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Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

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Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#61

Post by jerrygoyal »

offtop5 wrote: post #10

Looks really cool, but isn't this literally a key logger. I prefer this to be built in to maybe vs code, at least then I won't have to worry about accidentally capturing my passwords

I usually use emmet feature (snippets) of vscode but then I also use other editors like np++, sublime or simple notepad for quick editing and lack the ability of snippets. Using a system wide textexpander makes sense. this is also the reason i dont use any chrome extension for color picking or taking screenshots. always better to use systemwide utilities.

Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#62

Post by federicoterzi »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #58
federicoterzi wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, AutoKey is awesome indeed! I've used it myself for a while before developing espanso. In fact, I went through the code-base multiple times to understand how it could be so fast. I learned plenty of things about how the X server works thanks to you :)

Thanks for making your tool opens ource. Do you plan to add scripting capabilities to Espanso or do you prefer to focus on the current use case ?

You're welcome! Espanso on Linux wouldn't be possible without other open-source projects, so that's the least I can do to give something back to the community :)

> Do you plan to add scripting capabilities to Espanso or do you prefer to focus on the current use case ?

We might add a "macro" feature to add delays and combine multiple keypresses, but I don't see espanso becoming a general "automation" tool. There are already plenty of great options for that (including AutoKey)!

Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#63

Post by eterps »

federicoterzi wrote: post #9
akvadrako wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this integrate on Linux? I took a minute and couldn't find that information on the website.

Espanso currently supports X11-based linux systems through the X Record Extension [1] and libxdo [2] That said, I'm currently working on another engine based on evdev that could be able to support also Wayland systems. For the linux install see also: https://espanso.org/install/linux/ [1]: https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/doc/libXtst/recordlib.htm... [2]: https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool

Awesome, would love to give it a try as a Wayland user.

Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#64

Post by tnorthcutt »

federicoterzi wrote: post #30
tnorthcutt wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Espanso looks pretty cool! I’m curious if you can share compelling reasons to switch from e.g. Alfred’s snippets functionality (on macOS)? I’ve used aText for a long time, then semi-recently moved most things to Alfred, but I’m curious about Espanso :)

Thanks! First things that come to my mind: 1. Espanso is free and open-source 2. If you use espanso and then move to Linux or Windows, the transition is flawless 3. It support Forms [1] and it can be extended in many ways [2] 4. You can easily collaborate with others and share snippets on the Hub: https://hub.espanso.org/ Cons: There is no GUI yet, but we are working on it [1]: https://espanso.org/docs/forms/ [2]: ht…

Thanks for the replies!

One more question if you're up for it: does Espanso suffer from having secure input disabled?

I frequently see this with both aText and Alfred: "Secure input is enabled (by loginwindow)" (aText) & "loginwindow seems to be preventing text expansion by locking secure entry" (Alfred)... with no indication as to how to rectify the situation.

Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#65

Post by tnorthcutt »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #64
federicoterzi wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! First things that come to my mind: 1. Espanso is free and open-source 2. If you use espanso and then move to Linux or Windows, the transition is flawless 3. It support Forms [1] and it can be extended in many ways [2] 4. You can easily collaborate with others and share snippets on the Hub: https://hub.espanso.org/ Cons: There is no GUI yet, but we are working on it [1]: https://espanso.org/docs/forms/ [2]: ht…

Thanks for the replies! One more question if you're up for it: does Espanso suffer from having secure input disabled? I frequently see this with both aText and Alfred: "Secure input is enabled (by loginwindow)" (aText) & "loginwindow seems to be preventing text expansion by locking secure entry" (Alfred)... with no indication as to how to rectify the situation.

Ah nevermind, I see this when I run `espanso start`:

"WARNING: An application is currently using SecureInput and might prevent espanso from working correctly."

For anyone else who ends up here with the same problem: this blog post was helpful as it suggested that locking & unlocking my system might remove the lock on secureinput created by loginwindow: https://rakhesh.com/mac/macos-find-app-using-secure-input/

Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#66

Post by Kaze404 »

federicoterzi wrote: post #54
Kaze404 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to have found a bug. When I use the default match ":espanso" on my terminal (Kitty) it gets expanded to "hi there1", while I expect "Hi there!". Seems to work fine on Firefox. Edit: Seems like it's an issue with shifted characters? When I type any trigger and erase, for example ":espanso", I expect the first character to be a colon (:) but instead I get a semi-colon (;). Weird.

Thanks for reporting this issue! I'm working on a patch that should solve this problem. In the meanwhile, can you try adding: backend: Clipboard on your default.yml file and see if that helps?

Works perfectly now, thank you :)

Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#67

Post by shaicoleman »

federicoterzi wrote: post #54
Kaze404 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to have found a bug. When I use the default match ":espanso" on my terminal (Kitty) it gets expanded to "hi there1", while I expect "Hi there!". Seems to work fine on Firefox. Edit: Seems like it's an issue with shifted characters? When I type any trigger and erase, for example ":espanso", I expect the first character to be a colon (:) but instead I get a semi-colon (;). Weird.

Thanks for reporting this issue! I'm working on a patch that should solve this problem. In the meanwhile, can you try adding: backend: Clipboard on your default.yml file and see if that helps?

Same issue with shift not working under Kitty. (e.g. :DATE trigger produces )@?)#?@)@! )

backend: Clipboard works intermittently for me

Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#68

Post by shaicoleman »

federicoterzi wrote: post #5

(Author here) Feel free to ask any question, I'll be happy to answer them :)

It doesn't detect backspace with non-backspace keys under Linux.

I'm using the Colemak keyboard layout, and Caps Lock is mapped to Backspace.

Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#69

Post by snet0 »

As someone with quite a few AHK hotstrings, and who does almost all of their day-to-day in Windows, what's the selling point for this software vs AHK? Looks like a great and useful piece of software, but is there a reason to prefer this in cases where AHK is viable?

Re: Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

#70

Post by ohnoesoes »

snet0 wrote: post #69

As someone with quite a few AHK hotstrings, and who does almost all of their day-to-day in Windows, what's the selling point for this software vs AHK? Looks like a great and useful piece of software, but is there a reason to prefer this in cases where AHK is viable?

idk man it feels like few seconds look at the website of both will show the differences quite easily.
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