Modal Dictionaries for Plover

Modal Dictionaries are dictionaries that can switch two modes - activated and deactivated. Dictionary entries are hidden until they are activated by one of the configured activation strokes, after which they can be deactivated again under user-configured conditions.

It is useful if you would like to have dictionaries that:

• Turn on with an activation stroke, then turn off when you stroke something outside of the dictionary
• Turn on for one translation only

Example

This dictionary allows the user to enter navigation mode using one of the entries in entry, after which any stroke in dict would return an arrow key or navigation key. The dictionary will exit if the user strokes anything outside of these entries.

Stroking STPH-R/-R/-R/WORD would, for instance, shift the text cursor 3 characters to the left, then write "word".

{
    "exclude_entry": false,
    "exit_on_mismatch": true,
    "exit_on_match": false,
    "ignore_folding": true,

    "entry": {
        "STPH-R": "{#Left}{^}",
        "STPH-P": "{#Up}{^}",
        "STPH-B": "{#Down}{^}",
        "STPH-G": "{#Right}{^}",
        "STPH-RB": "{#Control_L(Left)}{^}",
        "STPH-BG": "{#Control_L(Right)}{^}"
    },
    
    "dict": {
        "-R": "{#Left}{^}",
        "-P": "{#Up}{^}",
        "-B": "{#Down}{^}",
        "-B/-G": "{#Down}{^}{#Right}{^}",
        "-G": "{#Right}{^}",
        "-RB": "{#Control_L(Left)}{^}",
        "-BG": "{#Control_L(Right)}{^}"
    }
}

-B/-G was included to override the outline for "being" in main.json.

Setup

For the plugin to work properly, go into Configuration → Plugins and turn on modal_update.

Usage

Modal dictionaries have the .modal extension and follow the following format (using JSON syntax):

{
    "exclude_entry": false,
    "exit_on_mismatch": true,
    "exit_on_match": false,
    "ignore_folding": true,

    "entry": {
        "S": "translation 1",
        "T": "translation 2"
    },
    
    "dict": {
        "K": "translation 3",
        "P": "translation 4"
    },

    "exit": {
        "W": "translation 5",
        "H": "translation 6"
    }
}

Any of the true/false options can be omitted. They are used like so:

The dictionary contains 3 sub-dictionaries. They can be omitted, and the dictionary will treat them as empty:

These dictionaries can be defined using the usual JSON format, like so:

"entry": {
    "S": "translation 1",
    "T": "translation 2"
}

they can also just be references to other dictionary files with formats supported by your current Plover plugin setup:

"entry": "some/other/dictionary.py"