mxhkd (beta)

Description

mxhkd is an X daemon that reacts to input events by executing commands.

It's like sxhkd but it's modal rather than using chords.

Modal key daemon

Initially the idea was to write a full compositor that would be modal. Kind of like i3 but modal. That proved to be too hard and it was obviously going to take months. Instead this was cranked out in a few days.

Why?

Help with RSI

Key chords like those used in sxhkd and many other programs can contribute to RSI. Using modes is a great way to reuse the keys closest to the natural positioning of your hands.

Read up on the emacs pinky this doesn't make any sense to you.

Also

The initial intention was to do modal control of the windowing. That turned into running arbitrary commands, and use any window manager you want. bspwm might be a natural fit to use with mxhkd, but also something like herbstluftwm. Up to you. Testing was mostly done with i3 and that worked fine as well.

Documentation

Docs can be found here.

Sample configuration

See the examples folder.

Runnning

If it's installed:

mxhkd --config /path/to/config.toml

Runtime dependencies

There's a runtime dependency in xmodmap. This will be removed in the near future. It's used at startup to determine the key code to character layout.

Running in dev mode with Nix

Clone this repo, go to the root folder, and then run

nix-shell --command "cargo run -- --config examples/mxhkd_config.toml"

Have a look at the shell.nix file to see which system dependencies are needed.

Compatibility

mxhkd takes over your main X window, so it might not be compatible with any other system that intends to do the same. In normal Window mode, it simply listens on the whichever mode toggle key has been configured, and passes through the rest of the keystrokes to whichever other program is listening to commands. So technically it shouldn't interfere with many things. In Normal mode it listens to your entire keyboard, as you would expect.

Keyboard layouts

The xmodmap dependency might not work as expected depending on the keyboard. Please open an issue if something completely wrong happens.

Super important

This thing is totally hacked.

Use at your own risk!

Happy to receive PRs.

Authors

• Carlos D'Agostino (@carlosdagos)
• Robert McMichael (@robbiemcmichael)