np

A very simple notepad for unix users.

np - a very simple notepad for unix users
Usage:
  edit,     e :  opens today's notepad
  publish,  p :  publishes entire series as pdf
  list,    ls :  lists all notepads
  config,  rc :  print your config

Installation

A Makefile is provided.

make install

Manually copying np to ~/.local/bin/np also works. This is the preferred option for installing np for the current user only.

Configuration

Notepad Directory

By default, it creates and uses a directory in ~ called .notepad. To change this, add this to your .profile or your .bashrc or .zshrc:

export NP_NOTEPAD_LOCATION=$HOME/.notepad/;

Other Configurations

The following configurations are available:

# The name that appears on the front of the document.
export NP_AUTHOR_NAME="Your Name Here";

# The title of the generated notepad.
export NP_NOTEPAD_NAME="Notepad";

Workflow

Configuring in this way allows for notepads to made for other directories. In the directory for which you want to make a notepad, create a shell script to run with the following:

export NP_NOTEPAD_LOCATION=$PWD;
export NP_AUTHOR_NAME="Your Name Here";
export NP_NOTEPAD_NAME="Project Notepad For $PWD";

Run this script, and np will use a notepad with these settings. You will need to run this helper script every time you open a new shell in this directory, and once you have left the project directory you will have to source your original configurations, either by running source ~/.profile or by simply closing and opening the shell again.

It is also possible to have a drafts folder. Just add things to $NP_NOTEPAD_LOCATION_HOME/drafts.

Dependencies

This uses vanilla POSIX sh, so it should work on most platforms. The only dependency is on pandoc, and even then that is optional. Pandoc support for PDF requires TeXLive, which is in most Linux distribution repositories.