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GNU Typist is an interactive typing tutor that can help you to type correctly. It has several lessons for different keyboard layouts and in different languages. The lessons for gtypist are described in a easy-to-learn scripting language that the user can use to modify the existing lessons or create new ones.
Distribution Where to find gtypist: source, packages etc. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE The GNU General Public License says how you can copy and share gtypist 1. Introduction Important concepts you need to know as a user 2. Invoking How to invoke gtypist 3. Script file commands Information about the syntax of gtypist lessons 4. Supplied lessons Overview of the lessons in the gtypist distribution 5. Create new lessons How to contribute new lessons 6. Emacs mode Emacs mode for editing gtypist scripts 7. Environment Variables Environment variables which affect gtypist 8. Errors and omissions Known problems A. History of GNU Typist
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GNU Typist (or gtypist) is free software; this means that everyone is free to use it and free to redistribute it on certain conditions. The precise conditions are found in the GNU General Public License that comes with this program and also follows this section.
You can obtain GNU Typist from a friend or from the Internet:
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Copyright © 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. |
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The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.
Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.
In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.
It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.
This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.
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If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does. Copyright (C) 19yy name of author This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. |
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c' for details. |
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker. signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989 Ty Coon, President of Vice |
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this License.
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GNU Typist is an interactive typing tutor program. It uses an input file to create a series of typing tutorials, drills, and speed tests. It is intended to be used on raw terminals without graphics --it has been compiled and used in GNU/Linux and Unix (Aix, OpenBSD) and also in DOS/Windows (DOS 6.22, Windows 98, Windows NT).
The program reads lessons written in an easy-to-learn scripting language. It is distributed with several complete and good lessons, you can use them, modify them or create new lessons (see section 5. Create new lessons and see section 3. Script file commands).
If a script file is not specified on the command line, a default file `gtypist.typ' will be used. (See details about the path in the section see section 7. Environment Variables).
The top line of the screen displays a banner. The bottom line of the screen displays a message line, queries, and other status information. The lines in between are used for the tutorials, drills, and speed tests.
There are two types of typing exercises: drills and speed tests.
In a drill, gtypist displays text in every other line on the screen,
and waits for the user to correctly type the exact same text in the
intermediate lines.
Typing errors are indicated with an inverse ^, or > if
the character is a newline and at the end of the
exercise it calculates the real and effective rate in WPM.
If there were too many errors, it will re-run the drill.
Backward deleting of previously typed characters to correct errors is not allowed.
In a speed test, gtypist displays text on the screen, and waits for the user to correctly over-type the exact same text. It indicates typing errors, and at the end of the test it calculates the real and effective rate in WPM. If there were too many errors, it will re-run the speed test. Backward deleting of previously typed characters to correct errors is permitted, but errors still accumulate.
If you already made too many mistakes, then you can use ESC to give up and start again. You can also skip a lesson by pressing ESC twice. Once you complete a lesson, you will be asked whether you want to repeat it.
There are also "practice only" exercises (of both drills and speed tests) which you won't have to repeat at all. But we won't tell you when this is the case, so you'll have to give your best anyway ;-)
In typing speed reports, a 'word' is deemed to be five characters, so the raw (gross) WPM is the number of characters in the test passage, divided by five, then divided again by the number of minutes elapsed in typing the passage. The adjusted WPM factors in the errors; each error is counted as a mistyped word.
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The syntax to invoke GNU Typist is:
gtypist [ Options... ] [ script_file ]
The supported options are given below (note that the long form is not supported on DOS):
-e, --error-max
-n, --notimer
-t, --term-cursor
-f, --curs-flash
-c, --colo[u]rs
-s, --silent
-q, --quiet
-w, --wpmode
-l, --start-label
-k, --no-skip
You also have to set the environment variable LANG if you
want to run gtypist in your native language. See section 7. Environment Variables.
In some languages like French, some interface messages are longer than in English. Therefore, you may need to make your terminal larger before invoking the tool. Otherwise, the text on the lower left may overlap with the string on the lower right.
Examples:
To run the default lessons of lesson `gtypist.typ':
gtypist
To run the lesson in Spanish:
gtypist esp.typ
To instruct gtypist to look for lesson bar.typ in a non
standard directory `/home/foo':
export GTYPIST_PATH="/home/foo"
gtypist bar.typ
To run the lessons in the file `test.typ' of directory `/tmp',
starting at label TEST1, using the terminal's cursor, and running
silently:
gtypist -t -q -l TEST1 /tmp/test.typ
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GNU Typist reads in the data for its typing lessons from a script file. With the exception of comments and blank lines, each line in the file is of the format
command_char : command_data
Here, command_char is a single character code that defines an
action for gtypist to take, and command_data is data for that
command. If command_char is a space character, this indicates that the
line is a continuation of the preceding non-space command. The ':'
separator must be in column two of the line.
Comment lines are lines beginning with a '#' character, and are ignored, as are blank lines. Comment lines may have any format provided that they begin with '#'; other lines must have the above format.
You should read the introduction so that you are familiar with the basics: See section 1. Introduction.
The following is a list of valid command_char values:
B
command_data is
present, it is displayed in the one-line banner at the top of the
screen, and remains in place until the next B command. This command may
not be continued on the following line; it is a single line command.
T
*
G, Y, N or F command. Labels may contain any
character, including space, and are a single line command. Labels must
be unique within lesson files. Whitespace at the end of labels is ignored.
I
T command, it does not wait for any further keypresses before
proceeding. So it should really always be followed by an exercise.
It clears the whole screen exercise area, so in this respect it's just
like a two-line T.
D,d
It is a multi-line command. The text is displayed in every second line, and you type in the intermediate lines. Because of this, you cannot use more than 11 lines of drill content.
This type of exercise is supposed to be used for finger training (i.e. jfjfjjf), but may also contain complete words and sentences if they are used to practice something (i.e. a letter/syllable/"grip"), and aren't real texts.
The lowercase version d is a "practice only" drill -
the user will not have not repeat this drill if he/she made too many
mistakes.
S,s
It is a multi-line command. It displays its text on the screen, and prompts the user to type on top of it. That's why you can use up to 22 lines of text for one speed test. In a speed test you can correct your mistakes, but this will not decrease the error-count.
Speed tests should be used for typing (mostly) complete sentences, texts or files (i.e. a letter, texinfo/html/tex files).
The lowercase version s is a "practice only" speed test -
the user will not have not repeat this drill if (s)he
made too many mistakes.
G
command_data, and continue
execution of the script there. This is a single line command.
Q
As a side effect, you can hit an Fkey if it is bound (That's why this is used to set the prompt for menus).
Y
G, except that the goto is executed only if the result of
the last Q command was Y.
N
G, except that the goto is executed only if the result of
the last Q command was N.
K
fkey_number:label, where
fkey_number is a function key number in the range 1 to 12, and
label is a label to go to when this key is pressed. A value of
NULL for label removes any label binding from the key.
If function keys are not available on the terminal other keys can be used: 1 to 9 to replace F1 to F9, 0 to replace F10, A for F11 and S for F12.
Other alternatives for the keys F1 to F12 are the combinations: Ctrl-Q, Ctrl-W, Ctrl-E, Ctrl-R, Ctrl-T, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-U, Ctrl-I, Ctrl-O, Ctrl-P, Ctrl-A and Ctrl-S.
This is also useful where function keys are intercepted by other programs (for example by a window manager).
E
If `--error-max/-e' is specified then this command will only have an effect if it is stricter than the value specified on the command-line.
command_data consists of the value (between 0.0 and 100.0),
followed by '%' (this is required so that scripts are more readable).
A special value of default or Default sets the error-max
value back to the default.
F
command_data) where the user will have to go to if (s)he fails
an exercise.
Usually, this command only applies to the next exercise, but you can make
it persistent by putting a '*' at the end of command_data.
If label is NULL then this resets the label.
X
command_data is ignored. The program also exits if the end of the file
is found (so you could also place a label there and just G to it)
Here is a tiny example script to demonstrate the available commands (`tinydemo.typ' lesson file):
# Minimal demonstration B: Typing tutor demonstration *:LOOP K:1:QDONE T:This is a small example tutor script. A better :example may be found in the demo.typ file that :accompanies GNU Typist I:Here is an example of a drill: D:asdf ghjkl; I:And here is an example of a speed test: S:qwe rt yu iop *:QDONE Q:Seen enough yet? [Y/N] N:LOOP X: |
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The following lessons are supplied with GNU Typist :
The files are called ktde.typ (german.ktouch), kten.typ (english.ktouch), ktfr.typ (french.ktouch), ktlecten.typ (lecture_en.ktouch), ktno.typ (norwegian.ktouch) and ktnumber.typ (number.ktouch).
If you find errors in these lessons, if you modify any of them or if you write a new lesson, please release it with a free license and tell us about it, by writing an email to bug-gtypist@gnu.org.
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This section provides guidelines and hints for creating new lessons (or improving existing ones).
5.1 Ktouch lessons Generate lessons from a set of drills 5.2 Exercises from fortune Create drills/speedtests with text from fortune 5.3 Design patterns for lessons Hints/Design patterns for lessons
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A very easy way to write lessons is to write them in the format
that ktouch uses, and then convert it to a gtypist lesson
using tools/ktouch2typ.pl. This will take care of writing
"jump-tables", a menu and a bit more.
The ktouch-format consists only of lessons, which are preceded by their names, and separated by blank lines and/or comments (# at the beginning of the line). So the first non-blank, non-comment line in the file is the name of the first lesson, and the first lesson consists of all the lines up to the next comment or blank line. After the separator (comment or blank line) the name of the second lesson follows and so on.
This is an example of a three-lesson ktouch file (excerpts from the first three lessons of german.ktouch):
# # Deutsche Training-Datei für KTouch # Grundstellung f f f f f f fff fff fff f f f f f f fff fff fff f f f f f f f fff j j j j j j jjj jjj jjj j j j j j j jjj jjj jjj j j j j j j j jjj fff jjj fff jjj jjj fff jjj fff fjf fjf fjf jfj jfj jfj fjf jfjfj Grundstellung fff jjj ddd kkk aaa ööö fff jjj ddd kkk aaa ööö fff jjj ddd kkkff fda jkö fda jkö fda jkö fda jkö fda jkö fda jkö fda jkö fda jköfd s s s s s s sss sss sss s s s s s s sss sss sss s s s s s s s sss #Zwei wichtige Vokale: e und i e und i asdf ölkj fdsa jklö asdf ölkj fdsa jklö asdf ölkj fdsa jklö asdfö das dass lös fad dass lös als dass las lös fad dass als dass dass ded ded ded dej dek del deö ded deö del dek dej ded dej dek delde |
Once you are done, use tools/ktouch2typ.pl to convert the
file: `ktouch2typ.pl lesson.ktouch' converts `lesson.ktouch'
to `lesson.typ'. It is important that the input file ends in
".ktouch", otherwise ktouch2typ.pl will skip it. Warning:
this will overwrite `lesson.typ' without asking you !
You can customize the number of lines that ktouch2typ.pl
uses for each drill by modifying the relevant variable in
`tools/ktouch2typ.pl'.
Obviously, the disadvantage of this is that you cannot make use of all of gtypist's features (but the output file is very readable, so you can edit it to use more of gtypist's features).
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Using `gtypist-mode.el' you can quickly create lessons with text
from the program fortune (or the emacs-internal
yow if fortune isn't available, as is usually the
case on Windows).
Besides being used for creating new lessons, this command can be used to quickly create new drills for you to practice with.
Once you installed `gtypist-mode.el'
(see section 6. Emacs mode), you can open a file
with it ".typ" extension and run C-c C-f to create a drill
(D: by default, use C-u or C-u C-u prefix to
change).
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I:Use your J-finger for the H key. *:_T_R_L23 D:jjj jhj jjj jhj jjj jhj |
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gtypist now comes with an Emacs major-mode which does syntax-highlighting, indentation and has some convenient commands for counting labels, a goto-label-command, inserting properly centered banners, special comments and a bit more.
Copy this file from `tools/gtypist-mode.el' to wherever you put your local elisp files (e.g. `~/elisp') and put this in your `~/.emacs' (adapt path!):
(autoload 'gtypist-mode "~/elisp/gtypist-mode") |
or put it in load-path (`make install' in the
sources should take care of this for GNU Emacs, or if you
are using the Debian package, it installs it here for you)
and use this instead:
(autoload 'gtypist-mode "gtypist-mode") |
and add this to your `~/.emacs':
(setq auto-mode-alist
(cons '("\\.typ\\'" . gtypist-mode) auto-mode-alist))
|
All this is also mentioned in the README-section of `tools/gtypist-mode.el'.
Here are the commands along with the keybindings:
*:SERIES1_L1 |
*:SERIES1_L2 |
B: command. It's centered on
66 columns because "gtypist
D:) with text from fortune (or
yow if fortune isn't available). Use C-u
prefix to get S:, and C-u C-u to get d:.
Run C-h m for a complete list of commands and their keybindings.
If you find bugs or if you think there's something else this mode could do, please write to bug-gtypist@gnu.org.
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LANG
GNU Typist offers Native Language Support (NLS) with support of the gettext library, this means that if your system supports it, the language of the messages shown by gtypist can be chosen. By now gtypist is distributed with messages in English, Finnish, French, German and Spanish. To use a particular NLS use the environment variable LANG and set it to the appropriate 'LL_CC' combination where 'LL' is an ISO 639 two-letter language code and 'CC' is an ISO 3166 two-letter country code (e.g. 'es_ES' for Spain and 'de_DE' for Germany). In some systems it will be also necessary to set the environment variable LANGUAGE to the same value.
If you want to translate messages to a different language (or if you want to correct a message), please communicate it to bug-gtypist@gnu.org.
GTYPIST_PATH
GTYPIST_PATH and (3) it will
append the directory used during the installation process (e.g.
`/usr/local/share/gtypist' or `/usr/share/gtypist').
TERM
TERMINFO
terminfo database is
different between the system the binary was compiled on and the one it
is being run on. For example, in older Slackware systems, the terminfo
database resides in `/usr/lib/terminfo'. On RedHat Linux, it is in
`/usr/share/terminfo'. If the program complains about the terminal type,
and the value of TERM is correct, check into this.
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GNU Typist does not go to much effort to minimize terminal output. In particular, the flashing block cursor can cause a lot of cursor movement. Using the terminal's own cursor will help if this becomes a problem.
In speed tests, the program does not allow backspacing or deletion past the beginning of the screen line, or back through Tab characters. This is purely to simplify screen updating.
Colour curses modes do not seem to work well with UnixWare. In particular, reverse video is not always rendered correctly on some terminal types, and xterms.
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Distribution
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Preamble1. Introduction
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
2. Invoking
3. Script file commands
4. Supplied lessons
5. Create new lessons
5.1 Ktouch lessons6. Emacs mode
5.2 Exercises from fortune
5.3 Design patterns for lessons
5.3.1 Structure of lesson files
5.3.2 Patterns for exercises
7. Environment Variables
8. Errors and omissions
A. History of GNU Typist
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Distribution
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
1. Introduction
2. Invoking
3. Script file commands
4. Supplied lessons
5. Create new lessons
6. Emacs mode
7. Environment Variables
8. Errors and omissions
A. History of GNU Typist
| [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
| Button | Name | Go to | From 1.2.3 go to |
|---|---|---|---|
| [ < ] | Back | previous section in reading order | 1.2.2 |
| [ > ] | Forward | next section in reading order | 1.2.4 |
| [ << ] | FastBack | previous or up-and-previous section | 1.1 |
| [ Up ] | Up | up section | 1.2 |
| [ >> ] | FastForward | next or up-and-next section | 1.3 |
| [Top] | Top | cover (top) of document | |
| [Contents] | Contents | table of contents | |
| [Index] | Index | concept index | |
| [ ? ] | About | this page |