Frigcal — Personal Calendar GUI; No Login Required
Author:
© quixotely.com, 2024
© M. Lutz, 2014-2017
License:
Please see terms-of-use.txt in the same folder as this file.
VERSION 3.0 UPDATE
Please see README-3.0.txt in this folder for additions and
changes made in this program's version 3.0. Because this is
likely an interim release, older docs have not been updated.
VERSION 2.0 GUIDE
The following is still mostly applicable to 3.0. Please see the
version 3.0 update noted above for important exceptions.
Fetch:
From https//learning-python.com/frigcal.html download and unzip:
- Frigcal.app.zip (macOS app)
- Frigcal-64bit.zip or Frigcal-32bit.zip (Windows executable)
- Frigcal.zip (Linux executable)
- Frigcal-source.zip (source code)
See Package Usage Basics below for more install details.
Start:
To launch the program, run the unzipped folder or its file:
- Frigcal.app (macOS app)
- frigcal-launcher.exe (Windows executable)
- frigcal-launcher (Linux executable)
- frigcal-launcher.pyw (source code)
See Package Usage Basics below for more run details.
Docs:
Open UserGuide.html in a web browser for the main user guide.
Select '?' in the GUI to view that document in any distribution.
Configs:
Edit frigcal_configs.py to customize frigcal's appearance and behavior.
Backups:
frigcal saves backup copies of your changed calendar files to the
Backups folder in your calendar folder. See UserGuide.html.
Tools:
frigcal is coded in Python 3.X, and uses tkinter/Tk for its GUI.
macOS frozen apps are built with py2app; others use PyInstaller.
Upgrades:
To install a new version of frigcal in the future, save and restore
your frigcal_configs.py, and possibly Calendars/ and MonthImages/.
See UserGuide.html's "Data Files" for more details.
Updates:
Watch http://learning-python.com/post-release-updates.html
for new-release announcements and additional usage pointers.
Other:
See "Recent Highlights" in UserGuide.html for version changes.
See UserGuide.html or folder docetc/docimgs for GUI screenshots.
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Package Usage Basics
frigcal is available as full source code, a macOS app, and executables
for Windows and Linux. Source code is the ultimate in portability,
but apps and executables integrate better with your computer's GUI,
do not require any additional install steps, and are immune to
future changes in the Python programming language they use.
The following sections give the fundamentals of each format's usage:
- macOS (f.k.a. Mac OS X) App Package
- Windows Executable Package
- Linux Executable Package
- Source-Code Package
- Android source code + patches
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macOS App Package
The macOS app runs only on Macintosh systems, but requires no
Python install and better supports the macOS user experience.
To Install:
Fetch file "Frigcal.app.zip", unzip it by a double-click (or other),
and drag the resulting Frigcal.app to your /Applications folder in
Finder to access it from Launchpad. You can also move Frigcal.app
and create aliases to it anywhere else on your computer.
To Run:
Click "Frigcal.app" to start the program (or run the app any other way).
A default empty calendar is created on the first run for new events.
Running Frigcal.app automatically launches frigcal's startup launcher,
the same as running the source-code package's frigcal-launcher.pyw.
Clicking frigcal's app icon or Dock entry while the program is running
automatically deiconifies (unhides) its main window, and always lifts
it above other windows on screen (handy to locate it in a busy session).
Double-click the app and single-click the Dock to make this work.
Files:
Your frigcal_configs.py file is located inside the unzipped app's
folder, at path:
Frigcal.app/Contents/Resources
Navigate to this nested folder in Finder by a right-click on
Frigcal.app and Show Package Contents (or use "ls" in Terminal).
Your UserGuide.html is in the same folder, but can also be
accessed by the program's "?" button.
Scripts:
All frigcal scripts are frozen executables in the app's folder:
Frigcal.app/Content/MacOS
The scripts have no ".py" extension in this format, but otherwise run
exactly as documented. No separate Python install is required to run
these from command lines in Terminal. For example, if you've drug the
unzipped folder to your /Applications, the following work in Terminal:
/Applications/Frigcal.app/Contents/MacOS/searchcals cheatsheet -all
/Applications/Frigcal.app/Contents/MacOS/pickcolor
Note that source-code versions of these scripts are also included in
the app's Contents/Resources folder for their documentation, but will
not generally run in this form and location; use the frozen executables
in Contents/MacOS instead.
Versions:
The macOS app was built on OS X version 10.11 El Capitan,
as a universal binary. It has been verified to run on
this as well as macOS 10.12 Sierra, and is expected to
work on later macOS versions. Support for earlier
versions of macOS remains to be verified.
Known issues:
Due to limitations in the underlying Tk toolkit, emojis are replaced
for display only; see the user guide for details.
Due to a flaw in the underlying Tk toolkit, closed windows may leave
zombie items in Dock menus; these can be safely ignored.
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Windows Executable Package
The Windows executables run only on Windows systems, but require
no Python install and better support the Windows user interface.
To install:
Fetch file "Frigcal-64bit.zip" or "Frigcal-32bit.zip" and unzip
it on your computer (see Versions below for the difference).
Copy the unzipped folder to C:\Program Files or elsewhere to
save it. Make Desktop shortcuts to the unzipped folder's
executable (per the next section) for quick access as desired.
To Run:
Click on the unzipped folder's "frigcal-launcher.exe" file to run.
A default empty calendar is created on the first run for new events.
File "frigcal.exe" starts the GUI too, but it may take some time to
appear for large calendars or slow machines.
Files:
Your UserGuide.html, frigcal_configs.py, and utility scripts are
are all located at the top level of the same folder as the ".exe"
executable (the folder created by unzipping the download).
Scripts:
frigcal's extra utility scripts in this package are all provided as
executables that have a ".exe" extension instead of a ".py" and can be
run without a local Python install, but otherwise work the same. For
example, the source package's searchcals.py becomes an executable
(the ".exe" in the following is usually optional):
Frigcal-64bit\searchcals.exe cheatsheet -all
Scripts' ".py" source files are also included for their in-file
documentation, but some may not run in this form; use their .exes.
Versions:
The Windows executable comes in both 64- and 32-bit forms, as denoted
by its zipfile names. The former works only on 64-bit systems; the
latter works more broadly but may run slower on 64-bit systems. The
64-bit executable was built on Windows 7, and the 32-bit version on
Windows 8, but both have been verified to run on Windows 7, 8, and 10.
Known issues:
Startups may be briefly delayed due to PyInstaller folder extracts.
Use the source-code package if this is problematic on slower machines.
Due to limitations in the underlying Tk toolkit, emojis are replaced
for display only; see the user guide for details.
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Linux Executable Package
The Linux executable runs only on Linux systems, but requires no
Python install and may better support the Linux user interface.
To install:
Fetch file "Frigcal.zip" and unzip it on your computer. Copy the
unzipped folder to your home, desktop, or other folder to make it
easy to access, and make desktop shortcuts to the executable as
desired.
To Run:
Click on the unzipped folder's "frigcal-launcher" file to run.
A default empty calendar is created on the first run for new events.
File "frigcal" starts the GUI too, but it may take some time to
appear for large calendars or slow machines.
Files:
Your UserGuide.html, frigcal_configs.py, and utility scripts are
are all located at the top level of the same folder as the frigcal
executable (the folder created by unzipping the download).
Scripts:
frigcal's extra utility scripts in this package are all provided as
executables that have no extension instead of a ".py" and can be
run without a local Python install, but otherwise work the same.
For example, the source package's searchcals.py becomes an executable:
Frigcal/searchcals cheatsheet -all
Scripts' ".py" source files are also included for their in-file
documentation, but some may not run in this form; use the executables.
Versions:
The sole Linux executable was built on Ubuntu Linux 16.04, on a
64-bit system. It is known to work on this and other versions of
Ubuntu and is expected to work on some other distributions of Linux,
but this is to be verified. If it fails on your system, use the
source-code frigcal package.
Known issues:
Startups may be briefly delayed due to PyInstaller folder extracts.
Use the source-code package if this is problematic on slower machines.
Due to limitations in the underlying Tk toolkit, emojis are replaced
for display only; see the user guide for details.
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Source-Code Package
The source-code version of frigcal runs on all flavors of macOS,
Windows, and Linux, but requires a separately installed Python.
To Install:
Fetch file "Frigcal-source.zip" and unzip it on your computer.
Also fetch and install a usable Python 3.X if one is not already
present. On macOS and Linux, also install the tkinter/Tk toolkit
if needed. See the user guide's "Dependencies" for details.
To Run:
Run "frigcal-launcher.pyw" in the unzipped folder to launch the
program, using any Python program-launching technique on your
platform: Windows icon clicks, IDLE, command lines, macOS Python
Launcher, etc. You can also run the file from within PyEdit
(see learning-python.com/pyedit).
Files:
Your UserGuide.html, frigcal_configs.py, and utility scripts
are all located in the same folder as the main scripts' file
(the folder created by unzipping the download).
Versions:
Source code is platform-neutral and is not dependent on the
version of your operating system. This package runs on all
versions of macOS, Windows, and Linux in common use today.
The source-code package does, however, require and assume a
separately installed Python on your computer: download one
for your platform from www.python.org/downloads if Python is
not already installed.
frigcal's source code has been verified to run on all Python
3.X through 3.5, and has no third-party install requirements.
Later Python versions are expected to work too, but 3.5 is
the latest version verified. frigcal uses the Pillow/PIL
extension for month images if present and needed; this varies
by image type, and Python and Tk versions (see the user guide).
Known issues:
Due to limitations in the underlying Tk toolkit, emojis are replaced
for display only; see the user guide for details.
On macOS, closed windows may leave zombie items in Dock menus due
to a flaw in the underlying Tk toolkit; use Tk 8.6+ if possible.
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Android source code + patches
The source-code package is known to work on Android when run in
the Pydroid 3 app, after fetching a small number of patched code
files (patches are not required as of Frigcal 3.0).
For all details on Android install and usage, please see this doc.
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