An idea for a screenlet...

vxc69 · 06-16-2007, 05:09 PM

Hello fellow LQers.

Do any of you guys know some sort of calendar program that tells you of special days like father's day...valentines etc..

Even if there is one, I think a screenlet that does this job would be ideal.

I'll look into the process of creating a screenlet and build it if I think I can.

vxc

taylor_venable · 06-16-2007, 10:27 PM

Emacs does (M-x calendar -- then push "a"), but I think a screenlet would be a great idea anyway.

Best regards.

vxc69 · 06-17-2007, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taylor_venable

Emacs does (M-x calendar -- then push "a"), but I think a screenlet would be a great idea anyway.

Best regards.

Thanks taylor_venable. I can now at least squeeze out the "special" day info from emacs calendar.

Screenlets are made using python, so I'll suck data from an xml file containing the info, seems like the simplest way.

It'll also need an options interface that allows users to add their own "special" days.

I could also maybe get some help from the OSS community to localize the "special" days.

taylor_venable, thanks again.

vxc

St.Jimmy · 06-17-2007, 03:13 AM

Don't forget sysadmin day!

vxc69 · 06-17-2007, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by St.Jimmy

Don't forget sysadmin day!

LOL, now I won't.

taylor_venable · 06-17-2007, 11:02 AM

One tricky thing is going to be figuring out how to represent non-date-fixed holidays like "the fourth Thursday in November" in the file format. It may be instructive to take a look at the calendar.el source in Emacs to figure out how they do it.

http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/e...cs&view=markup

It looks like the golden functions here are "holiday-fixed" and "holiday-float" which are defined in holidays.el:

http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/e...cs&view=markup

Hangdog42 · 06-18-2007, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vxc69

I could also maybe get some help from the OSS community to localize the "special" days.

taylor_venable, thanks again.

vxc

Have you thought about using .ics as the calendar file format? That is pretty standard in the Linux and OSX worlds, and there are a ton of pre-existing calendars with holidays for a variety of countries.

Guttorm · 06-18-2007, 01:35 PM

Anyone good in perl?

Parse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ays_by_country

What you do about easter?

Jorophose · 06-18-2007, 05:32 PM

Easter is randomnly programmed each month

I'm pretty sure it follows a certain path; and it's supposed to be 40 days after ash Wensday...

Orage is a good calendar program, but it doesn't pop-up and let you know there's a holiday today, at least not in my experience with it.

What would be really cool is something that would theme your desktop environment to match the holiday. IE, pink/red/white and hearts for valentine's day, a "Hail Jorophose!" message for Victory Joro day, etc.

vxc69 · 06-19-2007, 11:07 AM

Wow I didn't even think about non fixed holidays

. There are some awesome tips on this thread. Really appreciate it guys.

Siiiiiii · 06-21-2007, 02:20 PM

Regarding Easter, the mathematician Gauss made a formula for calculating when it occurs a specific year. I think this covers it: http://www.henk-reints.nl/easter/ind...easteralg2.htm