93 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
93 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
# Nocal product and interaction specification
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Nocal is a local-first, keyboard-driven month calendar for Linux terminals. Its
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visual target is the information density of a desktop month view without
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pretending that a terminal is a pixel canvas. The terminal emulator owns the
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typeface and palette; Nocal owns hierarchy, spacing, and restrained emphasis.
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## Product principles
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1. **The month is the home screen.** Launching Nocal immediately shows six
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complete Monday-first weeks. There is no dashboard or splash screen.
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2. **Useful at a glance.** Every visible day shows as many appointments as fit,
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ordered as all-day first and then by start time. A final `+N more` line is
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used instead of clipping silently.
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3. **Keyboard-native.** Arrow keys and Vim keys move by day or week; month and
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today jumps are single keystrokes. Every action remains discoverable in the
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footer and help overlay.
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4. **Terminal-native aesthetics.** Nocal uses default foreground/background and
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the terminal's ANSI semantic colors. It never paints a fixed RGB theme over
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the user's Kitty, foot, Alacritty, or WezTerm theme.
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5. **Local-first, sync-ready.** The canonical domain model is independent of
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iCalendar files and of any future remote API. Sync engines translate into
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domain objects and never leak provider-specific types into the UI.
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6. **Fast enough to feel instant.** Startup should remain below 50 ms for a
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normal local calendar and redraw should be flicker-free at interactive
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resize rates.
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## Month view
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The full terminal is treated as a responsive canvas:
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```text
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JULY 2026 Today Fri 17 Jul
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Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
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┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
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│ 29 │ 30 │ 1 │ 2 │ 3 │ 4 │ 5 │
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│ │ │ 09:30 Team │ │ All day … │ │ │
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├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
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│ … │
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└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
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←↓↑→ move PgUp/PgDn month t today ? help q quit 2 appointments
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```
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- At 100 columns and above, Nocal draws the full bordered grid.
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- Narrow cells abbreviate times and ellipsize summaries by display width.
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- When height is constrained, appointment lines are reduced before structural
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chrome. At extremely small sizes a clear minimum-size message replaces a
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broken grid.
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- Days outside the focused month remain visible but dim.
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- The selected date is reverse-video, today is bold/underlined, and collisions
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use semantic ANSI accents. These attributes work on monochrome terminals.
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- The footer reports the selected day's appointment count and the most useful
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keys for the available width.
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## Interaction map
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| Action | Keys |
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| --- | --- |
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| Previous/next day | `Left` / `Right`, `h` / `l` |
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| Previous/next week | `Up` / `Down`, `k` / `j` |
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| Previous/next month | `PageUp` / `PageDown`, `p` / `n` |
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| Jump to today | `t` |
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| Next/previous appointment | `Tab` / `Shift-Tab` |
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| Read focused appointment | `Enter` |
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| Browse inside reader | arrows, `h j k l`, `Tab` / `Shift-Tab` |
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| Add appointment | `a` |
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| Edit focused appointment | `e` |
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| Delete focused appointment | `d`, then `y` to confirm |
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| Undo/redo successful mutation | `u` / `Ctrl-R` |
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| Move between editor fields | `Tab` / `Shift-Tab`, arrows |
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| Save/cancel editor | `Ctrl-S` / `Esc` |
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| Return to month/unfocus | `Esc` |
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| Help | `?` |
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| Quit | `q` |
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The first usable foundation supports day and appointment navigation, a
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full-frame reader, validated add/edit/delete forms, and atomic `.ics` writes.
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Dense days keep every appointment keyboard-reachable even when all lines do
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not fit in the cell. Unknown or unsupported iCalendar content makes a source
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read-only instead of being discarded. Saves reject external changes, retain a
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last-known-good backup, and feed bounded session undo/redo history. The next
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local-data work adds `/` search, calendar visibility toggles, and recurring-event
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and time-zone expansion.
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## Accessibility
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- Information is never encoded by color alone.
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- `NO_COLOR` and terminals without color remain fully usable.
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- Borders and icons have ASCII fallbacks; Unicode width is calculated rather
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than assumed.
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- Focus is always visible and keyboard operation is complete.
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- Motion is limited to direct redraws; there are no decorative animations.
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