Kaleidoscope-TypingBreaks

Typing on the keyboard for an extended period of time may lead to injuries, which is why it is highly recommended to take frequent breaks from the keyboard - and from the computer as well. But sometimes - more often than one would wish to admit - we tend to forget about this, and plow through, at the cost of hand's health.

No more.

With the TypingBreaks plugin, we can instruct the keyboard to lock itself up after some time, or after a number of key presses. It will stay locked for a few minutes (or whatever amount we told it to), forcing us to take a break.

Using the plugin

The plugin comes with reasonable defaults (see below), and can be used out of the box, without any further configuration:

#include <Kaleidoscope.h>
#include <Kaleidoscope-TypingBreaks.h>

void setup (void) {
  Kaleidoscope.use (&TypingBreaks);

  Kaleidoscope.setup ();

  TypingBreaks.settings.idle_time_limit = 60;
}

Plugin methods

The plugin provides a single object, TypingBreaks, with the following properties. All times are in seconds.

.settings.idle_time_limit

The amount of time that can pass between two pressed keys, before the plugin considers it a new session, and starts all timers and counters over.

Defaults to 10 seconds.

.settings.lock_time_out

The length of the session, after which the keyboard will be locked.

Defaults to 2700 seconds (45 minutes).

.settings.lock_length

The length until the keyboard lock is held. Any key pressed while the lock is active, will be discarded.

Defaults to 300 seconds (5 minutes).

.settings.left_hand_max_keys

It is possible to lock the keyboard after a number of keys pressed, too. If this happens sooner than the timeout, the keyboard will still be locked.

This property controls how many keys can be pressed on the left side.

Defaults to 0 (off).

.settings.right_hand_max_keys

It is possible to lock the keyboard after a number of keys pressed, too. If this happens sooner than the timeout, the keyboard will still be locked.

This property controls how many keys can be pressed on the right side.

Defaults to 0 (off).

Focus commands

The plugin provides a single Focus hook, FOCUS_HOOK_TYPINGBREAKS, which in turn make a few commands available. All of these return the respective setting's value when called without arguments, or set them if called with some.

typingbreaks.idleTimeLimit [limit]

Get or set the .settings.idle_time_limit property.

typingbreaks.lockTimeOut [time_out]

Get or set the .settings.lock_time_out property.

typingbreaks.lockLength [length]

Get or set the .settings.lock_length property.

typingbreaks.leftMaxKeys [max]

Get or set the .settings.left_hand_max_keys property.

typingbreaks.rightMaxKeys [max]

Get or set the .settings.right_hand_max_keys property.

Further reading

Starting from the example is the recommended way of getting started with the plugin.