Notices

Wouldn't it be great to be on your NIT in Xterm, tap a single button at the $ prompt, and have

typed in for you automatically?

Or to tap a single button and have typed:

Or click on a button called "fsck" and get:

That is, wouldn't it be great to have a macro-typing applet that could enter your most used commands (or parts of commands) automatically in Xterm?

Similarly, in MicroB (or Links2), wouldn't it be great to have a form-filler, that is, a macro-typing-tool that, faced with a form, could fill in stuff like email addresses and street addresses. If the tool also had password protection and the ability to understand <<tabs>> and <<returns>>, it could securely store and automatically fill in, say, your email address and (automatically including a tab and return) your password; or your log-in; or it could fill in your complete name-and-address, with proper formatting, with one click of a button.

Well, such a macro-typer exists for Windows and this is a plea to programmers to make one for Maemo. A key part of what makes this applet so great is that it is always-on-top, but enters the characters wherever the cursor is in the next window down. And it can be quickly minimized to the task bar. (On a Tablet it would ideally minimize to the status bar.)

The Windows applet is called TypeItIn. You can download an old freeware version of it here. The current version is substantially more powerful and is available here as shareware. That website also provides a good description of it.

Here is a screenshot:



In the panel I made up for this screenshot (the current version allows you to switch among various panels and to decide which of those to password-protect), you could, for example, click "Complete Address" and it would type:
or you could click on the button named "fsck" and it would type:

Any takers? Please??

(If this looks familiar, it's because I'd tried to arouse interest in such a project once before. Rbrewer123 and Benson posted some ideas there that might be useful.)

or use Command navigator

Happy to try it, thanks! (Didn't know it typed macros.)

Since the author says,

do I need Command Navigator or does Personal Menu offer that functionality, too?

This is nice, but my current Xterm supports Sudo Gainroot with a single click and apt-get update with a single click. I just used the settings available now. I could create more, but these are the ones I use most.

Well, with xte, anything that runs commands can do it; so any of Personal Menu, CmdNav, osso-statusbar-cpu, powerlaunch, and probably others will do. Trouble is, they don't give you the always-on-top window you want, so you have to launch them with the panel, or with the power button, in the case of powerlaunch.

Personal Navigator will allow you to launch command in xterm, but there is an annoying bug with xterm which opens two window when doing this. I don't think there is anyway to get it to type text in a currently open xterm.

Thanks all for the Command Navigator/Personal Menu recommendation. Personal Menu is a great app, much better than my old Simple Launcher.

HOWEVER, it still leaves me wanting a macro typing tool. It would be such a boon for the tablet. Here is fiferboy's reply to my question about using Personal Menu for form filling (fiferboy is PM's creator):

So, I'm still looking for takers! I swear, if you have a Windows box to try out TypeItIn, you'll be delighted about what a great time-and-hassle-saver it can be. Especially when you don't have a full-size keyboard handy. (Like when you're traveling light with your NIT and need to fill in all this hotel reservation info, when you're shopping online ... )

(I'm thinking about making some comments here about the iPod Touch and how it compares to the NITs, just to keep the thread alive until some developer gets the bug to code a macro typing tool. )

You could make an xkbd layout that.would type in leters with a single buttons.

Starting with fiferboy's advice,
I've been trying to find a Linux macro typer. And I've had some success, but Linux coders/users would be better able than me to assess them.

1. First, there's Snippits. I have a feeling this is the most developed but is problematic since it "can work from any system that supports the Ruby programming platform." Does that kill it for maemo purposes? Or is that a good thing? Here's a Lifehacker article called "Automate Repetitive Typing with Snippits.". It includes this YouTube video of Snippits in action. Snippits has some weird, extra capablities, like it can grab info from the internet and put it in with what you're typing. It can also automatically enter formatted dates, times, etc. FWIW, here's a How-To thread on ubuntuforums.

2. Next, and good since it's Python-based, is Autokey. "It listens to keyboard events on /dev/input/eventX and uses the python-xlib library to send xtest events to drive the expansions." It, too, has a YouTube video and an example abbr.ini file.

3. There are various Firefox add-ons, which would need porting to MicroB. I like the idea of an applet that can automatically enter text in any maemo program, but a MicroB browser add-on would address most needs. I need to test these still, but the obvious ones seem to be: Clippings, Fireform, and Formfiller.

Post #9, directly above, is much more important than this one, but I couldn't resist ...

Doing my research for the preceding post, I came across plenty of Linux users wishing there were an automatic-text-entering tool like TypeItIn. For example:


"i've just spent the last hour searching many linux software sources. i'm looking for a program where i can set up keyboard shortcuts that will enter text strings into various applications. under windows there is typeitin, and also a utility made by pc magazine called robotype. anyone recall seeing something similar?"

"I am trying to find an application that i can use to send keystrokes to other applications.
For example in windows i used to use a program called typeitin "

"TypeItIn lets you define buttons that will insert any information you
want in any Windows application ...
Is there a Linux equivalent?"

"The one Windows ap I cannot live without is a little one that saves
phrases of indefinite length and lets you insert one you select by
clicking on one of an indefinite number of buttons.
And it works with any application!
Is there something like that for Linux?"