knausj_talon

Community-maintained Talon command grammar.

Can be used on its own, but shines when combined with:

• Cursorless for programming and text editing
• Rango for browser navigation
• gaze-ocr for advanced cursor control using eye tracking and text recognition (OCR)
• AXKit (macOS only) to enhance Talon with native OS accessibility integrations
• Other user file sets

Installation

Prerequisites

• Talon
• Mac, Windows, or Linux
• Can work with both Talon's built-in Conformer (wav2letter) speech recognition engine (recommended), or Dragon Naturally Speaking (Windows) / Dragon for Mac (although beware that Dragon for Mac is deprecated).
• Includes commands for working with an eye tracker, but not required

Linux & Mac

It is recommended to install knausj_talon using git.

1. Install git

2. Open a terminal (Mac / Ubuntu)

3. Paste the following into the terminal and hit enter:

   cd ~/.talon/user
   git clone https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon knausj_talon

Note that it is also possible to install knausj by downloading and extracting a zip file, but this approach is discouraged because it makes it more difficult to keep track of any changes you may make to your copy of the files.

Windows

It is recommended to install knausj_talon using git.

1. Install git

2. Open a terminal

3. Paste the following into the terminal and hit enter:

   cd %AppData%\Talon\user
   git clone https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon knausj_talon
   

Note that it is also possible to install knausj by downloading and extracting a zip file, but this approach is discouraged because it makes it more difficult to keep track of any changes you may make to your copy of the files.

Getting started with Talon

1. help active will display the available commands for the active application.
   • Available commands can change with the application, or even window title that has focus.
   • You may navigate help using the displayed numbers. e.g., help one one or help eleven to open the 11th item in the help list.
   • Note that all help-related commands are defined in core/help/help.talon and core/help/help_open.talon
2. You can also search for commands by saying help search <phrase>. For example, help search tab displays all tab-related commands, and help search help displays all help-related commands.
3. You can also jump immediately into a particular help context display by recalling the name displayed in help window (based on the name of the .talon file) e.g. help symbols or help visual studio
4. help alphabet will display the alphabet
5. command history will toggle a display of the recent commands
6. help format will display the available formatters with examples.
7. Many useful, basic commands are defined in https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/core/edit/standard.talon
   • undo that and redo that are the default undo/redo commands.
   • paste that, copy that, and cut that for pasting/copy/cutting, respectively.
8. For community-generated documentation on Talon itself, please visit https://talon.wiki/

It's recommended to learn the alphabet first, then get familiar with the keys, symbols, formatters, mouse, and generic_editor commands.

Once you have the basics of text input down, try copying some code from one window to another.

After that, explore using ordinal repetition for easily repeating a command without pausing (e.g., saying go up fifth will go up five lines), window switching (focus chrome), and moving around in your text editor of choice.

If you use vim, just start with the numbers and alphabet, otherwise look at generic_editor.talon as well at jetbrains, vscode, and any other integrations.

Alphabet

The alphabet is defined here https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/core/keys/keys.py#L3

help alphabet will open a window that displays the alphabet. help close to hide the window.

Try saying e.g. air bat cap to insert abc.

Keys

Keys are defined in keys.py. The alphabet is used for A-Z. For the rest, search for modifier_keys and then keep scrolling through the file, eg. roughly https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/core/keys/keys.py#L111

All key commands are defined in keys.talon. For example, say shift air to press shift-a, which types a capital A.

On Windows, try commands such as

• control air to press control-a and select all.

• super-shift-sun to press windows-shift-s to trigger the screenshot application (Windows 10). Then try escape to exit the screenshot application.

On Mac, try commands such as

• command air to press command-a and select all.

• control shift command 4 to press ctrl-shift-cmd-4 to trigger the screenshot application. Then try escape to exit the screenshot application. Please note the order of the modifiers doesn't matter.

Any combination of the modifiers, symbols, alphabet, numbers and function keys can be executed via voice to execute shorcuts. Modifier keys can be tapped using press, for example press control to tap the control key by itself.

Symbols

Some symbols are defined in keys.py, so you can say e.g. control colon to press those keys. https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/core/keys/keys.py#L140

Some other symbols are defined here: https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/plugin/symbols/symbols.talon

Formatters

help format will display the available formatters with examples of the output.

Try using formatters by saying e.g. snake hello world, which will insert hello_world

Multiple formatters can be used together, e.g. dubstring snake hello world. This will insert "hello_world"

Formatters (snake, dubstring) are defined here https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/core/text/formatters.py#L137

All formatter-related commands are defined here https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/core/text/text.talon#L8

Mouse commands

See https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/plugin/mouse/mouse.talon

Generic editing commands

https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/core/edit/edit.talon

These generic commands are global. Commands such as go word left will work in any text box.

Repeating commands

For repeating commands, useful voice commands are defined here: https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/plugin/repeater/repeater.talon

Try saying e.g. go up fifth will go up five lines. Try saying e.g. select up third to hit shift-up three times to select some lines in a text field.

Window management

Global window managment commands are defined here: https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/core/windows_and_tabs/window_management.talon

• running list will toggle a GUI list of words you can say to switch to running applications.
• focus chrome will focus the chrome application.
• launch music will launch the music application. Note this is currently only implemented on Mac OS X.

Screenshot commands

https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/plugin/screenshot/screenshot.talon

Programming Languages

Specific programming languages may be activated by voice commands, or via title tracking.

Activating languages via commands will enable the commands globally, e.g. they'll work in any application. This will also disable the title tracking method (code.language in .talon files) until the "clear language modes" voice command is used.

The commands for enabling languages are defined here: https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/core/modes/language_modes.talon

By default, title tracking activates coding languages in supported applications such as VSCode, Visual Studio (requires plugin), and Notepad++.

To enable title tracking for your application:

1. The active filename (including extension) must be included in the editor's title
2. Implement the required Talon-defined filename action to correctly extract the filename from the programs's title. See https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/apps/vscode/vscode.py#L122-L138 for an example.

Python, C#, Talon and javascript language support is currently broken up into several tags in an attempt to define a common grammar where possible between languages. Each tag is defined by a .talon file, which defines the voice commands, and a Python file which declares the actions that should be implemented by each concrete language implementation to support those voice commands. Currently, the tags which are available are:

• lang/tags/comment_block.{talon,py} - block comments (e.g., C++'s /* */)
• lang/tags/comment_documentation.{talon,py} - documentation comments (e.g., Java's /** */)
• lang/tags/comment_line.{talon,py} - line comments (e.g., Python's #)
• lang/tags/data_null.{talon,py} - null & null checks (e.g., Python's None)
• lang/tags/data_bool.{talon,py} - booleans (e.g., Haskell's True)
• lang/tags/functions.{talon,py} - functions and definitions
• lang/tags/functions_common.{talon,py} - common functions (also includes a GUI for picking functions)
• lang/tags/imperative.{talon,py} - statements (e.g., if, while, switch)
• lang/tags/libraries.{talon,py} - libraries and imports
• lang/tags/libraries_gui.{talon,py} - graphical helper for common libraries
• lang/tags/object_oriented.{talon,py} - objects and classes (e.g., this)
• lang/tags/operators_array.{talon,py} - array operators (e.g., Ruby's x[0])
• lang/tags/operators_assignment.{talon,py} - assignment operators (e.g., C++'s x += 5)
• lang/tags/operators_bitwise.{talon,py} - bitwise operators (e.g., C's x >> 1)
• lang/tags/operators_lambda.{talon,py} - anonymous functions (e.g., JavaScript's x => x + 1)
• lang/tags/operators_math.{talon,py} - numeric, comparison, and logical operators
• lang/tags/operators_pointer.{talon,py} - pointer operators (e.g., C's &x)

The support for the language-specific implementations of actions are then located in:

• lang/{your-language}/{your-language}.py

To start support for a new language, ensure the appropriate extension is added to the language_extensions in language_modes.py. Then create the following files:

• lang/{your-language}/{your-language}.py
• lang/{your-language}/{your-language}.talon

Activate the appropriate tags in {your-language}.talon and implement the corresponding actions in {your-language}.py, following existing language implementations. If you wish to add additional voice commands for your language, put those in {your-language}.talon. You may also want to add a force command to language_modes.talon.

File Manager commands

For the following file manager commands to work, your file manager must display the full folder path in the title bar. https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/tags/file_manager/file_manager.talon

For Mac OS X's Finder, run this command in terminal to display the full path in the title.

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

For Windows Explorer, follow these directions https://www.howtogeek.com/121218/beginner-how-to-make-explorer-always-show-the-full-path-in-windows-8/

For the Windows command line, the refresh title command will force the title to the current directory, and all directory commands (follow 1) will automatically update the title.

Notes:

• Both Windows Explorer and Finder hide certain files and folder by default, so it's often best to use the imgui to list the options before issuing commands.

• If there no hidden files or folders, and the items are displayed in alphabetical order, you can typically issue the follow <number>, file <number> and open <number> commands based on the displayed order.

To implement support for a new program, you need to implement the relevant file manager actions for your application and assert the user.file_manager tag.

• There are a number of example implementations in the repository. Finder is a good example to copy and customize to your application as needed. https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/apps/finder/finder.py

Terminal commands

Many terminal programs are supported out of the box, but you may not want all the commands enabled.

To disable various commandsets in your terminal, find the relevant talon file and enable/disable the tags for command sets as appropriate.

tag(): user.file_manager
tag(): user.git
tag(): user.kubectl
tag(): user.tabs

For instance, kubectl commands (kubernetes) aren't relevant to everyone.

Unix utilities

If you have a Unix (e.g. OSX) or Linux computer, you can enable support for a number of common terminal utilities like cat, tail, or grep by uncommenting the following line in unix_shell.py:

# ctx.tags = ["user.unix_utilities"]

Once you have uncommented the line, you can customize your utility commands by editing settings/unix_utilities.csv. Note: this directory is created when first running Talon with knausj_talon enabled.

Jetbrains commands

For Jetbrains commands to work you must install https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/10504-voice-code-idea into each editor.

Settings

Several options are configurable via a single settings file out of the box. Any setting can be made context specific as needed (e.g., per-OS, per-app, etc).

https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/settings.talon

#adjust the scale of the imgui to my liking
imgui.scale = 1.3
# enable if you'd like the picker gui to automatically appear when explorer has focus
user.file_manager_auto_show_pickers = 0
#set the max number of command lines per page in help
user.help_max_command_lines_per_page = 50
# set the max number of contexts display per page in help
user.help_max_contexts_per_page = 20
# The default amount used when scrolling continuously
user.mouse_continuous_scroll_amount = 80
#stop continuous scroll/gaze scroll with a pop
user.mouse_enable_pop_stops_scroll = 1
#enable pop click with 'control mouse' mode
user.mouse_enable_pop_click = 1
#When enabled, the 'Scroll Mouse' GUI will not be shown.
user.mouse_hide_mouse_gui = 0
#hide cursor when mouse_wake is called to enable zoom mouse
user.mouse_wake_hides_cursor = 0
#the amount to scroll up/down (equivalent to mouse wheel on Windows by default)
user.mouse_wheel_down_amount = 120

The most commonly adjusted settings are probably

• imgui.scale to improve the visibility of all imgui-based windows (help, history, etc). This is simply a scale factor, 1.3 = 130%.

• user.help_max_command_lines_per_page and user.help_max_contexts_per_page to ensure all help information is visible.

• user.mouse_wheel_down_amount and user.mouse_continuous_scroll_amount for adjusting the scroll amounts for the various scroll commands.

Also, you can add additional vocabulary words, words to replace, search engines and more. Complete the knausj_talon setup instructions above, then open the settings folder to see the provided CSV files and customize them as needed.

Other talon user file sets

In addition to this repo, there are other Talon user file sets containing additional commands that you may want to experiment with if you're feeling adventurous 😊. Many of them are meant to be used alongside knausj, but a few of them are designed as replacements. If it's not clear which, please file an issue against the given GitHub repository for that user file set!

Collaborators

This repository is now officially a team effort. The following contributors have direct access:

• @dwiel
• @fidgetingbits
• @knausj85
• @rntz
• @splondike
• @pokey

Collaborators will reply to issues and pull requests as time and health permits. Please be patient.

Guidelines for collaborators

1. Collaborators prioritize their health and their personal/professional needs first. Their time commitment to this effort is limited.
2. For "minor" fixes and improvements/bugs/new apps, collaborators are free to contribute without any review
3. For "significant" new development and refactors, collaborators should seek appropriate input and reviews from each-other. Collaborators are encouraged to open a discussion before committing their time to any major effort.

Contributing

Anyone is welcome to submit PRs and report issues.

Guidelines for contributions

• Any addition to the global grammar will be scrutinized a bit more thoroughly. The more specific a new context, the less scrutiny that is typically applied.

• New grammars should follow the [subject][verb] standard where-ever possible.

• For Mac OS X, the bundle id should be used for defining app contexts, rather than the name.

• For Windows, both the friendly app name and exe name should be used for defining app contexts when they are different. For some people, the MUICache breaks.

• For new web apps, ensure the domain is used to minimize potential mismatches; see https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/main/apps/README.md.

• New applications should use tags to support the appropriate generic command grammars where appropriate:

core/windows_and_tabs/tabs.talon
tags/browser/
tags/find_and_replace/
tags/line_commands/
tags/multiple_cursors/
tags/snippets/
tags/splits/
tags/terminal/

• New programming languages should support the appropriate generic grammars where possible; see the lang/tags/ directory.

Automatic formatting/linters

This repository uses pre-commit to run and manage its formatters/linters. Running these yourself is optional. If you wish to do so, first install pre-commit:

$ pip install pre-commit

You then have a few options as to when to run it:

• Run yourself at any time on your locally changed files: pre-commit run
• Run yourself on all files in the repository: pre-commit run --all-files
• Run automatically on your PRs (fixes will be pushed automatically to your branch):
  • Visit https://pre-commit.ci/ and authorize the app to connect to your knausj fork.
• Set up an editor hook to run on save:
  • You could follow the instructions for Black, which are well written; simply replace black <path> with pre-commit run --files <file>.
  • It's more performant to only reformat the specific file you're editing, rather than all changed files.
• Install a git pre-commit hook with pre-commit install (optional)
  • This essentially runs pre-commit run automatically before creating local commits, applying formatters/linters on all changed files. If it "fails", the commit will be blocked.
  • Note that because many of the rules automatically apply fixes, typically you just need to stage the changes that they made, then reattempt your commit.
  • Whether to use the hook comes down to personal taste. If you like to make many small incremental "work" commits developing a feature, it may be too much overhead.

If you run into setup difficulty with pre-commit, you might want to ensure that you have a modern Python 3 local environment first. pyenv is good way to install such Python versions without affecting your system Python (recommend installing 3.9 to match Talon's current version). On macOS you can also brew install pre-commit.

Automated tests

There are a number of automated unit tests in the repository. These are all run outside of the Talon environment (e.g. we don't have access to Talon's window management APIs). These make use of a set of stubbed out Talon APIs in test/stubs/ and a bit of class loader trickery in conftest.py.

To run the test suite you just need to install the pytest python package in to a non-Talon Python runtime you want to use for tests (i.e. don't install in the ~/.talon/.venv directory). You can then just run the pytest command from the repository root to execute all the tests.

Talon documentation

For official documentation on Talon's API and features, please visit https://talonvoice.com/docs/.

For community-generated documentation on Talon, please visit https://talon.wiki/

Alternate installation method: Zip file

It is possible to install knausj by downloading and extracting a zip file instead of using git. Note that this approach is discouraged, because it makes it more difficult to keep track of any changes you may make to your copy of the files.

If you wish to install knausj_talon by downloading and extracting a zip file, proceed as follows:

1. Download the zip archive of knausj_talon
2. Extract the files. If you don’t know how to extract zip files, a quick google search for "extract zip files" may be helpful.
3. Place these extracted files inside the user folder of the Talon Home directory. You can find this folder by right clicking the Talon icon in taskbar, clicking Scripting > Open ~/talon, and navigating to user.