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https://github.com/EllaTheCat/dopamine-2020

i3 window manager config and scripts, tuned to help me manage my Parkinson's Disease symptoms.
https://github.com/EllaTheCat/dopamine-2020

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i3 window manager config and scripts, tuned to help me manage my Parkinson's Disease symptoms.

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# dopamine-2020 - Customising the i3 tiling window manager.



## What's in the repository?



This repository consists of the config and scripts I'm using with i3

 4.18.1 on Xubuntu 20.04 LTS.



## Disclaimer



I took the opportunity to refactor my i3 config and scripts into this

new repository after installing the latest versions of distro and i3.

Everything is on git master not on topic branches.



## Ambitions



- The default configuration is close to being 100% compatible with the

standard i3 keybindings as shown in the i3 user's guide. You can use

it immediately.



- The config file and scripts have "magic comments". These are

postprocessing directives that could, for example, customise a single

base configuration for different users or different machines.



- I greatly admire the i3 mission statement about clean code.  I'm not

in their league, but I've tried to make the code modular and

maintainable.  If nothing else, it's commented and documented.



## Why dopamine?



Dopamine is a chemical that functions as a neurotransmitter in human

brains. I have Parkinson's Disease ("PD") because the cells that make

dopamine in my brain are dying prematurely.  Lack of dopamine causes

the hand and arm tremors and the overall slowness of movement typical

of Parkinson's Disease.



The i3 window manager lets me address the ergonomics of a user

interface for people with PD.  I want to share both the code and the

lessons learned, what works and what doesn't, because I'm no expert,

just an enthusiast. Plus you lucky people without PD might like it!



This is the third such repository I've made. This time, I'm hoping to

make it easy for people to download and run, either as a whole or in

standalone pieces.



## Installation

Dopamine wants to be installed anywhere beneath ${HOME}, in a

directory accessible to git.  Decide in which directory the git clone

 will be done, change to that directory and do:



    git clone [email protected]:EllaTheCat/dopamine-2020.git

    make



## Running "make"



- Copies config files from your local repository to where i3 expects

  them at runtime.

- Copies script files from your local repository to a folder that

  should be on your ${PATH}. I chose ${HOME}/local/bin precisely

  because no-one else does, in order to avoid conflicts. Feel free to

  make it a symlink to ${HOME}/bin or whatever.

- Modifies the copies with your customisations.

- Sets the runtime file and folder permissions.

- Runs the i3 reload command should the i3 config have changed.

- Runs the i3 restart command when i3-status or i3bar has changed.



## Running "make -n"



- Performs a dry-run, printing to the console whatever commands

would have been executed without the "-n" argument.



## Classic default mode bindings

By default, the i3 config file includes a set of $mod+keysym bindings

corresponding to the bindings described in the i3 User's Guide.  I

realised that without these, a user would struggle to use i3, and

hence would not persevere with their evaluation.



Conversely, I find modifier+key bindings difficult, and don't want to

operate them accidentally, so I'd prefer to remove them.



## Building a custom i3 config



Looking at i3-config you'll see several "magic comments":



    ###INSERT_CFG00_HERE###

    ###INSERT_CFG01_HERE###



The Makefile first deploys "i3-config"  as "$HOME/.i3/config" and

then runs sed scripts that perform in-place replacement of any

magic comments with the contents of the files they reference.

These "cfg" files live in "i3-config.d':



- cfg00 - Classic bindings

- cfg01 - Numpad bindings

- cfg02 - Cluster bindings.

- cfg03 - Reserved

- cfg04 - Primary bindings

- cfg05 - Secondary bindings

- cfg06 - Reserved

- cfg07 - Settings (non-executable)

- cfg08 - Settings (executable)

- cfg09 - Settings (i3bar, debug mode)



There's nothing to stop competent users editing "cfg" files, and this

is to be encouraged. I think, in practice, a user would have to accept

my changes via 'git pull' and then restore their cfg files with their

changes. I think the use of multiple cfg files makes that manual chore

slightly easier. What has been done is a step forward but it's not

enough.



## Three modes, one key to bind them



In addition to "default" mode, this config adds Primary and Secondary

modes. There are other modes, like resize, but they aren't essential.

The Menu key cycles round the three essential modes :



    default -> Primary -> Secondary -> default



and the spacebar goes back to default.



## Primary mode

This mode does much the same as default mode.  The difference is the

difference between emacs and vi, modifiers versus modes, two handed

versus one handed. Easier for people with PD.



## Secondary mode

This mode is used for settings. It's quite sparse, which may help

laptop users.



## Mode and modifier symmetry

The left Windows key behaves like Menu when pressed solo and Super_L

when modifying another key, thanks to "xcape".  It's important for

accessibility to have both behaviours avaiiable on either side.  Both

Alt keys are mapped to Escape when used solo; it follows that Win and

Alt can be swapped as some users prefer.



## Mode indication

When not in default mode the word Primary or Secondary is shown on a

red tab next to the workspace tabs. Furthermore, comared to default

mode, the screen dims slightly in Primary mode and dims slightly more

in Secondary mode.



## Command prompt

The command prompt is a dmenu. It is invoked with one of the key

sequences {Menu, Tab}, or {Menu, backslash} when the layout makes it

comfortable.  It then reads two characters, and forwards them to the

"i3-filewatcher" script (q.v.).



The command prompt can also be invoked by KP_Insert, which configures

the numpad to read in two or three digits, and as before, forwards

them to the "i3-filewatcher" script.



Both methods timeout after four seconds and send a key event

equivalent to pressing Enter (Return). My PD makes the delay

acceptable and the automatic Enter key appreciated.

The delay is implemented wth sleep() and configurable.

The Enter key automation can be disabled.



## Tasker, AutoVoice, AutoTools

Tasker is a popular android application that lets users write android

programs to run on their phone or tablet. AutoVoice is a Tasker plugin

for speech-to-text. AutoTools is a Tasker plugin that provides "ssh".

together, they can let the user send commands from the phone to the

"i3-filewatcher" script.



## File Watcher

The file watcher watches the file "/dev/shm/$USER/i3/command".

Whenever the command prompt or Tasker writes a command to that file,

the command is forwarded to the dispatcher for processing.  There is

no acknowledgement for commands.



## Dispatcher

The dispatcher receives a command sent by the file watcher, and uses

pattern matching to invoke command-specific scripts.



## Focus App By Alias.

A command alias typically consists of two characters that refer to a

command and its parameters. Typing the command alias switches to the

running application, launching it if not already running.



This looked easy but the implementation has required the "Window

Change Monitor". This is an i3-msg subscription to window events and a

monitor that marks the focused window with the workspace name.



There should be only one window per output marked with the name of the

workspace. Two marks with the same name on the same workspace is a

major bug.



## Launcher

Deprecated in favour of android apps. To be removed.



## Transcribe

Deprecated in favour of android apps. To be retained.



This is a niche feature, speech to text, that just happens to be

important for EllaTheCat.



On the phone, saying "OK Google" triggers speech to text. The

resulting lowercase text is written to the File Watcher via the ssh

conection. Eventually punctuated text appears in an Emacs buffer

"Clipboard".



## i3-config-scripts



The "i3-config-scripts" file tidies up the management of "services"

that run in the background.



    i3-config-scripts restart



Invoked wih arguments as above, preceded by 'exec' in i3-config, it

starts the commands and mark "services" after everything else in the

i3-config startup sequence.



    i3-config-scripts restart



Invoked as above from a terminal, it stops the commands and marks

"services", restarts the i3 window manager, then starts the two

"services" again. I had not realised that restarting i3 required

restarting the "services". The date and time of the last startup

appears in the window title.



## i3-status



The i3-status script (note the dash) wraps the i3status script (that

comes with i3) such that extra indicators can be prepended to those of

i3status. You can revert to i3status only by editing the i3bar config

in i3-config.d/cfg09. i3-status prepends the following variables:



- ${Wmic} ${umic} ${rmic} each shows 0 when muted, 1 when active.



- ${wcam} This is set to "idle" by default, unless it is active, in

  which case the name of the program accessing the webcam is

  shown.



- ${ccmt} My desktop PC has Intel mobo graphics that have recently

  developed screen tearing on video. My workaround is to use a

  Raspberry Pi Model 4 running Kodi and LibreElec on the Broadcom

  video core. This variable tracks on-chip temperature. With passive

  cooling, no fan, rendering SD video fullscreen, the temperature is

  45'C, ambient is 19'C. A one second ping fails should the Raspberry

  Pi be offline, so the refresh of the bar is set to three seconds.



- ${cursor} This shows the mouse position (x,y) pixel co-ordinates,

  origin top left of the leftmost screen. i3 usage of the mouse is

  reduced, ao it's easier to lose it, hence this helps find it.



## settings-2020



settings-2020 is a sibling github repo of dopamine-2020. It holds my

dotfiles, configs and scripts in a directory along with a Makefile

that installs them in their runtime locations. Scripts are vetted by

the ShellCheck utility. I intend that the scripts in the myscripts

directory will be moved from dopamine-2020 to settings-2020.



settings-2020 also manages sensitive information. On the one hand I

want to share but on the other hand I want my privacy preserved.



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