I wanted macros. So like many times before I started mushing tools together lazily with the fuzziest idea of a big picture, and this time was so… easy comparably, and I can imagine several easy modifications. So here’s a sign post, if you want macros of some sort consider these tools and the syntax:

xte and xautomation⌗ 

yay xautomation
xte 'str hello'

xte is from the collection of tools called xautomation, with this syntax with type out “hello”

I also use xte xkeyup to unpress a button

sxkhd advanced syntax⌗

alt+{a-z} will define 26 key commands all at once.

alt+@a (and it has to be on the letter key) will redefine the key command to be on release.

In general, you need to plan around this when writing your tools, but it’s fairly straightforward.

Combining it together with d⌗ 

import std.stdio;
import std.process;
import std.algorithm;
import std.array;
import std.conv;
void main(string[] s){
	string home=executeShell("echo $HOME").output[0..$-1];
	string t=File(home~"/.config/mymacro/"~s[1]).byLineCopy.joiner.array.to!string;
	t="xte 'str "~t~"'";
	t.executeShell;
}

That’s it, that’s all the code I wrote, I grab a file from a .config folder and construct an xte command.

and my sxkhdrc:

mod3 + @{a-z}
   xte 'keyup Hyper_R'; ~/src/d/quickmarcos {a-z}

mod3+shift+{a-z}
   zenity --entry >> ~/.config/mymacro/{a-z}

so, when I press hyper+a sxhkd constructs the following command xte 'keyup Hyper_R'; ~/src/d/quickmarcos a; turning off the hyper key and telling the above d code the all-important message “a”, telling it to open ~.config/mymacro/a

and well hyper+shift+a, using zenity pops up a text box and then puts that text box into a

…. It’s all so simple it makes me wonder why I didn’t do it forever ago.

The complexities to pay attention to are:

  1. you need to define the command to happen after the keys are pressed, for race condiction reasons
  2. You need to disable the meta key trigger to prevent some rather unfortunate loops