Tutorial – Kando

If you look at the launcher you use, you might wonder if there is any way to improve it – or even rethink it. After all, it's a simple tool for a simple task, so attempting to improve it is like trying to make a better wheel. But that's exactly what Kando [1] is set to accomplish.

You might argue that mouse gestures are nothing new, and you'd be right. However, what Kando brings to the table is rather special. The main problem with mouse gestures is that most implementations require a certain level of precision for the gestures to be interpreted correctly. And if you've ever tried to draw a straight line with a mouse, you know how frustratingly hard it can be. Worse still, trying to make mouse movements precise inevitably means slowing down, which defeats the purpose of using gestures to speed things up. Kando offers a simple (from the user's point of view, that is) solution to the problem: It doesn't require much precision at all. All you have to do is move the mouse in the general direction of where you want it to be, and Kando figures out the rest. Equally important, Kando lets you construct rather complex menus while keeping the gesture patterns simple. As Kando's website puts it, you can select items buried deep in a submenu structure in less than a second without even looking at your screen. They are not exaggerating.

To call Kando an application launcher is doing it a disservice. Of course, it can be used to launch applications, but you can also configure it to quickly access specific directories, run scripts, open links, and much more. Honestly, Kando is one of those "you must see and try it for yourself" tools. So the best way to understand what it can do for you is to install Kando and spend some quality time with it. This is exactly what we're going to do.

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