Scripts to set priority, and sort a project by priority

TaskPaper
16

I am thinking of something a little bit more simple. I will let you know who I do it, and maybe that will clarify things.

I have this document that I use to keep track of things that people need to do or keep in mind and then I pass the list every week at one of our meetings.

1.- This is the query I do in my source document.

(@type/..* union task///*) except (( //@private/..* union @private///*) union (archive///* union @done))

2.- Then I copy the results into another document that I creatively call "toPrint.taskpaper"
3.- I run a ruby/bash script that does the following,

  • Using the Ruby library that Matt Gemmel contributed, I convert the taskpaper document into a temporary multimarkdown file. This could be done in something else other than Ruby, since my only requirement is to change all the projects into a level one header (to just #) regardless of the hierarchy of the project; and then clean up the taskpaper file of all its tags.
  • Using the MMD 6.0 LaTex Config ability to create templates, the script changes that mdd file into a nice LaTex file that then is processed into a PDF file using XeLaTex.
  • Using bash it cleans up the resulting log and aux files created by XeLaTex, renames the PDF according to the date, and moves the file to a Document repository in a NAS. Since this is something that happens every week, one in our organization can search all the PDF’s by folders. The folders are organized by something like handOut->YEAR->MONTH->name-based-on-date.
  • Lastly, using bash and the lpr command, the script asks the one who started the script how many copies of the current PDF file are needed and send those to print to a networked printer.

What I would like to do is see is if it would be possible to simplify things even more by having a script that does the query and creates the resulting taskPaper file (overwriting the old one) that is used by my other scripts. That would limited at least one of the steps that take the most time right now (step one and two).

Since I do this at least once a week, that amount of time adds up :slight_smile:; but I am also thinking to delegate this to someone who is a computer newb. Now, if you need to see some of my source files, so that everything is accomplished in JavaScript/Bash instead of Ruby/Bash I would gladly provide them. Like I said again, they are just simple modifications to the library Matt contributed.

Emacs example