Jesse Vincent
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README.md
Kaleidoscope-Macros
Macros are a standard feature on many keyboards and Kaleidoscope-powered ones are no exceptions. Macros are a way to have a single key-press do a whole lot of things under the hood: conventionally, macros play back a key sequence, but with Kaleidoscope, there is much more we can do. Nevertheless, playing back a sequence of events is still the primary use of macros.
Playing back a sequence means that when we press a macro key, we can have it play pretty much any sequence. It can type some text for us, or invoke a complicated shortcut - the possibilities are endless!
Using the plugin
To use the plugin, we need to include the header, tell the firmware to use
the
plugin, place macros on the keymap, and create a special handler function
(macroAction
) that will tell the plugin what shall happen when macro keys are
pressed. It is best illustrated with an example:
#include <Kaleidoscope.h>
#include <Kaleidoscope-Macros.h>
// Give a name to the macros!
enum {
MACRO_MODEL01,
MACRO_HELLO,
MACRO_SPECIAL,
};
// Somewhere in the keymap:
M(MACRO_MODEL01), M(MACRO_HELLO), M(MACRO_SPECIAL)
// later in the Sketch:
const macro_t *macroAction(uint8_t macroIndex, uint8_t keyState) {
switch (macroIndex) {
case MACRO_MODEL01:
return MACRODOWN(I(25),
D(LeftShift), T(M), U(LeftShift), T(O), T(D), T(E), T(L),
T(Spacebar),
W(100),
T(0), T(1) );
case MACRO_HELLO:
if (keyToggledOn(keyState)) {
Macros.type(PSTR("Hello world!"));
}
break;
case MACRO_SPECIAL:
if (keyToggledOn(keyState)) {
// Do something special
}
break;
}
return MACRO_NONE;
}
void setup() {
Kaleidoscope.use(&Macros);
Kaleidoscope.setup ();
}
Keymap markup
M(id)
Places a macro key on the keymap, with the
id
identifier. Whenever this key has to be handled, themacroAction
overrideable function will be called, with the identifier and key state as arguments.It is recommended to give a name to macros, by using an
enum
.
Plugin methods
The plugin provides a Macros
object, with the following methods and properties available:
.play(macro)
Plays back a macro, where a macro is a sequence created with the
MACRO()
helper discussed below. This method will be used by the plugin to play back the result of themacroAction()
method, but is used rarely otherwise.The
macro
argument must be a sequence created with theMACRO()
helper!
.type(string)
In cases where we only want to type a string, it is far more convenient to use this method: we do not have to use the
MACRO()
helper, but just give this one a string, and it will type it for us on the keyboard.The string is limited to a sequence of printable ASCII characters. No international symbols, or unicode, or anything like it: just plain ASCII.
The
string
argument must also reside in program memory, and the easiest way to do that is to wrap the string in aPSTR()
helper. See the program code at the beginning of this documentation for an example!
.row
, .col
The
row
andcol
properties describe the physical position a macro was triggered from if it was triggered by a key. The playback functions do not use these properties, but they are available, would one want to create a macro that needs to know which key triggered it.When the macro was not triggered by a key the value of these properties are unspecified.
Macro helpers
Macros need to be able to simulate key down and key up events for any key - even
keys that may not be on the keymap otherwise. For this reason and others, we
need to define them in a special way, using the MACRO
helper (or its
MACRODOWN()
variant, see below):
MACRO(steps...)
Defines a macro, that is built up from
steps
(explained below). The plugin will iterate through the sequence, and re-play the steps in order.Note: In older versions of the Macros plugin, the sequence of steps had to end with a special step called END. This is no longer required. Existing macros that end with END will still work correctly, but new code should not use END; usage of END is deprecated.
MACRODOWN(steps...)
The same as the
MACRO()
helper above, but it will create a special sequence, where the steps are only played back when the triggering key was just pressed. That is, the macro will not be performed when the key is released, or held, or not pressed at all.Use this over
MACRO()
when you only want to perform an action when the key actuates, and no action should be taken when it is held, released, or when it is not pressed at all. For a lot of macros that emit a sequence without any other side effects,MACRODOWN()
is usually the better choice.Can only be used from the
macroAction()
overrideable method.
MACRO
steps
Macro steps can be divided into two groups:
Delays
I(millis)
: Sets the interval between steps tomillis
. By default, there is no delay between steps, and they are played back as fast as possible. Useful when we want to see the macro being typed, or need to slow it down, to allow the host to process it.W(millis)
: Waits formillis
milliseconds. For dramatic effects.
Key events
Key event steps have two variants: one that prefixes its argument with Key_
,
and one that does not. The latter are the Dr
, Ur
, and Tr
variants. In most
cases, one is likely to use normal keys for the steps, so the D
, U
, and T
steps apply the Key_
prefix. This allows us to write MACRO(T(X))
instead of MACRO(Tr(Key_X))
- making the macro definition shorter, and
more readable.
D(key)
,Dr(key)
: Simulates a key being pressed (pushed down).U(key)
,Ur(key)
: Simulates a key being released (going up).T(key)
,Tr(key)
: Simulates a key being tapped (pressed first, then released).
Overrideable methods
macroAction(macroIndex, keyState)
The
macroAction
method is the brain of the macro support in Kaleidoscope: this function tells the plugin what sequence to play when given a macro index and a key state.It should return a macro sequence, or
MACRO_NONE
if nothing is to be played back.