dfs@doe.carleton.ca (David F. Skoll) (11/09/90)
Several people have written to me stating that they would like REMIND
to support a "time" field so that reminders can be popped up onto the
user's console or in an X window just prior to important meetings, etc.
In fact, REMIND can already do this by virtue of the RUN command. With a
little ingenuity, we can get pop-up reminders and pop-up X windows. The
following file explains how:
---------------------------------
If you wish to be reminded of meetings at specific times, you
can use remind in conjunction with "at" to achieve timed reminders.
These are reminders which appear on your console at certain times.
To start out, you should create a file of timed reminders separate
from your normal reminders. This file should be run every time you log in
with the command:
remind timed.reminders.file > /dev/null
Note that you discard the output from remind; keep reading to see how the
timed reminders appear.
If you want the timed reminders to suddenly appear on your console,
use a line like the following:
REM ONCE 1 Nov RUN echo "echo ^GMeet in 15 minutes! >/dev/console" | at 10:15
If you have a meeting at 10:30 on November 1st, this reminder will beep
(because of the ^G) and print the reminder to your console 15 minutes
before the meeting. Note that the ONCE keyword is imperative; you don't
want a whole lot of duplicated "at" jobs created every time you log in.
If you want the timed reminders to be mailed to you, simply omit the
>/dev/console redirection; this causes the output of the "echo" command
to be mailed to you at the specified time.
If you want the timed reminders popped up in an X window, the line is a bit
more complicated. The following line will pop up the meeting reminder in
an X window using vi.
REM ONCE 1 Nov RUN echo "echo Meet in 15 minutes! >/tmp/rem.$$; xterm -e vi /tmp/rem.$$" | at 10:15
Be sure to put this all on one line! You can add X geometry options to
automatically position the window as it pops up so it really gets your
attention.
Don't use deltas with timed reminders; otherwise, they will be popped up
each time the reminder is triggered. Usually, you only want them to appear
on the actual day of the reminder, not several days in advance.
--
David F. Skoll