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In Praise of AutoHotKey

hillelwayne.com

11–20 of 220 posts

Re: In Praise of AutoHotKey

#11
AutoHotKey (in addition to WSL and VS Code) was enough to make me Windows-curious and eventually try a Windows laptop again after 10+ years on Mac.

I first found out about AHK via Tom Scott's similar ode here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U

He describes it as “a bodge that helps you make other bodges”, which is beautifully put.

[For those outside the UK, a “bodge” is a clumsy hack or repair.]

Re: In Praise of AutoHotKey

#12
I heavily use AHK to make my Windows 10 an enjoyable and keyboard focused environment. Between AHK and an hardware keyboard with full keyboard macro's, I have Windows working with my Macintosh inspired keyboard bindings.

Of course on the Mac, I heavily use Keyboard Maestro and LaunchBar so I am really implementing my own keyboard centric UI

Re: In Praise of AutoHotKey

#13
AutoHotKey was my first programming language, years and years ago on my couple hundred dollar laptop. It wasn't much, but it was definitely a great introduction to basic CS concepts (if statements, loops, functions, etc.).

I remember using it to automate login for a variety of websites, and to automate resource collection for a game I played (Lord of Ultima, in case anyone remembers it).

Re: In Praise of AutoHotKey

#14
post #8

Linux users, see https://github.com/autokey/autokey . I use it for purposes very similar to those described by the article (little automation scripts, text expansion). It's equally as {sometimes awesome, sometimes infuriatingly quirky} as its Windows inspiration :D , but I guess it's the nature of such a tool :) . Won't work (yet?) on Wayland, though, https://github.com/autokey/autokey/issues/87 .

Unfortunately, AutoKey is not similar to AutoHotkey. I tries to be, but fails so far. Lacks a loooot of AHK functionality and contains lots of bugs. The development is so slow that something new after Linux will come out sooner than they reach AHK's state of, say, 2010.

Re: In Praise of AutoHotKey

#15
Here's what we really need - a tool that monitors the various user actions like specific application functionality used, website actions taken, and maybe keystrokes too (but that gets dicey), and then every month or so it recommends the most frequently done actions that you should automate with AHK or some other tool. What does the community think of this?

PS - I use Alfred and Keyboard Maestro to get functionality similar to AHK on a Mac.

Re: In Praise of AutoHotKey

#16
post #8

Linux users, see https://github.com/autokey/autokey . I use it for purposes very similar to those described by the article (little automation scripts, text expansion). It's equally as {sometimes awesome, sometimes infuriatingly quirky} as its Windows inspiration :D , but I guess it's the nature of such a tool :) . Won't work (yet?) on Wayland, though, https://github.com/autokey/autokey/issues/87 .

For much more limited uses, which still covers a lot of what I care about, there's xdotool. A major difference is that xdotool just creates input events, but doesn't hook triggers; I just use my window manager for that.

Re: In Praise of AutoHotKey

#17
I've started[1] to do similar things on macOS using Hammerspoon[2]. So far I've set it up to let me:

1. Use shift when pasting something to simulate typing in the text instead, getting around websites that block pasting.

2. Use ";" as a hyper key. By holding it down and pressing another key, I can switch between specific programs without cycling. I can also use hjkl as arrow keys.

3. Automatically switch audio input and output devices according to my specified priority order. Because macOS would frequently get it wrong, including treating my monitor as a speaker for some reason (it doesn't have built-in speakers).

4. Make control act as escape when tapped. I use this in conjunction with remapping caps lock to control in macOS system preferences. I previously used Karabiner Elements for making caps lock work as escape when tapped and control when held, but I was able to uninstall Karabiner because Hammerspoon was sufficient.

5. Disable the insert key because I've never wanted its functionality, but I would sometimes hit it accidentally.

[1]: https://github.com/dguo/dotfiles/blob/master/programs/hammer...

[2]: https://www.hammerspoon.org/

Re: In Praise of AutoHotKey

#18
post #8

Linux users, see https://github.com/autokey/autokey . I use it for purposes very similar to those described by the article (little automation scripts, text expansion). It's equally as {sometimes awesome, sometimes infuriatingly quirky} as its Windows inspiration :D , but I guess it's the nature of such a tool :) . Won't work (yet?) on Wayland, though, https://github.com/autokey/autokey/issues/87 .

For much more limited uses, which still covers a lot of what I care about, there's xdotool. A major difference is that xdotool just creates input events, but doesn't hook triggers; I just use my window manager for that.

Yup. wmctrl too; sometimes one is more friendly for the specific thing you need done, sometimes it's the other way.

Passersby, warning, both are Xorg-only. For wayland, see https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool but the naming is confusing, as it doesn't work exactly at the same level: ydotool is about keystrokes, not window management.

Re: In Praise of AutoHotKey

#19
post #8

Linux users, see https://github.com/autokey/autokey . I use it for purposes very similar to those described by the article (little automation scripts, text expansion). It's equally as {sometimes awesome, sometimes infuriatingly quirky} as its Windows inspiration :D , but I guess it's the nature of such a tool :) . Won't work (yet?) on Wayland, though, https://github.com/autokey/autokey/issues/87 .

What about espanso? Cross platform including Linux

https://espanso.org/

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