#+OPTIONS: html-postamble:nil html-preamble:nil toc:nil
#+AUTHOR:
#+TITLE: Annotate.el

[[https://elpa.nongnu.org/nongnu/annotate.svg][https://elpa.nongnu.org/nongnu/annotate.svg]]

[[http://melpa.org/#/annotate][http://melpa.org/packages/annotate-badge.svg]]

[[http://stable.melpa.org/#/annotate][http://stable.melpa.org/packages/annotate-badge.svg]]

* introduction

This package provides a minor mode ~annotate-mode~, which can add annotations to arbitrary files without changing the files themselves. This is very useful for code reviews. When ~annotate-mode~ is active, ~C-c C-a~ will create, edit, or delete annotations.
[[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bastibe/annotate.el/master/example.png]]

* Usage

** Quick start

With an active region, ~C-c C-a~ creates a new annotation for that region. With no active region, ~C-c C-a~ will create an annotation for the word under point. If point is on an annotated region, ~C-c C-a~ will edit that annotation instead of creating a new one. Typing ~C-c C-d~ or clearing the annotation deletes them.

Use ~C-c ]~ to jump to the next annotation and ~C-c [~ to jump to the previous annotation.

** Metadata

The current database for annotations is contained in the file
indicated by the variable ~annotate-file~ (=~/.emacs.d/annotations= by
default) but each user can change this value in a dynamic way using
the command ~annotate-switch-db~. This command will take care to
refresh/redraw all annotations in the buffers that uses
~annotate-mode~.

The database holds the hash of each annotated file so it can print a
warning if the file has been modified outside Emacs (for example).

Warning can be suppressed setting the variable
~annotate-warn-if-hash-mismatch~ to nil.

Please note that switching database, in this context, means rebinding
the aforementioned variable (~annotate-file~). This means than no
more than a single database can be active for each Emacs session.

If an empty annotation database (in memory) is saved the database
file is deleted instead, if ~annotate-database-confirm-deletion~ is
non nil (the default) a confirmation action is asked to the user
before actually remove the file from the file system.

**** related customizable variable
     - ~annotate-file~
     - ~annotate-warn-if-hash-mismatch~
     - ~annotate-database-confirm-deletion~

*** Non centralized database

To use multiple database in the same Emacs session ~annotate-file~ should be made [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Buffer_002dLocal-Variables.html][buffer-local]],

see:

[[https://github.com/bastibe/annotate.el/issues/68][this thread]] and, in particular
[[https://github.com/bastibe/annotate.el/issues/68#issuecomment-728218022][this message]].

Finally, if the customizable variable ~annotate-file-buffer-local~ is non-nil (default ~nil~), for each annotated file an annotation database is saved under the same directory that contains the annotated file.

The name of the annotation database is built concatenating the name of the annotated file without the optional extension and the string value bound to the customizable variable ~annotate-buffer-local-database-extension~ (default: ~notes~), example follows:

| annotated file   | annotations file     |
|------------------+----------------------|
| /home/user/foo.c | /home/user/foo.notes |
|------------------+----------------------|

Important note: if ~/home/user/foo.notes~ exists, *will be overwritten*.

**** related customizable variable
     - ~annotate-file-buffer-local~
     - ~annotate-buffer-local-database-extension~

*** Uninstalling

Users of [[https://github.com/emacscollective/no-littering][no-littering]] can take advantage of its packages generated files management.

** keybindings

*** ~C-c C-a~ (function annotate-annotate)
Creates a new annotation for that region.

With no active region, ~C-c C-a~ will create an annotation for the word under point. If point is on an annotated region, ~C-c C-a~ will edit that annotation instead of creating a new one. Clearing the annotation deletes them.

If ~annotate-annotation-confirm-deletion~ is non nil (the default is *nil*) a confirmation action is asked, using ~y-or-n-p~, to the user before actually remove the annotation.

If point is the newline character and the customizable variable ~annotate-endline-annotate-whole-line~ is not nil (default is non nil) the whole line is annotated (or the next if the line is empty).

If the line contains a single annotation that cover all the line, annotating the newline will ask to edit the annotation. If ~annotate-endline-annotate-whole-line~ is nil annotating a newline will signal an error.

With a numeric prefix the annotations will be displayed with the faces indicated in ~annotate-highlight-faces~ and ~annotate-annotation-text-faces~, respectively. The numeric prefix is used as index in the lists bound to the aforementioned variables.

The first theme can be addressed by the prefix ~1~, the second by the prefix ~2~ and so on.

**** related customizable variable
     - ~annotate-annotation-column~;
     - ~annotate-annotation-confirm-deletion~;
     - ~annotate-annotation-max-size-not-place-new-line~;
     - ~annotate-annotation-position-policy~;
     - ~annotate-endline-annotate-whole-line~;
     - ~annotate-highlight-faces~;
     - ~annotate-annotation-text-faces~.

*** ~C-c C-d~
Delete an annotation under point, if such annotation exists.

If ~annotate-annotation-confirm-deletion~ is non nil (the default is *nil*) a confirmation action is asked, using ~y-or-n-p~, to the user before actually remove the annotation.

**** related customizable variable
     - ~annotate-annotation-confirm-deletion~.

*** ~C-c ]~ (function annotate-goto-next-annotation)
Jump to the next  annotation.

*** ~C-c [~ (function annotate-goto-previous-annotation)
Jump to the previous annotation.

*** ~C-c C-s~ (function annotate-show-annotation-summary)
Show summary window.

A window with a list of annotated files together with their annotations is shown. If ~annotate-summary-ask-query~ is non nil (default is ~t~) then a prompt is shown where the user can insert a query to filter the annotation database, see "Query Language"
below.

The summary window allow editing and removing of annotation using the provided buttons.

The annotation text can be pressed to and will open the annotated file, placing the cursor at the point where the corresponding annotated text appears.

**** related customizable variable
     - ~annotate-summary-ask-query~.

*** ~C-c C-c~ (function annotate-change-annotation-colors)

Change the color of the annotation below point (both highlight and annotation text colors are changed).

These changes are kept after the buffer is killed.

*** ~C-c C-p~ (function annotate-change-annotation-text-position)

Change the policy positioning the annotation below point, a message with the new policy is printed.

These changes are kept after the buffer is killed.

* Exporting

Annotations can be exported ~annotate-export-annotations~ as commented unified diffs, like this:

[[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bastibe/annotate.el/master/diff-example.png]]

Alternatively, they can be integrated ~annotate-integrate-annotations~ as comments into the current buffer, like this:

[[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bastibe/annotate.el/master/integrate-example.png]]

**** related customizable variable
     - ~annotate-integrate-marker~
     - ~annotate-diff-export-options~
     - ~annotate-integrate-highlight~
     - ~annotate-fallback-comment~

* Importing

An annotation database file can be imported using the command ~annotate-import-annotations~.

When importing, overlapping annotations will be merged in a single annotation with the new annotated text that maximizes the portion of text annotated, e.g.

#+BEGIN_SRC
The quick brown fox ← text
 ^^^^^^^^           ← first annotation
      ********      ← second annotation
 +++++++++++++      ← merged annotation
#+END_SRC

The text of the merged annotation is the concatenated text of the two annotations.

Note that importing a database will modify permanently the file bound to the variable ~annotate-file~. If unsure of the results, backup that file before importing.

**** related customizable variable
     - ~annotate-database-confirm-import~.

* Alternative visualization of annotations

For typographically difficult scenarios (or just because you prefer it), such as variable-width fonts or overlay-heavy modes, the default visualization system that renders the annotation into the buffer could not properly works.

In this case the users can switch to a "pop-up" style annotation setting to a non-nil value the variable ~annotate-use-echo-area~.

When such variable's value is not null, moving the mouse pointer over the annotated text will temporary show the annotation.

The actual visuals of this "pop-up" can be different depending of your system's setup (see [[https://github.com/bastibe/annotate.el/pull/81][this pull request]] for a couple of examples.

Moreover if ~annotate-use-echo-area~ and ~annotate-print-annotation-under-cursor~ value *both* non null, placing the cursor over an annotated text region will print the annotation's text in the minibuffer prefixed by the value of customizable variable ~annotate-print-annotation-under-cursor-prefix~, after a delay (in seconds) defined by the variable ~annotate-print-annotation-under-cursor-delay~.

Another alternative way to show annotations is provided by the command: ~annotate-summary-of-file-from-current-pos~.

Calling this command will show a summary window that prints all the annotations related to annotated text that appears (in the active buffer) beyond the current cursor position.

**** related customizable variable
     - ~annotate-use-echo-area~
     - ~annotate-print-annotation-under-cursor~
     - ~annotate-print-annotation-under-cursor-prefix~
     - ~annotate-print-annotation-under-cursor-delay~
     - ~annotate-summary-of-file-from-current-pos~.

* Other commands

** annotate-switch-db

This command will ask the user for a new annotation database files, load it and refresh all the annotations contained in each buffer where annotate minor mode is active.

See the docstring for more information and [[https://github.com/bastibe/annotate.el/issues/68][this thread]] for a possible workflow where this command could be useful.

** annotate-toggle-annotation-text
Shows or hides annotation's text under cursor.

** annotate-toggle-all-annotations-text
Shows or hides the annotation's text in the whole buffer.

* Other customization variables

**  annotate-autosave
Whether annotations should be saved after each user action, e.g. new annotation created, existing one amended or deleted. Boolean value, default is ~nil~ i.e. do not perform autosave and update the annotations in a buffer, just after killing buffer or quitting Emacs.

** annotate-annotation-expansion-map

The expansion map for the annotation text. If a substring in the annotation text matches the string in the first item of each element of this list, it will be expanded with the results of passing the second item — as a command — to a system shell, if the third item is not null, the output string of the command's results will be trimmed (spaces or some others non printable characters will be removed from both ends, see: `string-trim'). Example below.

The expression:

#+BEGIN_SRC lisp
  (setf annotate-annotation-expansion-map
	'((\"%d\" \"date +%Y-%m-%d\" t)))
#+END_SRC

Will expand any occurrence of \"%d\" in the annotation's text with the current date (format: \"YYYY-MM-DD\"), moreover the results will be trimmed.

* More documentation

Please check ~M-x customize-group RET annotate~ as there is extensive documentation for each customizable variable.

* BUGS

** Known bugs

   - Annotations in org-mode source blocks will be underlined, but the annotations don't show up. This is likely a fundamental incompatibility with the way source blocks are highlighted and the way annotations are displayed.

   - Because of a limitation in the Emacs display routines ~scroll-down-line~ could get stuck on a annotated line. So no fix can be provided by the authors of ~annotate.el~, a possible
workaround is to call the command with a numeric prefix equals to one plus the number of annotation text lines below the annotated text.

     For example:

     #+BEGIN_SRC text
     foo bar baz
     annotation
     #+END_SRC

     needs a prefix of 2: ~C-u 2 M-x scroll-down-line~

     But note that:

     #+BEGIN_SRC text
     foo bar baz   annotation
     #+END_SRC

     Needs no prefix.

   - Deleting the first character of an annotated text will remove the  annotation (this turned out to be useful, though).

** Report bugs

   To report bugs please, point your browser to the
   [[https://github.com/bastibe/annotate.el/issues][issue tracker]].

* Query Language

The summary window can shows results filtered by criteria specified with a very simple query language, the basis syntax for that language is shown below:

#+BEGIN_SRC text
 [file-mask] [(and | or) [not] regex-note [(and | or) [not] regexp-note ...]]
#+END_SRC

where:

  - file-mask :: is a regular expression that should match the path of file the annotation refers to;
  - and, or, not :: you guess? Classics logical operators;
  - regex-note :: the text of annotation must match this regular expression.

** Examples

#+BEGIN_SRC text
  lisp$ and TODO
#+END_SRC

matches the text ~TODO~ in all lisp files

Parenthesis can be used for the expression related to the text of annotation, like this:

#+BEGIN_SRC text
 lisp$ and (TODO or important)
#+END_SRC

the same as above but checks also for string `important'

#+BEGIN_SRC text
 /home/foo/
#+END_SRC

matches all the annotation that refers to file in the directory ~/home/foo~

#+BEGIN_SRC text
 /home/foo/ and not minor
#+END_SRC

matches all the annotation that refers to file in the directory ~/home/foo~ and that not contains the text ~minor~.

#+BEGIN_SRC text
 .* and "not"
#+END_SRC

the quotation mark (") can be used to escape strings.

As a shortcut, an empty query will match everything (just press ~return~ at prompt).

* FAQ

Sometimes the package does not respect the customizable variable's value of ~annotate-annotation-position-policy~, is this a bug?

No it is not, when a line which is using a non default font is annotated the software force the ~:new-line~ policy, that is the annotation will be displayed on a new line regardless of the value of the variable mentioned in the question.

This is necessary to prevent the annotation to be pushed beyond the window limits if an huge font is used by the annotated text.

* LICENSE

This package is released under the MIT license, see file [[./LICENSE][LICENSE]]
