iankelling.org Git - spray/blob - README.org

   1 * spray.el
   2
   3 A speed reading mode for Emacs.
   4
   5 The algorithm is inspired from [[https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz][OpenSpritz]].
   6
   7
   8 ** Screencast
   9
  10 [[screencast.gif]]
  11
  12 The story continues at [[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html][gnu.org]]
  13
  14 ** Installation
  15
  16 Put spray.el into a "load-path"ed directory, and load it in your init
  17 file.
  18
  19 : (require 'spray)
  20
  21 Then you can start spraying from the cursor position with =M-x
  22 spray-mode=. Binding some keys may also be useful.
  23
  24 : (global-set-key (kbd "<f6>") 'spray-mode)
  25
  26 ** Commands
  27
  28 In spray-mode buffers, following commands are available.
  29
  30 - =spray-start/stop= (SPC) ::
  31      pause or resume spraying
  32
  33 - =spray-backward-word= (h, <left>) ::
  34      pause and back to the last word
  35
  36 - =spray-forward-word= (l, <right>) ::
  37      inverse of =spray-backward-word=
  38
  39 - =spray-faster= (f) ::
  40      increases speed
  41
  42 - =spray-slower= (s) ::
  43      decreases speed
  44
  45 - =spray-quit= (q, <return>) ::
  46      quit =spray-mode=
  47
  48
  49 ** Customization
  50
  51 You may customize spray by modifying following items:
  52
  53 - [Variable] spray-wpm
  54 - [Variable] spray-height
  55 - [Variable] spray-margin-top
  56 - [Variable] spray-margin-left
  57 - [Variable] spray-ramp
  58 - [Keymap] spray-mode-map
  59 - [Face] spray-base-face
  60 - [Face] spray-accent-face
  61
  62 ** If your emacs color theme does not work well with spray
  63
  64 You could create a function to toggle the emacs theme to one that
  65 works with spray, and then put that in the spray mode hook. For example:
  66
  67 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
  68 (defun toggle-night ()
  69  (interactive)
  70   (if (equal (car custom-enabled-themes) 'naquadah)
  71       (override-theme 'leuven)
  72   (override-theme 'naquadah)))
  73 (add-hook 'spray-mode-hook 'toggle-night)
  74 #+end_src
  75
  76 Alternatively, one user found ways to setup a single buffer with better colors, using
  77 - http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BufferBackgroundColor
  78 - https://github.com/vic/color-theme-buffer-local
  79
  80 He also found this library useful:
  81 https://github.com/ShingoFukuyama/ov.el
  82
  83
  84 ** Feedback, bugs, etc.
  85
  86 Bug tracking is on github.
  87 Mailing list for any feedback, questions, etc: https://lists.iankelling.org/listinfo/spray
  88
  89
  90 ** Similar emacs package: speedread
  91
  92 Available in marmalade or [[https://github.com/vapniks/speedread/blob/master/speedread.el][github]] It has several nice features and does
  93 not align on an accent character. Eventually I'd like to merge the two
  94 packages.
  95
  96 ** Deficiencies in similar projects which spray.el solves:
  97
  98 Mostly as of June 28, 2014.
  99
 100 For all other projects:
 101 - It is very difficult to save your place and come back later. Emacs has
 102   lots of built in features like bookmarks or just making a note which
 103   make this easy.
 104 - No keybinds. This is especially useful for common, quickly used
 105   functionality like pause and back up.
 106
 107 Specific projects:
 108 - [[https://github.com/jbmartinez/speed-readerff][speed-readerff]] firefox extension.
 109 - [[https://github.com/cameron/squirt][squirt]] javascript bookmarklet.
 110 - [[https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz][OpenSpritz]] javascript bookmarklet.
 111   - Very difficult selecting where to start / what exactly to read.
 112   - Very difficult to figure out where you are within a document.
 113
 114 - [[https://github.com/chaimpeck/spray][spray]] website you paste text into.
 115   - Very difficult to figure out where you are within a document.
 116
 117 - [[https://github.com/xypiie/spread0r][spread0r]] Perl program.
 118   - No apparent way to resize text.
 119   - Very difficult to figure out where you are within a document.
 120
 121 - [[https://github.com/the-happy-hippo/sprits-it][sprits-it]] website or bookmarklet. Looks most promising of the web based projects.
 122   - Very difficult selecting where to start / what exactly to read.
 123   - Somewhat difficult to figure out where you are in a document.
 124
 125 Programs that I, Ian Kelling, didn't try, and why. They also probably have a lot of the problems listed above.
 126 - https://github.com/pasky/speedread No simple way to resize text from default of too small.
 127 - https://github.com/ds300/jetzt Chrome plugin: Chrome is proprietary, and its open source version is unfriendly to linux distros so they don't package it, and it's readme does not list any benefit to this program over others.
 128 - https://github.com/Fr4ncis/openspritz-ios ios program. I don't have an ios device, and this does not appear to have any compelling features.
 129 - https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android android program. If I knew how to quickly move reading material to my phone, I would try this out. But, it's readme shows that the program is pretty sparse and would have some of the same problems as listed above, so not worth it.
 130
 131
 132 Downsides compared to similar projects:
 133 - The emacs learning curve.
 134 - Would be hard to get running on a phone.
 135
 136
 137 ** Algorithm details
 138
 139 *** Main algorithm code location
 140 In =./spray.el=, the functions =spray--word-at-point=, =spray--update= and =spray-start= contain the main algorithm of choosing a word, an accent character and an interval to display it. Word splitting is also duplicated the same way as in those functions throughout ./spray.el.
 141
 142 *** Algorithm translated from code to english
 143
 144 Words are split at space, tab, newline, and emdash characters.
 145
 146 Each word is displayed for (60 / the choosen wpm) seconds, except if the
 147 word ends with =.!?,;:—= or is greater than 9 characters long, in which
 148 case it is displayed for twice as long.
 149
 150 When started, an added delay is optionally added, based on the
 151 spray-ramp variable. See it's documentation for details.
 152
 153 The accent location is chosen as the nth character in a word, depending
 154 on its length, based on the following table
 155 | length | accent position |
 156 |      1 |               1 |
 157 |    2-5 |               2 |
 158 |    6-9 |               3 |
 159 |  10-13 |               4 |
 160 |    14+ |               5 |
 161
 162
 163 ** Contributions are welcome!
 164
 165 There's lots of features and enhancements to do. The algorithm and interface could certainly be improved in various ways.