To do: release to-do script

After having played around with Lifehacker’s reader-written, task-tracking shell script, I think I’m going to release to the public my tried and true homegrown script of the same function. Mine is very similar and is something I’ve been using for years. Unlike theirs though, my effort doesn’t include prioritization (I’ve never needed such a thing), but it does allow for sorting by project/type (e.g., school, website, etc.), while removing those identifiers when presenting the list back to you. Also different from theirs, I pad the task number with a zero when needed (it has to line up!) and sort by task number, not alpha.

This list is getting awfully long

While there is no shortage of task-monitoring programs out there, I’ve seen very few that actually allow you to easily delete or modify a task (I’m referring to mouse-less apps here, the only way to implement this sort of thing if you ask me). Huh? How can you have a to-do manager that makes deleting a task so much different from adding one? To wit, the majority of shell-based solutions (or, much more recently, those involving Quicksilver) simply append to a text file and then grep through it; this is all well and good, but when you want to delete/change something you have to actually open the file, find what you’re looking for, and then edit/delete it. Counter-productive? You bet.

ETA

As you guys are well aware, I’m stupid busy and surely won’t have this out for at least a couple of months. Given that I’ve been using and honing it for years, there’s not too much to change, though I do need to add quite a few comments, explain the available options, and probably throw in some error-checking for good measure (and to cut down on the amount of support e-mail I’d otherwise have to field).

Back into hell I go.