Quickly and easily listen to Wiz Biz with Alexx and Erik for free!

The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia (www.cnn.com) 00:10  ↑ 141 HN Points

I run the Regolith Desktop Environment on my laptop, which I love because it provides a convenient GNOME wrapper and interface for the i3 tiling window manager. Regolith relies on a program called `ilia` for application launching, and sometimes `ilia` gets caught in some kind of CPU-churning state that locks up my whole system. I have not been able to figure out what is causing it, so I (of course) turned to Emacs for a solution. ## Turning to `consult-omni` Armin Darvish has created a powerful Emacs package called `consult-omni`, which provides a wrapper around `consult` for searching through any number of information sources. I believe `consult-omni` was originally intended to query web search engines and document databases, but Darvish has also provided a search mode for your local desktop applications, and can act as an application launcher. Darvish provides an example application launcher in his `consult-omni` YouTube tutorial. The source code is straightforward, but I wanted to tweak it just a little. You can view his original on the project’s wiki on GitHub. You can watch him explain his technique below. After a few tweaks, here is what I came up with. (defun consult-launcher () "A launcher suitable for use from a window manager." (interactive) (let* ((width (floor (* 0.6 (display-pixel-width)))) (height (floor (* 0.6 (display-pixel-height)))) (left (floor (* 0.2 (display-pixel-width)))) (top (floor (* 0.2 (display-pixel-height)))) (params `((name . "omni-launcher") (width . ,(cons 'text-pixels width)) (height . ,(cons 'text-pixels height)) (left . ,left) (top . ,top) (minibuffer . only))) (frame (make-frame params))) (with-selected-frame frame (select-frame-set-input-focus frame) ;; If i3 is running and there is a control socket, let's tell ;; it we are a floating frame. (if (getenv "I3SOCK") (call-process "i3-msg" nil nil nil (format "[id=%s] floating enable" (s-trim (shell-command-to-string "xdotool getactivewindow"))))) (unwind-protect (progn (consult-omni-apps-static ".*" (propertize "> " 'face 'consult-omni-path-face)) nil) (progn (when (frame-live-p frame) (delete-frame frame)) nil))))) I made two changes to get this to work nicely with `i3`. First, I removed the `yequake` dependency. Second, I added a call to `i3-msg` that sets the launcher frame as floating, which makes it much nicer to use. Like Darvish’s version, you can run this from the command line: emacsclient -e '(consult-launcher)' ## Adding an `ilia` fallback Don’t tell all the other Emacs users, but I don’t have Emacs set up to launch automatically when I start my computer and log into X11. I probably should, huh? Also, there are times when I (gasp!) shut down Emacs, usually to restart it or fix something that I have broken. When those times happen, I want to be able to launch applications, so I need a failsafe in case `consult-launcher` isn’t available! To solve this, I created a simple shell wrapper script, which looks like this: #!/bin/bash # Check if Emacs server is running by looking for the server socket # Default server name is "server", but you can change this if needed SERVER_NAME="${EMACS_SERVER_NAME:-server}" SERVER_FILE="${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR:-/tmp}/emacs/${SERVER_NAME}" if [ -S "$SERVER_FILE" ]; then # Emacs is running, use emacsclient to launch your application emacsclient -e '(consult-launcher)' else # Emacs is not running, fall back to ilia ilia -p apps fi If you want to use this, the important part is that `SERVER_FILE` points to the socket that your Emacs server uses. Make sure that `emacsclient` and `ilia` are both in a reasonable location so your shell can find them, then bind this command to whatever you usually use to launch `ilia`. By the way, if you are using Regolith’s normal method of launching `ilia`, you can add your shell script to your Regolith configuration pretty easily. Open `$HOME/.config/regolith3/Xresources` in your text editor, and add the line: wm.program.launcher.app: /path/to/your/launcher.sh You can then run `xrdb -override $HOME/.config/regolith3/Xresources` and it should work! Good luck. ## Drawbacks One of the nice things about `ilia` is that it keeps track of applications your run frequently, so they tend to bubble up to the top of its application listing. The Emacs method doesn’t do that. I don’t mind so much, I always end up typing in application names. It is fun to use Emacs as an application launcher, and I hope that it helps me avoid the CPU-churn problem that `ilia` has been experiencing far too often. Have I come up with a clever solution, or a lazy workaround? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Erik L. Arneson is a freelance writer and software developer located in Portland, Oregon.

The 2025 Indiepod Survey reveals how 558 indie podcasters balance passion, growth struggles, and monetisation. Discover key trends in audience, goals, and the future of podcasting.

Your WordPress site is either making you money or costing you opportunities. I’m opening up my calendar for quick-turn projects—and offering **free site audits to new clients.** **With 10+ years building WordPress sites,** I’ve seen the same problems tank small business budgets: slow load times, security vulnerabilities, broken plugins, and sites that just stop working. ## What I’m Offering See the full list on my WordPress services page. Here is a quick rundown: * Quick-turnaround emergency WordPress rescue * Site speed optimization * Security hardening * Plugin customization I am also available for **monthly WordPress support retainers.** ## First-Time Client Special **Free 30-minute WordPress site audit (normally $75)** ### What you’ll get: * Speed analysis with specific fixes * Security vulnerability check * Plugin bloat assessment * Prioritized action plan **No obligation.** Just honest feedback on what’s holding your site back. ## Between the lines I’m based in Portland, but work with businesses anywhere. Projects are priced for value and speed—not hourly rates that incentivize me to work slowly. The bottom line: **If your WordPress site is slow, insecure, or broken, you’re losing money every day.** Let’s fix it this week, not next quarter. ## What next? Contact me on my WordPress services page, or using the form below. Your email: Your message: Send **Questions?** Feel free to DM me on LinkedIn.