So I have been extolling the benefits of journalling to a few friends over the past few months - how it is a way to reflect a bit more deeply on your thoughts, figure out what excites you, interests you or just plain scares you. It is a great way to shut up, shut the outside world and enjoy some solitude!

Since I have been preaching all this, I figured it might be a good idea to start practising what I preach. Armed with nothing more than good intentions and goodwill towards all mankind, I set out to see how I might get some writing done. Without further ado, the requirements:

  1. Has to be quick (like the Flash).
  2. Has to be secure (don’t want the CIA to read my rants).
  3. Should not have connectivity hassles (storm blew out the internet? No Problem!).
  4. Has to look sufficiently geeky (so I can tell the wife I’m “working” and skip household chores).
  5. Has to be FREE!

There are quite a few web-based and desktop-based options out there but none of them met all my needs. So I decided to build my own. The wheel, you say? You mean that round thing isn’t my original invention? I had about an hour before I had to feed the cats, so I set that as a target - a journalling system in less than an hour. Possible? Ha!

Here’s the first attempt, using just vim and zsh.

Basic Setup

# Create a folder and write a simple script to open a file.
$> mkdir /Journal && cd /Journal && touch writer.sh && chmod u+rwx writer.sh`

# Here's `writer.sh`
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#!/bin/bash

# create a folder with today's date if it does not exist
folder=`date +%Y_%m_%d`
mkdir -p $folder
cd $folder

# start vim in insert mode + create file for today's journal.
vi +star `date +%Y%m%d`".jrnl"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

# Write an alias into your zshrc or bash_profile so you can get to it from anywhere.
alias journal="cd /Journal;./writer.sh"

That’s the basic setup all done - in about 10 mins. Time to get a wee bit fancy!!!

Playing around to make vim journal-friendly

Here’s some of the additions to my ~/.vimrc file, for elegant text-editing… FYI, I use Vundle as my vim plugin manager.

# Note: comments in .vimrc start with a " and not a # - this is just for easier markdown.

# Enable spell check and also toggle it.
set spell spelllang=en_gb
cmap <F6> setlocal spell!


# Setup a simple statusline - the focus is on less clutter and just the info I need.
function! WordCount()
   let s:old_status = v:statusmsg
   let position = getpos(".")
   exe ":silent normal g\<c-g>"
   let stat = v:statusmsg
   let s:word_count = 0
   if stat != '--No lines in buffer--'
     let s:word_count = str2nr(split(v:statusmsg)[11])
     let v:statusmsg = s:old_status
   end
   call setpos('.', position)
   return s:word_count
endfunction

hi User1 ctermbg=black ctermfg=red cterm=BOLD guibg=black guifg=red gui=BOLD
set laststatus=2
set statusline=
set statusline+=%1*                             # use the highlight specified above.
set statusline+=%<\                             # cut at start
set statusline+=%-40t\                          # path
set statusline+=%=                              # left/right separator
set statusline+=%10([%l,%c]%)\                  # line and column
set statusline+=(wc:%{WordCount()})             # word count

# Some journalling options
# Every time you open a journal file (create/edit), append the timestamp
autocmd VimEnter *.jrnl $pu=strftime('%n[%a, %d %b %Y %T %z]%n%n')
# Set line number
autocmd VimEnter *.jrnl setl number
# Indicate column 120 - just to get a visual indication of an end margin.
autocmd VimEnter *.jrnl set colorcolumn=120
# Indicate the current line.
autocmd VimEnter *.jrnl set cursorline

That’s all folks!

This is what it finally looks like! Simple and easy to use. This is what it looks like

References