xwrits - reminds you to take wrist breaks
xwrits [-display display] [typetime=time] [breaktime=time] [other options]
Xwrits reminds you to take wrist breaks for prevention of repetitive stress injuries. When you should take a break, it pops up an X window, the warning window. You click on the warning window, then take a break. The window changes appearance while you take the break. It changes again when your break is over. Then you click on the window and resume typing. Xwrits hides itself until you should take another break.
Xwrits's graphics are brightly colored pictures of a wrist and hand. The hand clenches and spreads ``as if in pain'' on the warning window, slumps relaxed during the break, and points forward valiantly when the break is over. It is trapped behind bars while the keyboard is locked. Other gestures are included: see +finger below.
Xwrits normally works on the honor system: you can type while you should be taking a break. However, an option makes it actively prevent you from typing by locking the screen. See +lock below.
A simple timing method is used to determine when you should next take a break, sort of like an alarm clock. The typetime option changes the amount of time between breaks. Default is 55 minutes. Xwrits does notice when you leave your workstation idle, however. See +idle below.
It is easy to put the warning window aside ``for 5 minutes'' and ignore it for fifty. Xwrits can escalate its activity over time, making it harder to ignore.
This is done with the after delay-time option. All options following after only apply after you have ignored the warning window for delay-time. In other words, Xwrits's behavior escalates after delay-time. For instance, with this command line,
xwrits flashtime=:2 after 10 flashtime=.03the warning window will begin flashing very quickly if it is ignored for 10 minutes.
Any options specified preceding an after option also apply following it. You may explicitly cancel such options, however. For example:
xwrits +finger after 10 -finger
You may have more than one after option. This creates a series of escalations.
All options may be abbreviated to their unique prefixes. Some may be abbreviated further, in which case the smallest legal abbreviation is shown [in brackets]. Time arguments are expressed in the form minutes:seconds.fraction, where any of the parts may be left off. ``2'' is 2 minutes, ``:2'' is 2 seconds. Options are processed from left to right.
Many options are listed as +option (-option). A + turns the given behavior on; - turns it off. Only the on behavior is described. Off is the default for each toggle option except idle. You can leave off the + sign if you like: ``xwrits +finger'' and ``xwrits finger'' are equivalent. Non-toggle options may be specified with arguments after an equal sign or with an argument following in the list. That is, ``xwrits breaktime=2'' and ``xwrits -breaktime 2'' are equivalent.
Here is the way I run xwrits:
xwrits typetime=40 finger after 15 clock multiply=5:1.4
This looks pretty spectacular:
xwrits t=0 b=:2 f fla=.5 m=.3 max=100Whee!!
Eddie Kohler, eddietwo@lcs.mit.edu
Idea for idle processing code from xautolock, by Stefan De Troch and Michel Eyckmans
Xwrits does not use the X resource database at all.
More options might be nice. So might more careful screen locking and password protection and user-specifiable pictures. I would like to include rude finger gestures from other cultures, but I'm not sure how to render them.
Please send any bugs, comments, or suggestions to me.
Yes the misspelling is intentional.
Yes it's my left wrist.