Build 11 -- Hotkey triggers

[Freddie]

ElectronDF suggested the other day a hotkey to bring the cursor home during mouseover. To do that, we need a dialog box where people choose a "trigger." Triggers are key combinations that make hotkeys fire.

I tried hard to make the dialog box as simple and easy as possible. I think there's room for improvement. Please tell me if you have any suggestions. To use the dialog box, go to the Debug menu and choose the first item.

In build 11, the dialog box looks like this:



In addition to the dialog box, there's a lot of code behind the scenes that checks whether the user's choices are valid or not. If you play around with different key combinations, you'll generate a lot of error messages. For example, you might see this one:




Finally, there is a new help page on Mojo's website that explains a little bit about triggers. If you have any suggestions for improving the page, please let me know. It's here:

www.mojoware.org/help/triggers.html

[Coltimar]

I can't get Mojo to pickup WoWs, lol. I'm gonna try it on another PC.

[airlag]

Hi, nice to see you here
I use HKN for a while now. Of course I'd like to see Mojo being as mighty as HKN. Don't kill me for asking too much with my first posting

So here is my suggestion for improvement:
We have basically 3 types of keys

1) Hotkeys - trigger once when pressed or released. Maybe 2 different actions when possible? You already need 2 actions for just mirroring a standard keybord action, key down and key up. So it would be natural to allow free programmed actions on pressing/releasing a hotkey.

2) Modifiers - "natural" modifiers are capslock, scrolllog and numlock. It would be nice to define modifier keys freely. I made capslock of the keyboard to a normal hotkey to prevent SHOUTING ACCIDENTLY AT PEOPLE IN CHAT. I made pause to a modifier that pauses HKN. You see what I mean. If you implement this you need to create the "Execute the hotkey only when" section of the above window dynamically.

3) Movement keys - are special in HKN, but with 1) fully implemented they are only a subclass of Hotkeys. Instead you may need a key repeating trigger (delay and repeat time freely defined for every repeating hotkey). That would be an improvement of Hotkey triggers again

[Aragent]

Just Checked the Dialog box out, Am I correct in assuming (I hate to assume But the jest I got was) this is only a test of the menu and nothing is actually being stored yet from the dialog box.

It definitely appears that we will be ably to have enough combinations to get the job done.

My one question, (since you have stated before you would like to keep the average user out of the mojo directory)
are you planing a way for users to see what Hotkeys have been set in the past, by maybe graying out an established key combination and or give waring if were about to overwrite an existing key combination with one thats already established?

I understand this is very early in the stages of hotkeys
Just trying to get a feel how you planed to handle the storing of the key combinations.

[Ghallo]

Instead of manually choosing the hotkeys, how about having an input box where the user just types in the hotkey and you detect the mods?

[Freddie]

1) Hotkeys - trigger once when pressed or released. Maybe 2 different actions when possible?

Both HotkeyNet and Mojo can perform millions of actions when you press or release a key. But the key can only be pressed or released because that's all a key does. The key can only be pressed or released because that's how they build keyboards at the factory.

Pressing or releasing a key is input. What Mojo does is output.

Most of your comments here about about output -- what Mojo does. This dialog box is only about input. This dialog box has absolutely nothing to do with output.

So it would be natural to allow free programmed actions on pressing/releasing a hotkey.

HotkeyNet does this and Mojo will also do it. It's going to have a powerful programming language, much more powerful than HotkeyNet's.

2) Modifiers - "natural" modifiers are capslock, scrolllog and numlock. It would be nice to define modifier keys freely.

Edit: I misunderstood this because you're using "modifier" in an unusual way. "Modifier" usually means Shift, Ctrl, or Alt. The three "lock" keys don't have a name, so I call them lock keys.

These three keys generate states that are built into the computer. If you have a desktop keyboard you can see that these three states are built into the computer because the keyboard has LEDs for them. These three states are *input* to Mojo because they are external to Mojo.

You will be able to create additional states with Mojo, just like you can with HotkeyNet, but additional states are output. They are something that Mojo does. This dialog box is only about input, things that are given to Mojo.

As for "modifiers" in the normal sense of the word (Alt, Shift, and Ctrl), Mojo can use any key as a modifier now, and if you play with the dialog box you will see that it accepts any key as a modifier. This is explained on the documentation page I linked at the bottom of my previous page.

I made capslock of the keyboard to a normal hotkey to prevent SHOUTING AT PEOPLE IN CHAT. I mad paus to a modifier that pauses HKN.

You will be able to do that sort of thing with Mojo. If you think this dialog box limits that, you are misunderstanding it.

You see what I mean. If you implement this you need to create the "Execute the hotkey only when" section of the above window dynamically.

No, the section doesn't need to be dynamic to allow those features. That section corresponds to states that are built into the computer. Mojo's abilities are not limited to what is built into the computer.

Once again, this dialog box is only about input, i.e., things that are external to Mojo, i.e., the keyboard.

[Freddie]

Instead of manually choosing the hotkeys, how about having an input box where the user just types in the hotkey and you detect the mods?

Edit: Let me clarify something just in case it's unclear. You can press keys in this dialog box and the dialog box will record them.

That was the first thing I tried but it doesn't work for at least three reasons..

1. The user may want to enter Shift instead of LShift or RShift, and there is no Shift key. Same for the other modifiers.

2. The user may want to enter mouse buttons, but at least one button can't work that way because at least one button has to be "meta" to the entry field for navigation in the dialog box.

3. The user may want to enter keys that don't exist physically on the keyboard. (There are many dozens of such keys.) This is very useful when making hotkeys that get triggered by other programs or hardware devices.

What I've thought of doing is making two dialog boxes, a simple one that works the way you say and the current one. The simple one would come up by default, and it could contain a button that brings up the second one.

But even if I end up doing that, this first dialog box needs to be tested and improved and debugged.

[Freddie]

Just Checked the Dialog box out, Am I correct in assuming (I hate to assume But the jest I got was) this is only a test of the menu and nothing is actually being stored yet from the dialog box.

That's correct.

It definitely appears that we will be ably to have enough combinations to get the job done.

Yes, especially if the user is willing to "sacrifice" some keys to be used as modifiers. In that case the number of triggers is many millions.

My one question, (since you have stated before you would like to keep the average user out of the mojo directory)
are you planing a way for users to see what Hotkeys have been set in the past, by maybe graying out an established key combination and or give waring if were about to overwrite an existing key combination with one thats already established?

Yes, any time the user enters a setting that could inadvertently affect a different setting, the program will issue a warning.

If you try this dialog box and look at the many warning messages it generates, I think you'll see that I'm pretty compulsive about checking the user's input and warning about potential problems.

[Freddie]

I can't get Mojo to pickup WoWs, lol. I'm gonna try it on another PC.

I'd sure like to find out why it's not picking up your WoWs.

Can you help me test that and figure out the reason so I can fix it?

[Coltimar]

Sure, I'll PM you.