Man Linux: Main Page and Category List

NAME

       dasher - graphical predictive text entry system

SYNOPSIS

       dasher [OPTIONS] [filename]

DESCRIPTION

       Dasher  is  an  information-efficient  text-entry  interface, driven by
       natural continuous pointing gestures. Dasher  is  a  competitive  text-
       entry system wherever a full-size keyboard cannot be used.

OPTIONS

       dasher takes the following options:

       -a, --appstyle=STYLE
              Application  style.   STYLE  can  be any of traditional, direct,
              compose, or fullscreen.  The default is whatever  was  specified
              on the previous invocation of Dasher, or traditional when Dasher
              is started for the first time.

       -?, --help
              Describe command line options.

       --help-options
              Describe the options available with --options.

       -o, --options [option=value[,option=value...]]
              Override stored options.   Options  values  are  remembered  for
              subsequent invocations of Dasher.

USAGE

       The  main  Dasher  interface  is  a  window  with  a  blank  background
       containing a column of letters on the right hand side.  Click the mouse
       button to start.  When the pointer is to the right of the crosshair the
       screen will zoom towards the point underneath the  mouse  pointer.   To
       select  a letter, move the mouse pointer into it and watch how it zooms
       underneath the  crosshair.   A  new  column  of  letters  will  appear.
       Staying  within  the box for the selected letter, move the pointer over
       one of these letters to select it as the next letter.  Moving the mouse
       pointer  to  the  left  of  the  crosshair,  or  outside of the box for
       previously selected letters, allows you to change  previously  selected
       letters.

Application Styles

       traditional
              Dasher displays an edit box above the main window.  Text entered
              via Dasher will appear in the edit box allowing the text  to  be
              edited directly.

       direct The  edit  box  is not displayed.  Dasher runs without focus and
              the text goes into whatever window does have  focus.   This  way
              you can use it more practically to run your desktop.

       fullscreen
              dasher expands to the entire screen.

MENUS

   File
       New    Clear the edit box and associate a random filename with it.

       Open   Read a text file into the edit box for further editing.

       Save   Save the contents of the edit box to its associated file.

       Save as
              Save the contents of the edit box to a selected file.

       Append to file
              Add  the contents of the edit box to the end of a selected file.

       Import training text
              Use a file to further improve Dasher’s prediction  of  the  next
              letters  to  present  (for  instance, a training file containing
              scientific terms  to  add  to  the  initial  English  training).
              Training files must be UTF-8 encoded.

       Quit   Exit Dasher.

   Edit
       Cut    Remove the highlighted text from the edit box and copy it to the
              clipboard.

       Copy   Copy the highlighted text from the edit box to the clipboard but
              don’t remove it.

       Paste  Paste  the  contents  of  the clipboard into the edit box at the
              position of the cursor.

       Copy all
              Copy the entire contents of the edit box to the clipboard.

       Select all
              Highlight all of the text in the edit box.

   Options
       Preferences
              Opens the preferences dialog.

   Help
       About Dasher
              Display information about the current version of Dasher

THE PREFERENCES DIALOG

       The preferences dialog is split into several panes.

   Alphabet
       Choose a different alphabet. Dasher will automatically  retrain  itself
       if the alphabet specified training file is present.

   Colour
       Choose a different colour scheme.

   Control
       Alter various control options

       One dimensional mode
              Map  the  Y position of the mouse to a 2 dimensional position on
              the Dasher canvas (useful for limited mobility users)

       Eyetracker mode
              Similar to one dimensional mode, but behaves normally except  at
              the  right-hand  side  of  the  canvas.  Designed for eyetracker
              users.

CONVERTING TRAINING FILES TO UTF-8

       Dasher requires that training files be in  the  UTF-8  format,  whereas
       most  text  files  are  likely  to  be in ISO-8859 format. This doesn’t
       matter for plain text, but accented characters are encoded differently.
       In  order  to  convert them, use the iconv(1) program. For instance, if
       your training file is in  ISO-8859-1  format  (Western  European),  run
       iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 trainingfile >newtrainingfile

FILES

       /usr/share/doc/dasher
              Directory containing system-wide configuration files.

       ~/.dasher
              Directory containing user specific configuration files.

       Dasher  will  utilise  files  of  the following form from both of these
       directories:

       alphabet.ALPHABET.xml
              The files defining the alphabets available to Dasher.

       colour.SCHEME.xml
              The files defining the colour schemes available to Dasher.

       training_LANGUAGE*.txt
              Files containing the training data used by  Dasher.   These  are
              UTF-8 encoded text and should contain a representative sample of
              the relevant language.  User specific training files can be used
              to augment system wide data.

       Refer  to  the  Dasher manual for more information regarding the format
       and editing of these files.

AUTHOR

       The Dasher Project <dasher@mrao.phy.cam.ac.uk>.

SEE ALSO

       The         Dasher         project         web         page          is
       〈http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/