Talon documentation

For up-to-date documentation on Talon's API and features, please visit https://talon.wiki/.

https://talon.wiki/unofficial_talon_docs/ is a great place to learn about Talon files, actions, and voice command definitions.

knausj_talon

Talon configs for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Very much in progress. This is also intended to work with both Dragon Naturally Speaking and wav2letter.\

Notes:

• commands are subject to change. We do our best to minimize changes, but we are moving to an [object][verb] standard slowly but surely.
• @knausj85 makes extensive use of Talon's eye tracking features, so the grammar for certain programs may be much smaller than you may require.
• The repository was mostly developed with Dragon, so commands are mostly still optimized for that speech engine.

Linux & Mac setup

Clone repo into ~/.talon/user

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

Alternatively, access the directory by right clicking the Talon icon in taskbar, clicking Scripting>Open ~/talon, and navigating to user.

The folder structure should look like:

~/.talon/user/knausj_talon
~/.talon/user/knausj_talon/code
~/.talon/user/knausj_talon/lang

Windows setup

Note: Talon for Windows should be placed in the Program Files directory (or another 'secure' directory): C:\Program Files\talon Talon has been signed and utilizes uiAccess for several goodies: this will allow Talon to work with applications that are run as admin.

Clone repo into %AppData%\Talon\user

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

Alternatively, access the directory by right clicking the Talon icon in taskbar, clicking Scripting>Open ~/talon, and navigating to user.

The folder structure should look like:

%AppData%\Talon\user\knausj_talon
%AppData%\Talon\user\knausj_talon\code
%AppData%\Talon\user\knausj_talon\lang

wav2letter setup

If you're using wav2letter (aka NOT Dragon), uncomment this line in sleep_mode.talon. https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/master/modes/sleep_mode.talon#L9

This helps avoid unexpected "Talon wake" commands. Depending on the specific model you're using, you may need to adjust the talon wake/talon sleep commands in modes.talon

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.
   • Without opening help first, you can also search for commands e.g. help search tab to display all tab-related commands
   • Without opening help first, 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
   • All help-related commands are defined in misc/help.talon and misc/help_open.talon
2. help alphabet will display the alphabet
3. command history will toggle a display of the recent commands
4. format help will display the available formatters with examples.
5. Many useful, basic commands are defined in https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/master/misc/standard.talon#L36
   • undo that and redo that are the default undo/redo commands.
   • paste that, copy that, and cut that for pasting/copy/cutting, respectively.

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/master/code/keys.py#L6

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 from line 83 - 182. The alphabet is used for A-Z. https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/84c6f637ba8304352aa15e01b030e8fa36f4f1a2/code/keys.py#L83

All key commands are defined in keys.talon https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/master/misc/keys.talon

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. Out of the box, only the modifier keys (command, shift, alt, super) cannot be triggered by themselves.

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/master/code/keys.py#L93

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

Formatters

format help 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

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

Formatters (snake, dubstring) are defined here https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/master/code/formatters.py#L146

All formatter-related commands are defined here https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/master/misc/formatters.talon#L2

Mouse commands

See https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/master/misc/mouse.talon

Generic editor

https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/master/text/generic_editor.talon#L7

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/ced46aee4b59e6ec5e8545bb01434e27792c830e/misc/repeater.talon#L2

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/master/misc/window_management.talon#L1

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/master/misc/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/master/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 actions (filename, file_ext) to correctly extract the filename and extension from the programs's title. See https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/master/apps/vscode/vscode.py#L18 for an example.

Python, C#, Talon and javascript language support is currently broken up into ~four contexts in an attempt to define a common grammar where possible between languages

• operators.talon - operator commands

• comment.talon - commenting commands

• programming.talon - function, loop commands, etc

• {your-language-here}.talon - for implementation of the actioIans for the above, and any language-specific stuff

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/baa323fcd34d8a1124658a425abe8eed59cf2ee5/apps/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.

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.

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/master/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.

• Uncomment tag(): user.mouse_grid_enabled to enable the mouse grid.

Collaborators

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

• @dwiel
• @fidgetingbits
• @knausj85
• @rntz

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 https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon/blob/master/apps/web/window_titles.md

• New applications should support the appropriate 'generic' grammars where possible

generic_browser.talon
find_and_replace.talon
line_commands.talon
multiple_cursors.talon
snippets.talon
splits.talon
tabs.talon

• New programming languages should support the appropriate 'generic' grammars where possible as well

operators.talon
programming.talon
comment.talon
block_comment.talon

and should support the lists

user.code_functions
user.code_libraries

where appropriate. See e.g. csharp.py/csharp.talon. At least, until we come up with something better 👍