potato-timer

A simple Pomodoro-style timer with intuitive CLI, written in Python. Developed and tested in Pop!_OS Linux and occasionally tested in Windows 10.

Downloading the timer

Easiest way to get the program is to install via pip:

pip install potatotimer

and create your own config.yml file. More info on configuration down below.

Configuration

Timers can be configured using YAML. You should create one of those configuration files listed below, or you may provide an alternative
configuration file with the command line option -c 'path/to/config.yml'.

Config will be automatically searched from (in this order):

• config file provided via command line option
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/potatotimer/config.yml
• ~/.config/potatotimer/config.yml
• ~/.potatotimer-config.yml

An example configuration file is something worth looking at.

More on $XDG_CONFIG_HOME.

Timers

Timers are configured as a list of type-duration pairs, where type is basically the name of the timer and duration is given in minutes. Built-in types of timers are work, short break and long break, though you may call your timers whatever you like i.e. coffee break.

A single work timer would be configured as follows:

timers:
  - type: "work"
    duration: 25

Decimals are also accepted for duration (i.e. duration: 0.1 is a timer lasting 6 seconds). More thorough example of timer configuration can be found in the example configuration file further down.

Alarm type

Alarm type can be either beep or flash.

• beep rings the terminal bell
• flash flashes the terminal window.

The default when setting omitted from the file is beep.

Example: alarm_type: "beep"

Alarm repeat

Number of times alarm will sound/flash each time alarm triggers.

Example: alarm_repeat: 3

Use of colors

When use_colors is se to True the program will be beautifully decorated with meaningful colors for different types of timers:

• work is red
• short break is green
• long break is blue
• Any other type of timer will be yellow.

Set this False and the program will be plain black and white. The default is True.

If you prefer to use the colors from your terminal, set prefer_terminal_colors to True. For both the terminal and built-in color schemes the background will be "transparent", as in not have any other color than what your terminal has.

Example configuration file

alarm_type: "beep"
alarm_repeat: 2
use_colors: True
prefer_terminal_colors: False
timers:
  - type: "work"
    duration: 25
  - type: "short break"
    duration: 5
  - type: "work"
    duration: 25
  - type: "short break"
    duration: 5
  - type: "work"
    duration: 25
  - type: "short break"
    duration: 5
  - type: "work"
    duration: 25
  - type: "long break"
    duration: 35

More sample configs in the sample-configs folder.