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<refentry id="dasher-1">

<refmeta><refentrytitle>&cmd;</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum>

<refmiscinfo class="date">14 Nov 2007</refmiscinfo>

<refmiscinfo class="sectdesc">&man1;</refmiscinfo>

<refmiscinfo class="software">&release;</refmiscinfo>

<refmiscinfo class="arch">generic</refmiscinfo>

<refmiscinfo class="copyright">&suncopy;</refmiscinfo>

</refmeta>

<indexterm><primary>&cmd;</primary></indexterm><indexterm><primary>

graphical predictive text entry system

</primary></indexterm><refnamediv id="dasher-1-name">

<refname>&cmd;</refname><refpurpose>

graphical predictive text entry system

</refpurpose></refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv id="dasher-1-synp"><title>&synp-tt;</title>

<cmdsynopsis><command>&cmd;</command>

<arg choice="opt"><option>-appstyle=<replaceable>style</replaceable></option></arg>

<arg choice="opt"><option>-options</option></arg>

</cmdsynopsis></refsynopsisdiv>

<refsect1 id="dasher-1-desc"><title>&desc-tt;</title>

<para>

<command>&cmd;</command> is an information-efficient text-entry interface,

driven by natural continuous pointing gestures. <command>&cmd;</command> is a

competitive text-entry system wherever a full-size keyboard cannot be used.

</para>

<para>

After startup, <command>&cmd;</command> will present the user with a window

containing two major sections. The top portion is the edit box - text entered

via <command>&cmd;</command> will appear here, and the text may also be edited

directly. The bottom portion is the main &cmd; interface and will display a

blank background with a column of letters on the right hand side. Clicking the

mouse button will start the model, and the screen will zoom towards the point

underneath the mouse pointer. To select a letter, move the mouse pointer into

it and watch how it zooms underneat the crosshair. Within the selected letter,

a new column of letters will appear. Move the pointer over one of these

letters to select it as the next letter. To correct mistakes, move the mouse

pointer to the left of the crosshair and <command>&cmd;</command> will zoom out

allowing you to select new letters.

</para>

<para>

Dasher requires that training files be in the UTF-8 format,

whereas most text files are likely to be in ISO-8859 format.

This doesn't matter for plain text, but accented characters

are encoded differently. In order to convert them, use the

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>iconv</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.

program. For instance, if your training file is in

ISO-8859-1 format (Western European), run

</para>

<screen>

<command>iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 trainingfile</command>

</screen>

</refsect1>

<refsect1 id="dasher-1-opts"><title>&opts-tt;</title>

<para>The following options are supported:</para>

<variablelist termlength="medium">

<varlistentry>

<term><option>-a</option>, <option>-appstyle=<replaceable>style</replaceable></option></term>

<listitem><para>

Specify application <replaceable>style</replaceable> (traditional, direct, compose,

or fullscreen).

</para>

</listitem></varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><option>-o</option>, <option>-options</option></term>

<listitem><para>

Override stored options.

</para>

</listitem></varlistentry>

</variablelist></refsect1>

<refsect1 id="dasher-1-exam"><title>&exam-tt;</title>

<example role="example"><title>Launching <command>&cmd;</command>

</title>

<para><screen>example% <userinput>&cmd;</userinput></screen></para>

</example>

</refsect1>

<refsect1 id="dasher-1-exit"><title>&exit-tt;</title>

<para>The following exit values are returned:</para>

<variablelist termlength="xtranarrow"><varlistentry><term><returnvalue>0</returnvalue></term>

<listitem><para>Application exited successfully</para>

</listitem></varlistentry>

<varlistentry><term><returnvalue>>0</returnvalue></term><listitem><para>Application

exited with failure</para>

</listitem></varlistentry>

</variablelist></refsect1>

<refsect1 id="dasher-1-file"><title>&file-tt;</title>

<para>The following files are used by this application:</para>

<variablelist termlength="wholeline">

<varlistentry>

<term><filename>/usr/bin/&cmd;</filename></term>

<listitem><para>

Executable for &cmd;

</para>

</listitem></varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><filename>/usr/share/dasher</filename></term>

<listitem><para>

System-wide configuration files.

</para>

</listitem></varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><filename>~/.dasher</filename></term>

<listitem><para>

User configuration files.

</listitem></varlistentry>

<para>

&cmd; will utilise configuration from both the System-wide and

User configuration directories. Training text from both will be used, allowing

users to add their own training data to the system wide data.

</para>

<variablelist termlength="wholeline">

<varlistentry>

<term><filename>alphabet*.xml</filename></term>

<listitem><para>

The files defining the alphabets available to &cmd;

</para>

</listitem></varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><filename>colour*.xml</filename></term>

<listitem><para>

The files defining the colour schemes available to &cmd;

</para>

</listitem></varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><filename>train*.xml</filename></term>

<listitem><para>

The files containing the training data used by <command>&cmd;</command>.

These are UTF-8 encoded text and should contain a representative sample of the

relevant language.

</para>

</listitem></varlistentry>

</variablelist></refsect1>

<refsect1 id="dasher-1-attr"><title>&attr-tt;</title>

<para>See <olink targetdocent="REFMAN5" localinfo="attributes-5"><citerefentry>

<refentrytitle>attributes</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry></olink>

for descriptions of the following attributes:</para>

<informaltable frame="all">

<tgroup cols="2" colsep="1" rowsep="1"><colspec colname="COLSPEC0" colwidth="1*">

<colspec colname="COLSPEC1" colwidth="1*">

<thead>

<row><entry align="center" valign="middle">ATTRIBUTE TYPE</entry><entry align="center"

valign="middle">ATTRIBUTE VALUE</entry></row>

</thead>

<tbody>

<row><entry><para>Availability</para></entry><entry><para>gnome/accessibility/dasher

</para></entry></row>

<row><entry colname="COLSPEC0"><para>Interface stability</para></entry><entry

colname="COLSPEC1"><para>Volatile</para></entry></row>

</tbody>

</tgroup>

</informaltable>

</refsect1>

<refsect1 id="dasher-1-also"><title>&also-tt;</title>

<para>

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>iconv</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>attributes</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>gnome-std-options</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>

</para>

<para>Latest version of the <citetitle>GNOME Desktop User Guide</citetitle> for your platform.</para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1 id="dasher-1-note"><title>&note-tt;</title>

<para>

The Dasher Project (dasher@mrao.phy.cam.ac.uk) -

<literal>http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/</literal>

</para>

<para>

Updated by Brian Cameron, Sun Microsystems Inc., 2007.

</refsect1>

</refentry>