pkamenarsky/atea — Issue #11: Configurable Syntax
Author: msutherl
Created: 2012-02-21 19:18:19+00:00
State: open

After trying Atea, I for a moment entertained the possibility of submitting a feature request of the form "could you please support my syntax", but I quickly recalled that there are numerous todo list syntaxes, many of them popular, and infinitely more unique to individuals. Rather, the issue could be solved by allowing users to define their own syntax in the config file.

For instance, my todo list looks roughly like this, a combination of Markdown and Taskpaper syntax:

## Today

- task 1
- task 2 @done

## Week

- task 1
- task 2

## Projects

Project1:
- task1
- task2

If I could, for instance, define regexp("^\#\#\s\w") as a "comment" or "project title", I would be in business. It would be a bonus if I could define regexp(^\-\s.*) as a todo item, but it's not strictly necessary. By this I mean to suggest that the parser need not be complex at all. Perhaps just introduce the notion of "categories" and "items" and let people define syntax that designates these two entities freely.

Thanks for making a great little piece of software. For now my categories show up as independent lists and it's useable enough like that. I may experiment with not using categories at all. I must say though, that prefixing the project name to each todo item is not practical in my opinion – it increases the friction in creating a task dangerously.