thiagokokada / i3pyblocks

A replacement for i3status, written in Python using asyncio.

i3pyblocks

A replacement for i3status, written in Python using asyncio.

Works in both i3wm and sway.

For Python 3.7+.

Installation and Usage

Look at the example.py file for inspiration and check the User guide section of documentation.

Development

To setup a development environment, create a new venv first and run:

make dev-install

To run the tests, you may run:

make test

Look at the included Makefile for more available commands.

If you're using NixOS or nixpkgs, an alternative way to get a working environment variable is using the shell.nix file included in this repo:

nix-shell shell-dev.nix

For more information, look at Creating a new block section of documentation.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.

License

MIT

i3pyblocks's Issues

Migrate to Github Actions

It seems quite a nice choice nowadays, and there is some interesting actions like this one: https://github.com/psf/black#github-actions.

Add way to register default_state at Runner.register_block call

This would make easier to make customizations, something like:

runner = core.Runner(default_state={"background": "#00FF00"})
await runner.register_block(SomeBlock())
await runner.register_block(SomeOtherBlock(default_state={"background": "#FFFFFF"})) # this wouldn't be affected

aionotify not compatible with Python 3.11

I am running Python 3.11.3 on Arch Linux. Your example config i3pyblocks/example.py fails to run because aionotify doesn't work with 3.11.

See:

• rbarrois/aionotify#18

This references another bug report:

• Opentrons/opentrons#12006

Which contains a link to a fork of aionotify which does support 3.11:

• https://github.com/rickwierenga/aionotify

The changes required to aionotify are quite small.

I am a beginner when it comes to Python so not sure how you would handle this. But hopefully this helps.

Improve i3pyblocks.types.Dictable

i3pyblocks.types.Dictable is very useful, but for now it is kind limited since it is always result in a Dict from Any to Any.

Would be nice to allow Dictable to be more precise, for example:

foo: Dictable[str, bool] = {1: null}  # Error

Create a Pango markup helper

Doesn't seem very difficult: https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/pango-Markup.html

Output some error in case of issues in configuration file

It is impossible to do for now, but after #23 is done we can make the entrypoint app output some error in i3status bar in case of issues in the configuration.

Publish first release

If we can automatize the release process, it is better.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Generate the package automatically and publish to https://pypi.org
• Generate the version automatically and write to i3pyblocks.__version__

Create dbus module

I am thinking of creating a module that allow showing media player and maybe allowing control by click.

This module seems interesting for it: https://github.com/altdesktop/python-dbus-next

Make NetworkSpeedBlock more smart

• Give preference of the current interface instead of switching to another one
• Allow switching between interfaces if more than one interface is active (but remember first rule)

abnormal memory and CPU usage

Sometimes i3pyblocks takes several GB of RAM or 100% CPU.
Does it happen also to other users?
@thiagokokada, could you help me to debug the problem -- for example how to access logging information?
I have some widgets that i wrote myself, so the problem might be also there.

Create an entrypoint

This project needs to have an entrypoint, a simple command-line interface that accepts a config file and runs it.

The reason for it is to be more user friendly and allows us to package it on a NixOS buildPythonApplication. In special match-nix:

let
  mach-nix = import (builtins.fetchGit {
    url = "https://github.com/DavHau/mach-nix/";
    ref = "refs/tags/2.3.0";
  });
in
mach-nix.buildPythonApplication {
  src = "https://github.com/thiagokokada/i3pyblocks/tarball/master";
  extras = "aionotify,i3ipc,psutil,pulsectl";

  propagatedBuildInputs = [
    libffi
    libpulseaudio
  ];

  nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper ]; # wrapper binary here
}

Add PollingExecutorBlock

This is a combination of PollingBlock and ExecutorBlock (not necessary it will use multiple inheritance, while Python supports this it can be messy), allowing completely synchronous libraries to be integrated with i3pyblocks using a polling strategy.

We can convert i3pyblocks.blocks.x11.CaffeineBlock as an example of this block.

Convert path usage to use pathlib instead

Most APIs that works with paths in i3pyblocks are using strings. Since the whole API of i3pyblocks are typed this seems like a waste when we could use typed paths instead, and also pathlib makes the manipulation of paths much easier.

So convert all path usage to use pathlib instead.

Create MediaPlayerBlock using a MPRIS2 library

I think it might be beneficial to rewrite the MediaPlayerBlock based on a MPRIS2 library to more easily add features to it.

Features I have in mind are:

• everything that is possible already
• automatically selecting an instance, when one is not explicitly given
• automatically selecting a player when one is not explicitly given (which makes it possible to have just one block for all players)
• Adding a short_text_format
• controlling the player through click events:
  • play/pause
  • next media
  • cycle through eligible players
  • toggling between normal text or always short text
• an option to make the block disappear from the bar when no player is

Create BatteryBlock using FileWatcherBlock

There is already a SensorsBatteryBlock, but it is based on PollingBlock. Instead, let's reimplement it using sysfs interface (https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-power) and FileWatcherBlock (based on aionotify).

Some posts in StackOverflow on how to calculate the remaining time:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26888636/how-to-calculate-the-time-remaining-until-the-end-of-the-battery-charge
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35516424/calculate-time-left-until-battery-is-discharged

(They're probably not precise, but I don't think the current battery calculations from psutil are different from this).