This is just a quick announcement about an X-Windows DS2Key server I've written, aptly named xds2key. This allows X-Windows users, particularly Linux/Unix users (though it works with Cygwin/X, as well), to use DS2Key with, well, any application that takes key presses.

Currently, it's quite primitive. It has fixed key mappings, it's pure text mode, etc, and really it was written as a proof-of-concept, but it functions, and I don't intend to work on it too much more. If anyone wants to add to it, though, feel free, as it's released to the public domain.

Anyway, you can find it here. Basic compiling/running instructions are there, but there's no fancy schmancy configure script or anything.

As for requirements, it just needs an X server that supports the XTEST extension... which encompasses any XFree86 or Xorg-derived server. Not sure about others (eg, Solaris).

Note to users: Being Unix-based, you will be downloading source code, and compiling it yourself.

Thanks Brett for making this available.

I planned to make one in perl (a script controlling xtest).
I didn't have the time to test your server, but I will do
if I get the time.
Is your server an 'interactive' app or a deamon?
I thought about releasing my server in two version (deamon
and user version).
Maybe we can share some ideas, do you an msn messenger
account or any other messenger?
Send me a pm if you have time.

Currently it's just a simplistic interactive app. Turning it into a daemon would be pretty trivial... just need to add a fork around the main app logic and disconnect stdout, stderr, etc.

Incidentally, my first instinct was Perl as well, but I couldn't think of a nice, portable way to get at the XTEST protocol without having to require external modules. I've never actually heard of this xtest program you refer to, nor could I find it on the Fedora box I'm in front of or the Debian machine I have at home... must be in some optional package somewhere.



Nah, I'm a luddite. Why not just discuss here? I check back frequently enough...

You're right it's XTEST not xtest and I meant the X11 extension XTEST
(the one that handles the XTEST protocol).
But you're right you need a the XTEST CPAN module for that (couldn't think of any other portable way, too).

But perl still could be a good way to make it platform independent (even
for Windows there is a GuiTest module that is used in a similar way).
I will work on a perl script, may be some users use it as template and customize it to their own needs.



No problem.
sypherce mentioned he already talked to you.

You can have a own section on the ds2key website if you want (I don't
think sypherce has anything against that).

Actually, I'm not convinced portability is really a big deal. xds2key is pure C and quite portable as a result. About the only tricky bit is finding the X11 libraries. 'course, that's easily solved with a really dumb script (or you could get fancy and use autoconf).

What a Perl version would bring, however, is greater ease of modification. Combined with all the CPAN modules out there for interfacing with things like XMMS, etc, I could see some interesting applications getting dreamed up.



Ha ha, yeah, that's probably overkill, particularly for an app I don't plan to work on any time soon (it works well enough for me, thus that itch is scratched). 'course, that's not to say someone couldn't take over the project and talk to sypherce about hosting. *shrug*

I didn't try to convince you to use perl (I don't see any good reason to
not have a C based server around).
What I meant was exactly that, Perl is 'portable' (well platform
independent) and easy to customize at the same time.
Perl is not that hard to learn, even for beginners, so almost everybody
could add feature they need/like to the sevrer easily (if they really want
to).



One page or so to describe the use of xds2key could be helpful to
some of the users, if I get some free time I could add it (some
information and instructions).

Well, I've tried to clarify the instructions on the website. I'm not sure how much clearer I can make it, since it's pretty simple to run... and I do expect a certain level of skill, since this is a Unix application. But if you want to set up a separate page, by all means, go for it.

I can't get this to run on ubuntu any idea why?

I'll give it a try when I get home, I currently have a running ubuntu machine but my debian server should do.

lol, nevermind. i realised what i was doing wrong.

How do i get around the default key mappings? :S