wcal: A Windows Terminal Calendar App

A terminal-based calendar application for Windows, inspired by calcurse. This app provides a text-based interface for managing appointments and todo lists, similar to the Unix/Linux calcurse application but designed specifically for Windows Console.

Features

• Three-panel interface:

  • Left panel: Daily appointments view
  • Center panel: Monthly calendar with navigation
  • Right panel: TODO list with priorities

• Calendar functionality:

  • Navigate through months and days
  • Visual highlighting of current date
  • Week numbers display
  • Appointments indicator on calendar days

• Appointment management:

  • Add appointments with time and duration
  • View daily appointments
  • Edit and delete appointments
  • Automatic sorting by time

• TODO list:

  • Add tasks with priority levels (Normal, High, Urgent)
  • Mark tasks as complete/incomplete
  • Sort by priority and completion status
  • Visual indicators for priority and status

• Data persistence:

  • Automatic saving of appointments and todos
  • Binary file format for fast loading

Requirements

• Windows 7 or later
• MSVC compiler (MinGW recommended)
• Windows Console (cmd.exe or Windows Terminal)

Building

Just run build.bat in a VS Dev CMD windows

Usage

Running the application:

calcurse.exe

Keyboard shortcuts:

Navigation:

• Arrow Keys: Navigate calendar/lists
• Tab: Switch between panels
• PgUp/PgDn: Previous/Next month (calendar) or scroll lists
• Home: Jump to today's date

Actions:

• a: Add appointment (in calendar/appointment view) or todo (in todo view)
• d: Delete selected item
• e: Edit selected item
• Space: Toggle todo completion
• h: Show help
• q: Quit application

Calendar Navigation:

• Left/Right: Previous/Next day
• Up/Down: Previous/Next week
• PgUp/PgDn: Previous/Next month

File Structure

calendar-app/
├── main.c           # Entry point and main loop
├── ui.c/h           # Terminal UI rendering
├── calendar.c/h     # Calendar calculations
├── appointments.c/h # Appointment management
├── todo.c/h         # TODO list management
├── storage.c/h      # File I/O operations
├── input.c/h        # Keyboard input handling
├── build.bat        # Windows build script
├── Makefile         # Make build configuration
└── README.md        # This file

Data Files

The application creates two data files in the current directory:

• appointments.dat: Stores all appointments
• todos.dat: Stores all TODO items

These files are automatically created on first run and updated when you exit the application.

Customization

Colors

Colors can be customized by modifying the color definitions in ui.h:

#define BORDER_FG       (COLOR_CYAN | COLOR_BRIGHT)
#define HEADER_FG       (COLOR_YELLOW | COLOR_BRIGHT)
#define TODAY_FG        (COLOR_RED | COLOR_BRIGHT)

Layout

Panel sizes can be adjusted in the draw_ui() function in ui.c.

Differences from Unix calcurse

This Windows implementation differs from the original calcurse in several ways:

1. Console API: Uses Windows Console API instead of ncurses
2. File paths: Uses current directory for data files instead of ~/.calcurse/
3. Key bindings: Adapted for Windows console (e.g., function keys work differently)
4. Visual style: ASCII box-drawing characters optimized for Windows console

Troubleshooting

Build errors:

• Ensure GCC is installed and in your PATH
• Try using MinGW-w64 for better Windows compatibility

Display issues:

• The app uses code page 437 for box-drawing characters
• Best viewed in Windows Console or Windows Terminal
• Ensure console font supports box-drawing characters (Consolas recommended)

Data not saving:

• Check write permissions in the current directory
• Ensure you exit with 'q' to save data properly

Future Enhancements

• Recurring appointments
• Import/Export to iCal format
• Notification system
• Configuration file support
• Unicode support for better graphics
• Mouse support in Windows Terminal

License

This project is inspired by calcurse (https://github.com/lfos/calcurse) but is a completely new implementation for Windows.

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues, fork the repository, and create pull requests for any improvements.