Enhanced Nerd-Dictation

This repository contains an enhanced version of nerd-dictation with improved timeout handling and robust wrapper scripts.

Key Enhancements

1. Timeout-to-Suspend: Modified the timeout handling to trigger a suspend action instead of ending dictation after a period of silence
2. Memory Efficiency: Smart process management that reuses already-loaded models instead of restarting
3. Robust Wrapper Scripts: Comprehensive scripts for starting, suspending, resuming, and ending dictation
4. Systemd Logging: Full integration with systemd journal for better monitoring and debugging

Directory Structure

• nerd-dictation: The main modified script with timeout-to-suspend functionality
• dictation_scripts/: Wrapper scripts for interacting with nerd-dictation

Wrapper Scripts

• start_voice_dictation.sh: Starts dictation (or resumes a suspended instance for efficiency)
• suspend_voice_dictation.sh: Suspends dictation while keeping the model in memory
• resume_voice_dictation.sh: Resumes suspended dictation
• end_voice_dictation.sh: Completely ends dictation and cleans up resources
• dictate-to-clipboard: Dictates text to clipboard instead of typing it
• dictate-fast: Faster dictation utility
• fast_start_voice_dictation.sh: Starts dictation with optimized settings
• fastest_voice_dictation.sh: Uses the smallest model for maximum speed

Timeout-to-Suspend Feature

The default timeout functionality in nerd-dictation would end the dictation process after a period of silence. This enhanced version instead:

1. Suspends the process, keeping the speech model loaded in memory
2. Creates a marker file for wrapper scripts to detect suspended state
3. Allows for efficient resumption without reloading the model

Installation

1. Clone this repository
2. Make scripts executable: chmod +x nerd-dictation dictation_scripts/*
3. Create a symlink to nerd-dictation in your path
4. Copy the wrapper scripts to a location in your path (e.g., ~/.local/bin/dictation_scripts/)

Configuration

The timeout duration is configurable in the start_voice_dictation.sh script by changing the NERD_DICTATION_SILENCE_TIMEOUT variable.

Credits

• Original nerd-dictation by ideasman42
• Enhancements and wrapper scripts by SystemicVoid