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 2.2.0

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.

The present version covers four broad themes:

  1. Denote rename commands are more user-friendly and featureful.
  2. An optional sorting facility makes it possible to produce a filtered and sorted Dired buffer with Denote files.
  3. The optional Denote Org dynamic blocks have received a lot of attention.
  4. 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 rename commands can remove a Denote file name component

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 file-to-be-renamed is easier to read in the minibuffer

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-name
  • denote-faces-prompt-new-name
  • denote-faces-prompt-current-name

These faces inherit the attributes of basic faces, so they should look decent without further tweaks across all themes.

Prompts for title, keywords, and signature accept an empty string

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-RET at the title prompt to input an empty string.
  • Now type M-RET at the keywords prompt for another empty string.

The resulting file name is something like 20231209T110950.org.

Dired with sorting and filtering

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. ]

Combine contents of files with an Org dynamic block

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.

Sort parameters are used in all Denote Org dynamic blocks

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.

The :missing-only parameter is removed from Org dynamic blocks

I am removing it because the underlying functionality of denote-add-missing-links was not always reliable.

Files with signature are linked appropriately in Org dynamic blocks

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.

Fontification in Dired can now extend to subdirectories

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: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/pull/191. Subsequent refinements by me.

Signatures are sluggified as intended

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. ]

For developers

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-files function gains new functionality that subsumes that of the now-deprecated functions denote-directory-files-matching-regexp, denote-all-files, denote-directory-text-only-files. Thanks to Jean-Philippe GagnĂ© Guay for the contribution, which was done in pull request 195 on the GitHub mirror: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/pull/195.

  • The font-lock keywords we define are consolidated into a single variable: denote-faces-file-name-keywords instead of being split into two variables. This means that we cover all our fontification needs in the backlinks buffer as well as the denote-dired-mode with this one point of entry. It also works for denote-sort-dired, which can include files with their subdirectory component in the same flat listing.

  • Use the function denote-retrieve-filename-keywords to extract keywords from the file name alone, without going into the file contents.

  • The denote-retrieve-filename-title function now returns an empty string if no title is present. Its behaviour is thus consistent with denote-retrieve-filename-keywords and denote-retrieve-filename-signature.

  • The denote-retrieve-filename-title will now use the file-name-base function 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-prompt and denote-title-prompt functions accept an optional DEFAULT-SIGNATURE or DEFAULT-TITLE argument. Internally, this is used as the INITIAL-INPUT of completing-read instead of the DEF argument. This matters because we want the prompt to return an empty string if there is no input, whereas the presence of DEF means that DEF is 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-prompt function. When called from Lisp, it takes a REGEXP argument as well as an optional PROMPT-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.

Miscellaneous

  • 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 calls execute-extended-command-for-buffer by 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 GagnĂ© Guay for the contribution. It was done in pull request 193 on the GitHub mirror: https://github.com/protesilaos/denote/pull/193.

  • Improved the doc string of the denote-format-file-name function. 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).

Git commits

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 Hörmann

Policy for the next development cycle

I 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.

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