Bind script or keystroke on mouse/touchpad movement

eminembnja · 12-24-2015, 01:04 PM

Hi!

Is there some way to bind some action to mouse movement? For now I need to send some keys instead of movement for one device (not all). Also, need to ignore pointer itself movement.

For instance, left moving sends <- keystoke or execs some script, etc. Some kind of gestures.

Thank you.

ondoho · 12-24-2015, 02:19 PM

i don't know if a readymade exists, but it's definitely possible.

there's various hotcorner scripts out there, either as part of a desktop environment or as standalone solutions.

you will want to look into apps like xev and xdotool, amongst others. i think xdotool alone can get you pretty far.

eminembnja · 12-24-2015, 03:27 PM

Examined xdotool now. It would be useful to send keys, right. But I can't find any way how to bind anything to movement.

'Easystroke' app is almost what I need, BUT it require pressed button, so inusable.

ondoho · 12-24-2015, 06:14 PM

xdotool can do mouse movement, too.
but of course you have to write yourself a script that utilizes these functions.

no clue what easystroke is. sounds androidy.

eminembnja · 12-24-2015, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

xdotool can do mouse movement, too.
but of course you have to write yourself a script that utilizes these functions.

no clue what easystroke is. sounds androidy.

Nope, I need not to send mouse clicks/positions but bind/map script to mouse movement, like gesture control, eh.
Here is easystroke: http://lifehacker.com/5049268/easyst...-easy-in-linux
As I mentioned before, it requires some mouse button to be pressed, so unsuitable.

Other soft briefly tested is Touchegg and ginn - seems works with multitouch touchpads only. Anyway, not figured out yet how to configure properly.

ondoho · 12-25-2015, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eminembnja

Nope, I need not to send mouse clicks/positions but bind/map script to mouse movement, like gesture control, eh.

yes, xdotool can tell you where the mouse pointer is, without clicking anything.
you can use that in some script that would then interprete these positions as gestures.

but i'm beginning to notice that there's a serious flaw in that approach; it means that every mouse movement would be interpreted as a gesture.
this makes sense on a touchscreen device, but on a normal screen/mouse/keyboard combo, the mouse would become unusable for anything else.

eminembnja · 12-26-2015, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

yes, xdotool can tell you where the mouse pointer is, without clicking anything.
you can use that in some script that would then interprete these positions as gestures.

but i'm beginning to notice that there's a serious flaw in that approach; it means that every mouse movement would be interpreted as a gesture.
this makes sense on a touchscreen device, but on a normal screen/mouse/keyboard combo, the mouse would become unusable for anything else.

Yes, so one of requirements is to catch only one device and leave alone other. I am Win programmer and can relatively easy make this in C#, but stucked with Lin. Considering that gestures are really simple, there is just direction&length of stroke evaluation.

xinput allows to remap mouse buttons for particular device, but nothing with movement.

I'll look on xdotool deeper, thank you.

ondoho · 12-27-2015, 03:40 AM

can't you code it in C?
it has all those X server bindings... i don't know much about it.

it's a rather complex task, scripting it might be less than optimal.