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tspreed
tspreed is a terminal RSVP speed reader with Spritz-like functionality written in POSIX-compliant shell. The script reads plain text piped into it and presents it one word at time.
Installation
Packages
Distro | Package | Maintainer |
---|---|---|
Arch Linux | tspreed (AUR) | Nicholas Ivkovic |
Manual
Install
Replace github.com
with gitlab.com
if using GitLab.
$ git clone https://github.com/n-ivkovic/tspreed
$ cd tspreed
# make install
Update
$ git pull origin
# make update
Additional options
$ make help
Usage
To begin a presentation, pipe plain text into tspreed.
The presentation starts with the first word displayed for a minimum of 1 second, then all subsequent words are presented at the given speed (WPM).
If tspreed is terminated before the presentation has finished, the progress of the presentation is passed to stdout
.
Keyboard controls
Keyboard controls can be enabled via the -k/keycontrols option. However, not all systems and shells are able to utilise keyboard controls, see the Portability section.
Key | Action |
---|---|
I | Show/hide the presentation progress information. |
P | Pause/resume the presentation. After resuming, the word that was paused on is displayed for a minimum of 0.5 seconds. |
Q | Terminate the presentation. |
Examples
$ tspreed < textfile
$ tspreed --wpm 300 --hide-cursor < textfile
$ pdftotext document.pdf - | tspreed -w 300 -n 120 -s '\r\f' -lqihkfb -p line -c 1 -K /dev/tty
Configuration
The values provided in the command options take precedence over the values provided in the local configuration file $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
/tspreed/tspreed.rc (~/.config/tspreed/tspreed.rc if not defined), which takes precedence over the values provided in the global configuration file /etc/tspreed/tspreed.rc.
The default configuration is provided in ./default.rc, which is installed as the global configuration file.
Option | Configuration file | Default config | Description |
---|---|---|---|
-w, --wpm wpm | wpm=wpm | 300 | Present words at the given speed in words per minute (WPM). Required to be set. Minimum value of 1, maximum value of 60000 |
-n, --num-start num | numstart=num | Start presenting from the given nth word. Minimum value of 1. | |
-s, --separators chars | separators=chars | \r\f | Use the given characters to separate words in addition to the characters set in $IFS . Backslash escapes are interpreted. |
-l, --length-vary | lengthvary=bool | Vary the speed words are presented at based on their length. | |
-q, --quiet-exit | quietexit=bool | Do not output the presentation progress if tspreed is terminated before the presentation has finished. | |
-h, --hide-cursor | hidecursor=bool | true | Hide the cursor during the presentation. |
-i, --progress-info | proginfo=bool | Display progress information during the presentation. | |
-k, --key-controls | keycontrols=bool | Enable keyboard controls. | |
-f, --focus | focus=bool | Highlight the focus letter (also known as the pivot or optimal recognition point) of the word being presented. | |
-p, --focus-pointer style | focuspointer=style | line | Display pointers in a given style pointing towards the focus letter. Only relevant if focus letter highlighting is enabled. Styles: none , line , point . |
-b, --focus-bold | focusbold=bool | true | Display the focus letter in bold. Only relevant if focus letter highlighting is enabled. |
-c, --focus-color color | focuscolor=color | 1 | Display the focus letter in the given color. Only relevant if focus letter highlighting is enabled. Color values are ANSI X3.64 8-bit color values, ranging from 0 to 255. |
-K, --dev-key-input path | devkeyinput=path | Device/path to read keyboard input from. Only relevant if keyboard controls are enabled. Defaults to /dev/tty. | |
-v, -V, --version | Print tspreed version and exit. |
Portability
tspreed 'officially' supports GNU-based, BSD-based, and BusyBox-based systems only due to POSIX-compliance issues described below. This does not mean the script is guaranteed to not work on other Unix-like systems or issues specific to those systems will not be addressed, merely it is unknown how well supported the script is on other Unix-like systems.
POSIX-compliance
tspreed attempts to comply with POSIX.1-2001 through to POSIX.1-2008 in order to maintain portability across Unix-like systems. However, the script must utilize non-compliant features and commands and will exit with an error if none are supported.
If keyboard controls are enabled (-k/keycontrols option), both of the below non-compliant features must be supported:
date(1)
- Can return nanoseconds via the '%N' format.read(1)
- Supports the -s option for disabling output, the -n option for limiting the number of characters read, and the -t option for specifying a timeout in fractional seconds. Bash'sread
builtin is the only majorread(1)
implementation which supports all listed non-compliant options, hence the script will likely need to be run via the Bash shell.
Otherwise, at least one of the below non-compliant features and commands must be supported:
date(1)
- Can return nanoseconds via the '%N' format.sleep(1)
- Supports the use of fractional values for the time operand to represent units of time less than 1 second, e.g. 0.05.sleep(1)
- Supports the use of E notation for the time operand to represent units of time less than 1 second, e.g. 5e-2.usleep(1)
Terminal I/O
The script utilizes terminal capabilities via tput(1)
, but will fall back to the following where possible if those capabilities fail:
- ANSI X3.64 escape codes for terminal styling and cursor movement.
$COLUMNS
and$LINES
environment variables for determining terminal size. Will fall back to 80 columns and/or 24 lines if one or both of the environmental variables are not set.
If keyboard controls are enabled (-k/keycontrols option), keyboard input is read from /dev/tty by default. This can be changed via the -K/devkeyinput option.
Contributing
Please adhere to the following when creating a pull request:
- Ensure changes do not cause ShellCheck to return any errors or warnings. This can be checked by either running
make test
with ShellCheck installed, or by checking ./tspreed (and ./default.rc if changed) via the online checker. If changes include new warning suppressions please provide an explanation. - Ensure changes comply with POSIX.1-2001, but does not include any features that are removed from or marked as obsolete in POSIX.1-2008. If non-compliant changes are required please provide an explanation.
- Ensure changes match the general coding style of the project.
- Ensure changes are branched from
develop
and the pull request merges back intodevelop
.
License
Copyright © 2020-2024 Nicholas Ivkovic.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. See ./LICENSE, or https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html if more recent, for details.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.