Remind

Remind is a sophisticated calendar and alarm program. It includes the following features:

• A sophisticated scripting language and intelligent handling of exceptions and holidays.
• Plain-text, PostScript and HTML output.
• Timed reminders and pop-up alarms.
• A friendly graphical front-end for people who don't want to learn the scripting language.
• Facilities for both the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars.
• Support for 12 different languages.

License

Remind is Free Software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2

Screenshot

Everybody loves a screenshot. Here you go.

Intro Video

I made a (longish) Introduction to Remind video on YouTube. Best viewed in full-screen mode at 1920x1080 resolution.

Download Remind

• Version 3.3.10:	remind-03.03.10.tar.gz
• GPG Signature:	remind-03.03.10.tar.gz.sig

What the heck do you do with a tar.gz file? Remind is designed to run on UNIX and Linux. As such, it's distributed as source code that you need to compile. If you're not on a UNIX or Linux system, don't bother downloading Remind.

If you are on a Linux or UNIX system, the build process is the usual:

tar xfz remind-03.03.10.tar.gz && cd remind-03.03.10 && ./configure && make && make test && sudo make install

Entirely painless. But do read the README file for other ways to build.

Public git Repository

We have a public git respository you can clone if you want to live on the bleeding edge:

https://git.skoll.ca/Skollsoft-Public/Remind

(If you don't know what to do with a tar.gz file, you certainly won't know what to do with a "git repository". Move along; nothing to see here.)

Remind-related Sites and Mailing List

• We run a mailing list for fans of Remind.
• Courtesy of OFTC, there is a #remind IRC channel for people to hang out on.
• We have a Remind Wiki.
• There are presentation slides from a talk about Remind.

Remind Helpers

• Remind ships with three back-ends: rem2ps generates PostScript calendars; rem2html generates HTML ones, and tkremind provides an X Window GUI for Remind.
• Paul M. Foster has an HTML front/back-end written in PHP.
• Daniel Graham has a wxPython front/back-end called wxRemind.
• Mark Atwood has written rem2ics, a program to convert the output of Remind to RFC 2445 iCalendar format.
• Martin Michel has another program that converts a subset of Remind scripting to iCalendar format. Although it handles only a subset of Remind's syntax, it does have the advantage of preserving repeating events faithfully.
• Patrick Hof has ical2rem.rb, a Ruby script that goes the other way... it converts iCalendar format to Remind.
• Justin Alcorn wrote ical2rem which is a Perl script to convert iCalender format to Remind.
• Richard Kelly has a syntax-highlighting file for the Kate text editor.
• Jochen Sprickerhof has a number of Remind helpers written in Python:
  • A library and command-line tools (rem2ics, ics2rem) to convert between Remind and iCalendar.
  • A Radicale (CalDAV) storage back-end for Remind and Abook. This allows syncing between Remind and Android.
  • A tool to sync from CalDAV to Remind and vice-versa.

If you've written a program designed to work with Remind and would like it linked from this page, please email me.

Microsoft Policy

Remind can be made to run under Windows if you compile it with the Cygwin tools. However, I prefer you not to do that. Microsoft has in the past abused its monopoly position in an attempt to restrict free software, and currently exercises its dominant position in the business computing industry to lock its customers in. I'd prefer you to run Remind on a platform that is not controlled by Microsoft.

Apple Policy

Remind can be made to run under Mac OS X, but I prefer you not to do that. Apple is even more hostile than Microsoft to openness, using both technical and legal means to hobble what its customers and developers are allowed to do. If you are thinking of buying an Apple product, please don't. If you're unfortunate enough to already own Apple products, please consider switching to an open platform like Linux or FreeBSD that doesn't impose "1984"-like restrictions on your freedom.

Tim Bray, a major Internet technology pioneer, said it best in his blog post:

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet's future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It's a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord's pleasure and fear his anger.

I hate it.