There must be "an app for that" ;{

[Richard Owlett]

I hope this thread:
1. Prompts discussion of how to find an appropriate Debian package.
2. Points me to an solution to my specific needs.

As to the first:
A. I find Synaptic's search function an excellent starting point.
Its problems include choosing a productive key word when searching
"Description and Name". A second problem often is no "homepage" or
a one with an inadequate description.
B. Effective use of web search engines appears to be an obtuse arcane
art. They appear to value hit quantity far above usefulness.

As to second, I'm a senior citizen needing an appointment calendar that:
A. runs well on a MATE desktop.
B. needs to handle a relatively light schedule of
1. three weekly or bi-weekly events.
2. appointments with medical providers.

Synaptic and/or DuckDuckGo led me to:
xcal Synaptic hit without Screenshot OR homepage link.
Described as "graphical calendar with memos and reminder alarms".
xcal [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCal]
Only description is "xCal represents iCalendar components, properties
and parameters as defined in iCalendar."
iCalendar [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar]
A standard for representing calendar data.
remind Synaptic hit. Homepage, "could not be found" message
Described as "sophisticated calendar and alarm program".
gnome-calendar [https://packages.debian.org/sid/gnome-calendar]
No description. Links to [https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Calendar]
Calendar [https://apps.gnome.org/Calendar/]
There are marginally view-able images "Explore the interface" but
no description of of capabilities. Images suggest not appropriate.

Suggestions/comments?
TIA

[songbird]

Richard Owlett wrote:
...
> Suggestions/comments?

yes, i use the package search page that Debian provides:

https://packages.debian.org/search

i used this for testing:

https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=appointment&searchon=all&suite=testing&section=all

then from there i would use a further search engine to see
if the interface was going to work for me or not. i need a
way to make the text larger and clearer and many programs
seem to stick using smaller fonts and ignoring system settings
so they're not often useful to me.

good luck,


songbird

[songbird]

Richard Owlett wrote:

i may have made the previous link a bit more complicated
than it needed to be so this should be a more simple
version:

https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages


songbird

[Anssi Saari]

Richard Owlett <row...@access.net> writes:

> I hope this thread:
> 1. Prompts discussion of how to find an appropriate Debian package.
> 2. Points me to an solution to my specific needs.
>
> As to the first:
> A. I find Synaptic's search function an excellent starting point.
> Its problems include choosing a productive key word when searching
> "Description and Name". A second problem often is no "homepage" or
> a one with an inadequate description.

Is evaluating for yourself out of the question then?

> B. Effective use of web search engines appears to be an obtuse arcane
> art. They appear to value hit quantity far above usefulness.

For fringe stuff, sure. Linux on the desktop is fringe, especially for a
desktop that's not the biggest. For example, I have no idea what runs
well on a MATE desktop in general or what that actually means to you.

> As to second, I'm a senior citizen needing an appointment calendar that:
> A. runs well on a MATE desktop.
> B. needs to handle a relatively light schedule of
> 1. three weekly or bi-weekly events.
> 2. appointments with medical providers.

Generally speaking, look into what you use already? You seem to post
with some Mozilla thingy? Thunderbird has calendar integrated these
days, for Seamonkey it's apparently an add-on.

Personally, in Linux I don't have much need for a calendar, running ncal
-b -w -3 or calendar in Emacs is 99% of it. Very occasionally I put a
task in Thunderbird since that's setup to sync to my phones.

Over the years I've used also Evolution and Korganizer but I don't much
like either. From your list I tried xcal but it seemed
incomprehensible. At least xcal's a very small download so there's that.

[Richard Owlett]

On 01/19/2024 06:03 PM, songbird wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
> ...
>> Suggestions/comments?
>
> yes, i use the package search page that Debian provides:
>
> https://packages.debian.org/search

Not the best example. It responds "Your keyword was too generic ..." ;/

>
> i used this for testing:
>
> https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=appointment&searchon=all&suite=testing&section=all

I like that example!
It evidently does the same search as Synaptic but:
1. presents in a better visual format.
2. responds "only shows the best matches" when too many hits.

I've added it to MATE's Panel, appears I can add it to the System menu.
Time to review docs.

[Richard Owlett]

The "complication" made it a more effective demonstration.

[Richard Owlett]

On 01/20/2024 04:44 AM, Anssi Saari wrote:
> Richard Owlett <row...@access.net> writes:
>
>> I hope this thread:
>> 1. Prompts discussion of how to find an appropriate Debian package.
>> 2. Points me to an solution to my specific needs.
>>
>> As to the first:
>> A. I find Synaptic's search function an excellent starting point.
>> Its problems include choosing a productive key word when searching
>> "Description and Name". A second problem often is no "homepage" or
>> a one with an inadequate description.
>
> Is evaluating for yourself out of the question then?

No, but my secondary machine currently has a hardware problem.

>
>> B. Effective use of web search engines appears to be an obtuse arcane
>> art. They appear to value hit quantity far above usefulness.
>
> For fringe stuff, sure. Linux on the desktop is fringe, especially for a
> desktop that's not the biggest. For example, I have no idea what runs
> well on a MATE desktop in general or what that actually means to you.

In context, primarily that I'm only interested in GUI.

>
>> As to second, I'm a senior citizen needing an appointment calendar that:
>> A. runs well on a MATE desktop.
>> B. needs to handle a relatively light schedule of
>> 1. three weekly or bi-weekly events.
>> 2. appointments with medical providers.
>
> Generally speaking, look into what you use already? You seem to post
> with some Mozilla thingy? Thunderbird has calendar integrated these
> days, for Seamonkey it's apparently an add-on.

I'm looking specifically for a desktop app.

>
> Personally, in Linux I don't have much need for a calendar, running ncal
> -b -w -3 or calendar in Emacs is 99% of it. Very occasionally I put a
> task in Thunderbird since that's setup to sync to my phones.
>
> Over the years I've used also Evolution and Korganizer but I don't much
> like either. From your list I tried xcal but it seemed
> incomprehensible. At least xcal's a very small download so there's that.
>

I avoid excessive experimentation with my primary machine.
Uninstall can, on occasion, have issues.

[Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood]

Groovy hepcat Richard Owlett was jivin' in alt.os.linux.debian on Sat,
20 Jan 2024 03:06 am. It's a cool scene! Dig it.

> I hope this thread:
> 1. Prompts discussion of how to find an appropriate Debian package.
> 2. Points me to an solution to my specific needs.
>
> As to the first:
> A. I find Synaptic's search function an excellent starting point.
> Its problems include choosing a productive key word when

Using apt-cache would be better. You don't have to wait for synaptic
to start up; all you need is a command line. Its search command can
produce a long list of packages, so pipe the output to the less command
and use the forward slash to search for other terms within the list, to
find the right thing.
You want a calendar program that can record events, so...

sudo apt-cache search calendar | less

Then type "/event" (without quotes) to search for packages to do
with "event". Read the short description next to the package name. Hit
the "n" key to search for the next one, until you find what you want.
Once you've found a package that looks promicing, you can use
apt-cache's show command to have a more detailed view of the package.
For example, to show the pal package (using less, because the output
can be long sometimes)...

sudo apt-cache show pal | less

> searching "Description and Name". A second problem often is no
> "homepage" or
> a one with an inadequate description.
> B. Effective use of web search engines appears to be an obtuse
> arcane
> art. They appear to value hit quantity far above usefulness.
>
> As to second, I'm a senior citizen needing an appointment calendar
> that:
> A. runs well on a MATE desktop.
> B. needs to handle a relatively light schedule of
> 1. three weekly or bi-weekly events.
> 2. appointments with medical providers.

It sounds like pal might be the package you want. It's for the command
line, not desktop. But you can certainly use it in a console window.

Package: pal
Source: pal (0.4.3-8.1)
Version: 0.4.3-8.1+b3
Architecture: amd64
Maintainer: Carsten Hey <car...@debian.org>
Installed-Size: 324
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.7), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.35.9), libncursesw5 (>= 6),
libreadline7 (>= 6.0), libtinfo5 (>= 6)
Suggests: texlive
Homepage: http://palcal.sourceforge.net/
Priority: optional
Section: utils
Filename: pool/main/p/pal/pal_0.4.3-8.1+b3_amd64.deb
Size: 106168
SHA256: 241c03ad37bda2c1ff95bec4ca183e9af33fa881f02b2d6955bb4b948486e0a4
SHA1: 0cf9cf5e71100808523ab92f7856d130c2b0c3e3
MD5sum: 65da9ebf19fa1fb02fba895a1364bf48
Description-en: command-line calendar program that can keep track of
events
pal is a command-line calendar program for Unix/Linux systems that can
keep
track of events. It has similarities with the Unix cal command, the
more
complex GNU gcal program, and the calendar program distributed with the
BSDs.
.
Some of pal's main features are:
* A cal-like calendar that highlights days that have events.
* Assign different colors to different types of events.
* Search events with regular expressions (-s).
* Includes calendars for US holidays, Christian holidays, world
holidays,
historical events and more.
* One-time events and a variety of recurring events are supported
(daily,
weekly, monthly, yearly). Recurring events can have start and end
dates.
* Easy-to-use interface for interactively adding, editing and deleting
events (-m).
* Automated deletion of old events (-x).
* Option to generate an HTML calendar (--html).
* Option to generate a LaTeX calendar suitable for printing (--latex).
.
Ways to use pal effectively include:
* Create your own calendar files and be reminded of upcoming meetings,
deadlines, and events.
* Remind yourself daily of your "To Do" list by using the special TODO
event
type.
* Run pal in your shell initialization file (such as ~/.bash_profile)
to see
your calendar whenever you open a new terminal.
* Set up a cron job that emails you and/or others the output of pal
every
morning (--mail).
* View the calendars of other pal users on the same system.
Description-md5: 0f3dd48e4be9f98a2333513024893cb5

> Synaptic and/or DuckDuckGo led me to:
> xcal Synaptic hit without Screenshot OR homepage link.
> Described as "graphical calendar with memos and reminder alarms".
> xcal [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCal]

You can find more using "apt-cache show" as shown above, but there
isn't much there.

> Only description is "xCal represents iCalendar components,
> properties and parameters as defined in iCalendar."
> iCalendar [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar]
> A standard for representing calendar data.
> remind Synaptic hit. Homepage, "could not be found" message

Again, find out more with apt-cache. It looks like a command line
program, but there is a GUI front end.

> Described as "sophisticated calendar and alarm program".
> gnome-calendar [https://packages.debian.org/sid/gnome-calendar]
> No description. Links to [https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Calendar]

Apt-cache doesn't give much about this. I think it's just a simple
desktop calendar without any reminders or events.

> Calendar [https://apps.gnome.org/Calendar/]
> There are marginally view-able images "Explore the interface" but
> no description of of capabilities. Images suggest not appropriate.

I can't find this one in the repos.

--


----- Dig the NEW and IMPROVED news sig!! -----


-------------- Shaggy was here! ---------------
Ain't I'm a dawg!!

[Richard Owlett]

On 01/20/2024 06:29 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 01/19/2024 06:03 PM, songbird wrote:
>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>> ...

SNIP

>>    i used this for testing:
>>
>>
>> https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=appointment&searchon=all&suite=testing&section=all
>>
>
> I like that example!
> It evidently does the same search as Synaptic but:
>    1. presents in a better visual format.
>    2. responds "only shows the best matches" when too many hits.
>
> I've added it to MATE's Panel, appears I can add it to the System menu.
> Time to review docs.
>

Successfully added it to the System menu.
As MATE's "Help" menus are *terse* {to say the least ;} I'll enumerate:

Right-click on "System"
Choose "Edit Menus"
"Main Menu" is displayed
Choose "Administration"
Click on "New Item"
Enter desired parameters in the "Create Launcher" menu.

[songbird]

i'm not sure if you noticed that i was using the testing
repository so if you wanted stable you would have needed to
change that?


songbird

[songbird]

Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 01/19/2024 06:12 PM, songbird wrote:
>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>
>> i may have made the previous link a bit more complicated
>> than it needed to be so this should be a more simple
>> version:
>>
>> https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages

...

> The "complication" made it a more effective demonstration.

ok, glad it helped. :)


songbird