content/articles/redbook-050-released.textile
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----- permalink: redbook-050-released title: "Announcement: RedBook v0.5.0 released" tags: - opensource productivity redbook ruby type: article filter_pre: textile ----- This new beta release of RedBook introduces quite a few changes when it comes to configuration and setup. Here's some highlights...h3. Regexp changes It is now necessary to enter "proper" regular expressions for @:select@. Proper means between slashes, like the following: * /Work Day/ * /mail/i I changed this in order to support case-insensitive searches using the @i@ switch. This makes queries much more powerful. h3. Variables A new, interesting feature I decided to introduce in this release is _variables_. For now you define them inside your rbconfig.yml file, like this: <typo:code> :var_monday_morning: "monday at 8 am" :var_friday_evening: "friday at 8 pm" :var_week_report: ":select :duration :from :%monday_morning :to :%friday_evening" </typo:code> In this way, every time you type in :%week_report in RedBook, it will expand to: @:select :duration :from monday at 8 am :to friday at 8 pm@. By the way, completion is supported, so you'll only have to type in something like @:%we@ and hit <tab>. It is possible to define variables as @:var_<something>@ in the rbconfig.yml file and then used them inside RedBook as @:%<something>@. h3. New Operations Five new operations have been added: h4. :blank This will blank your current log after asking you if you really want to do so. h4. :restore This operation will overwrite your current log with the last saved backup. Like with the @:blank@ operation, you're asked if you really want to proceed or not. h4. :archive By typing @:archive@, the current log file will be archived to your @:archives_folder:@ directory specified in the rbconfig.yml file (similarly, it is now possible to specify a :backups_folder: for your logs' backup files). h4. :dataset A simple operation to display the messages inthe current dataset. h4. :dump This operation will dump the output of the last @:select@ operation to a text file. Useful for saving the average, total time and duration of a set of activities. h3. Portable edition Some Windows users will definitely love this. I finally found an easy way to run RedBook confined within the current directory, by using a simple @start.bat@ batch file to set the %INPUTRC% and %HOME% variables temporarily to the path to the .inputrc file and the directory of RedBook executable. This makes RedBook 100% portable and suitable to be used on USB sticks &similar. p=. *"Get RedBook Portable":http://redbook.googlecode.com/files/RedBook-0.5_Win32-portable.zip* h3. New Development Page I decided to move the primary RedBook repository from "Assembla":http://www.assembla.org to Google Code. Why? Well, nothing wrong with Assembla per se, I still think it's an excellent free service to host your public _and private_ projects, but Google Code is faster and offers only the features I need: * Public SVN repository access * Simple-to-use issue tracker * Very nicely developed downloads section, with download counts, and "normal" filenames. So here's the new RedBook Development Home: p=. *"http://code.google.com/p/redbook/":http://code.google.com/p/redbook/* Additionally I also setup a "RedBook Support Google Group":http://groups.google.com/group/redbook-support/, so if you have any question concerning the program, you know where to go! |