Kaleidoscope/plugins/Kaleidoscope-Macros

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!

In Kaleidoscope, macros are implemented via this plugin. You can define upto 256 macros.

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 macro_id, KeyEvent &event) {
  switch (macro_id) {
  case MACRO_MODEL01:
    if (keyToggledOn(event.state)) {
      return MACRO(I(25),
                   D(LeftShift), T(M), U(LeftShift), T(O), T(D), T(E), T(L),
                   T(Spacebar),
                   W(100),
                   T(0), T(1) );
    }
    break;
  case MACRO_HELLO:
    if (keyToggledOn(event.state)) {
      return Macros.type(PSTR("Hello "), PSTR("world!"));
    }
    break;
  case MACRO_SPECIAL:
    if (keyToggledOn(event.state)) {
      // Do something special
    }
    break;
  }
  return MACRO_NONE;
}

KALEIDOSCOPE_INIT_PLUGINS(Macros);

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

Keymap markup

M(id)

Places a macro key on the keymap, with the id number (0 to 255) as identifier. Whenever this key has to be handled, the macroAction overrideable function will be called, with the identifier and key state as arguments.

It is recommended to give a name to macro ids, 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 the macroAction() method, but is used rarely otherwise.

The macro argument must be a sequence created with the MACRO() helper! For example:

Macros.play(MACRO(D(LeftControl), D(LeftAlt), D(Spacebar), U(LeftControl), U(LeftAlt), U(Spacebar)));

.type(strings...)

In cases where we only want to type some strings, it is far more convenient to use this method: we do not have to use the MACRO() helper, but just give this one a set of strings, and it will type them for us on the keyboard. We can use as many strings as we want, and all of them will be typed in order.

Each string is limited to a sequence of printable ASCII characters. No international symbols, or unicode, or anything like it: just plain ASCII.

Each of strings arguments must also reside in program memory, and the easiest way to do that is to wrap the string in a PSTR() helper. See the program code at the beginning of this documentation for an example!

.press(key)/.release(key)

Used in Macros.play(), these methods press virtual keys in a small supplemental Key array for the purpose of keeping keys active for complex macro sequences where it's important to have overlapping key presses.

Macros.press(key) sends a key press event, and will keep that virtual key active until either Macros.release(key) is called, or a Macros key is released. If you use Macros.press(key) in a macro, but also change the value of event.key, you will need to make sure to also call Macros.release(key) at some point to prevent that key from getting "stuck" on.

.clear()

Releases all virtual keys held by macros. This both empties the supplemental Key array (see above) and sends a release event for each key stored there.

.tap(key)

Sends an immediate press and release event for key with no delay, using an invalid key address.

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.

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.

MACRO steps

Macro steps can be divided into the following groups:

Delays

• I(millis): Sets the interval between steps to millis. 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 for millis milliseconds. For dramatic effects.

Key events

Key event steps have three variants: one that prefixes its argument with Key_, one that does not, and a third that allows for a more compact - but also more limited - representation. The first are the D, U, and T variants, the second are Dr, Ur, and Tr, and the last variant are Dc, Uc, and Tc. In most cases, one is likely 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.

The "raw" variants (Dr/Ur/Tr) use the full name of the Key object, without adding the Key_ prefix to the argument given. Tr(Key_X) is the same as T(X).

The "compact" variants (Dc/Uc/Tc) prefix the argument with Key_ too, but unlike D, U, and T, they ignore the flags component of the key, and as such, are limited to ordinary keys. Mouse keys, consumer- or system keys are not supported by this compact representation.

• D(key), Dr(key), Dc(key): Simulates a key being pressed (pushed down).
• U(key), Ur(key), Uc(key): Simulates a key being released (going up).
• T(key), Tr(key), Tc(key): Simulates a key being tapped (pressed first, then released).

Key sequences

One often used case for macros is to type longer sequences of text. In these cases, assembling the macro step by step using the events described above is verbose both in source code, and compiled. For this reason, the plugin provides two other actions, both of which take a sequence of keys, and will tap all of them in order.

• SEQ(K(key1), K(key2), ...): Simulates all the given keys being tapped in order, with the currently active interval waited between them. The keys need to be specified by their full name.
• SEQc(Kc(key1), Kc(key2), ...): Same as SEQ(), but the keys are prefixed with Key_, and they ignore the flags component of a key, and as such, are limited to ordinary keys.

Overrideable functions

macroAction(uint8_t macro_id, KeyEvent &event)

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.

Limitations

Due to technical and practical reasons, Macros.type() assumes a QWERTY layout on the host side, and so do all other parts that work with keycodes. If your operating system is set to a different layout, the strings and keycodes will need to be adjusted accordingly.

Upgrading old Macros code

This is a guide to upgrading existing Macros code to use the new version of Kaleidoscope and the Macros plugin.

New macroAction() function

There is a new version of the macroAction() function, which is the entry point for user-defined Macros code. The old version takes two integer parameters, with the following call signature:

const macro_t* macroAction(uint8_t macro_id, uint8_t key_state)

If your sketch has this function, with a key_state bitfield parameter, it might still work as expected, but depending on the specifics of the code that gets called from it, your macros might not work as expected. Either way, you should update that function to the new version, which takes a KeyEvent reference as its second parameter:

const macro_t* macroAction(uint8_t macro_id, KeyEvent &event)

For simple macros, it is a simple matter of replacing key_state in the body of the macroAction() code with event.state. This covers most cases where all that's done is a call to Macros.type(), or a MACRO() or MACRODOWN() sequence is returned.

Using MACRO() and MACRODOWN()

The preprocessor macro MACRODOWN() has been deprecated, because the event handler for Macros is no longer called every cycle, but only when a key is either pressed or released. Instead of using return MACRODOWN(), you should test for a toggle-on event in macroAction() and use MACRO() instead. If you previously had something like the following in your macroAction() function:

switch(macro_id) {
case MY_MACRO:
  return MACRODOWN(T(X), T(Y), T(Z));
}

...you should replace that with:

switch(macro_id) {
case MY_MACRO:
  if (keyToggledOn(event.state))
    return MACRO(T(X), T(Y), T(Z));
}

...or, for a group of macros that should only fire on keypress:

if (keyToggledOn(event.state)) {
  switch(macro_id) {
  case MY_MACRO:
    return MACRO(T(X), T(Y), T(Z));
  case MY_OTHER_MACRO:
    return MACRO(T(A), T(B), T(C));
  }
}

Releasing keys with Macros.release() or U()/Ur()/Uc()

Macros now operates by manipulating keys on a small supplemental virtual keyboard when using Macros.press() and Macros.release() (which are called by D() and U(), et al, respectively). This means that it has no built-in facility for releasing other keys that are held on the keyboard. For example, if you had a Macro that removed shift keycodes from the HID report in the past, it won't work. For example:

  case KEY_COMMA:
    if (keyToggledOn(event.state)) {
      if (Kaleidoscope.hid().keyboard().wasModifierKeyActive(Key_LeftShift)) {
        return MACRO(U(LeftShift), T(Comma), D(LeftShift));
      } else {
        return MACRO(T(M));
      }
    }

In this case, holding a physical Key_LeftShift and pressing M(KEY_COMMA) will not cause the held shift to be released, and you'll get a < instead of the intended , (depending on the OS keymap). To accomplish this, you'll need a small plugin like the following in your sketch:

namespace kaleidoscope {
namespace plugin {

// When activated, this plugin will suppress any `shift` key (including modifier
// combos with `shift` a flag) before it's added to the HID report.
class ShiftBlocker : public Plugin {

 public:
  EventHandlerResult onAddToReport(Key key) {
    if (active_ && key.isKeyboardShift())
      return EventHandlerResult::ABORT;
    return EventHandlerResult::OK;
  }

  void enable() {
    active_ = true;
  }
  void disable() {
    active_ = false;
  }

 private:
  bool active_{false};

};

} // namespace plugin
} // namespace kaleidoscope

kaleidoscope::plugin::ShiftBlocker ShiftBlocker;

You may also need to define a function to test for held shift keys:

bool isShiftKeyHeld() {
  for (Key key : kaleidoscope:live_keys.all()) {
    if (key.isKeyboardShift())
      return true;
  }
  return false;
}

Then, in your macroAction() function:

  if (keyToggledOn(event.state)) {
    switch (macro_id) {
    case MY_MACRO:
      if (isShiftKeyHeld()) {
        ShiftBlocker.enable();
        Macros.tap(Key_Comma);
        ShiftBlocker.disable();
      } else {
        Macros.tap(Key_M);
      }
      return MACRO_NONE;
    }
  }

In many simple cases, such as the above example, an even better solution is to use the CharShift plugin instead of Macros.

Code that calls handleKeyswitchEvent() or pressKey()

It is very likely that if you have custom code that calls handleKeyswitchEvent() or pressKey() directly, it will no longer function properly after upgrading. To adapt this code to the new KeyEvent system requires a deeper understanding of the changes to Kaleidoscope, but likely results in much simpler Macros code.

The first thing that is important to understand is that the macroAction() function will now only be called when a Macros Key toggles on or off, not once per cycle while the key is held. This is because the new event handling code in Kaleidoscope only calls plugin handlers in those cases, dealing with one event at a time, in a single pass through the plugin event handlers (rather than one pass per active key)--and only sends a keyboard HID report in response to those events, not once per scan cycle.

This means that any Macros code that is meant to keep keycodes in the keyboard HID report while the Macros key is held needs to be changed. For example, if a macro contained the following code:

if (keyIsPressed(key_state)) {
  Runtime.hid().keyboard().pressKey(Key_LeftShift);
}

...that wouldn't work quite as expected, because as soon as the next key is pressed, a new report would be generated without ever calling macroAction(), and therefore that change to the HID report would not take place, effectively turning off the shift modifier immediately before sending the report with the keycode that it was intended to modify.

Furthermore, that shift modifier would never even get sent in the first place, because the HID report no longer gets cleared at the beginning of every cycle. Now it doesn't get cleared until after the plugin event handlers get called (in the case of Macros, that's onKeyEvent(), which calls the user-defined macroAction() function), so any changes made to the HID report from that function will be discarded before it's sent.

Instead of the above, there are two new mechanisms for keeping keys active while a Macros key is pressed:

Alter the event.key value

If your macro only needs to keep a single Key value active after running some code, and doesn't need to run any custom code when the key is released, the simplest thing to do is to override the event's Key value:

if (keyToggledOn(event.state)) {
  // do some macro action(s)
  event.key = Key_LeftShift;
}

This will (temporarily) replace the Macros key with the value assigned (in this case, Key_LeftShift), starting immediately after the macroAction() function returns, and lasting until the key is released. This key value can include modifier flags, or it can be a layer-shift, or any other valid Key value (though it won't get processed by plugins that are initialized before Macros in KALEIDOSCOPE_INIT_PLUGINS(), and Macros itself won't act on the value, if it gets replaced by a different Macros key).

Use the supplemental Macros Key array

The Macros plugin now contains a small array of Key values that will be included when building HID reports triggered by subsequent, non-Macros events. To use it, just call one (or more) of the following methods:

Macros.press(key);
Macros.release(key);
Macros.tap(key)

Each one of these functions generates a new artificial key event, and processes it (including sending a HID report, if necessary). For press() and release(), it also stores the specified key's value in the Macros supplemental Key array. In the case of the tap() function, it generates matching press and release events, but skips storing them, assuming that no plugin will generate an intervening event. All of the events generated by these functions will be marked INJECTED, which will cause Macros itself (and many other plugins) to ignore them.

This will allow you to keep multiple Key values active while a Macros key is held, while leaving the Macros key itself active, enabling more custom code to be called on its release. Note that whenever a Macros key is released, the supplemental key array is cleared to minimize the chances of keycodes getting "stuck". It is still possible to write a macro that will cause values to persist in this array, however, by combining both a sequence that uses key presses without matched releases and replacing event.key (see above) in the same macro.

Borrow an idle key (not recommended)

It's also possible to "borrow" one (or more) idle keys on the keyboard by searching the live_keys[] array for an empty entry, and generating a new event with the address of that key. This is not recommended because surprising things can happen if that key is then pressed and released, but it's still an option for people who like to live dangerously.

Code that calls sendReport()

Calling sendReport() directly from a macro is now almost always unnecessary. Instead, a call to Runtime.handleKeyEvent() will result in a keyboard HID report being sent in response to the generated event without needing to make it explicit.

Code that uses Macros.key_addr

This variable is deprecated. Instead, using the new macroAction(id, event) function, the address of the Macros key is available via the event.addr variable.

Working with other plugins

Plugin-specific Key values

When the the Macros plugin generates events, it marks the event state as INJECTED in order to prevent unbounded recursion (Macros ignores injected events). This causes most other plugins to ignore the event, as well. Therefore, including a plugin-specific key (e.g. a OneShot modifier such as OSM(LeftAlt)) will most likely be ignored by the target plugin, and will therefore not have the desired effect. This applies to any calls to Macros.play() (including returning MACRO() from macroAction()), Macros.tap(), Macros.press(), and Macros.release().

Physical event plugins

Macros cannot usefully produce events handled by plugins that implement the onKeyswitchEvent() handler, such as Qukeys, TapDance, and Leader. To make those plugins work with Macros, it's necessary to have the other plugin produce a Macros key, not the other way around. A macroAction() function must not call Runtime.handleKeyswitchEvent().

OneShot

This is one plugin that you might specifically want to use with a macro, generally at the end of a sequence. For example, a macro for ending one sentence and beginning the next one might print a period followed by a space (. ), then a OneShot shift key tap, so that the next character will be automatically capitalized. The problem, as mentioned before is that the following won't work:

MACRO(Tc(Period), Tc(Spacebar), Tr(OSM(LeftShift)))

...because OneShot will ignore the INJECTED event. One solution is to change the value of event.key, turning the pressed Macros key into a OneShot modifier. This will only work if Macros is registered before OneShot in KALEIDOSCOPE_INIT_PLUGINS():

const macro_t* macroNewSentence(KeyEvent &event) {
  if (keyToggledOn(event.state)) {
    event.key = OSM(LeftShift);
    return MACRO(Tc(Period), Tc(Spacebar));
  }
  return MACRO_NONE;
}

A more robust solution is to explicitly call Runtime.handleKeyEvent(), but this is more complex, because you'll need to prevent the Macros key from clobbering the OneShot key in the live_keys[] array:

void macroNewSentence(KeyEvent &event) {
  if (keyToggledOn(event.state)) {
    Macros.tap(Key_Period);
    Macros.tap(Key_Spacebar);
    event.key = OSM(LeftShift);
    kaleidoscope::Runtime.handleKeyEvent(event);
    // Last, we invalidate the current event's key address to prevent the Macros
    // key value from clobbering the OneShot shift.
    event.key = Key_NoKey;
    event.addr.clear();
  }
}