xhotkeys - Bind keys and mouse events to commands in the X-Window
*** Author
Tokland <arnau@ehas.org>
*** Motivation
Some desktop environments have their own hotkey launcher utilitity.
This is nice, but also has a serious problem: if you change the
environment, you have to reconfigure all the hotkeys (disgusting!).
It's better to have a utility that do this task separately.
*** How to install
- Go to xhotkeys source directory and just:
make install
...
with Debian, better create the package:
make dist-deb
dpkg -i ../xhotkeys_VERSION_all.deb
You need the "imagemagick" package installed.
- Configure your X Desktop environment to run "xhotkeys" at startup. For
example, with GNOME:
- System-> Preferences -> Sessions
- StartUp Programs -> Add
- StartUp Command: xhotkeys (Order: 50)
*** How to configure
Take a look at the manpage (man xhotkeys), but basically:
xhotkeys --config
*** Specificacions
- Python 2.3 with PyXlib, PyGlade and PyGTK libraries
- User configuration file in $HOME/.xhotkeys
- Pidfile for each hotkey daemon: $HOME/.xhotkeys.pid-$USER
- Daemon reloads configuration with SIGHUP signal
*** Why Python?
Python is a multiplataform dynamic object-oriented language. It's easy
to learn and very funny to use. With Python you spend your time
programming instead of fighting with the language itself. Moreover,
it has tons of modules and add-ons. Wrappers for the most popular C
libraries are often available. Take a look at http://www.python.org.
*** Pluses
- Developed in Python: compact, easy to understand and modify.
- In addition to keys, it recognizes mouse events.
- Graphical GTK-configuration.
- Recognizes all (eight) modifiers, not only the typical Ctrt, Alt and Shift.
- Configuration files can be changed manually.
*** Minuses:
Devoloped in Python :-). Scripting languages are big memory eaters (also
CPU, but not important for this kind of utilities), far more than compiled C
applications. Although a C version of the daemon would be nice, it's
not a urgent task for now.
*** Contact
Feel free to contact me for whatever reason at <arnau@ehas.org>