Protesilaos Stavrou

🏆 I provide private lessons on Emacs, Linux, and Life in general: https://protesilaos.com/coach/. Lessons continue throughout the year.

Emacs: Denote version 2.1.0

Denote aims to be a simple-to-use, focused-in-scope, and effective note-taking and file-naming tool for Emacs.

Denote is based on the idea that files should follow a predictable and descriptive file-naming scheme. The file name must offer a clear indication of what the contents are about, without reference to any other metadata. Denote basically streamlines the creation of such files or file names while providing facilities to link between them (where those files are editable).

Denote’s file-naming scheme is not limited to “notes”. It can be used for all types of file, including those that are not editable in Emacs, such as videos. Naming files in a constistent way makes their filtering and retrieval considerably easier. Denote provides relevant facilities to rename files, regardless of file type.

Below are the release notes.

Version 2.1.0 on 2023-11-12

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. ]

Deprecated the denote-allow-multi-word-keywords

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.

Control the letter casing of file name components

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 denote-dired-mode should now work while toggling wdired

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.

The “do or create” commands are more intuitive to use

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:

New “… or create with command” features for more flexibility

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.

The title and signature prompts use minibuffer completion

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#%3C65392fa6.050a0220.da61c.0ac8@mx.google.com%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.

Create a note with the region’s contents

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.

Comprehensive refinements to the denote-rename-buffer-mode

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:

The denote-rename-buffer-format option

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")

The manual or doc string of denote-rename-buffer-format cover the technicalities of the available format specifiers.

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).

Thanks to Jean-Philippe Gagné Guay for intermediately refining parts of the code. This was done in pull request 177 on the GitHub mirror: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/pull/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.

The denote-rename-buffer-mode also works with unsaved buffers

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 renaming facilities are better than ever

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:

Rename like an expert with denote-rename-no-confirm

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).

The denote-rename-file command prompts for a signature

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.

Rename mutliple files sequentially with denote-dired-rename-files

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.

The name of denote-dired-rename-marked-files has changed

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.

The denote-rename-file-using-front-matter can be used without saving its buffer

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.

The name of denote-change-file-type has changed

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).

Renaming a file returns the new file path for programmatic use

Thanks to mentalisttraceur for requesting this feature in issue 183 on the GitHub mirror: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/issues/183.

Link to a file with a signature

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: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/issues/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.

Renaming GPG or Age encrypted file works as expected

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 Ă–stlund 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: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/issues/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 optional denote-journal-extras

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#%3C20230803170935.60833-2-ved.manerikar@gmail.com%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: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/pull/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: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/issues/176.

The optional denote-silo-extras

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.

The infrastructure for unique identifiers is more robust

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: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/pull/159. Same idea in pull request 187: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/pull/187.

For developers or advanced users

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.

Check out the denote-explore package by Peter Prevos

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:

  1. Summary statistics: Count and visualise keywords and note types
  2. Random walks: Generate new ideas using serendipity
  3. 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:)

Miscellaneous

  • 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 a project.el mechanism that did not allow us to do everything we needed. I have thus arranged for it to use the standard completing-read mechanism. 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 commit 50d1bbdf1e8ffe0f449f2f5da02f9b70322fff7d.

  • All commands that use the denote function internally (i.e. anything that creates a new note) call the denote-after-new-note-hook as 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-mode submenu 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-mode entry of Denote includes the new commands. This is a nice way to discover more of what Denote can do.

  • The commands denote-backlinks-prev and denote-backlinks-next are 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 from M-x altogether).

  • The denote-extract-keywords-from-front-matter always 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 T in the Denote identifier component now has its own face: denote-faces-time-delimiter. This is used by the backlinks buffer and the denote-dired-mode. The idea is to introduce a subtle distinction between the date and time constituents of the identifier. Those who want the T to be the same colour as the rest of the identifier, can make the denote-faces-time-delimiter inherit the denote-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 nil file expansion in the function denote--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: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/issues/166.

  • A link can be created from inside an org-capture buffer. This means that we can call denote-link (and related) while capturing a new note with org-capture. Thanks to Peter Smith for reporting the bug in issue 186 on the GitHub mirror: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/issues/186.

  • We stopped using vc-rename-file to 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 FrĂ©dĂ©ric Willem for reporting the problem in issue 185 on the GitHub mirror: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/issues/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: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/pull/162.

Git commits

Just an overview of what we did. Every contribution matters.

~/Git/Projects/denote $ git shortlog 2.0.0..HEAD --summary --numbered
   152	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
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