mltsk : the suboptimal tool for multitasking

The mltsk package builds upon tmux to provide simple multitasking utility, especially regarding time management. It is used to create working sessions in tmux with managed time logging. mltsk morking model is a "task", comprising its idendifying name and time logging. The package provides a command-line interface to start, open, close and end tasks.

There are two layers of utilites. At the most basic, the mltsk package 6 the "tm-" time logging commands. Next, the mltsk command layer uses those commands along with tmux to provide its working sessions.

Interface of "tm-" commands

Time logging commands:

• tmin task_name
• tmout task_name
• tmon task_name
• tmall task_name
• tmoff task_name

Working session commands:

• mltsk in task_name
• mltsk out task_name
• mltsk off task_name

Use of "tm-" commands

Simple time logging utilizes a data structure called a time_inteval, basically consisting of a beginning timestamp and an ending timestamp. A time log for a task codifies an array of time_interval's. Thus, to start tracking time in a task, an entry must be created with tmin:

# if no task_name is specified, it is named "default".
$ tmin namedtask

Runing these commands would create the time log "~/.mltsk/time_in_namedtask.mltsk".

Note: attempting to tmin twice in a row for a specific task will result in an error, since the last time_interval must be closed for a new one to be open.

Not that there is at least one time_interval related to this task, its length may be acquired by the tmon command:

# if no task_name is specified, tmon will reach for the "default" time log.
$ tmon namedtask

1:17:28

In this example, tmon was executed 1 hour, 17 minutes and 28 seconds after the last tmin was run for this specific task.

After tmin is executed, the new time_interval is open, and each tmon will count and increasing time duration. In order to close the interval, tmout must be used:

# if no task_name is specified, tmout will reach for the "default" time log.
$ tmout namedtask

This command will log that the last time_interval is now closed. From this point on, tmon's output will remain constant (until a new tmin is executed).

Note: attempting to tmout twice in a row for a specific task will result in an error, since it doesn't make sense to close an already closed time_interval. To resume time metering, a new interval must be first open.

Once there are multiple time_intervals in a task, it may be worthy to check the total time sum. This is done via tmall:

# first tmin for task
$ tmin namedtask

# tmout after 5 minutes
$ tmout namedtask

# second tmin after an arbitrary amount of time
$ tmin namedtask

# tmout after 10 minutes
$ tmout namedtask

# if no task_name is specified, tmall will reach for the "default" time log.
$ tmall namedtask

0:15:0

This command also works with open last intervals, similarly to tmon.