#Taskr Simple command line utility to manage your tasks

##Usage Taskr allows you to embed all the information about the task in the task.

• Any word in a task which begins with : is considered a tag.
• The tags :weekend, :today, :tomorrow, :tray have a special meaning.
  Tasks tagged:
  • :today are highlighted in a different color in the listing and get a higher priority.
  • :tomorrow are hidden from the default listing. You can list all tasks using the -L switch.
  • :weekend are visible in the default listing only on weekends. You can list all tasks using the -L switch.
  • :tray are shown on the top and have a different background color, they have the highest priority. You can put tasks into your tray when you are working on them, or when you want to tackle a bunch of tasks.
• Tasks which have a bunch of pluses(+) get their priority increased by the number of +s. On the other hand tasks with minuses(-)s in them have lower priorities

Deleted tasks are copied into the ~/.taskr/tasks.taskr.done file with a timestamp, we can probably add something in the future which allows us to check the time spent on tasks and give more insight into the kind of tasks we work on.

##Features

• Tagging of tasks
• Recurring tasks (available in the dev branch)
• Contextual task list which changes based on the day of the week (e.g. you may have some tasks to which you want to be shown only on weekends)
• Simple and powerful configuration using ruby (available in dev branch)
• Highlighting of tasks based on deadline :today
• Simple way to prioritize tasks
• Edit your tasks in vi
• More coming soon ..

##Screenshot

##File storage Taskr stores the tasks in a plain text file in the following format:

20110913123500 setting up dotfiles :weekend :tray ++
20110928154156 use slotter/dnotify as an activator for alarms and a notifier/triggerer of events and processes from dnotify :weekend :tray +
20111122054143 add posts about redirection rewrites on different servers at redirectapp :weekend +++++
20111115130124 google adwords setup :weekend :20111211 ++
20110929083045 spool for kindle :weekend +
20111010161947 setup to take screenshots of stuff on IE7 8 9 chrome firefox :weekend +
20110915105500 chrome extension with persistent alarm :weekend 

As you can see it's just a text file with a timestamp for every task.

##Install You need ruby - 1.8.7 or 1.9.2 to use taskr. Installing taskr is pretty straightforward, run the following commands

####With git

git clone git://github.com/minhajuddin/taskr.git ~/.taskr-code
ln -s ~/.taskr-code/bin/taskr ~/bin/t
cd ~/.taskr-code/ && rake setup

####Without git

curl -Ls https://github.com/minhajuddin/taskr/tarball/master > /tmp/taskr.tar.gz
cd /tmp/
tar -xvf taskr.tar.gz
mv $(find .  -maxdepth 1 -type d | grep minhajuddin*) ~/.taskr-code
ln -s ~/.taskr-code/bin/taskr ~/bin/t
cd ~/.taskr-code/ && rake setup

##Command line help

$ bin/taskr -h
Usage: taskr [options]
  Two of the most used options are -l and -a,
  and you can use these options without the switches.

  e.g.
    $ taskr awesome task here hurray for no switches
      #adds the task to the list and is equivalent to taskr -a awes..
    $ taskr
      #lists all the tasks and is equivalent to 'taskr -l'

Options:
    -a, --add task description                Add task to the list
    -l, --list [NUM]                          List all the tasks
    -L, --list-all                            List all the tasks
    -d, --delete id1,id2,..                   Delete tasks(s)
    -s, --search REGEX                        Search all the tasks
    -e, --edit                                Open the tasks file in vi
    -t, --tag id1,id2,.. :tag1 :tag2 ..,      Tag task(s)
    -u, --untag id1,id2,.. :tag1 :tag2 ..,    Untag task(s)
    -p, --postpone id1,id2,..                 Postpone task(s) to tomorrow
    -x, --xmobar                              Text to be shown in xmobar
    -v, --version                             Display version of taskr
    -h, --help                                Display this screen

##Vim files There is a small vim syntax file the vim directory, just copy it to your ~/.vim/syntax folder and put the line below in your ~/.vimrc to get some basic syntax highlighting when you edit the tasks raw file.

au BufNewFile,BufRead *.taskr  setf taskr

##FAQ

1. Why is it not packaged as a gem?
   To make it run faster. More info here: https://gist.github.com/284823

2. Seriously, is 0.5s is gonna make a difference?
   Yes, This is not just from my experience. The perceived slowness of many apps has made me avoid them. Jeff Atwood post on it is a good read

   [Google found that] the page with 10 results took 0.4 seconds to generate. The page with 30 results took 0.9 seconds. Half a second delay caused a 20% drop in traffic. Half a second delay killed user satisfaction. In A/B tests, [Amazon] tried delaying the page in increments of 100 milliseconds and found that even very small delays would result in substantial and costly drops in revenue.

3. How fast is it?
   Very fast

   $ time t
   real    0m0.039s
   user    0m0.040s
   sys     0m0.000s

4. How is it better than Task Warrior or X?
   It is more hackable. To efficiently use it, you don't have to learn hundreds of switches. It's similar to markdown, in that, it allows you to attach info to your task in a way which makes sense. Read the usage section.

5. Give me a real reason.
   No one loves a task manager built by others, because everyone has something which they do differently. I created this to suit my workflow and needs. And because it's built in ruby and aims to be configurable, I hope it is easier to personalize.

##Todo

• allow listing of tasks from other sources
• add tab completion

##Author Created by Khaja Minhajuddin: minhajuddin (at) cosmicvent (dot) com

##Credits

• Uses colorize String extension from https://github.com/fazibear/colorize
• Timeago Time extension from: http://stackoverflow.com/a/195894/24105

##Contribute To contribute to taskr, just clone the repository, make your changes, and send me a patch or pull request.

You can even contribute by testing the new features from the dev branch. Click here to download the dev code

##Alternatives There are a few other alternatives if you don't like this:

• Task warrior, written in C++
• dooby