sxhkd VS espanso

Hello, firstly I would separate all these non wm related keybindings to a program like sxhkd (https://github.com/baskerville/sxhkd) it's config is easier to modify on the fly and less bloat/unrelated stuff in window managers codebase is always better.

After getting frustrated trying to update the library generation code to conform to the AHK2 syntax changes, I decided to run with an idea that I've had for a while now: writing my own simple hotkey daemon for windows based on skhd and sxhkd.

For GUI automation and the like, I would recommend checking out xdotool and maybe sxhkd for keybinds -- though, each DE/WM tends to have some method of handling keybindings in its own way.

You control shod via a remote controller, called shodc. You map shodc calls to keybindings using a third application (a keybinder like sxhkd).

That said, if you enable linux app support, you can use something like sxhkd for hotkey definitions in combination with bash scripting.

Not that I know, at least the general syntax is said to work with KEYSYMs only. However! I've been reading some more about it and you can try this: if you're not using a US layout keyboard, start sxhkd -m 1 as described here https://github.com/baskerville/sxhkd/issues/249. And just out of curiosity, maybe you can check if you have the proper drivers installed (again, sorry I don't know the details) but at least I have xf86-input-libinput installed.

Because we specify super/ctrl/alt as modifiers x11 doesn't distinguish between left and right. See https://github.com/baskerville/sxhkd/issues/89

Now I have an script that copy the char to the clipboard when I press that shortcut. This is archived using [sxhkd](https://github.com/baskerville/sxhkd). Is there a better way?

komorebi dev here. I can't tell you the number of times I've wanted to just write my own take on sxhkd[1] for Windows and use that to manage my own keybindings for komorebi instead of ahk.

You can just as easily write your own/use another hotkey daemon or PowerShell scripts to handle komorebi's configuration and keybindings, in that sense there is no dependency on ahk at all. However, the inertia around ahk in the Windows ecosystem is undeniable and it's in the interests of making adoption and onboarding easier that the project provides example ahk files and has invested in an ahk code generation library.

My thoughts on the dominant hotkey daemon in the Windows ecosystem aside, I remain convinced that the famous bspwm socket communication architecture[2] is the best way to handle both configuration and keybindings for a tiling window manager that has been proposed to this today.

Unfortunately I have to concede that there is a certain configuration burden that comes with komorebi, which is amplified in some cases by having to write/maintain ahk. This configuration burden is largely due to the highly fragmented nature of Windows application development that is discussed often on HN and it is inescapable.

With this in mind, the next release of komorebi (currently available on master) will invest even more heavily in automatic configuration generation.

A separate repository of common application-specific configuration tweaks[3] (in YAML!) has been created which I and others from the komorebi Discord server are contributing to, with the goal of having the edge cases for as many applications as possible fully documented so that a comprehensive configuration file can be generated[4] for the user which ensures that every (major) Windows application behaves as expected under a tiling window manager.

I hope that other Windows tiling window manager developers can use these YAML definitions in the future to handle the same edge cases in their projects so that eventually there will be a tiling window manager of every flavour (bspwm, i3wm etc.) available for Windows users where having to manually accommodate and compensate for the non-standard behaviour of individual applications is a thing of the past.

[1]: https://github.com/baskerville/sxhkd

[2]: https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm#description

[3]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi-application-specific-conf...

[4]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi/#generating-common-applic...

If you want a standalone cross platform text expander I currently enjoy using Espanso[1]

[1]: https://espanso.org/

# espanso match file # For a complete introduction, visit the official docs at: https://espanso.org/docs/ # You can use this file to define the base matches (aka snippets) # that will be available in every application when using espanso. # Matches are substitution rules: when you type the "trigger" string # it gets replaced by the "replace" string. matches: # signatures - trigger: ";n" replace: "Nikola" - trigger: ";b" replace: "Brežnjak" - trigger: ";li" replace: "https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikola-bre%C5%BEnjak-892b9a24/" - trigger: ";sn" replace: "Kind regards,\nNikola Brežnjak\nhttp://www.nikola-breznjak.com/blog" - trigger: ";web" replace: "http://www.nikola-breznjak.com/" - trigger: ";em" replace: "[email protected]" ## git - trigger: ";ga" replace: "git add ." - trigger: ";gb" replace: "git branch" - trigger: ";gc" replace: "git commit -m " - trigger: ";gd" replace: "git diff --color " - trigger: ";gf" replace: "git fetch --all" - trigger: ";gi" replace: "find . -name '.DS_Store' -type f -delete" - trigger: ";gl" replace: "git log" - trigger: ";gp" replace: "git push origin main" - trigger: ";gs" replace: "git status" - trigger: ";gt" replace: "git remote -v" - trigger: ";gu" replace: "git pull origin main" ## blog - trigger: ";bimp" replace: "https://nikola-breznjak.com/blog/books/want-improve-read-books/" - trigger: ";brem" replace: "https://nikola-breznjak.com/blog/miscellaneou/make-remote-developer/" ## emojis - trigger: ";eew" replace: "⚠️" - trigger: ";eet" replace: "🤔" - trigger: ";eeb" replace: "💰" - trigger: ";eem" replace: "💪" - trigger: ";eetm" replace: "™" - trigger: ";eeh" replace: "❤️" - trigger: ";eeu" replace: "👍" - trigger: ";eep" replace: "🙏" - trigger: ";eef" replace: "🤦" - trigger: ";ees" replace: "🙂" - trigger: ";eeg" replace: "😎" - trigger: ";eev" replace: "👋" - trigger: ";eel" replace: "😂" - trigger: ";eec" replace: "👏" - trigger: ";eeo" replace: "✅" - trigger: ";eer" replace: "🚀" - trigger: ";eex" replace: "⏭️" ## replies - trigger: ";ryw" replace: "You’re welcome 👍" - trigger: ";rlmk" replace: "Please let me know 👍" - trigger: ";rbtw" replace: "Btw, how are things on your end?" - trigger: ";rt" replace: "Thank you! 👍" ## misc - trigger: ";fd" replace: "firebase deploy" - trigger: ";wed" replace: "Happy Wednesday (a dy on which, historically, most people wed on - thus: Wed nes day). Not really, but it would be a fun fact actually 🙂" - trigger: ";cl" replace: "console.log(" - trigger: ";se" replace: "select * from " - trigger: ";o" replace: "open ." - trigger: ";im" replace: "" vars: - name: "clipb" type: "clipboard" - trigger: ";ch" replace: "chrome://history" - trigger: ";;c" replace: "code ."

This should work for you. Free, cross-platform and works everywhere not just the browser. https://espanso.org/

Huh, didn't know abbrev had that limitation (wonder why?). Gave it a go in espanso (https://espanso.org/), and it does work there.

I use a tool called "Espanso" to accomplish something similar at work. It only runs locally, so no weird data scraping issues to worry about. And it's easy to update as things changes becauase everything lives in a simple yml file.

https://espanso.org/

It can do simple text replacement, so I have words, phrases, and sentences I use frequently compressed into a few keyboard clicks. It can also grab what is in your clipboard, so that can be incorporated into responses, which is simple but very handy.

A simple text replacement looks like this in the yaml file:

If you don't know what a text expander is, see: https://espanso.org