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TextSuggest

Universal Autocomplete

TextSuggest 4.0.0 released: now 100x faster (thanks to C++)

Autocomplete, text expansion, etc, in all GUI apps (on X11).

TextSuggest supports multiple languages and extensions.

Licensed under the GNU GPL 3. TextSuggest is free as in freedom.

Acknowledgements for the dictionaries.

Overview

TextSuggest is a program that shows completions for the word selected or (optionally) currently being typed.

It is generally bound to a keyboard shortcut.

Features

Click on these for more info:

Fast

TextSuggest is extremely fast. It does a fuzzy search of the full included English dictionary in 0.0005 seconds.

Universal Autocomplete

TextSuggest can provide autocomplete in any GUI app on X11.

Text Expansions, and more

TextSuggest can handle a range of expansions.

Custom words

Simply add them to ~/.config/textsuggest/custom-words.json in a JSON format like this:

{
    "custom": "Expansion",
    "another": "Another expansion"
}

and whenever 'custom' is typed, 'Expansion' will be typed. Similarly for 'another' ('Another expansion').

Whenever you type an unknown word, it is automatically added to your custom words file.

Commands

Inserts the output of a command:

$ls -l

when typed into a TextSuggest window, will insert output of ls -l as if it was run in a shell.

Custom words + Commands

Add in ~/.config/textsuggest/custom-words.json:

"custom": "$ command --opts"

and whenever you type 'custom' into TextSuggest, the output of command --opts will be inserted.

Math

Simply type into TextSuggest:

= 2 + 3

And '5' will be inserted. You can do any math expression that Python supports.

You can also use any function in the Python math library, for example = sqrt(25) for √25.

Custom Words + Math

Add in ~/.config/textsuggest/custom-words.json:

"custom": "= 2 + 3"

And whenever you type 'custom' into TextSuggest, 5 will be inserted.

Fuzzy Matching

TextSuggest supports very fast and intuitive fuzzy matching, so that you don't have to type the entire word, only portions.

For example, as the screenshot at the top shows, inting shows suggestions for interesting, painting and so on, in order of best match.

Extensions

TextSuggest supports powerful *processors* for extensions.

A processor processes text before handing it over to TextSuggest to type it out. By default TextSuggest has two processors, [command] and [math_expression] (see the above Text Expansions section).

Making your own extension

A processor is a simple script/executable (any language), that must respond to matches {text} and process {text} as command line arguments.

Look into this example, written in Python (you can use any language, as long as it is an executable):

import sys

if sys.argv[1] == "matches":
	# Exit (sys.exit()) with 0 (yes) or 1 (no): whether this processor should process 'text' or not.
	# For example, the command processor has it like this:
	#     if text.startswith('$'):
	#         sys.exit(0)  # should process
	#     else:
	#         sys.exit(1)  # should not process

if sys.argv[1] == "process":
	text = sys.argv[2]
	# Do something with 'text' and print() it.
	# This is what will be finally typed.

Make one based on the sample above, and place it in ~/.config/textsuggest/processors/.

File must be executable (chmod a+x ~/.config/textsuggest/processors/YOUR_PROCESSOR).

Processors in ~/.config/textsuggest/processors take precedence over those in /usr/share/textsuggest/processors, in case of a name or match conflict.

History

TextSuggest supports storing history of suggestions used. More-used suggestions will rise to the top.

History can be disabled using the --no-history option.

You can remove a word from history, by pressing Shift+Delete, or in the file ~/.config/textsuggest/history.json

"Ignore" Certain Words

You can tell TextSuggest to *never* show some words conveniently through

• Ctrl+Shift+Delete
• or in the file ~/.config/textsuggest/ignore.json

Keyboard Shortcuts

While browsing the list of suggestions, press

• Alt+Enter to type it without processing.
• Shift+Delete to remove it from your history.
• Ctrl+Shift+Delete to add it to the ignore list (i.e. will never show up in suggestions)

Native UI

Unlike many apps, TextSuggest has a fast, entirely native user interface written in Qt 5 and C++.

Custom third-party UIs can also be easily made by other developers if they wish.

Multiple Languages

English dictionary are provided by default.

By default, only the English dictionary will be used.

You can change this by:

• Auto-detect language from keyboard layout: Use the option --auto-detect-language. The mapping of layouts to languages is given below:

  • bd → Bangla
  • us → English
  • uk → English
  • gb → English
  • cn → Chinese
  • ar → Arabic
  • tw → Chinese
  • de → German
  • jp → Japanese
  • ru → Russian
  • es → Spanish
  • se → Swedish
  • fi → Finnish
  • kr → Korean
  • pk → Urdu
  • fr → French
  • gr → Greek
  • ua → Ukrainian

• Manually specify the language(s) to use. For example, --language English --language German. (This will set the language to both English and German. Must pass --language or -l for each language).

TextSuggest will then use <language name>.txt file(s) (if they exist) in /usr/share/textsuggest/dictionaries.

Installation

1. Download the latest release (ZIP file), then extract it.

2. Run:

$ cd {path to extracted files}
$ sudo sh auto-install.sh

The auto-install.sh will try to install dependencies using your distro's package manager.

If you don't want that, please run sh build.sh then sudo sh install.sh.

Now, see Usage

Usage

Run the command textsuggest-server in the background, and set it to run on startup.

Set the command textsuggest to a keyboard shortcut. Type a word, select it, press the shortcut and TextSuggest will give you autocomplete.

This offers the most basic use of TextSuggest. For more, see options and click on the features.

Uninstallation

Use sudo ./install.sh --uninstall.

Options

$ textsuggest --help
usage: textsuggest [options]

TextSuggest — universal autocomplete

optional arguments:

  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

  --word WORD [...]
                        Specify word to give suggestions for. Default: all words.

  --no-history          Disable the frequently-used words history (stored in ~/.config/textsuggest/history.json)

  --language languages [...]
                        Set language(s). Default: English. See also: --auto-detect-language.

  --auto-detect-language
                        Auto-detect language from keyboard layout.

  --selection           Show suggestions for currently selected word. See also: --auto-selection

  --auto-selection [beginning|middle|end]
                        Automatically select word under cursor and suggest. Ignored if --no-selection.

  --custom-words-only   Show custom words only.

  --no-processing       Disable using of any processors.

  -v, --version         Print version and license information.

Dictionary Credits

• English: Oxford 3k wordlist (filtered to only include words with >= 5 chars)