This repository exists because my top priority is to get an offsite backup of my sway environment, and hence that's all it is for the moment, a backup. I want to share my documented configuration soon, so I might as well let my alter-ego Ella the Cat put her marketing hat on to keep you interested.
Another kitchen sink commit at start of March aimed at a release for April. I've been using the config to see what works, broken it, fixed it, and this is now baseline.
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Less is more at startup. As I had hoped, I'm learning the workspaces, 33 for Emacs, the 5xy drop a terminal by workspace feels right, so the '999-$user.config' withers away.
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I have a shiny 3rd monitor, it's detachable, and sits underneath my two side-by-side monitors, so this config is still good for dual monitors only. I've kept the even-&-odd workspaces at left-&-right. I've kept to a side by side panorama for the backdrop.
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The super-fast reaper mode blew up in my face, it has been rewritten. Thanks bindsym --no-repeat.
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Nautilus (45?) has started to play nice, even the indexing can be usefully applied, so it's default again.
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60% compact keyboards have arrow keys by default, escaping / and ? is easier, and after much agonising Menu is on left side backslash by default for the foreseable future, right side is still possible.
I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD) back in 2014. I like messing with computers. I don't want PD to stop me programming. I don't want people to think PD has made me stupid.
The project is a working configuration for Sway, a tiling window manager. It is the capabilities of Sway that make it accessible. Sway automates window placement so I need not, but more to the point, when
Take whatever you want, but please give me attribution for my work and attribute others for theirs. Abide by the LICENSE is all you must do but be kind and considerate please. If this project helps you or someone you know in any way with accessibility or Parkinson's my imposter syndrome would like to know.
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Modifier-centric and mode-centric bindings on the same keys so you use what works for you. For example my left hand uses modifiers, my right hand needs modes.
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WASD keyboard The main keyboard provides three inverted-T cursor keypads for focusing a container, moving a container, resizing a container. These can be mixed together, they can be used in default mode with the Mod4 modifier,or unmodified in a Menu mode entered by the Menu key. The Menu key provides two major modes, Menu Keys and More Menu Keys.
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i3|sway keyboard The WASD keyboard is more or less a simple rearrangement of the standard i3|sway layout we have all invested in. I intend to make the i3|sway standard bindings available as an alternative to WASD eventually. Note that with 100 instead of 10 workspaces (q.v.) the standard digit bindings have had to go.
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100 workspaces with customisable and or scripted behaviours Example bash scripts for editor and browser workspaces. To visit a workspace, press a dedicated key and then two digits, to move a container, press a different dedicated key and two digits. Three more dedicated keys provide three more tables.
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3 tables of 100 user definable commands filled with examples: setting window opacity, scaling workspaces for when you're tired, a few TV channels, sway manpages, i3 user's guide, combi workspaces of app and browser, utilities such as getting app_id, shellcheck your scripts, put your phone in a sway container, make a sway window bigger than one screen for snazzy wallpaper, widescreen movies, "total emacs immersion" or just doing your makeup.
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Four status bars with dual monitor systems. Yes, you can show or hide them altogether or individually. The lower edge status bars are reserved for binding mode indicator and workspace tabs. The upper edge status bars include an ascii-art animated thermometer for monitoring CPUs, disk usage and temperatures, status of helper programs, a clock.
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Startup. A example copy of my startup configuration to get things moving in the morning. Tunes. Email. Browsers with your preferred pages or folders preloaded. Emacs server and client per instance workspaces.
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Shutdown. A really simple and fast way to get away from the computer without subsequent worry that you've forgotten to do something.
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Online help framework. I use framework in the industry standard adjectival sense, to mean half-finished, ready to explain the obvious and no help at all with the obscure. Here's what's coming:
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Binding Mode Indicator, a dark text on dazzling yellow background, that tells you that you're not in Kansas anymore, but in a non-default mode where keys do different things compared with their usual behaviour. Our correspondent Mr Jones the butcher reminds us DO NOT PANIC. First, if the UI freezes or keys go dead then your typo has put you in a surprise mode by mistake and second, that if you are not in default mode PRESS SPACE to get back there.
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A green nagbar that appears at the bottom edge of the screen can be hidden or shown on demand with the binding Mod4+Shift+Caps. When visible, the green banner provides online help buttons operable by mouse, also reload and dismiss buttons as on the red nagbar, and finally an exit button.
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Help topics, prefixed "about" cover an intro, modes, keys, menus, workspaces. They are shell scripts which load themselves as free form text to be displayed in Emacs, but could be Markdown or asciidoc as determined by the script shebang.
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context sensitive help is one button but what you see depends on the mode (binding state), so all modes can have relevant documentation displayed on demand,. Even if it is just the bindings code reformatted, it's up to date.
I developed this for my own use so have not been as hard on myself as I would be professionally. These are the things I have to do in the short term for this project to become shipshape.
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Comments in code I was intending to put all documentation in the code as comments. I intend to purge it in favour of the green nagbar help topics.
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$HOME $USER Fix numerous hardcoded "/home/ellathecat" strings, with sway config variables and bash variables.
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ShellCheck Scripts Every script to pass ShellCheck by hand. Automation not a shipshape requirement. Initial commit exempt.
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One Config Review Concatenate all configs into one, strip comments and blank lines, insert file boundaries. Ask sway reddit how to run the nagbar validation on it.
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About Workspaces All the help topics to have something of substance written. The workspace related topics need drafting.
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Context Help Excepting Menu Keys and More Menu Keys modes, not a shipshape requirement beyond an empty document with the correct title for the current mode. There has to be a WASD keyboard layout diagram accessible (show|hide) via the keyboard for these two modes. Mod5+slash is reserved for this.
Ella was my pet cat and the inspiration for my not-at-work alter-ego EllaTheCat on github. She is also my presence as EllaTheCat on reddit as someone who is helpful but not afraid to show her claws. I'm Karl Wood, the one with PD.