Introducing tmr.el for Emacs

2021-10-02

Just created a standalone Git repository for my tmr.el library: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/tmr.el.

This has been part of my dotemacs for several months now and I thought it was right to turn it into its own package. No ELPA package is planned for the foreseeable future.

Excerpt from its documentation:

This package provides a single command for setting a timer: tmr.

The command prompts for a unit of time, which is represented as a string that consists of a number and, optionally, a single character suffix which specifies the unit of time.

Valid formats:

Input	Meaning
5	5 minutes
5m	5 minutes
5s	5 seconds
5h	5 hours

If tmr is called with an optional prefix argument (C-u), it also asks for a description which accompanies the given timer. Preconfigured candidates are specified in the user option tmr-descriptions-list, though any arbitrary input is acceptable at the minibuffer prompt.

When the timer is set, a message is sent to the echo area recording the current time and the point in the future when the timer elapses. Echo area messages can be reviewed with the view-echo-area-messages which is bound to C-h e by default.

Once the timer runs its course, it produces a desktop notification and plays an alarm sound. The notification’s message is practically the same as that which is sent to the echo area. The sound file for the alarm is defined in tmr-sound-file, while the urgency of the notification can be set through the tmr-notification-urgency option.

The tmr-cancel command cancels the last tmr. Note that for the time being it has no notion of multiple timers—just the last one.

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As with every piece of Elisp I produce for my private needs, this is all done for recreational and/or educational purposes. Though I believe tmr.el can be used by others as well, provided they are willing to install it manually.

The initial release notwithstanding, there are a couple of user-facing improvements to be made:

1. Make the tmr-cancel command prompt with completion for a timer object when more than one is present.
2. Create a tmr-list command which lists all tmr objects (yes, I know about list-timers, but I want something more specific).