rexroni's Talon repository

This is my talon repository, where I put things which I hope will be generally useful for other people who also use talon. Ideally, each part is easy to understand and is usable without any of the other parts.

Install this repo into your ~/.talon/user directory like this:

cd ~/.talon/user
git clone https://github.com/rexroni/rexroni_talon

The current list of features is:

• Zsh completion recognition: continuously register zsh completion with talon
• Language Server Integration: speak symbols or tab-completions from your IDE

Zsh completion recognition

You can speak a word that zsh would let you complete, and talon will type that word. After every talon phrase, talon will request a fresh list of completions from zsh for the next phrase.

Prerequisites

• Currently, the implementation uses unix sockets, so you'll need to be on Linux or Mac

• Make sure you are using zsh as your shell. Zsh has a lot of canned configurations. If you are new to it, I recommend the grml package, which offers a like-bash-but-better experience with basically no effort.

Zsh Configuration

All you should have to do is source the setup.zsh file in your zsh:

source ~/.talon/user/rexroni_talon/zsh-completion-server/setup.zsh

This will have the following effects:

• It will start a completion server served over a unix socket in the rexroni_talon/zsh-completion-server/sock directory (created automatically).

• It will set your terminal emulator's window title to zsh:$PID:$PWD, which the zsh.py talon module will use to identify which completion server to talk to. When a command is running, the completion server will be inactive and setup.zsh will replace the title with the running command.

First steps

1. With a zsh window focused, try saying "identify yourself". If the zsh talon app is active, it will type zsh.talon. If it doesn't work, you'll have to troubleshoot. It is triggered by a window title starting with zsh:.

2. Completions for an empty command line are ignored (there's too many). But 90% of CLI commands fall into a few categories. Try saying: "cd space".

3. Then, try saying a subdirectory name. Some basic pronunciation rules are:

   • you should always pronounce file extensions, like "dot pie" for .py
   • you can ignore any of . or - or _ when you pronounce the file, though if you have ambiguous completion options, you chose to pronounce them
   • if there is a partial word being completed, you can either pronounce the rest of the word, or the entire word. Whichever is easiest.
   • you can say "show" or type ctrl-g to ask zsh to show you the completions available at any time

4. Say "cancel" to make talon type a ctrl-c.

5. Now say "git space" (as its own phrase), then say "commit space", then say "dash dash", and then say "amend". The result should be git commit --amend. That's about all there is to it!

Language Server Integration

In your editor, you can say "complete <a tab completion option>" or "symbol <a symbol in the document>" and Talon will emit the appropriate symbol. It works by wrapping the language server process in a wrapper that peeks at the Language Server Protocol messages and informs Talon about editor information.

Prerequisites

• Currently, the implementation uses unix sockets, so you'll need to be on Linux or Mac

• You'll need an editor which uses the Language Server Protocol (LSP) for its language integrations. LSP is popular, so you're probably in luck.

Environment Variable Configuration

The "PATH hack": This step is optional but recommended. You can save yourself the pain of mucking around in your editor settings to change how your editor invokes your language server, as long as your language server uses a dedicated executable. That is, pyls is fine but flow lsp is not because it is not a dedicated executable.

Just add this line to your .bashrc or .zshrc or wherever you customize your PATH environment variable:

export PATH="$HOME/.talon/user/rexroni_talon/langserv/path-hack:$PATH"

Then log out and log back in for the PATH setting to take effect.

The PATH hack will automatically integrate talon with the following language servers, if they are installed on your system:

• pyls
• clangd
• rls
• bashls
• golsp
• gopls
• jdtls
• lsp-tsserverr
• typescript-language-server
• javascript-typescript-langserver
• phpls
• intelephens-ls
• elixir-ls
• erlang-ls

More can be added by running:

cd $HOME/.talon/user/rexroni_talon/langserv/path-hack
ln -s ../../wrap-langserv my-language-server-binary

Editor configuration

If you did the PATH hack, all that's left in the editor is to install a language server client.

• Vim:

  1. There are various LSP plugins for Vim. Instructions below are for vim-lsc. Install the plugin however you install vim plugins.

  2. Install a language server like pyls (for python) or clangd (for C/C++) through your system's package manager.

  3. Configure vim-lsc in your ~/.vimrc:

     " Enable some language servers:
     let g:lsc_server_commands = {
      \ 'python': 'pyls',
      \ 'c': 'clangd',
      \ }
     
     " Trigger autocomplete after a single letter when it is not triggered by
     " anything else:
     let g:lsc_autocomplete_length = 1
     
     """""""
     " If you do not want the usual features of a language server but only want
     " it for the Talon integration, you can turn off most of the features.
     " I highly recommend reading through the vim-lsc documentation before
     " long, but this will get you started:
     let g:lsc_auto_map = v:false
     set completeopt-=preview
     let g:lsc_reference_highlights = v:false
     let g:lsc_enable_diagnostics = v:false
     """""""

  4. If you did not do the PATH hack, you can configure vim-lsc to invoke wrap-langserv directly:

     " Wrap each language server with wrap-langserv:
     let g:lsc_server_commands = {
      \ 'python': $HOME.'/.talon/user/rexroni_talon/wrap-langserv pyls',
      \ 'c': $HOME.'/.talon/user/rexroni_talon/wrap-langserv clangd',
      \ }

• Sublime:

  1. Install the LSP plugin for Sublime.

  2. Install a language server like pyls (for python) or clangd (for C/C++) through your system's package manager.

  3. Enable a couple of plugins, like pyls and clangd, via the LSP: Enable Langauge Server Globally command in the Command Pallette.

  4. If you did not do the PATH hack, you can configure vim-lsc to invoke wrap-langserv directly from your Preferences: LSP Settings.

     {
         "clients":
         {
             "clangd":
             {
                 "command": ["~/.talon/user/rexroni_talon/wrap-langserv", "clangd"],
                 "enabled": true
             },
             "pyls":
             {
                 "command": ["~/.talon/user/rexroni_talon/wrap-langserv", "pyls"],
                 "enabled": true
             }
         }
     }

• VSCode:

  Amazingly, even though Microsoft invented the Language Server Protocol as an elegant abstraction between the editor and the language plugins, they tend to blur the lines of their own abstraction in their language extensions, making it nearly impossible for wrap-langserv to function.

  Notably, the following extensions are known not to work:

  • The Python extension (vscode-python)
  • The built-in JavaScript and TypeScript plugins

  On the plus side, some third-party plugins have more standard behavior and should work just fine:

  • The Clangd extension (llvm-vs-code-extensions)
  • The official Go extension (golang)

  For the extensions that do work, the PATH hack is the only necessary configuration.

First steps

1. With your editor, open a file named test.py. This will activate the pyls language server.

2. Type the following characters: test_string = "Asdf". The . will trigger a completion request, which wrap-langserv will detect and tell Talon about.

3. After the pop-up appears with completion options in your IDE, say "complete lower". Talon will type out "lower" for you.

4. Finish the line with a pair of parens () and hit enter to start a new line.

5. Now say "symbol test string". Talon will type out "test_string" for you, a symbol that it recognizes from within the document (note that a document symbol is different than a token; there will be tokens in the file which pyls does not report as symbols).

License

The files in zsh-completion-server/fn/ were copied with modification from the zsh4humans project, which is under the MIT license (Copyright (c) 2020 Roman Perepelitsa). The modifications from those original files and all additional files in this repository are public domain, as described by the Unlicense.