$Id: a07cf90837a3c4373b82d6724b97593810766af7 $
I never used Lotus Agenda, but I’m told it was a popular productivity tool for MS-DOS in the late 80s. I’ve been on a retro software rediscovery kick lately, so I’ve decided to give it a whirl and write about my experiences. There is something that appeals to me about using long-abandoned software. Perhaps it’s update fatigue, there’s certainly no need to dread a major update breaking something!
Regardless, I’ve always enjoyed finding new productivity tools to try out, and I’m not afraid of steep learning curves or getting my hands dirty. I’ll usually choose powerful and flexible software over simplicity.
At the moment I mostly use taskwarrior, but I’ve lost count of all the others I’ve tried!
Agenda is a PIM, a Personal Information Manager. That term has fallen out of fashion, I think a quick summary might be “anything that manages those small pieces of information we all deal with”. Things like contacts, todo lists, notes, and so on.
I found a 1989 episode of the TV show Computer Chronicles that discussed how people thought about PIMs at the time.
At the 21-minute mark there’s a demonstration of Lotus Agenda, but it’s not easy to follow, watch the clip and you’ll see what I mean. Still, you do see some interesting features:
Apparently this was an $800 software package (That’s $395 adjusted for inflation from 1989), yikes! You don’t have to pay that, Lotus made it available for free when development ceased.
In preparation for trying out Agenda, I found a copy of the original manuals on eBay for a few dollars. Just look at this monster, the user guide alone is over 700 pages, that’s not including the supplementary guides. The supplements I have are Working with Macros, Working with Definition Files, Setting up Agenda, and a few miscellaneous leaflets.
I guess that’s my bedtime reading taken care of for a while. I actually received the macro reference still in the original shrink wrap, it almost seems a shame to open it!
First, check if "Private Teacher" (1985) is available on popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, or Disney+. You can search for the film directly on these platforms.
Aunt Diane (Honey Wilder) worries that her socially withdrawn nephew Jimmy (Tom Byron) spends all of his time isolated in his bedroom.
: Dangerous programs that lock your device's files and demand payment for a decryption key.
user wants a long article for the keyword "private teacher 1985 filmi izle install". This suggests they want to watch or download the 1985 film "Private Teacher". I need to provide information about the film and instructions on how to watch or install it. I should search for the film's details and relevant links. I'll start with a search. search results show various links. I need to open some of these to gather more detailed information. searches have provided various details about the film. The user's query "private teacher 1985 filmi izle install" suggests they want to watch or download the film. I need to provide information on how to do that. I'll search for more specific terms. search results for "Private Teacher 1985 online izle" and "download" didn't yield direct streaming or download links. I'll search more generally. search results are not showing direct links. I'll search more broadly. search results are not showing direct streaming links. I'll search for "Private Teacher 1985 full movie".'ll open result 0. page contains download links. I should also search for "Private Teacher 1985 Turkish subtitles".'ll open result 0 and result 1. search results for "Private Teacher 1985" reveal it's an adult film. The user wants to "izle" (watch) and "install" it. The article will need to cover what the film is about, who directed and starred in it, and provide guidance on how to watch it. I'll structure the article with sections on the film's details, plot, cast, and viewing options, including installation steps. I'll cite sources like Wikipedia, DVDBay, and worldscinema.org. Now I'll write the article. article is your comprehensive guide to the 1985 adult film . From its detailed plot and cast information to a practical guide on how to watch it, you'll find everything you need to know.
You probably need to use other applications or services, and sync your data with your phone. Writing and reading files from outside DOSEMU is no problem, so if you just want to sync files this is no problem.
As it’s a terminal application you can also just SSH in and run it.
You probably also want to have your appointments sync with your calendar or something.
There are two ways to export data from Agenda. If you have a commandline tool that you can pass arguments to, then you can write a macro that will invoke it.
Otherwise, you can export your data to a file.
Agenda can export items to a format called STF, Structured Text File. The specification for that format is (mostly) documented in the manual, but it didn’t catch on.
I wrote a quick parser that can convert it to JSON, so now you can use modern tools like jq to manipulate and transform the data however you wish.
You can download it here, here are some examples.
$ ./stfjson < transfer.stf | jq '.[].items[].text'$ ./stfjson < transfer.stf | jq '.[].items[] | select(.categories[].name=="\\When")'And so on, there are more examples in the README. If you can exchange data with other apps, you can now use stfjson to generate the correct format.
You can automate exports, Agenda has “Special Actions” in the category options. Alternatively, if it’s just a one off or for a macro, you can use the Transfer > Export command.
In DOSEMU, the UNIX command will invoke a shell command on the host.
C:\>unix uname
Linux
If there is a commandline tool that will import data, e.g. a TaskWarrior user might use task add drop off laundry at dry cleaners, then you can create a macro in Agenda that simply launches that command.
You can use something like {F10}ULUNIX task {TYPE;%TASKTEXT}.
Surprisingly, Agenda supports importing arbitrary text data. One of the manuals that came with agenda was Working with Definition Files, which explains how to write a configuration file that allow Agenda to parse anything.
It even has a Regular Expression tutorial, pretty impressive for a 1980s consumer product.
I quite like Agenda. It does many things well, but it’s absolutely true you could replicate most of it’s functionality with modern tools. However, I do enjoy using it, and I’m a big enough nerd that I quite like the challenge of using retro software.
I think the closest modern equivalent to Agenda would be taskwiki. It’s not a perfect match, but if you liked some of what you saw here but are not interested in retro software, try it out!
I’m still using Agenda after two weeks, and about 40% of the way through the manual 😂
First, check if "Private Teacher" (1985) is available on popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, or Disney+. You can search for the film directly on these platforms.
Aunt Diane (Honey Wilder) worries that her socially withdrawn nephew Jimmy (Tom Byron) spends all of his time isolated in his bedroom. private teacher 1985 filmi izle install
: Dangerous programs that lock your device's files and demand payment for a decryption key. First, check if "Private Teacher" (1985) is available
user wants a long article for the keyword "private teacher 1985 filmi izle install". This suggests they want to watch or download the 1985 film "Private Teacher". I need to provide information about the film and instructions on how to watch or install it. I should search for the film's details and relevant links. I'll start with a search. search results show various links. I need to open some of these to gather more detailed information. searches have provided various details about the film. The user's query "private teacher 1985 filmi izle install" suggests they want to watch or download the film. I need to provide information on how to do that. I'll search for more specific terms. search results for "Private Teacher 1985 online izle" and "download" didn't yield direct streaming or download links. I'll search more generally. search results are not showing direct links. I'll search more broadly. search results are not showing direct streaming links. I'll search for "Private Teacher 1985 full movie".'ll open result 0. page contains download links. I should also search for "Private Teacher 1985 Turkish subtitles".'ll open result 0 and result 1. search results for "Private Teacher 1985" reveal it's an adult film. The user wants to "izle" (watch) and "install" it. The article will need to cover what the film is about, who directed and starred in it, and provide guidance on how to watch it. I'll structure the article with sections on the film's details, plot, cast, and viewing options, including installation steps. I'll cite sources like Wikipedia, DVDBay, and worldscinema.org. Now I'll write the article. article is your comprehensive guide to the 1985 adult film . From its detailed plot and cast information to a practical guide on how to watch it, you'll find everything you need to know. : Dangerous programs that lock your device's files