WB -- Software Engineers's Workbook

Build Status

Background reading: Lab Notebooking for the Software Engineer:

  • Only append to the workbook
  • Keep automatic backups
  • What to note?
    • Measurement
    • Non-trival search and found something
    • Explicit design decision
    • Whenever you wish you had written down

Installation

$ gem install wb

Usage

Set wb up first:

$ wb setup # wb init + wb ignore

This will create a config yaml at ~/.workbookrc:

# Auto generated by wb 1.0.0
workbook:
  working_hours: "9-17"
  personal: "~/Dropbox/workbooks/personal.md"
  work: "~/Dropbox/workbooks/work.md"
  project:
    note_folder: ".note"

and add following to ~/.gitignore_global:

# ignore project notes by https://github.com/juanitofatas/wb
/.note/

To open a global workbook:

wb

This will open workbook based on the working hour set in ~/.workbookrc.

Inside working hour wb equals to:

wb work
# opens "~/Dropbox/workbooks/work.md

Outside working hour wb equals to:

wb personal
# opens "~/Dropbox/workbooks/personal.md

Create a new workbook in the project you are working:

wb new

by default it creates a markdown workbook using today's date:

2018-09-24.md

The date could be overrided in ~/.workbookrc, either at workbook or project level:

Based on Ruby's strftime:

workbook:
  date_format: %c

workbook:
  project:
    date_format: %D

The extension could be overrided in ~/.workbookrc, either at workbook or project level:

workbook:
  extension: rdoc

workbook:
  project:
    extension: txt

Invoking wb new again will use your editor $EDITOR to open the existing workbook.

You can also create a workbook with custom name under project by:

(on branch fix-nasty-bugs)
git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD | xargs wb new

# will create a new note named under {project.note_folder}:
# 2018-09-24-fix-nasty-bugs.md

Opening local / global notebooks by:

wb open

0: .note/2018-09-23.md
1: .note/2018-09-24.md
2: ~/Dropbox/workbooks/personal.md
3: ~/Dropbox/workbooks/work.md

Type in the notebook number you want to open.

If you remember the notebook name by heart, supply NAME to wb open:

# both works
wb open .note/2018-09-23.md
wb open 2018-09-23.md # opens .note/2018-09-23.md
wb open personal.md # ~/Dropbox/workbooks/personal.md

Full documentation by wb help:

wb init       Initialize wb config yaml file
wb ignore     Add {project.note_folder} to global gitignore
wb setup      wb init + wb ignore

wb config     Open wb config file

wb            Open global notebook based on {working_hours}
wb personal   Open global personal notebook
wb work       Open global work notebook

wb open       Open from all notes in {project.note_folder} and global notes
wb open NAME  Open note by NAME

wb new        Create/Open note of name {date_format}.{extension} under {project.note_folder}
wb new NAME   Create note by {date_format}.NAME under {project.note_folder}

Thank you for using wb.

Feedback and improvement are welcome!

License, Contributor's Guidelines, and Credits