README: recommend my own diaspy repo

[jan-pona-mute.git] / README.md

Jan Pona Mute
=============

The name is Toki Pona and means "many friends".

This is a very simple command line client for Diaspora that helps me
deal with my specific use-cases:

- I want to check Diaspora for new comment on my threads
- I want to leave new comments on my threads
- I want to delete comments I left by mistake

It's *very* limited but it's helping me get started using the
[diaspy](https://github.com/marekjm/diaspy) Python library.

<!-- markdown-toc start - Don't edit this section. Run M-x markdown-toc-refresh-toc -->
**Table of Contents**

- [Installation](#installation)
- [Quickstart](#quickstart)
- [Next Step](#next-step)
- [Notes](#notes)
- [Reference](#reference)

<!-- markdown-toc end -->

Installation
------------

We need the [diaspy](https://github.com/marekjm/diaspy) library.
Sadly, I've run into a few issues and made some fixes. I contributed
these back but just to be sure I recommend you install diaspy from my
own repository. That's the one I use.

```text
$ git clone https://alexschroeder.ch/cgit/diaspy
$ cd diaspy
$ pip3 install .
```

Note that using `pip3 install diaspy` gets me a much older revision
and things won't work at all. 🤷

You need to download `jan-pona-mute` as well, obviously:

```text
$ git clone https://alexschroeder.ch/cgit/jan-pona-mute
```

With that done, you should be able to run it:

```text
$ python3 jan-pona-mute/jan-pona-mute.py
```

Quickstart
----------

```text
$ python3 jan-pona-mute.py
Welcome to Diaspora! Use the intro command for a quick introduction.
Pager set: /usr/bin/fold
> account kensanata@pluspora.com
Username and pod set: kensanata@pluspora.com
> password *secret*
Password set
> login
Setting up a connection...
Logging in...
> notifications
 1. 2019-08-13T19:40:17.000Z Joe Doe has liked your post I've started writing...
 2. 2019-08-13T17:59:23.000Z Joe Doe commented on your post Please help me wi...
 3. 2019-08-13T17:03:45.000Z Jane Doe has liked your post I've started writin...
 4. 2019-08-13T15:02:50.000Z June Doe commented on your post I don't like Mon...
 5. 2019-08-13T14:48:51.000Z John Doe liked your post Monday again! What am I...
Enter a number to select the notification.
> 1
2019-08-13T19:40:17.000Z Joe Doe has liked your post I've started writing...
Loading...

I've started writing a Diaspora client for the command line. It's called Jan Pona
Mute which means as much as "many friends" in English. It's written in Python and
doesn't do much.
> comments
There are no comments on the selected post.
> comment This is me leaving a comment.
Comment posted
> comments

 1. 2019-08-13T20:04:35.000Z Alex Schroeder

Alex Schroeder (e3bd7110b2ee013620f200505608f9fe): This is me leaving a comment.
> quit
Be safe!
```

Next Step
---------

Use the `save` command to save the login information (including the
password!) to an init file.

The init files searched are:

1. `~/.config/jan-pona-mute/login`
2. `~/.jan-pona-mute.d/login`
3. `~/.jan-pona-mute`

If one of them exists while starting up, that's the file that gets
written. If none exists, the first one is going to be created by the
`save` command.

Any further commands you put into the file are simple executed as if
you were to type them every time you start the program. A simple
change would be to add `notifications` as a command to the end of the
file.

Notes
-----

One thing I care about is editing comments with my favourite editor
and previewing them. This works really well if you have
[mdcat](https://github.com/lunaryorn/mdcat) as it renders Markdown.
Here's the workflow:

1. check notifications
2. pick a post
3. show latest comments
4. compose a note
5. preview note
6. leave a comment with that note

This is what it looks like, assuming your editor is `ed`:

```text
> notifications
...
> 1
...
> comments
...
> note nice
/home/alex/.config/jan-pona-mute/notes/nice: No such file or directory
a
OK, I like this. Thanks!
.
w
25
q
 1. nice
Use 'edit' to create a note.
> preview 1
OK, I like this. Thanks!
> comment 1
```

Reference
---------

So much is still in flux. Please use the `help` command to learn more.

* use **intro** if you want to skip reading the rest of this list 😅

* use **account**, **password**, and **login** to login into your
  account; use **save** to store these three commands in your init
  file

* use **shortcuts** to show the current shortcuts; use **shortcut** to
  define a new shortcut; these are good commands to add to your init
  file (the **save** command won't do this for you)

* use **notifications** to see the latest notifications, use
  **notifications reload** to update the list; this is also a good
  command to add to your init file

* use **home** to see your home stream, use **home reload** to update
  the list; use **home all** to see the full list; use **home 3** to
  see the last 3 items

* use **show** and a number to show the post a notification is
  referring to, or to choose a post from your home stream; use
  **next** and **previous** to move from item to item; this is how you
  select a post which allows you to use **comments** to show the
  comments for that post; use **comments 3** to see the last 3 items

* use **comment** to post a comment, use **post** to write a new post;
  if you use a number instead of a writing a text, the number refers
  to a note (see below)

* use **undo** to delete a comment or post after writing it; use
  **delete comment** or **delete post** to delete them at a later date

* use **edit** and a filename to write a note; use **notes** to list
  your notes; use **preview** to show a note; use **delete note** to
  delete a note

* use **editor** to set your favourite editor (or set the EDITOR
  environment variable); use **pager** to set your favourite page (or
  set the PAGER environment variable); consider installing
  [mdcat](https://github.com/lunaryorn/mdcat) and using it as your pager

* use **info** to review your settings

* use **quit** to end the program