-markdown-yaml-tags.
Denote adds “front matter” to newly created notes which includes data such as the title and keywords/tags of the document. Strictly speaking, the front matter is not required by Denote. It is provided for the user’s convenience, such as for readability or if they want to use the note with other programs (e.g. Org export, a blog with Hugo/Jekyll, …).
Denote provides commands which help the user rename their notes, by
changing the file name’s TITLE and/or KEYWORDS components (per
Denote’s file-naming scheme). These commands also operate on the front
matter to keep the data between file name and file contents in sync
(again, for the user’s convenience).
For this release we have consolidated and refined our offerings in order to improve their ergonomics. All changes are the result of fruitful discussions on the mailing list and the issue tracker of the GitHub mirror:
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87k081l6vw.fsf%40silverstone.mail-host-address-is-not-set%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C878rogw5kk.fsf%40protesilaos.com%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87fsiljv1s.fsf%40hu.mail-host-address-is-not-set%3E
- https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87r122afe3.fsf%40hu.mail-host-address-is-not-set%3E
- #74
Thanks to (A-Z) Hanspeter Gisler, Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay, and Peter Prevos for their participation.
Also thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for relevant code contributions (please consult the Git log for the minutiae):
The commands denote-dired-rename-file-and-add-front-matter and
denote-dired-rename-file are deprecated and superseded by the new
denote-rename-file. Please update any key bindings in your setup.
The difference between the old commands and the new denote-rename-file
is that the latter will now insert front matter to supported file types
(per denote-file-type) if they have none. This basically means that,
e.g., renaming a generic Org/Markdown/Plain text file with
denote-rename-file will update its file name to comply with Denote’s
file-naming scheme and also add the appropriate front matter (it
“converts” it to a Denote note). If front matter exists, this command
will rewrite it to reflect the changes to the file name’s TITLE and/or
KEYWORDS.
Consult the manual for the details: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:7cc9e000-806a-48da-945c-711bbc7426b0.
Or, if the new version of the GNU ELPA package is installed, evaluate:
(info "(denote) Rename a single file")The user option denote-dired-rename-expert is obsolete. Denote always
asks for confirmation when renaming a single file. This is because the
user can rely on batch-renaming commands which ask for confirmation only
once per batch.
The command denote-dired-rename-marked-files-and-add-front-matter is
deprecated and its functionality is absorbed by the existing
denote-dired-rename-marked-files command. The deprecated command was
used to insert front matter to supported file types (per
denote-file-type) that had none. We now handle this internally, thus
streamlining the experience for the user.
Refer to the manual for the details: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:1b6b2c78-42f0-45b8-9ef0-6de21a8b2cde
Assuming the latest Info manual is installed, evaluate:
(info "(denote) Rename multiple files at once")Introduced the denote-rename-file-using-front-matter command. This is
new functionality we provide which uses the front matter as input to
perform a rename of the file. The aforementioned offerings prompt for
input via the minibuffer and propagate the changes firstly to the file
name and subsequently to the front matter. Whereas with the command
denote-rename-file-using-front-matter, the user can edit the front
matter manually and then invoke the command to pass the changes to the
file name, subject to a confirmation. Relevant entries are the title
and tags/filetags (depending on the file type). The date and the
identifier are not pertinent. Identifiers in file names are NEVER
rewritten by Denote.
Consult the manual: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:3ab08ff4-81fa-4d24-99cb-79f97c13a373.
With the latest package, evaluate:
(info "(denote) Rename a single file based on its front matter")The command denote-dired-rename-marked-files-using-front-matter
completes the set of features we provide for syncing between file name
and front matter. It applies to all marked files in a Dired buffer.
Read the manual to understand how the command works and what it does exactly: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:ea5673cd-e6ca-4c42-a066-07dc6c9d57f8.
Or evaluate:
(info "(denote) Rename multiple files based on their front matter")Sometimes the user may have incomplete front matter, perhaps due to a
mistake that was saved on disk. The command denote-add-front-matter
appends a new front matter block to the current note.
Read: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:54b48277-e0e5-4188-ad54-ef3db3b7e772
Or evaluate:
(info "(denote) Regenerate front matter")We provide the denote-faces-link and the denote-faces-broken-link.
The latter is only relevant for Org, as Emacs’ standard button mechanism
does not have a way to apply a face dynamically.
This is a change for themes/tinkerers who need to differentiate
denote: links from other links. Otherwise, the presentation is the
same as before.
Thanks to Peter Prevos for asking about it on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C03618bb20d3eaba78c32cd0cb63bfc71%40prevos.net%3E.
The default value of the denote-directory user option used to be
~/Documents/notes (subject to some conversion via Elisp). Denote now
conforms with the freedesktop.org specifications by using the XDG
directory for DOCUMENTS instead of ~/Documents:
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs/.
Users who already bind the denote-directory are not affected by this
change. Same for those who do not tinker with XDG environment
variables and/or do not use some exotic setup.
Thanks to Philip Kaludercic for the patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/34561#%[email protected]%3E
The backlinks’ buffer now uses the denote-backlink-mode instead of the
generic special-mode. The former derives from the latter. It binds
keys to move between links with n (next) and p (previous). These
are stored in the denote-backlink-mode-map (use M-x describe-mode
(C-h m) in an unfamiliar buffer to learn more about it).
Thanks to Philip Kaludercic for the patch: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/34561#%[email protected]%3E
- Documented all of the aforementioned. Improved how information is presented and, generally, iterated on an already comprehensive document.
- Introduced a node which explains how to tweak the front matter:
https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:7f918854-5ed4-4139-821f-8ee9ba06ad15.
Or evaluate:
(info "(denote) Change the front matter format")
- Updated the reference to
consult-notes. This is a package that uses theconsultinterface to provide access and search facilities for notes. It can integrate with Denote. Thanks to Colin McLear for the change in pull request 70 on the GitHub mirror: #70.[ The change is below the ~15 line threshold and thus does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation. ]
- All Denote code is consolidated in
denote.el. We no longer maintain separate files likedenote-link.el,denote-dired.el, etc. Users who hadrequirecalls to such libraries must remove them and only keep:(require 'denote)
- User options that have an entry in the manual will now provide a link
to it via their Help buffer and/or the Custom UI. This is done by
adding the
:linkattribute to their declaration.Furthermore, user options and faces now specify the version of Denote that last affected their value (e.g.
denote-directory, which was mentioned above for the XDG spec, now informs the user that it changed for version0.5.0).[ I learnt these by developing the
modus-themes. ] - The variables
denote-last-title,denote-last-keywords,denote-last-buffer, anddenote-last-front-matterare all obsolete. These were used prior to version0.1.0to help with development but are now deemed surplus to requirements. - Lots of changes were made to private functions, variables, doc strings, and comments, in the interest of simplifying the code and/or ensuring consistency in how operations are carried out. Though everything is the same for the end-user.
Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the numerous contributions on the GitHub mirror. They are important for Denote, though the user does not need to know what is happening internally (consult the Git log for the details):
Paul van Gelder asked about this on the mailing list. I provided guidelines on what can be done, though did not record anything in the manual: I prefer to elicit more feedback from users. The gist is that Emacs already has all the requisite functionality, though encryption per se is outside the scope of Denote: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C1123434736.64290.1658954014673%40kpc.webmail.kpnmail.nl%3E.
Denote’s relevant internal mechanisms will recognise files ending in
.gpg (e.g. for fontification in Dired).
Peter Prevos shared a proof-of-concept way to visualise keywords in the
denote-directory and show usage statistics:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Ce9e5d6ae85984b51067b47f4d8e134fa%40prevos.net%3E.
We do not include this information in the manual, as we wait for the fully fledged code. Though do give it a try if you are interested and, perhaps, share your thoughts for Peter’s consideration.
Hilde Rhyne shared a workaround they have to disable diredfl-mode in
the buffers where denote-dired-mode is enabled. The conflict between
the two is a known issue that is acknowledged in the manual:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm0tu6q6bg0.fsf%40disroot.org%3E.
I think we need a proper solution in the code we provide, so this workaround is not mentioned in the manual.
There was a discussion started by Fourchaux, with the participation of basaran and Andre0991 on the GitHub mirror: #71.
The gist of my answer is that Denote does not need to provide such a
facility because notes are ordinary files: whatever the user already has
for them should apply to Denote. If the user has nothing to search
through files, they anyhow need something that works outside the
confines of Denote: a denote-SEARCH command is not an adequate
solution.
Emacs has numerous built-in commands, such as grep (lgrep and
rgrep), project-find-regexp, find-grep-dired, ibuffer-do-occur,
… Furthermore, there are lots of high quality packages that have
their own wrappers or extensions for searching file contents, such as
the ivy and helm completion frameworks, as well as consult (the
commands consult-grep and consult-ripgrep), consult-notes, rg,
deadgrep, deft, and probably plenty more that do not come to mind
right now.
I strongly encourage the user to find a universal search solution to the problem of searching file contents.
- Defined the
denote-link-dired-marked-notescommand. It lets the user produce a typographic list of links to the note files that are marked in Dired. The list is written at point. If there are multiple buffers which visit Denote notes, the command first prompts with minibuffer completion for one among them.In terms of workflow,
denote-link-dired-marked-notescomplements thedenote-link-add-linkscommand for those cases where it is easier to select files than write an elegant regular expression. - Implemented the
denote-dired-rename-marked-filescommand. This provides a much-requested facility to perform the familiar renaming operation on a set of files. In particular:- the file’s existing file name is retained and becomes the
TITLEfield, per Denote’s file-naming scheme; - the
TITLEis sluggified and downcased, per our conventions; - an identifier is prepended to the
TITLE; - the file’s extension is retained;
- a prompt is asked once for the
KEYWORDSfield and the input is applied to all file names; - if the file is recognised as a Denote note, the command rewrites its
front matter to include the new keywords. A confirmation to carry
out this step is performed once at the outset. Note that the
affected buffers are not saved. The user can thus check them to
confirm that the new front matter does not cause any problems
(e.g. with the command
diff-buffer-with-file). Multiple buffers can be saved withsave-some-buffers(read its doc string).
Parts of
denote-dired-rename-marked-fileswere added or refined over a series of commits. Consult the Git log for the minutia. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the relevant additions in pull requests 51 and 52 on the GitHub mirror:Jean-Philippe has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
- the file’s existing file name is retained and becomes the
- Improved how the
denote-dired-rename-filecommand rewrites front matter. Before, it would perform a replacement of the whole block, which had the adverse effect of overwriting custom front matter entries. Now, it only targets the lines which hold the title and keywords, leaving everything else intact. Thanks to Peter Prevos for reporting the problem and testing the solution to it in issue 60 on the GitHub mirror: #60. - Introduced the
denote-dired-rename-file-and-add-front-mattercommand that always prepends front matter to a file whose extension is among the supported ones (per the user optiondenote-file-type). This differs from the standarddenote-dired-rename-filecommand which only rewrites the front matter’s title and keywords if they exist.In practice,
denote-dired-rename-file-and-add-front-matterempowers the user to convert a generic text file to a Denote note.This command was originally added by Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay in pull request 49 on the GitHub mirror and refined in subsequent commits: #49. Also read issue 48 where this idea was originally discussed: #48.
- Added the
denote-dired-rename-marked-files-and-add-front-matterscommand, which is like thedenote-dired-rename-marked-filesbut adds front matter instead of rewriting existing one, just how the commanddenote-dired-rename-file-and-add-front-matterdoes it (both are mentioned above). Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the refinements to it in pull request 53 on the GitHub mirror: #53. - Wrote an interactive spec for
denote-link-buttonize-buffer. It can now be invoked withM-xor a key binding, should the need arise. This function is normally called via a hook and takes effect in plain text as well as Markdown files. - Extended the fontification rules so that file names with non-ASCII
characters are styled properly. This issue was brought up on the
mailing list by Frank Ehmsen and was discussed with the participation
of Peter Prevos:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C2273b3b1-344c-6c6e-3ab6-a227b6bc3721%40eh-is.de%3E.
The same topic was raised at the same time on the GitHub mirror by user hpgisler in issue 61: #61.
After some discussion, we agreed on the right approach, which was formalised by Peter Prevos as pull request 64 on the GitHub mirror: #64. The change is below the ~15 line threshold and thus does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation.
- Made the registration of the
denote:custom Org hyperlink type conditional on the availability of theorgfeature. In other words, those who do not use Org will not be loading this part of the code. Thanks to Abin Simon for reporting the problem and for showing how Elfeed handles this case. This was done in issue 47 on the GitHub mirror: #47. - Ensured that duplicate keywords are not produced by the relevant prompt. Thanks to user Taoufik for the contribution in pull request 50 on the GitHub mirror: #50. The change is below the ~15 line threshold and thus does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation.
- Fixed a typo in the reference to the
crm-separatorin the manual. David Wilson (System Crafters channel) spotted the error in a recent live stream whose main topic was about Denote (thanks, by the way!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcRY_rsX0yY. - Addressed an inconsistency in the command
denote-link-find-filewhere it would not recognise links without a title in their format (those can be inserted by passing a prefix argument (C-uby default) to the commands that insert links, such asdenote-link). - Attached conditionality to the
denotecommand’sSUBDIRECTORYargument, so that it does not create new file paths. This is only relevant for those who calldenotefrom Lisp. Interactive use is the same as before. - Clarified that the user option
denote-org-capture-specifierscan accept arbitrary text in addition to the formatting specifiers that Org’s capture mechanism introduces. - Explained in the manual why
denote-org-capture-specifiersis needed instead of writing the capture template directly the way one normally does. The gist is that because our file names are derived dynamically based on user input, we need to account for the sequence in which the value of arguments is reified byorg-capture. - Refactored how notes are prepared internally. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution in pull request 55 on the GitHub mirror: #55.
- Declared the
denote-punctuation-excluded-extra-regexpvariable which is, for the time being, targeted at experienced users. Its purpose is to extend what we consider “illegal” punctuation for the file name. Thanks to pRot0ta1p for the feedback in issue 57 over at the GitHub mirror: #57. Example based on the input of pRot0ta1p:(setq denote-punctuation-excluded-extra-regexp "[『』〖〗｛｝「」【】〔〕［］（）《》〈〉«»！＃￥％…＆＂＇＊，。；：、？—]*")
The ideal is to make
denote--punctuation-regexpwork for all scripts, but that may be unrealistic. - Clarified what the manual means by “attachments” to notes. Those are for Org, if the user resorts to the relevant Org mechanisms. Denote does not do any of that.
- Revised the parsing of a date input as used in the
denote-datecommand or related. The idea is to turn2020-01-15into something like2020-01-15 16:19by using the current time, so that the hour and minute component is not left to00:00when the user does not specify it explicitly.This reduces the burden on the user who would otherwise need to input the time value in order to avoid the error of duplicate identifiers in the scenario where the same date is used more than once.
The change also addresses a difference between Emacs 28 and Emacs 29 where the former does not read dates without a time component.
Thanks to Peter Prevos for the feedback in issue 58 over at the GitHub mirror: #58.
- Fixed compilation warnings in Emacs 29 about the format of doc strings that need to output a literal single quote. Thanks to Kyle Meyer for the patch, which was sent on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/34117.
- Fixed typo in the user option
denote-promptsabout thecrm-separator. Thanks to Kyle Meyer for the patch, which was sent on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/patches/34116. - Made the built-in
subr-xlibrary a runtime dependency, due to complications with thewhen-let*form. The problem was made manifest in a renaming operation, though it was not about renaming per se. Thanks to hpgisler for reporting the problem in issue 62 and for testing the proposed solution: #62. - Streamlined the use of the
seqlibrary instead ofcl-lib, as we were already using the former more heavily and there was no need for the latter. Thanks to Philip Kaludercic for pointing this out on the emacs-devel mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2022-07/msg00838.html. - Added a generic
README.mdfile to placate the Git forges. Neither SourceHut nor GitHub/GitLab are fully compliant with the Org markup we use inREADME.org(we use Org because it is easy to generate the Info manual and HTML pages out of it). SourceHut will not render the file at all, while the others render it but do not parse it properly. - Made several other internal tweaks and refinements in the interest of robustness and/or clarity.
- Rewrote all relevant documentation.
The following are not part of any changes that were made during this release cycle, though they provide potentially interesting insight into the workings of the project.
- Identifiers with milliseconds
- Denote’s identifier format extends up to seconds. This is the product of years of experimentation and is, in my opinion, the best compromise between usability/readability and precision. If a user produces two notes within a fraction of a second, then yes they will have duplicate identifiers. In principle, there is no reason not to address this potential problem, provided we do not compromise on Denote’s file-naming scheme (making the identifier less readable is a compromise). We shall see what the best course of action is. Thanks to Felipe Balbi and Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the discussion thus far in issue 54 on the GitHub mirror: #54.
- Denote and evil-mode
- Users of evil-mode do not have to worry about Denote, as we do not define any key bindings. The manual includes sample configuration, which proposes some key bindings, but that is the user’s prerogative. Thanks to Saša Janiška and Alan Schmitt for their participation on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87czdxf1dz.fsf%40atmarama.ddns.net%3E.
- Denote and Citar
- Peter Prevos started developing a package that
connects Denote with Citar: https://github.com/pprevos/denote-citar.
The idea is to use notes as part of one’s bibliography. Discussions
which include sample code on how to leverage
denotefrom Lisp: - Denote and graph of connections
- Saša Janiška asked whether Denote will provide some way to visualise links between notes. The answer is negative. Denote’s scope is clearly delineated and its feature set is largely complete (notwithstanding refinements to what we already provide). Peter Prevos is experimenting with some code that uses the R language. Any such facility will have to be implemented as a separate package. I remain at the disposal of anyone who needs help with Denote’s internals. Thanks to the aforementioned fellows for their participation on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C878roleze1.fsf%40atmarama.ddns.net%3E.
- Denote’s scalability
- There was a discussion whether Denote will work well with very large sets of files. The short answer is that it will work the same way Emacs and/or standard Unix tools do: good enough! If there are improvements to be made, which do not jeopardise the principles of the project, we shall implement them without hesitation. Thanks to Saša Janiška and Peter Prevos for their participation on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C87sfmtf7im.fsf%40atmarama.ddns.net%3E.
- Denote’s minimum requirement of Emacs 27.2
- We cannot depend on
Emacs 27.1 due to this message from the byte compiler:
You should depend on (emacs "27.2") or the (org "9.3") package if you need `org-link-open-as-file'.Depending on Org is not an option because Denote optionally works without Org, so Emacs 27.2 is what we have to opt for. If your operating system does not provide this version in package format, please petition its maintainers/providers to do so. Thanks to Alexander for asking about it on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C9ec818e6a7979efbb2f8b1f5a497665b%40purelymail.com%3E.
Finally, a mildly interesting piece of trivia: we have exceeded 600 commits since the first day of the project’s Git history on 2022-06-04 (the actual history is much longer). That averages to more than 10 per day! I think things will slow down eventually.
- Fixed how references are analysed to produce the backlinks’ buffer.
This should resolve the issue that some users faced where the
backlinks would not be produced.
The previous implementation would not yield the appropriate results if (i) the value of the user option
denote-directorywas a “project” per the built-in project.el and (ii) the link to the given entry was from a subdirectory. In short, the references were sometimes returned as relative file paths, whereas they should always be absolute. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the feedback in issue 42 over at the GitHub mirror: #42.[ Jean-Philippe has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation. It is a prerequisite for contributing to core Emacs and/or any package distributed via the official GNU ELPA. ]
- Addressed a regression in the function
denote-directory(this is the function that normalises the variable of the same name) which prevented it from returning an expanded file path. This too contributed to problems with the backlinking facility. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution in pull request 44 over at the GitHub mirror: #44.Also thanks to user pRot0ta1p for the relevant feedback in issue 43 (also on the mirror): #43. More thanks to Alfredo Borrás, Benjamin Kästner, and Sven Seebeck for their comments in a related thread on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3CCA73E705-1194-4324-9962-70708C4C72E5%40zoho.eu%3E. These discussions showed we had a problem, which we managed to identify.
- Introduced the user option
denote-prompts(read its doc string or the relevant entry in the manual). It governs how the standarddenotecommand for creating new notes will behave in interactive usage. By default,denoteprompts for a title and keywords. Withdenote-prompts, the command can also ask for a file type (perdenote-file-type), subdirectory of thedenote-directory, and a specific date+time. Prompts occur in the order they are specified. Furthermore, thedenote-promptscan be set to values which do not include the title and keywords. This means that the resulting file names can be any of those permutations:DATE.EXT DATE--TITLE.EXT DATE__KEYWORDS.EXTRecall that Denote’s standard file-naming scheme is defined as follows (read the manual for the details):
DATE--TITLE__KEYWORDS.EXTFor our purposes, Denote will work perfectly fine for linking and backlinking, even if file names do not include the
TITLEandKEYWORDSfields. However, the user is advised to consider the implications on usability: notes without a descriptive title and/or useful keywords may be hard to filter and practically impossible to manage at scale. File names without such information should at least be added to subdirectories which themselves have a descriptive name.At any rate, Denote does not have strong opinions about one’s workflow. The standard file name is the culmination of years of experience.
Consider the
denote-promptsthe affirmative answer to the question “Can keywords be optional?” as posed by Jack Baty on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C8D392BC3-980A-4E5B-9480-D6A00BE8279F%40baty.net%3E.Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the original contribution in commit 9b981a2. It was originally part of a pull request, but due to some internal changes I had to merge it as a patch and technically the web UI did not count the PR as “merged” (though it was in terms of substance).
- Refactored the
denotecommand to (i) accommodate the new user optiondenote-promptsvia its interactive specification and (ii) be more flexible when called from Lisp. The latter scenario is for advanced users or, generally, those who can maintain some custom code in their configuration. A case in point is one of the examples we show in the manual for a programmatic way to create notes that automatically get thejournaltag:(defun my-denote-journal () "Create an entry tagged 'journal', while prompting for a title." (interactive) (denote (denote--title-prompt) '("journal")))
Notice that the
'("journal")is a list of strings even for a single keyword. Whereas before a single one was a plain string. This is a breaking change.Please consult the doc string of the
denotecommand for the technicalities. - Refashioned the interactive convenience functions of
denote-type,denote-date,denote-subdirectoryto leverage thedenote-promptsuser option while callingdenoteinteractively. In practical terms, they no longer accept any arguments when called from Lisp. Users who need a programmatic approach are advised to either calldenotedirectly, or check how these commandsletbind thedenote-promptsto carry out their operations. The doc string of each command explains how it works. Or evaluate this to check the manual:(info "(denote) Convenience commands for note creation")
Else visit: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:887bdced-9686-4e80-906f-789e407f2e8f
- Documented how the user option
denote-directorycan accept a local value. This is pertinent to scenaria where the user needs to maintain separate directories of notes. By “separate” we mean sets of notes that do not communicate with each other, cannot create links between them, etc. The manual delves into the technicalities. If you have the Info entry installed, evaluate:(info "(denote) Maintain separate directories for notes")
Else visit: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:15719799-a5ff-4e9a-9f10-4ca03ef8f6c5.
Thanks to user “Summer Emacs” for starting the discussion on the mailing list, and Benjamin Kästner for their participation: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%[email protected]%3E.
- Added an entry to the manual’s Frequently Asked Questions about a failed search for backlinks. It includes sample code that users of Windows can apply, if necessary. (The error is not Denote’s fault.) Thanks to Benjamin Kästner for the patch, which is below the ~15 line threshold and thus does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cce117b14-55cf-622e-6cd8-0af698091ae3%40gmail.com%3E.
- Removed duplicate entries from the list of file paths that the
xreflibrary returns for the purposes of backlinking. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution in pull request 44 on the GitHub mirror: #44. - Applied an appropriate face to the backlinks’ button to mitigate an error. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the contribution in pull request 45 on the GitHub mirror and for later testing a subsequent tweak: #45.
- Simplfied all the faces we define to make them work with all themes.
The previous colours were consistent with the
modus-themes: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/modus-themes. - Refined how strings are sluggified under all circumstances. Before, a
nil value for the user option
denote-allow-multi-word-keywordswould have the adverse effect of joining all the strings in the title field of the file name. The intent always was to do that only for multi-word keywords, not the title. This change was part of a hotfix, formalised as version0.2.1a day after the release of0.2.0. - Made the fontification rules more robust, while avoiding any false positives. This was done over a series of commits as it had implications for the file name permutations that were mentioned earlier. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the patches and/or discussion about the merits of each change and concomitant considerations:
- Rewrote all relevant entries in the manual to reflect all the user-facing aspects of the aforementioned.
- Discussed a use-case of rewriting old journal entries as Denote-style
files. As of this writing, we do not support migration of files in
bulk. It might happen at some point, though it is no mean task.
Thanks to Summer Emacs and Alan Schmitt for their participation:
https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3Cm27d4mbktj.fsf%40gmail.com%3E.
An aside here as this topic was brought up: my packages are open to users of all skill levels and is why I maintain a mailing list as well as mirrors of the official git repository on SourceHut. Do not hesitate to ask a question. If, for whatever reason, those communication channels are not appropriate, you are welcome to contact me in private: https://protesilaos.com/contact.
Thanks again to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the numerous contributions. Please read the commit log for the minutia, as this change log entry omitted some of the finer yet important details.
- Version
0.1.0(from 2022-06-27) was never built as a package. The reason is that the GNU ELPA machinery reads theVersion:header of the main file, not the git tag. As the original commit indenote.elincludedVersion: 0.1.0, GNU ELPA rightly tries to build the package using that reference. But because at that time I had not yet updated the Copyright header to name the Free Software Foundation, the package could not be prepared. As such, please consider this release to be the “first formal stable version”. My apologies for the delay, contrary to what was promised in the last change log entry.- Prospective users are advised to read the manual: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote. For a video demonstration: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-06-18-denote-demo/.
- Thanks to Benjamin Kästner for reporting the issue with the GNU ELPA package on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%[email protected]%3E.
- Originally, Denote was designed to only work with notes in a flat
directory. With code contributions from Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay,
support for subdirectories of the user option
denote-directoryis now available. This covers the case of creating links between notes, following them, and viewing the backlinks’ buffer of the current entry.- Thanks to Jean-Philippe for the contributions which took place on the GitHub mirror:
- Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay has assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation. This is a prerequisite to contribute code to any package on the official GNU ELPA archive (and to emacs.git for that matter).
- The new
denote-subdirectorycommand lets the user select a directory to place the new note in. Available candidates are the value of thedenote-directoryas well as all of its subdirectories, minus.git. In future versions, we will consider how to provide a blocklist or a regexp filter for the user to specify which subdirectories should be omitted from minibuffer completion. Please consider providing your feedback on the technicalities.- Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay and Shreyas Ragavan for the feedback in issue 31 on the GitHub mirror: #31.
- Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for fixing a potential problem in how directories are represented when commands enter the directory instead of selecting it (again, at the GitHub mirror): #35.
- From 2022-06-24 to 2022-07-03, Denote provided support for links
between Org notes that leveraged the
id:hyperlink type. Discussions on the mailing list and the GitHub mirror revealed the longer-term problems in our implementation. In the Annex below, I provide my detailed opinion on the matter. The gist is that Denote does not—and will not—createid:links between its notes, but shall use thedenote:hyperlink type instead (which works like the standardfile:type). As the Annex explains, Denote is not org-roam lite and we try not to engender such false expectations. - The user option
denote-date-formatcontrols how the date and time is recorded in the file’s contents (what we call “front matter”). When nil (the default value), we use a file-type-specific format (also check the user optiondenote-file-type):- For Org, an inactive timestamp is used, such as
[2022-06-30 Wed 15:31]. - For Markdown, the RFC3339 standard is applied:
2022-06-30T15:48:00+03:00. - For plain text, the format is that of ISO 8601:
2022-06-30.
If the value is a string, ignore the above and use it instead. The string must include format specifiers for the date. These are described in the doc string of
format-time-string.The
denote-date-formatsupersedes the now obsoletedenote-front-matter-date-format.Thanks to Peter Prevos and Kaushal Modi for their feedback in issue 27 on the GitHub mirror: #27.
- For Org, an inactive timestamp is used, such as
- All the faces we define are now declared in the
denote-faces.elfile. The fontification rules are shared bydenote-dired-modeand the backlinks’ buffer (invoked bydenote-link-backlinksand controlled by the user optiondenote-link-fontify-backlinks). The current list of faces:denote-faces-datedenote-faces-delimiterdenote-faces-extensiondenote-faces-keywordsdenote-faces-subdirectorydenote-faces-timedenote-faces-title
- Named the mailing list address as the
Maintainer:of Denote. Together with the other package headers, they help the user find our primary sources and/or communication channels. This change conforms with work being done upstream in package.el by Philip Kaludercic. I was informed about it here: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/general-issues/%3C875ykl84yi.fsf%40posteo.net%3E. - Fixed how keywords are inferred and combined. The previous code did not
work properly when the user option
denote-infer-keywordswas nil. It would return a list of symbols, with the parentheses, whereas the file name needs a string where each keyword is delimited by an underscore. - Simplified how information in the front matter is retrieved. It fixes cases where, for example, a special character at the end of the title was ignored. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for the patch over at the GitHub mirror: #21.
- Rewrote parts of the manual in the interest of clarity.
My thanks for their participation in the discussions go to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay, Kaushal Modi, and Shreyas Ragavan.
commit f35ef05cb451f265213c3aafc1e62c425b1ff043 Author: Protesilaos Stavrou <[email protected]> Date: Sun Jul 3 17:34:38 2022 +0300 REMOVE support for 'id:' hyperlink types The original idea was to support the 'org-id' library on the premise that it makes Denote a good Emacs citizen. However, discussions on the mailing list[0] and the GitHub mirror[1] have made it clear to me that 'org-id' is not consistent with Denote's emphasis on simplicity. To support the way 'org-id' works, we will eventually have to develop some caching mechanism, just how the org-roam package does it. This is because the variable 'org-id-extra-files' needs to be kept up-to-date whenever an operation on a file is performed. At scale, this sort of monitoring requires specialised software. Such a mechanism is outside the scope of Denote---if you need a db, use org-roam which is already great. [0] <https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote/%3C8735fk4y1w.fsf%40hallac.net%3E#%[email protected]%3E> [1] <https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/issues/29> Quote of what I wrote on the GitHub mirror issue 29: [ggjp] This is what I was implying. That we are, in fact, providing an option that is not viable long-term, but keeping the option for expert users who will be able to handle this. And we should warn about this clearly in the doc of that option. [protesilaos] What you write here @ggjp and what @shrysr explained tells me that those expert users will need to be real experts. To put it concretely, I am an experienced Emacs user with no programming background, who has written several Emacs packages (including the modus-themes which are built into Emacs), but I have zero knowledge of using a db or of handling things with python and the like. So if I opt in to 'denote-link-use-org-id' I will eventually run into problems that my non-existent skills will prevent me from solving. At that point, I will just use org-roam which already handles this use-case in a competent way (and has a massive community to rely on in case I need further support). If each package needs to write its own optimisations and maintain its own cache, to me this shows that 'org-id' is not good enough for the time being: more work needs to be done in org.git to provide a universal solution. I wanted to support 'org-id' by default on the premise that Denote must be a good Emacs citizen which interoperates with the rest of the wider ecosystem. But if 'org-id' leaves something to be desired, then that goal is not worth pursuing: we add complexity to our code, offer an option that we cannot genuinely/adequately support, and make usage of it contingent on reading the docs and having a high level of expertise. I think being a good Emacs citizen is a laudable principle. In this case, the right thing to do is to recommend the use of org-roam instead of trying to accommodate 'org-id'. As such, I have now changed my mind and think we should remove what we previously added. For some context here: the reason I never used org-roam is because (i) it is Org-specific whereas I write notes in different file types and (ii) I did not want to ever rely on a db or equivalent dependency. <https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/issues/29#issuecomment-1173036924> README.org | 226 ++++++++--------------------------------------------- denote-link.el | 99 ++++++----------------- denote-retrieve.el | 2 +- denote.el | 14 +--- 4 files changed, 63 insertions(+), 278 deletions(-)
Followed up by my explanation:
> can we not have denote style links to be default for (de)notes - and
> explicitly supported, while if they need to, users can still link
> denote org files via org-id to any other notes/files (and vice versa)
> -- in which case performance + testing for org-id driven linking is
> not within Denote's purview at all?
The formal support for `id:` links was added shortly before the release
of version `0.1.0`. In the days prior, we supported what you describe
via the manual. The user could change the `denote-org-front-matter`
variable to include a `PROPERTIES` drawer. This possibility still
exists, though yesterday I removed the relevant entry from the manual.
This way only the real do-it-yourself experts will go down that path.
My concern here is with managing expectations. If our Org notes are
superficially the same as org-roam's, an unsuspecting user may think
that Denote is an org-roam lite. We will thus get issues/requests, such
as those already mentioned in this GitHub repo, about migrating from
org-roam to Denote. While there are similarities, Denote is not a
minimalist org-roam and I would not like to encourage the idea of
treating the two as interchangeable.
Doing things half-way-through is a way to create false expectations. A
package on GNU ELPA must be usable by users of all skill levels. If the
functionality we provide is incomplete and needs to be covered by
user-level tweaks, we are excluding a portion of the user base while
still assuming the maintenance burden. If someone trusts Denote to,
say, write a 1000 notes, we do not want to surprise them after the fact.
Imagine if the reported issues that triggered this change happened 6
months into one's daily usage of Denote: it wouldn't be nice.
Setting the right expectations is a matter of responsibility: we let the
user make a more informed choice and show respect for their time. It
also makes it easier for me to keep Denote's scope in check by not
supporting every little extra that Org implements. The premier Org
extension is org-roam: we do not need another one (or, if we do, I am
not the one to implement it).
* * *
Some comments on the `denote:` hyperlink type for Org as they may be
relevant in this context:
* It is meant to work like the standard `file:` type. This means that
it links to a file, while it can also have additional search
parameters, as explained in the Org manual. Evaluate:
(info "(org) Search Options")
* It does not read the front matter, but only the file name. You can
create a note as usual, delete all its contents, save it, and try to
link to it from another note. It works.
* Exporting now works like the `file:` type for HTML, LaTeX, Texinfo,
and Markdown. Technically, it also supports the ASCII backend but the
format of the output could be tweaked further.
There may be refinements to be made, which is okay as that is part of a
maintainer's duties.
The present entry is intended for early adopters of Denote who may have not caught up with the latest developments. Prospective users are advised to read the manual: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote. For a video demonstration: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-06-18-denote-demo/.
- The
denotepackage on GNU ELPA will be available a few hours after this release. GNU ELPA provides the latest stable release. To use a development snapshot, read: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-05-13-emacs-elpa-devel/. - Remember that any significant contribution (above ~15 lines) requires copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation. A form with instructions is included in the manual’s “Contributing” section: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote#h:1ebe4865-c001-4747-a6f2-0fe45aad71cd.
- The front matter of notes in Org has changed to be compliant with the
standard
org-idinfrastructure. APROPERTIESdrawer is added to the top of the file, which includes anIDproperty with the value of the Denote identifier. Sample::PROPERTIES: :ID: 20220610T202537 :END: #+title: Sample Org front matter #+date: 2022-06-10 #+filetags: denote testing - The front matter of Markdown (YAML or TOML) and plain text files
remains constant. For completeness, this is how they look:
--- title: "Sample with Markdown and YAML" date: 2022-06-10 tags: denote testing identifier: "20220610T202021" ---
+++ title = "Sample with Markdown and TOML" date = 2022-06-10 tags = ["denote", "testing"] identifier = "20220610T201510" +++
title: Sample plain text date: 2022-06-10 tags: denote testing identifier: 20220610T202232 --------------------------- - The integration with
org-idextends to how linking works. By default, Denote uses its own custom hyperlink type which starts with thedenote:prefix. In Org, it works like thefile:type. When the user optiondenote-link-use-org-idis non-nil, links from Org notes to other Org notes will use the standardid:type instead. As this is an Org-specific feature, Denote takes care to use the major-mode-agnosticdenote:type when the link targets a non-Org note. - In Org files the links created by Denote are buttonized automatically.
For Markdown and plain text, we use our own methods. When a link is
inserted it is buttonized outright. To buttonize links in existing
notes while visiting them in a buffer, add/evaluate this (it excludes
Org on its own):
(add-hook 'find-file-hook #'denote-link-buttonize-buffer)
- The generation of the backlinks’ buffer now uses the built-in
xreflibrary instead of relying on a hardcoded call to thefindexecutable. This means that thedenote-link-backlinkscommand will, in principle, work properly with all Emacs builds. - Users of Emacs 28 or higher can configure
xref-search-programto change from the defaultgreptoripgrep,ugrep, or a user-defined alternative. - This is the first stable release of Denote. It covers close to 400 commits starting from 2022-06-04. Denote is the successor to a toy package of mine, USLS, whose first public version was made available in early November 2020: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/usls.
- Thanks to everyone involved in the development of Denote. Code contributions, bug reports, discussion of ideas, are all valuable. From A-Z the names mentioned in the manual’s “Acknowledgements” section: Colin McLear, Damien Cassou, Frank Ehmsen, Jack Baty, Kaushal Modi, Peter Povinec, Sven Seebeck, Ypot.
- Sources of Denote:
- Package name (GNU ELPA):
denote - Official manual: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote
- Change log: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote-changelog
- Git repo on SourceHut: https://git.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote
- Mirrors:
- Mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/denote
- Package name (GNU ELPA):