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Kaleidoscope-MagicCombo

The MagicCombo extension provides a way to perform custom actions when a particular set of keys are held down together. The functionality assigned to these keys are not changed, and the custom action triggers as long as all keys within the set are pressed. The order in which they were pressed do not matter.

This can be used to tie complex actions to key chords.

Using the extension

To use the extension, we must include the header, create actions for the magic combos we want to trigger, and set up a mapping:

#include <Kaleidoscope.h>
#include <Kaleidoscope-Macros.h>
#include <Kaleidoscope-MagicCombo.h>

enum { KIND_OF_MAGIC };

void kindOfMagic(uint8_t combo_index) {
  Macros.type(PSTR("It's a kind of magic!"));
}

USE_MAGIC_COMBOS(
[KIND_OF_MAGIC] = {
  .action = kindOfMagic,
  .keys = {R3C6, R3C9} // Left Fn + Right Fn
});

KALEIDOSCOPE_INIT_PLUGINS(MagicCombo, Macros);

void setup() {
  Kaleidoscope.setup();
}

It is recommended to use the RxCy macros of the core firmware to set the keys that are part of a combination.

Plugin properties

The extension provides a MagicCombo singleton object, with the following property:

`.min_interval`

Restrict the magic action to fire at most once every min_interval milliseconds.

Defaults to 500.

Plugin callbacks

Whenever a combination is found to be held, the plugin will trigger the specified action, which is just a regular method with a single uint8_t argument: the index of the magic combo. This function will be called repeatedly (every min_interval milliseconds) while the combination is held.

Upgrading

To make MagicCombo more portable, and easier to use, we had to break the API previously provided, there was no way to maintain backwards compatibility. This document is an attempt at guiding you through the process of migrating from the earlier API to the current one.

Migration should be a straightforward process, but if you get stuck, please feel free to open an issue, or start a thread on the forums, and we'll help you with it.

The old API

void magicComboActions(uint8_t combo_index, uint32_t left_hand, uint32_t right_hand) {
  switch (combo_index) {
  case 0:
    Macros.type(PSTR("It's a kind of magic!"));
    break;
  }
}

static const kaleidoscope::MagicCombo::combo_t magic_combos[] PROGMEM = {
  {
    R3C6,  // left palm key
    R3C9   // right palm key
  },
  {0, 0}
};

void setup() {
  Kaleidoscope.setup();

  MagicCombo.magic_combos = magic_combos;
}

Previously, we used a global, overrideable function (magicComboActions) to run the actions of all magic combos, similar to how macros are set up to work. Unlike macros, magic combos can't be defined in the keymap, due to technical reasons, so we had to use a separate list - magic_combos in our example. We also needed to tell MagicCombo to use this list, which is what we've done in setup().

The new API

void kindOfMagic(uint8_t combo_index) {
  Macros.type(PSTR("It's a kind of magic!"));
}

USE_MAGIC_COMBOS({
  .action = kindOfMagic,
  .keys = {R3C6, R3C9} // Left Fn + Right Fn
});

The new API is much shorter, and is inspired by the way the Leader plugin works: instead of having a list, and a dispatching function like magicComboActions, we include the action method in the list too!

We also don't make a difference between left- and right-hand anymore, you can just list keys for either in the same list. This will be very handy for non-split keyboards.

Migration

First of all, we'll need to split up magicComboActions into separate functions. Each function should have a unique name, but their shape is always the same:

void someFunction(uint8_t combo_index) {
 // Do some action here
}

Copy the body of each case statement of magicComboActions, and copy them one by one into appropriately named functions of the above shape. You can name your functions anything you want, the only constraint is that they need to be valid C++ function names. The plugin itself does nothing with the name, we'll reference them later in the USE_MAGIC_COMBOS helper macro.

Once magicComboActions is split up, we need to migrate the magic_combos list to the new format. That list had to be terminated by a {0, 0} entry, the new method does not require such a sentinel at the end.

For each entry in magic_combos, add an entry to USE_MAGIC_COMBOS, with the following structure:

{.action = theActionFunction,
 .keys = { /* list of keys */ }}

The list of keys are the same RxCy constants you used for magic_combos, with the left- and right hands combined. The action, theActionFunction, is the function you extracted the magic combo action to. It's the function that has the same body as the case statement in magicComboActions had.

And this is all there is to it.

If your actions made use of the left_hand or right_hand arguments of magicComboActions, the same information is still available. But that's a bit more involved to get to, out of scope for this simple migration guide. Please open an issue, or ask for help on the forums, and we'll help you.

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