README

dnotes
======

    A simple directory specific notes system.

Motivation:
-----------

    Do you have too many 'project directories'?
    Well organised so that each thing you're working on or trying out is nicely sandboxed...
    but you've since been distracted and no longer know exactly where you left off?

    I do.
    
    Constantly!

    You could write ReadeMe files and leave reminders to yourself.

    Or you could use dnotes!

    dnotes extends the simple readme text file concept with features like:

        - providing a simple way to automatically display notes whenever you visit a directory
        - keeping track of which project directories you visited, in chronological order
        - provide an overview of which project directories you have and what their purpose is/was

Introduction:
-------------

    To see dnotes at work, download it and make sure it is executable and that it can find perl.
    Now simply create a .dnotes file in the current directory and then run dnotes.
    For example:

        % echo hello world > .dnotes
        % dnotes
        NOTES:
        ======
        hello world

    Very similar to 'cat' you might say, but dnotes will not complain if there
    is no file to read and also goes a step or two further.
    dnotes also records the current directory path and the first line of your
    .dnotes file, so you can get an overview of what you've got going
    on, like this:

        % dnotes ls
        Recently used directories with notes:
        =====================================
        2011-09-01 23:30  /tmp                                           hello world
        2011-09-01 23:15  /Users/steve/Development/Unix/dnotes           dnotes - directory specific notes system
        2011-08-30 23:58  /Users/steve/Development/hacker.org/one_of_us  hacker.org one-of-us challenge

    Now, if you're like me, you will constantly forget to read readme's,
    especially if they are hidden, like .dnotes files are.

    At this point, you may want to add 'dnotes prompt' to your shell's pre-prompt setting.
    Then, simply changing a .dnotes file or changing directories will 
    will automatically display the .dnotes file for you, like this:

        % cd /tmp
        NOTES:
        ======
        hello world

        I really should come up with a better 'this is a test' message
        %

    If you then delete your .dnotes file and run dnotes again the entry will
    automatically be removed from the overview:

        % rm .dnotes
        % dnotes
        <no output>
        % dnotes ls
        Recently used directories with notes:
        =====================================
        2011-09-01 23:15  /Users/steve/Development/Unix/dnotes           dnotes - directory specific notes system
        2011-08-30 23:58  /Users/steve/Development/hacker.org/one_of_us  hacker.org one-of-us challenge

    For full details, run dnotes --help

System Requirements:
--------------------

    perl 5.8 or above with the modules:
        Cwd
        DBD::SQLite
        DBI
        File::Spec
        Getopt::Long
        Net::Domain
        Pod::Usage

Author:
-------

Stephen Riehm, japh@opensauce.de

License Information:
--------------------

dnotes is Copyright (C) 2011, Stephen Riehm.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the Artistic License 2.0.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but it is
provided "as is" and without any express or implied warranties.

For details, see the full text of the license in the file LICENSE.