1XWRITS(1) General Commands Manual XWRITS(1)
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6 xwrits - reminds you to take wrist breaks
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9 xwrits [-display display] [typetime=time] [breaktime=time] [other
10 options]
11
13 Xwrits reminds you to take wrist breaks for prevention or management of
14 repetitive stress injuries. When you should take a break, it pops up an
15 X window, the warning window. You click on the warning window, then
16 take a break. The window changes appearance while you take the break.
17 It changes again when your break is over. Then you just resume typing.
18 Xwrits hides itself until you should take another break.
19 The typetime option changes the amount of time between breaks, and the
21 breaktime option changes the length of a break. The defaults are 55
22 minutes and 5 minutes, respectively.
23 Xwrits's graphics are brightly colored pictures of a wrist and hand.
25 The hand clenches and spreads ``as if in pain'' on the warning window,
26 slumps relaxed during the break, and points forward valiantly when the
27 break is over. It is trapped behind bars while the keyboard is locked.
28 Other gestures are included (see the +finger option). You can also use
29 your own pictures: see the warning-picture, rest-picture, and ready-
30 picture options.
31 Normally, xwrits works through annoyance -- it flashes until you stop
33 typing. However, an option makes it actively prevent you from typing by
34 locking the screen. See +lock below.
35 Xwrits notices when you leave your workstation idle, and treats a long
37 idle period as if you took a break. You can turn this off with the
38 -idle option. With the +mouse option, it will also monitor your mouse
39 movements -- you won't be able to move the mouse during a break without
40 aborting the break.
41 Each wrist break normally lasts the same amount of time. This is what
43 doctors suggest, but, if you'd like, the +quota option will reward you
44 for taking small breaks by reducing the length of the next official
45 break.
46 Some doctors recommend taking a short ``microbreak'' every five min‐
48 utes, as well as a longer break every hour. To use xwrits this way,
49 just run two xwrits processes, one for the microbreaks and one for the
50 longer breaks.
51
53 It is easy to put the warning window aside ``for 5 minutes'' and ignore
54 it for fifty. The after=delay option causes xwrits to escalate its
55 activity over time, making it harder to ignore.
56 Options following after come into effect after you have ignored the
58 warning window for delay. In other words, xwrits's behavior escalates
59 after delay. For instance, with this command line,
60 xwrits flashtime=:2 after=10 flashtime=:.03
61 the warning window will begin flashing very quickly if it is ignored
62 for 10 minutes.
63 Any options preceding an after option also apply following it, unless
65 you explicitly cancel them. For example:
66 xwrits +finger after=10 -finger
67 Multiple after options create a series of escalations. Delay arguments
69 are cumulative, so ``after=10 after=10'' means the same as
70 ``after=20''.
71 One interesting use for after is to make a break's length depend on how
73 long you waited to take it. For example:
74 xwrits break=5 after=10 break=7
75 Here, a wrist break normally takes 5 minutes. However, if you ignore
76 the warning window for 10 minutes or more before taking a break, the
77 wrist break will last 7 minutes.
78
80 All options may be abbreviated to their unique prefixes. Some may be
81 abbreviated further, in which case the smallest legal abbreviation is
82 shown in brackets. Options are processed from left to right.
83 Options listed as ``+option (-option)'' are toggles, which can be on or
85 off. A + turns the option on; - turns it off. Off is the default for
86 most toggle options, and only the on behavior is described. You can
87 leave off the + sign if you like: ``xwrits +finger'' and ``xwrits fin‐
88 ger'' are equivalent. Or you can say ``-no-finger'' instead of ``-fin‐
89 ger''.
90 Many options take arguments. You can give these after an equal sign, as
92 in ``xwrits breaktime=2''. Non-optional arguments can also be given
93 separately, as in ``xwrits breaktime 2''.
94 Time arguments are expressed in minutes. For example, ``2'' is 2 min‐
96 utes, ``2.5'' is 2 minutes 30 seconds. Use a colon to specify seconds:
97 ``2:05.4'' is 2 minutes 5.4 seconds, and ``:5'' is 5 seconds.
98 -display display
101 Specify the X display. Xwrits monitors this display for keystrokes
102 and mouse movements, and displays windows on it. You can simulta‐
103 neously monitor more than one display by giving this option multi‐
104 ple times; for example, ``xwrits display :0.0 display fun-
105 orgy:0.0''.
106 +multiscreen (-multiscreen)
108 When this option is on, xwrits will open every available screen on
109 each specified display. Useful for multihead displays.
110 typetime=time [t]
112 Allow typing for time between breaks. Default is 55 minutes.
113 breaktime=time [b]
115 The amount of time a break lasts. Default is 5 minutes. This
116 option can be supplied multiple times; see ESCALATION above.
117 after=delay-time
119 See ESCALATION above.
120 bars-picture=file [bp=file]
122 Sets the background GIF image that appears while the screen is
123 locked. By default, this is an image of bars designed to work with
124 the usual lock-picture. If you specify your own lock-picture, how‐
125 ever, bars-picture defaults to a black screen. (Say ``bars-pic‐
126 ture="&bars"'' to keep the bars.) Animations are not acceptable.
127 +beep (-beep)
129 Xwrits will beep when the break should begin and again when it is
130 over.
131 +breakclock (-breakclock) [bc]
133 A clock will appear in the resting window showing how many minutes
134 remain in the wrist break.
135 canceltime=time [ct]
137 Allow typing for time after a break is cancelled. You cancel a
138 break by deleting all xwrits windows with your window manager.
139 This time should probably be less than the regular type time.
140 Default is 10 minutes.
141 +cheat[=num] (-cheat)
143 Allows you to cheat during a break. You can type num keystrokes
144 before xwrits cancels the break. Default for num is 5. (If you're
145 using +mouse, mouse movements also count as keystrokes.)
146 +clock (-clock) [c]
148 A clock will appear in the warning window showing how many minutes
149 you've put off the wrist break.
150 +finger (-finger) [f]
152 The warning window will be rude to you.
153 +finger=culture
155 The warning window will be rude to you, according to culture's
156 idea of rudeness. Possible values for culture are `american' (the
157 default), `korean' (synonyms `japanese' and `russian'), `german',
158 or the name of any GIF image file.
159 flashtime=time
161 The amount of time between flashes of the warning window. Default
162 is 2 seconds.
163 +flipoff (-flipoff)
165 Synonym for +finger.
166 +iconified (-iconified)
168 The warning window will initially appear as an icon.
169 +idle[=idletime] (-idle) [i]
171 If you leave your workstation idle for idletime or longer, xwrits
172 will behave as if you took a break. The default for idletime is
173 the break length (see breaktime above). idle is on by default.
174 +lock[=jump-time] (-lock)
176 Xwrits will lock your screen until your break is over. You can
177 prematurely disable the lock and get a normal warning window by
178 typing your password (see password below). The jump-time argument
179 specifies how fast the screensaver will move; default is 4 sec‐
180 onds. If the keyboard has been grabbed by another application when
181 the lock is attempted, the lock fails and a normal warning window
182 appears instead.
183 lock-picture=file [lp=file]
185 Sets the GIF image that appears while the screen is locked. Ani‐
186 mations are acceptable. See also bars-picture.
187 maxhands=num
189 No more than num warning windows will appear on your screen simul‐
190 taneously. Normally, there will be only one warning window, but
191 see +multiply below. Num cannot be less than 1, or more than 137.
192 Default is 25.
193 minbreaktime=time
195 Sets the minimum break length to time. This option is meaningful
196 when +quota is on (see below); no matter how many short breaks you
197 take, the break length will not be shortened below time. It
198 defaults to half the break time or the quota time, whichever is
199 larger.
200 mono (-mono)
202 Xwrits will display its graphics in black and white. This may be
203 useful if you live in a world with a limited colormap.
204 +mouse[=sensitivity] (-mouse)
206 Xwrits will monitor your mouse movements. Every couple seconds, it
207 checks whether the mouse has moved. Movements of more than sensi‐
208 tivity pixels in any direction are treated like key presses.
209 Default for sensitivity is 15 pixels.
210 +multiply[=breed-time] (-multiply) [m]
212 A new warning window will be created every breed-time. Default for
213 breed-time is 2.3 seconds.
214 +noiconify (-noiconify)
216 The warning window will not allow itself to be iconified.
217 +once[=count]
219 Put up the warning window once, or (with count) count times, then
220 exit.
221 password=password
223 The password you type to unlock a locked screen (see +lock above).
224 Xwrits does not protect this password from intruders. Therefore,
225 do not use your login password or any other password you must keep
226 secure. Default is ``quit''.
227 +quota[=time] (-quota)
229 If you leave your workstation idle for more than time, the idle
230 time is deducted from the length of your next break. This option
231 turns the break length into a break quota -- instead of resting
232 for breaktime consecutive minutes every typetime, you must rest
233 for a total of breaktime minutes per typetime. Default for time is
234 1 minute. See also minbreaktime.
235 ready-picture=file [okp=file]
237 Sets the image that appears when your break is over to an arbi‐
238 trary GIF. Animations are acceptable.
239 rest-picture=file [rp=file]
241 Sets the image that appears during your break to an arbitrary GIF.
242 Animations are acceptable.
243 title=text
245 Xwrits windows will have text for their title, instead of the
246 default ``xwrits''.
247 +top (-top)
249 The warning window will try to keep itself above all other windows
250 on the desktop. (Note: it can be fooled into staying only par‐
251 tially visible.)
252 +verbose (-verbose)
254 Xwrits will print a lot of information about the windows on which
255 it is listening for keystrokes. This is mostly useful for debug‐
256 ging.
257 version
259 Prints the version number and some quickie warranty information
260 and exits.
261 warning-picture=file [wp=file]
263 Sets the image that appears on the warning window to an arbitrary
264 GIF. Animations are acceptable.
265
267 Here is the way I run xwrits:
268 xwrits typetime=40 finger after 15 clock multiply=5:1.4
269 This looks pretty spectacular:
270 xwrits t=0 b=:2 f fla=:.5 m=:.31 max=100 -i
271 Whee!!
272
274 Eddie Kohler, kohler@cs.ucla.edu
275 http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~kohler/
276 http://www.lcdf.org/xwrits/
278 The xwrits home page (for distributions and so forth).
279 Idea for idle processing code from xautolock(1) by Stefan De Troch and
281 Michel Eyckmans
282
284 Xwrits does not use the X resource database at all.
285 More options might be nice. So might more careful screen locking and
287 password protection. I would like to include rude finger gestures from
288 other cultures (see the GESTURES file in the distribution for gestures
289 I know about so far).
290 Please send any bugs, comments, or suggestions to me.
292 Yes the misspelling is intentional.
294 Yes it's my left wrist.
296Version 2.26 8 Feb 2002 XWRITS(1)