read keystroke input with dbus (python)?

jeffk · l33t Joined: 13 Sep 2003 Posts: 671

Can anyone suggest the right dbus object to connect to watch the keyboard input?

I'd like to use python, and have http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-python/doc/tutorial.html as a resource.

Searching for "dbus key{board,stroke}" or similar results mainly in people reporting their keyboard problems with udev/dbus/evdev.

Nothing nefarious like a keylogger here, I want to make something to display keystrokes onscreen during screencasts.

Thanks.

makism · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Posts: 85

hm, i don`t know about dbus... while i was searching the same subject
i came across with dev-python/python-xlib.

here is the project`s webpage:
http://python-xlib.sourceforge.net/

and check out this demo:
http://python-xlib.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/python-xlib/trunk/examples/record_demo.py?revision=124&view=markup

i hope this helps :-)

jeffk · l33t Joined: 13 Sep 2003 Posts: 671

I came to find the same resource and demo exactly. python-xlib is probably the right tool for this area. I found that reading directly from /dev/input devices was not my cup of tea

FWIW, I studied wicd (a wireless connection daemon with GUI) as an example of a dbus participant in python. It seemed not to use dbus for interaction with the network interfaces, only with the GNOME panel, etc.

Thanks.