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	CLI Tricks: n - note taking
	March 21st, 2018
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	This is the first in a series of phlog entries where I will share
	some of my command line tricks, tips and scripts.


	## n ##

	Note-taking in the terminal is a big deal for me. Whether I'm in
	a meeting or someone stops by for a quick interruption, I need to
	be able to jot down notes quickly and get at them again easily. To
	handle this I have built a helper function called "n".

	Note: If you are familiar with my dotfiles [0] then you know
	I keep all these scripts in a folder called ~/.functions and
	source them as part of my .bash_profile.


	### The Idea ###

	When I'm on the command line I enter the command "n" and it pops
	up a list of all my notes using the FZF [1] fuzzy finder. These
	have a nice preview window to the side so I can quickly scan what
	I'm looking for as I type in parts of the name. If I see what
	I need in the preview I can either hit ESC to quit back to my
	shell or ENTER to open up the note in my EDITOR.

	Creating a new note is easy:

	$ n monkeys

	> creates a new note in my NOTE_DIR called monkeys.md (I default
	> all my notes to markdown) and opens it in EDITOR

	Want to categorize them? Add a folder path:

	$ n animals/monkeys

	> creates a new note at $NOTE_DIR/animals/monkeys.md and opens
	> it in EDITOR

	You can search foldernames as part of the fuzzy-finding.

	The script also has bash-completion built-in. If you don't want to
	use FZF to browse for the file, just type part of the word and hit
	tab, like so:

	$ n mo<TAB>

	> n monkeys<ENTER>


	### Requirements ###

	This requires FZF [1], a fantastic utility for fuzzy-finding. I'm
	sure you could port it to another tool if you really wanted,
	though.

	This also requires that you have an environment variable set
	called NOTE_DIR. For me that points to Dropbox where I have a
	notes folder. This means all my notes are generated and stored
	there and are shared across systems. I can even get at them
	with my phone.


	### The Source ###

	#!/usr/bin/env bash

	# Note taking function and command completion
	_n() {
	local lis cur
	lis=$(find "${NOTE_DIR}" -name "*.md" \| \
	sed -e "s\|${NOTE_DIR}/\|\|" \| \
	sed -e 's/\.md$//')
	cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}
	COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "$lis" -- "$cur") )
	}
	n() {
	: "${NOTE_DIR:?'NOTE_DIR ENV Var not set'}"
	if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
	local file
	file=$(find "${NOTE_DIR}" -name "*.md" \| \
	sed -e "s\|${NOTE_DIR}/\|\|" \| \
	sed -e 's/\.md$//' \| \
	fzf \
	--multi \
	--select-1 \
	--exit-0 \
	--preview="cat ${NOTE_DIR}/{}.md" \
	--preview-window=right:70%:wrap)
	[[ -n $file ]] && \
	${EDITOR:-vim} "${NOTE_DIR}/${file}.md"
	else
	case "$1" in
	"-d")
	rm "${NOTE_DIR}"/"$2".md
	;;
	*)
	${EDITOR:-vim} "${NOTE_DIR}"/"$*".md
	;;
	esac
	fi
	}
	complete -F _n n



	[0] tomasino's dotfiles
	[1] FZF