time_tag_birthday_prompt

Add time tags to interactive mode prompt and birthday reminders to Python startup.

As every avid coder knows how inexplicably inhumane feat it is to remember the birthdays of your friends and loved ones, this library makes it possible to automate the reminders for an arbitrary list of birthdays. In addition, the library also enables setting up time-sensitive messages to the prompt text in Python interactive mode (REPL). For example you may set your prompt to show fancy eye bags?> from 23:00 to 02:00 and zombie‑in‑waiting> from 02:00 to 06:00.

As we are only human, the library also abstracts away the Gregorian notation of birthdays and tells the birthday will be on Thursday if it is within 6 days and on Thursday next week if it is in 7 days or more but within next calendar week. More distant birthdays will be represented as their proximity in days. By default, birthdays within 30 days will be shown.

Example

When the library is correctly set up in the Python startup script, opening interactive mode with command py (Windows) or python (Linux/MacOS) will produce the following output. Note that the example resembles the output with switch -q leaving out Python version and copyright messages.

C:\Users\username>py -q

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today is Thursday, 2023-06-15
Birthday of Dan Brown (59) on Thursday next week, Martti Ahtisaari
(86) on Friday next week, Elon Musk (52) in 13 days, Aku Louhimies
(55) in 18 days, Jasper Pääkkönen (43) in 30 days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
coffee> _

The above example is the output on 15 June 2023 and it's 06:00 to 08:29 o'clock provided the following birthdays and time tags are set in the JSON file:

{
    "timeTags": [
        ["06:00", "08:30", "coffee"]
    ],
    "birthdays": [
        ["1937-06-23", "Martti Ahtisaari"]
        ,["1964-06-22", "Dan Brown"]
        ,["1968-07-03", "Aku Louhimies"]
        ,["1971-06-28", "Elon Musk"]
        ,["1980-07-15", "Jasper Pääkkönen"]
    ]
}

If you do not wish to have time tag prompts or birthday notifications, you may leave either (or both) of the two JSON keys null. Please note that both keys must always be defined as arrays or nulls in order for the file to be valid. If birthdays key is null, the startup prompt will not be printed.

{
    "timeTags": [
        ["06:00", "08:30", "coffee"]
    ],
    "birthdays": null
}

If the tag is still active and user enters a statement, the next prompt will reprint the tag:

coffee> print('Hello, world!')
Hello, world!
coffee> _

When the tag is no longer active, the next prompt will show the default prompt. Here, the prompt is entered at 08:30.

coffee> print('Testing')
Testing
>>> _

The birthday notifications will be printed when a prompt is entered after midnight. In the following example, the first statement is entered at 23:59 on 15 June 2023 and the second at 00:00 on 16 June 2023.

>>> print('Today is 15 June.')
Today is 15 June.
>>> print("It's past midnight.")
It's past midnight.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today is Friday, 2023-06-16
Birthday of Dan Brown (59) on Thursday, Martti Ahtisaari (86) on
Friday next week, Elon Musk (52) in 12 days, Aku Louhimies (55) in 17
days, Jasper Pääkkönen (43) in 29 days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> _

The secondary prompt will follow the indent of the time tags.

very long tag> print('Long '
           ... 'statement',
           ... some_variable)

The package may also be run as a script. It can be used to check resolved values for time tags and birthdays. By default, it shows usage. Replace py with python in Unix and MacOS.

py -m time_tag_birthday_prompt

Installing

You may install the package with the following command. Replace py with python in Unix and MacOS.

py -m pip install time_tag_birthday_prompt@git+https://github.com/tampasto/time_tag_birthday_prompt.git

After installing the package it is ready to be imported. However, to set it up as the default prompt, you must create a startup script. You can create a new file such as python_startup.py in your desired directory and set the environment variable PYTHONSTARTUP to point to this file, i.e., path_to_file/python_startup.py. This file will be run every time the interactive mode is entered if not purposefully overrided by certain Python executable isolation switches.

The Python startup file could look like the following:

import sys

from time_tag_birthday_prompt import PrimaryPrompt, SecondaryPrompt

primary_prompt = PrimaryPrompt(
    json_path='~/time_tag_birthday.json',
    birthday_notify_days=30
    )
secondary_prompt = SecondaryPrompt(primary_prompt)

sys.ps1 = primary_prompt
sys.ps2 = secondary_prompt

If no file exists in the path defined in parameter json_path, a sample file will be copied there. Strings ~ and ~user will be replaced by user directory path, i.e., environment variable USERPROFILE in Windows and HOME in Unix.

The sample JSON file copied to the json_path parameter shows the format of the file and also contains two non-functional comment keys. This file is the same file as the one found in the package folder with name sample_time_tag_birthday.json.

Commas are placed in the beginning of the rows as it is more common to append these lists by copying the last row rather than the second last. You may edit the file according to your personal preference as long as it stays valid JSON and holds the general original format.

The edited values in the JSON file will be used when the interactive prompt is restarted.

To see the full list of parameters of the classes and their documentation, you may use help function, such as help(PrimaryPrompt).