linux-bin/nj

#!/bin/bash
if [ "$1" == "-h" ] ; then
    echo "
          nj - new journal, create/open markdown text file for human writing
             - creates new or opens existing file in the user's preferred EDITOR 
             (e.g. if defined in .bashrc) else nano is used as default.
    
              Usage: `basename $0` 
                     `basename $0` my-title ~/projects/foo ~/bin/nj-ucsc.md
              
              The first example above would create new timestamped file in the default 
              notes directory.  
              The second example would create/open existing file called 'my-title.md' 
              in a directory 'projects/foo' using a custom user template called 'nj-ucsc.tmpl'

              Setup .bashrc.local or other user specific config file for defining 
              EDITOR, MY_NAME variables: 'export EDITOR=subl'
    "
    echo "$(tput setaf 6)$EDITOR $(tput setaf 7)is currently set as editor"
    exit 0
fi

defTitle=journal
defDir=notes
defApp=nano #nano,vim,nvim,gvim,emacs,atom,subl
defTemplate=$HOME/bin/nj.tmpl

title=$1
basedir=$2
mdtemplate=$3
app=$EDITOR
author=$MY_NAME

if [[ -z $author ]]; then
	author=$USER
fi

if [[ -z $title ]]; then
	title=$defTitle
fi

if [[ -z $basedir ]]; then
	basedir=$HOME/$defDir
fi

if [[ -z $mdtemplate ]]; then
	mdtemplate=$defTemplate
fi

if [[ -z $app ]]; then
	app=$defApp
fi

#basedir=if [[ -z $var 2:-$HOME/$defDir}

fn=$basedir/$(date +"%Y-%m-%d")-$title.md

if [[ -e $fn ]]
then
	echo "opening $fn"
	$app $fn
else
	echo "creating $fn"
    cat $mdtemplate | sed -E "s|(date: ).+|\1$(date --iso-8601='seconds')|" | sed -E "s|(author: ).+|\1$author  |" | sed -E "s|(title: ).+|\1$title  |" >> $fn
	$app $fn
fi