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Show HN: AutoHotkey for Linux

500 points by phil294 4y ago

Hello HN, this is the first functional reimplementation of AutoHotkey [1] for Unix-like systems, as far as I am aware. Half the commands are still missing, but everything important is done, as I have worked a lot on it over the past two months. Converting scripts into stand alone binaries is also supported. Hope this will find some adoption eventually. :-) - This implementation focuses on v1.0-like classic syntax from 2004 (!). This is a significant subset of the popular current v1.1 syntax from Windows (AHK_L). The reason this does not (yet?) target the full Windows spec is how complex it is. Notably, there's also another ongoing project which targets v2 called KeySharp [2]. If you are not aware of what AHK is, it is an easy but capable scripting language for automation and Hotkeys, and all sorts of visual things like GUIs. If you want to learn more, there plenty of info on the repo, the docs html, and there's an active AHK Discord too, and I am personally also checking the forums and HN of course. [1] https://www.autohotkey.com/ https://www.autohotkey.com/ [2] https://bitbucket.org/mfeemster/keysharp/ https://bitbucket.org/mfeemster/keysharp/

deleted 4y ago
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themodelplumber 4y ago
You did this? Nice job! > Please also check out Keysharp, a WIP fork of IronAHK, another complete rewrite of AutoHotkey in C# that tries to be compatible with multiple OSes and support modern, v2-like AHK syntax with much more features than this one. In comparison, AHK_X11 is a lot less ambitious and more compact, and Linux only. Fascinating, lots to check out here. Thank you. BTW this kind of work falls into poweruser tools IMO, which is an important area for cultivation of Linux Desktop focus. Traditionally in the Linux community this has been more of a distro-maintainer's support choice (offer poweruser tweaks and tools, or not) so it's always nice to see new distro-independent, non-dev-poweruser options coming into being.
jrm4 4y ago
Advantages over xbindkeys?
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  I don't use xbindkeys so maybe my impression is wrong, but AHK is far more powerful. You can incorporate state into your scripts, or read things from the screen and act conditially on it (though the repo says WindowSpy is unsupported. I think that's what allowed screen-reading). You can compile it into a binary with no dependencies, so you can easily bring your script to other computers or share it. You can create a GUI to run commands rather than binding them to key patterns. I used to use it in World of Warcraft to do things like have my character's entire skill rotation on one key (e.g. just keep pressing "1" and AHK will handle pressing the next "real" key for the sequence. Hit another key and I can reset the sequence early). And to automatically tatget myself and cast a heal when my health goes below 50%, which was done by polling a certain pixel on the screen for a specific value of red.
  - A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
    Absolute level of awesome ( even though some companies do clamp down hard on features like these for a variety of reasons ). Have you tried offering those scripts to players? I am more than certain that most MMOs would have loved to use them.
    - jabroni_salad 4y ago
      Blizzard does ban for autohotkey, and even stuff like gaming keyboard macros.
    - squeaky-clean 4y ago
      Sorry :p this was way-way back in vanilla days, before I took backing up my code seriously. I actually had a way more advanced, but very buggy script I used for "multi boxing", which is when you pay for multiple accounts and play them simultaneously. I used WASD, TFGH, IJKL, for moving 3 characters simultaneously, the numpad for targeting, and ctrl/shift/alt + number-row for casting spells on any of the windows. So ctrl+2 would cast the warrior 2nd ability, shift+alt+4 would cast the druid and mage 4th ability, ctrl+shift+alt+2 would cast all character's 2nd ability, etc. Blizzard used to be a lot more lax about macros[0], and they liked multiboxing because it was more money. I had a GM message me once to confirm I was playing all 3 and not afk botting. We chatted about AHK and how he wanted to learn to code. [0] also the tools to detect macros were way worse back then, it might have been that they just accepted it rather than actually embracing it.
yewenjie 4y ago
I have never used AHK before. Can someone please explain to me what _could_ it bring to the Linux world given that scripting is much easier in general?
- michaelcampbell 4y ago
  On Windows I use it as a text-expander. @<x><y> sans chevrons expands to my email address, and I have many of these.
- tastyfreeze 4y ago
  I use AHK to script interactions with a GUI application that I support but don't control the source or database. It allows me to script some repetitive tasks in the GUI and trigger them with a defined key sequence.
- bcassedy 4y ago
  I've used it pretty extensively in Windows to expand text, execute clicks on certain buttons in GUIs, execute clicks on specific coordinates on screen or within a window, and to combine all these things into complex macros.
- BeetleB 4y ago
  Here are a few things I've done in AHK on Windows: 1. Move cursor to the toolbar icon of an app, right click, navigate menus, and select an option (all with one keystroke). 2. Click a button in one program. Copy file. Switch to Excel. Switch to the right worksheet. Click a VBA button. Switch to another sheet. All with one keystroke. 3. With one keystroke, set certain settings in Visual Studio (via the menu) and run the debugger. 4. With a keystroke, sign out of Teams/Skype. 5. Launch screenshot program, present me with a dialog box asking for filename, and have it save the screenshot in a directory and provide me an Org-mode link to the saved file. These are all "easy" in AHK. I never learned it well enough to do more advanced stuff.
  - BeefWellington 4y ago
    You can do similar things with xdotool (actually a lot more complex things) but it's missing a good GUI-based recorder tool.
mathverse 4y ago
I like seeing languages like Crystal in the wild! Good job.
BiteCode_dev 4y ago
I see the benefit in this, having one script that works everywhere. It's also good to know linux has autokey (https://github.com/autokey/autokey https://github.com/autokey/autokey) for the same result. The name is close, but it's a different project. It's not compatible with autohotkey, but you can script using python. I used it to enter dates, emails and automatize dynalist.io actions.
- app4soft 4y ago
  Good addition.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoKey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoKey
- podiki 4y ago
  Yes for autokey, I've used that to get emacs-like keys everywhere (modified from https://github.com/psederberg/autokey-emacs-config https://github.com/psederberg/autokey-emacs-config to https://github.com/podiki/autokey-emacs-config/tree/key-tweaks https://github.com/podiki/autokey-emacs-config/tree/key-twea...)
- Ldorigo 4y ago
  Autokey is "good enough" but unmaintained and really rough around the edges. I really wish someone picked it up because it's 85% of the way to being a great automation tool.
- delusional 4y ago
  There's also sxhkd and xbindkeys, for anyone looking for alternatives.
thecrumb 4y ago
The one thing I miss from Windows is AHK. Thanks for posting this!
- llllllllllll9 4y ago
  FYI - this gets close, but not quite.
beering 4y ago
It looks like the calls needed to control a GUI application are not yet implemented. Does anyone know of a Linux tool that can do GUI automation? E.g. find window A, click menu B, click menu item C…
- verdverm 4y ago
  https://github.com/hofstadter-io/self-driving-desktop https://github.com/hofstadter-io/self-driving-desktop cross platform self-driving mouse & keyboard, can also record
- deadbunny 4y ago
  xdotool? https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool
- mappu 4y ago
  Sikuli works on Linux - http://sikulix.com/ http://sikulix.com/
RMPR 4y ago
Shameless plug https://atbswp.com https://atbswp.com not as powerful, but good enough for quick hacks.
chrismorgan 4y ago
Isn’t it a bit late to do something like this tied to X? I get the impression almost all distributions now default to Wayland. This feels like something that would have been good a decade ago, but is too late now. (Mind you, this would be a good deal harder to implement in Wayland, where possible at all, since Wayland is predicated around a security model where this kind of thing is deliberately not supported. You can either go with something compositor-specific, and I don’t know if this is possible for all compositors, though I get the impression that it should be possible for at least wlroots; or work more the way ydotool does, where possible, in basically providing a fake input device.)
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  I mean, as you note, Wayland almost certainly can't provide this kind of functionality by design. It offers some ways to fake input, but AFAIK no way to hook/listen to input events without hoping that each compositor adds a way to do so. In contrast, X11 trivially enables read and write access to input events, as well as the ability to intercept input and rewrite it before applications see it. Also, while many distros now ship Wayland as the nominal default, last I'd seen it was actually used by a minority of users compared to Xorg (if we exclude ChromeOS, which seems reasonable for this conversation).
  - smartmic 4y ago
    > Also, while many distros now ship Wayland as the nominal default, last I'd seen it was actually used by a minority of users compared to Xorg You touched a good point. The one and only metric to measure success in software is the number of active users. However, i do not know of any statistics Xorg vs. Wayland users. Personally, i have no reason to switch away from X11. In contrary, it was and is a loyal companion now already for decades. I trust the Lindy effect that X11 will stay relevant for a very long time. So kudos for the OP for creating this!
    - jhoechtl 4y ago
      So you are not using fractional scaling which is reason enough to switch to Wayland.
woodruffw 4y ago
Nice work! And thanks for the x_do.cr shoutout :-)
nooyurrsdey 4y ago
Love the project but I really wish projects (especially linux projects) would include a "plain english" description of what this does at the top. Like, even one sentence. 1. Not everyone knows what AutoHotkey is and what it does. I had to google it. 2. Not everyone speaks english. Diving into a description that includes words like "fault tolerant, extensible, high availability" so infuriatingly confusing.
- frostwarrior 4y ago
  I don't think that (2) is OP's fault. Look the words up in a dictionary. It's ok not to know and to learn but you shouldn't expect everyone to adapt to your lack of knowledge.
  - InCityDreams 4y ago
    ....explain it like I'm 5 years old?
    - capableweb 4y ago
      If everyone wrote software to be used by 5 years old without any interest in looking up things they don't understand (yet) themselves, we'd never move the field forward.
      - xupybd 4y ago
        AutoHotKey is not normally aimed at developers but highly skilled administrators. If you target your advertising at this market you would likely get more traction. Moving the field of software development is about solving more problems for people without putting a large learning curve in their way. Yes some aspects will always require expertise but that is not an advantage.
    - Vrondi 4y ago
      Dictionary is good for learning words.
  - 4y ago
infogulch 4y ago
I learned programming with AHK back in the day. One neat feature is that you can bundle a bunch of scripts with the runtime into a single file binary for easy distribution. If AutoHotkey runs on multiple operating systems, maybe combining this with cosmopolitan libc into an 'αcτµαlly pδrταblε εxεcµταblε' would let you bundle a script and use it across different OSes. That'd be pretty fun.
- themodelplumber 4y ago
  Interesting, I'm curious though, how does one interact with a bunch of scripts that are in a single binary?
  - infogulch 4y ago
    Ah I could be a bit more clear, it's more like a script and its dependencies. That said, you can combine a bunch of different utilities into a single script and select between them at runtime (cli, gui, etc) or even have them running in parallel in the same runtime without too much trouble, though you have to be careful since some scripts make cavalier use of the global namespace.
- phil294 4y ago
  Yes it's awesome and works on both platforms. But these are two different, independent runtimes both highly dependent on their target systems, so there can be no cross-os binary. For that, maybe ahkx [1] (abandonware) could be feasible because it builds on Wine, or, much rather, KeySharp (linked above). [1] https://github.com/tinku99/ahkx https://github.com/tinku99/ahkx
xtracto 4y ago
This is so great! I have fond memories of AutoHotkey when I used Windows. It has just the right balance between scripting requirements and features.
marcodiego 4y ago
Does it work with Wayland?
- zcam 4y ago
  No
  - smabie 4y ago
    Which is coincidentally the same answer as every other "does X (heh) work with Wayland" question
    - llllllllllll9 4y ago
      :D
    - vaylian 4y ago
      I disagree. There are plenty of programs that run just fine on Wayland. I acknowledge the effort that OP has put into this project. And if the OP plans to use X11 for the foreseeable future, then it makes sense to target X11. But for any new project with a wide audience Wayland is a much more reasonable target.
      - amaranth 4y ago
        There is no way to "target wayland" for a tool like this. For security reasons pretty much everything this tool does is blocked on wayland. You could perhaps make a version for sway and other wlroots-using desktops that works mostly like the current tool. For GNOME you might be able to get away with rewriting it in JS as a shell extension, no idea for KDE.
        llllllllllll9 4y ago
        yeah. this is as far as you get: https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool. begs the question. how come ahk can run on windows(tm) but not wayland? my understanding is that win10/11 are pretty secure.
account-5 4y ago
Like another commenter I learned to program with AHK. I've used it for automating dispetate software that didn't natively talk to each other, automate MS Office tasks via COM objects (think VBA), make use of DLLs for certain tasks, and obviously for text expansion and replacement. I've always looked for software similar for Linux but nothing comes close. The documentation is second to none as well. Anyway I'm really happy to see this, well done I hope it all goes well.
pomatic 4y ago
Perhaps this is the wrong place to ask, but it seems relevant. Having skimmed the documentation I can't see any options around automating selection/clicking of dialogue box buttons? I have a user who has limited dexterity, and the ability to have a macro that selects/clicks on (modal?) dialogue box buttons based on their label (OK/Cancel etc.) would be a life saver for them. (A pre-determined set of keystrokes based on knowledge of the tab order would not work - this needs to be generic, based on the button text for my application.) As things stand, I'm looking at hacking a video capture device and openCV together, but I can't help but think this must be a solved problem and I just have poor google-fu?
- ttnj9ZKCVQAAbxK 4y ago
  You could probably do it pretty easily for some dialogs, i.e. those drawn by some framework or other. But good luck doing it for all the other frameworks too. Your thought is probably the most effective...
- chefandy 4y ago
  Out of curiosity is there a reason you're not just biting the bullet and going with a more accessibility-focused proprietary OS? Seems like a big compromise for supporting FOSS, so I'm sure there's more to it. Always interested in hearing accessibility-involved use cases as an interface designer.
  - pomatic 4y ago
    By "a more accessibility-focused proprietary OS", do you mean MS Windows? Or MacOS? Or both? So far, the strategy of controlling X-windows apps via piecemeal scripts seems to be paying off OK. The ideal would be full voice control of all UI interactions at an application level. Free form text entry in, say, an editor is easier to deal with. It is handled by injection of keyboard events from third party speech recognition tools that allows for correction prior to final confirmation if required. If PowerShell or Applescript have significantly better capabilities in this arena (or if there is an alternative tool I should be looking at, or other resources that might be useful in the quest), it would be great to hear. At the end of the day though, the end user is dev, and wants a Linux desktop.
Vanderson 4y ago
Thank you! I haven't tried it yet, but this was one of the only things that I sorely missed when I went from Windows to Linux.
boomskats 4y ago
Does anyone know of a stable way to implement SpaceFN under X? Apologies for the hijack, but this thread feels like the right place to ask.
- lvass 4y ago
  xcape.
neverrroot 4y ago
One of the only things I truly missed under Linux. Much can be solved using various tools such es AutoKey, XbindKeys+Guile etc. but nothing comes close to what AHK was capable of under Windows.
guilhas 4y ago
Good work I have used AHK a lot and looked for a Linux alternative in the past, like AutoKey, Actiona... which did not felt as good But nowadays I think I prefer the "Linux way" tools, the bulk can be done with: sxhkd, bash, zenity, xdotool, expanso... AHK is all-in-one personal automation tool, very useful in Windows, a single tool with a unified language Linux has a CLI tool for everything, more disperse, different implementations, but easier to re-use modules elsewhere Still choice is good
- selfhoster11 4y ago
  I'd still like my customisations to be cross-platform, so I'm watching this project with great interest.
keybored 4y ago
The state of GUI automation and keyboard remapping on Linux is pretty meh. AutoHotkey seems pretty bespoke but it might be the best option right now.
- dustractor 4y ago
  I completely agree. Windows had a drag-and-drop keyboard mapping utility twenty years ago. And Mac OS has automator and applescript, with capabilities windows and linux can only dream of since it requires taking a top-down approach with your language and your compiler and basically forcing people through the narrow gates of xcode so that all the compiled binaries get their dictionaries for interfacing with the osa scripting stuff
  - anthk 4y ago
    Meh. OSX and Windows can dream upon upgrading everything with Unix/Linux utilities. Half of these crap can be solved with xdotool/wmctrl and some scripts. Everything else it's maked to be scripted. Cron, package managers, X11 events, notifications... One guy posted here an smart automation menu sequence to create a jar from a class within Eclipse. Any competent Unix programmer would create that for Scite, Gvim, Emacs or whatevers with an external script (man java and man javac, FFS) in seconds.
geocrasher 4y ago
AHK is GOLD for me. Power user? Sure. But it ties me to Windows only, and so I'm VERY keen to see a version for another OS. AutoKey failed miserably in my testing, and I have so much tied directly to AHK that I'm okay with choosing Windows to run it. There's a lot of other things that are Windows-only for me, so it's not a big deal. I actually LIKE W10 and W11. But it's great to have options!
- AeroNotix 4y ago
  I'm interested in hearing what you've built with AHK such that you're so closely tied to it, and by extension windows.
  - anotheryou 4y ago
    I have plenty of uses: --- Keyboard layout: my whole keyboard layout used to be a remapping with AHK :) not done by me though and the new implementation of the layout is something else (https://www.neo-layout.org/ https://www.neo-layout.org/) --- Complicated Shortcuts: I still use it for generating and filling site specific mail addresses with a shortcut. My keyboard types "shortcut_site_specific_mailaddress" and ahk replaces it with news.ycombinator.com+is_allowed_to_pass_catch_all@mydomain.com. For some time it was also the one tool that could dim my dell desktop screen by hotkeys with some shady dll someone provided. --- Usability: I also used it for alt+drag for a while (but now have a more native tool with exactly that name). Capslock lights up if I am not in my native input language --- Stress Relieve: When mobile testing a lot in the emulator I got slight inflammation from clicking the mouse too much. If that happens I remap the left mouse key to the keyboard.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
chillpenguin 4y ago
Anyone know of a comparable program for macOS?
- akerr 4y ago
  Keyboard Maestro? The built-in AppleScript, Services and Keyboard shortcuts support?
- rattt 4y ago
  BetterTouchTool has a lot of overlap with AHK I believe. Lets you remap keyboard/mouse actions globally and/or per application and perform actions or run scripts on keyboard/mouse input ands lots of features of that kind. (Never used AHK myself but the couple times I looked for something similar to BetterTouchTool on Windows I got recommended AHK)
  - jasomill 4y ago
    As someone who has used both, that's not entirely off-base, though the details are very different: AHK is better at lower-level keyboard remapping and related I/O — you really need to combine BTT with something like Karabiner-Elements for more than rough equivalence here — but BTT is much better than AHK for out-of-box support for non-keyboard event triggers, with native support for mouse button-press events[1], trackpad and Magic Mouse gestures, touch bar, Siri remote, MIDI messages, hot corners, BT LE proximity events, all manner of system events (battery status, lock/unlock, Apple Events, distributed notifications, etc.), scheduled and recurring timer events, and the list goes on. [1] Including support for all buttons on n-button mice for all values of n supported by USB standards, something that, last I checked, Windows itself was incapable of handling at the driver level without dropping down to low-level HID event processing that's a bit of a stretch, though not technically impossible, for AHK. This, incidentally, is why many-buttoned Logitech gaming mice come preconfigured to send keyboard events for all but the first few buttons.
- mokanfar 4y ago
  Karabiner + Goku[1] [1]https://github.com/yqrashawn/GokuRakuJoudo https://github.com/yqrashawn/GokuRakuJoudo
stavros 4y ago
I've been looking for something that can recognize the mute button in call software (Zoom, Meet, etc) and click it, but everything I've found seems to do image detection. I understand that running in a browser makes things hard, but is there a better method? I guess I could write an extension for Meet and Jitsi, but Zoom would then be the odd one out.
- voat 4y ago
  Nut.js
  - grimgrin 4y ago
    aka “nut.js is a desktop automation framework for Node.js that allows you to program your mouse and keyboard with JavaScript or TypeScript” https://nutjs.dev/ https://nutjs.dev/
    - zazaulola 4y ago
      I know JavaScript pretty well too, but I prefer to write local automation in Bash. Why do you need such a twisted solution?
- lalopalota 4y ago
  Does image detection with "always show meeting controls" not work?
  - stavros 4y ago
    It does, but at 5 fps and unacceptable CPU usage, sadly.
    - unicornhose 4y ago
      …you only have to do detection when required though (after the hotkey is pressed). Curious about the architecture of the 5fps solution.
paulryanrogers 4y ago
Wayland support when ~Civvie~?
- pantalaimon 4y ago
  That would need to be implemented by the Compositor. Wayland does not support this kind of functionality.
iafiaf 4y ago
AHK is excellent; created a fishing bot during the hardcore WoW raiding days (Stonescale eel for Flask of Titans, anyone?)
ricopags 4y ago
I don't have a linux machine handy but I wonder if this can run the excellent Lintalist[0]. I use it daily in my support work and I can't imagine ever getting away from it (also a huge fan of Clipjump[1]) [0]https://lintalist.github.io/ https://lintalist.github.io/ [1]http://clipjump.sourceforge.net/ http://clipjump.sourceforge.net/
- rpdillon 4y ago
  Likely not, as it requires 1.1.31+[0], and this port supports up to 1.0. [0]: https://github.com/lintalist/lintalist/blob/master/lintalist.ahk#L26 https://github.com/lintalist/lintalist/blob/master/lintalist...
IceWreck 4y ago
I think the reason something like this doesn't exist for Linux is that most Linux users prefer to use a more powerful language to create their own scripts instead.
theonemind 4y ago
Bit of a tangent/slightly off topic: how do HNers make Windows not evil/terrible? Like, it tries to force you into creating a Microsoft account to install Windows, I hear it has ads in the OS, forces reboots when you don't want them, and appears to generally treat its users with contempt and as a resource to exploit. Do you need an MSDN subscription to get LTSC? Any third-party tools that try to fix the horror show? Such a shame to have a solid platform run for evil motives.
- paywallasinbeer 4y ago
  https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 is a good start
- stjohnswarts 4y ago
  - chocolatey for installing apps (most of what I need anyway) - WSL for command line stuff, python, rust - bleachbit for clean up of files, be careful and pay attention obviously - Immediately switch over to firefox (from Edge) and have brave installed as a backup - I just don't use the microsoft store at all unless I need to - malwarebytes for nightly scans, avira free as a virus program instead of defender - Shutup10++ to turn off most of the privacy invasion antifeatures of windows - Make notepad++ or gvim default editor - You can delay or turn off updates in the settings. I just live with the reboots though. I have a fast machine and most programs will have session save features anyway. That's mostly enough to make it a decent environment.
  - majkinetor 4y ago
    You can now use winget to install ms store tools via CLI.
    - stjohnswarts 4y ago
      I've used winget to fetch a couple of things (because of windows support pages). I still use choco as my default though. Unless someone shows a huge advantage for winget then I think I'll continue on. I like using programs that aren't under Microsoft's umbrella if I can. Much the same way as avoiding google and amazon.
georgewsinger 4y ago
Does this support converting new keys into new modifiers? IIRC AHK allows you to do things like: - If CapsLock is pressed, treat it as a new modifier. - If CapsLock is released, send "ESCAPE". If so, that would be swell.
- llllllllllll9 4y ago
  you can do this with devinput alone, so for sure. see ydotool, xcape, or it's not hard to write your own.
jerrygoyal 4y ago
I also compiled a list of most useful AHK scripts https://gourav.io/blog/autohotkey-scripts-windows https://gourav.io/blog/autohotkey-scripts-windows
- raveren 4y ago
  I found a lot of inspiration in this list - each compiled into exe's but ship with the source included: https://www.dcmembers.com/skrommel/downloads/ https://www.dcmembers.com/skrommel/downloads/ And here is my script file (10+ years in the making!), some are the same as from your site (like toggle on top) but with minor improvements: https://gist.github.com/raveren/bac5196d2063665d2154 https://gist.github.com/raveren/bac5196d2063665d2154
sanroot99 4y ago
For Linux i used ,xkeybindrc and xdotools
endymi0n 4y ago
Nice! I used to love AHK to death, incidentally it also got me my first paid programming job. It‘s about the only software I dearly missed after switching to Mac, but recently I found Hammerspoon and couldn‘t have been happier. Yep, Lua is a bit weird and exotic, but hey, so is AHK. In the end, you trade in some of AHKs terseness for better modularity and compatibility with existing packages. https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon
- smirgel 4y ago
  Love hammerspoon! It would be nice if it supported Linux as well.
- Ldorigo 4y ago
  You might also want to check KeyboardMaestro on Mac. It's honestly the only programme I miss after switching to Linux desktop. 40€ but worth every cent.
- spidersouris 4y ago
  > incidentally it also got me my first paid programming job How?
- erikcw 4y ago
  I’ve been using hammerspoon for several years and it has really become integral to my workflow. You may want to check out the extension package spacehammer[0]. It includes a bunch of workflows and shortcuts that I’ve found extremely useful. Interestingly (for me at least), it’s authored in Fennel [1], a lisp that compiles to lua. I actually found spacehammer originally when I was working on converting my personal hammerspoon config to Fennel. [0] https://github.com/agzam/spacehammer https://github.com/agzam/spacehammer [1] https://fennel-lang.org/ https://fennel-lang.org/
CGA11 4y ago
AHK is one of the things I miss from my Windows days (along with Macrium Reflect).
arthurofcharn 4y ago
Wonderful news. Now we have hope of convincing Tom Scott to join the winning team.
- smorrebrod 4y ago
  Cross platform emoji keyboard!
- taink 4y ago
  For those unaware, here is the video: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U https://yewtu.be/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U I wonder if it is actually possible to just "connect the flumberboozle to the GKX virtual port"
entropie 4y ago
Nice. I installed autohotkey on windows because I wanted to duplicate subcommands that I use with linux for ages (xmonad has it more or less built in) meta m n # next track meta m space # play/pause Was relatively easy to implement, after i got help in r/autohotkey
- llllllllllll9 4y ago
  you can implement the wm manager of your dreams in ahk ... in like 500 lines. it's amazing stuff. you can also go all out: https://github.com/fuhsjr00/bug.n https://github.com/fuhsjr00/bug.n
ivanjermakov 4y ago
In case you're looking for QMK[1]-like capabilities for regular non-programmable keyboards - check out kmonad[2] [1]: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware [2]: https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad
sjducb 4y ago
Nice I really missed AHK when I moved away from windows
Vivtek 4y ago
Oh, this is sweet. Back in my Windows days I relied heavily on AHK for hotkeys as well as some glue for various tasks, and while I've managed to figure out most of the glue items on Linux (which I've used for the past five years or so), I've always missed hotkeys, for which I've never found a really good AHK-like solution. We are truly living in wondrous times.
artificialLimbs 4y ago
I used to work as a photographer at a car dealership. I was tasked with taking pictures of all the cars that came to the lot, and uploading them to our web site. I would take pictures in the afternoon, taking 1-2 hours. In the morning I would clock in and then go to a coffee shop for a few hours to let AHK do all the heavy lifting of uploading the images to the 3rd party clunker of a back end website. I would have definitely installed and used Linux if this was around then. Awesome work.
DavidD 4y ago
Does autohotkey have keyboard and mouse recording function when I first learned about scripting 20 years ago Winbatch had that function which took a non-programmer who just wanted to speed up repetitive tasks into an entry level programmer after a few weeks of use.

500 points by phil294 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

themodelplumber 4y ago

You did this? Nice job! > Please also check out Keysharp, a WIP fork of IronAHK, another complete rewrite of AutoHotkey in C# that tries to be compatible with multiple OSes and support modern, v2-like AHK syntax with much more features than this one. In comparison, AHK_X11 is a lot less ambitious and more compact, and Linux only. Fascinating, lots to check out here. Thank you. BTW this kind of work falls into poweruser tools IMO, which is an important area for cultivation of Linux Desktop focus. Traditionally in the Linux community this has been more of a distro-maintainer's support choice (offer poweruser tweaks and tools, or not) so it's always nice to see new distro-independent, non-dev-poweruser options coming into being.

jrm4 4y ago

Advantages over xbindkeys?

squeaky-clean 4y ago
I don't use xbindkeys so maybe my impression is wrong, but AHK is far more powerful. You can incorporate state into your scripts, or read things from the screen and act conditially on it (though the repo says WindowSpy is unsupported. I think that's what allowed screen-reading). You can compile it into a binary with no dependencies, so you can easily bring your script to other computers or share it. You can create a GUI to run commands rather than binding them to key patterns. I used to use it in World of Warcraft to do things like have my character's entire skill rotation on one key (e.g. just keep pressing "1" and AHK will handle pressing the next "real" key for the sequence. Hit another key and I can reset the sequence early). And to automatically tatget myself and cast a heal when my health goes below 50%, which was done by polling a certain pixel on the screen for a specific value of red.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
  Absolute level of awesome ( even though some companies do clamp down hard on features like these for a variety of reasons ). Have you tried offering those scripts to players? I am more than certain that most MMOs would have loved to use them.
  - jabroni_salad 4y ago
    Blizzard does ban for autohotkey, and even stuff like gaming keyboard macros.
  - squeaky-clean 4y ago
    Sorry :p this was way-way back in vanilla days, before I took backing up my code seriously. I actually had a way more advanced, but very buggy script I used for "multi boxing", which is when you pay for multiple accounts and play them simultaneously. I used WASD, TFGH, IJKL, for moving 3 characters simultaneously, the numpad for targeting, and ctrl/shift/alt + number-row for casting spells on any of the windows. So ctrl+2 would cast the warrior 2nd ability, shift+alt+4 would cast the druid and mage 4th ability, ctrl+shift+alt+2 would cast all character's 2nd ability, etc. Blizzard used to be a lot more lax about macros[0], and they liked multiboxing because it was more money. I had a GM message me once to confirm I was playing all 3 and not afk botting. We chatted about AHK and how he wanted to learn to code. [0] also the tools to detect macros were way worse back then, it might have been that they just accepted it rather than actually embracing it.

yewenjie 4y ago

I have never used AHK before. Can someone please explain to me what _could_ it bring to the Linux world given that scripting is much easier in general?

michaelcampbell 4y ago
On Windows I use it as a text-expander. @<x><y> sans chevrons expands to my email address, and I have many of these.
tastyfreeze 4y ago
I use AHK to script interactions with a GUI application that I support but don't control the source or database. It allows me to script some repetitive tasks in the GUI and trigger them with a defined key sequence.
bcassedy 4y ago
I've used it pretty extensively in Windows to expand text, execute clicks on certain buttons in GUIs, execute clicks on specific coordinates on screen or within a window, and to combine all these things into complex macros.
BeetleB 4y ago
Here are a few things I've done in AHK on Windows: 1. Move cursor to the toolbar icon of an app, right click, navigate menus, and select an option (all with one keystroke). 2. Click a button in one program. Copy file. Switch to Excel. Switch to the right worksheet. Click a VBA button. Switch to another sheet. All with one keystroke. 3. With one keystroke, set certain settings in Visual Studio (via the menu) and run the debugger. 4. With a keystroke, sign out of Teams/Skype. 5. Launch screenshot program, present me with a dialog box asking for filename, and have it save the screenshot in a directory and provide me an Org-mode link to the saved file. These are all "easy" in AHK. I never learned it well enough to do more advanced stuff.
- BeefWellington 4y ago
  You can do similar things with xdotool (actually a lot more complex things) but it's missing a good GUI-based recorder tool.

mathverse 4y ago

I like seeing languages like Crystal in the wild! Good job.

BiteCode_dev 4y ago

I see the benefit in this, having one script that works everywhere. It's also good to know linux has autokey (https://github.com/autokey/autokey https://github.com/autokey/autokey) for the same result. The name is close, but it's a different project. It's not compatible with autohotkey, but you can script using python. I used it to enter dates, emails and automatize dynalist.io actions.

app4soft 4y ago
Good addition.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoKey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoKey
podiki 4y ago
Yes for autokey, I've used that to get emacs-like keys everywhere (modified from https://github.com/psederberg/autokey-emacs-config https://github.com/psederberg/autokey-emacs-config to https://github.com/podiki/autokey-emacs-config/tree/key-tweaks https://github.com/podiki/autokey-emacs-config/tree/key-twea...)
Ldorigo 4y ago
Autokey is "good enough" but unmaintained and really rough around the edges. I really wish someone picked it up because it's 85% of the way to being a great automation tool.
delusional 4y ago
There's also sxhkd and xbindkeys, for anyone looking for alternatives.

thecrumb 4y ago

The one thing I miss from Windows is AHK. Thanks for posting this!

llllllllllll9 4y ago
FYI - this gets close, but not quite.

beering 4y ago

It looks like the calls needed to control a GUI application are not yet implemented. Does anyone know of a Linux tool that can do GUI automation? E.g. find window A, click menu B, click menu item C…

verdverm 4y ago
https://github.com/hofstadter-io/self-driving-desktop https://github.com/hofstadter-io/self-driving-desktop cross platform self-driving mouse & keyboard, can also record
deadbunny 4y ago
xdotool? https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool
mappu 4y ago
Sikuli works on Linux - http://sikulix.com/ http://sikulix.com/

RMPR 4y ago

Shameless plug https://atbswp.com https://atbswp.com not as powerful, but good enough for quick hacks.

chrismorgan 4y ago

Isn’t it a bit late to do something like this tied to X? I get the impression almost all distributions now default to Wayland. This feels like something that would have been good a decade ago, but is too late now. (Mind you, this would be a good deal harder to implement in Wayland, where possible at all, since Wayland is predicated around a security model where this kind of thing is deliberately not supported. You can either go with something compositor-specific, and I don’t know if this is possible for all compositors, though I get the impression that it should be possible for at least wlroots; or work more the way ydotool does, where possible, in basically providing a fake input device.)

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
I mean, as you note, Wayland almost certainly can't provide this kind of functionality by design. It offers some ways to fake input, but AFAIK no way to hook/listen to input events without hoping that each compositor adds a way to do so. In contrast, X11 trivially enables read and write access to input events, as well as the ability to intercept input and rewrite it before applications see it. Also, while many distros now ship Wayland as the nominal default, last I'd seen it was actually used by a minority of users compared to Xorg (if we exclude ChromeOS, which seems reasonable for this conversation).
- smartmic 4y ago
  > Also, while many distros now ship Wayland as the nominal default, last I'd seen it was actually used by a minority of users compared to Xorg You touched a good point. The one and only metric to measure success in software is the number of active users. However, i do not know of any statistics Xorg vs. Wayland users. Personally, i have no reason to switch away from X11. In contrary, it was and is a loyal companion now already for decades. I trust the Lindy effect that X11 will stay relevant for a very long time. So kudos for the OP for creating this!
  - jhoechtl 4y ago
    So you are not using fractional scaling which is reason enough to switch to Wayland.

woodruffw 4y ago

Nice work! And thanks for the x_do.cr shoutout :-)

nooyurrsdey 4y ago

Love the project but I really wish projects (especially linux projects) would include a "plain english" description of what this does at the top. Like, even one sentence. 1. Not everyone knows what AutoHotkey is and what it does. I had to google it. 2. Not everyone speaks english. Diving into a description that includes words like "fault tolerant, extensible, high availability" so infuriatingly confusing.

frostwarrior 4y ago
I don't think that (2) is OP's fault. Look the words up in a dictionary. It's ok not to know and to learn but you shouldn't expect everyone to adapt to your lack of knowledge.
- InCityDreams 4y ago
  ....explain it like I'm 5 years old?
  - capableweb 4y ago
    If everyone wrote software to be used by 5 years old without any interest in looking up things they don't understand (yet) themselves, we'd never move the field forward.
    - xupybd 4y ago
      AutoHotKey is not normally aimed at developers but highly skilled administrators. If you target your advertising at this market you would likely get more traction. Moving the field of software development is about solving more problems for people without putting a large learning curve in their way. Yes some aspects will always require expertise but that is not an advantage.
  - Vrondi 4y ago
    Dictionary is good for learning words.
- 4y ago

infogulch 4y ago

I learned programming with AHK back in the day. One neat feature is that you can bundle a bunch of scripts with the runtime into a single file binary for easy distribution. If AutoHotkey runs on multiple operating systems, maybe combining this with cosmopolitan libc into an 'αcτµαlly pδrταblε εxεcµταblε' would let you bundle a script and use it across different OSes. That'd be pretty fun.

themodelplumber 4y ago
Interesting, I'm curious though, how does one interact with a bunch of scripts that are in a single binary?
- infogulch 4y ago
  Ah I could be a bit more clear, it's more like a script and its dependencies. That said, you can combine a bunch of different utilities into a single script and select between them at runtime (cli, gui, etc) or even have them running in parallel in the same runtime without too much trouble, though you have to be careful since some scripts make cavalier use of the global namespace.
phil294 4y ago
Yes it's awesome and works on both platforms. But these are two different, independent runtimes both highly dependent on their target systems, so there can be no cross-os binary. For that, maybe ahkx [1] (abandonware) could be feasible because it builds on Wine, or, much rather, KeySharp (linked above). [1] https://github.com/tinku99/ahkx https://github.com/tinku99/ahkx

xtracto 4y ago

This is so great! I have fond memories of AutoHotkey when I used Windows. It has just the right balance between scripting requirements and features.

marcodiego 4y ago

Does it work with Wayland?

zcam 4y ago
No
- smabie 4y ago
  Which is coincidentally the same answer as every other "does X (heh) work with Wayland" question
  - llllllllllll9 4y ago
    :D
  - vaylian 4y ago
    I disagree. There are plenty of programs that run just fine on Wayland. I acknowledge the effort that OP has put into this project. And if the OP plans to use X11 for the foreseeable future, then it makes sense to target X11. But for any new project with a wide audience Wayland is a much more reasonable target.
    - amaranth 4y ago
      There is no way to "target wayland" for a tool like this. For security reasons pretty much everything this tool does is blocked on wayland. You could perhaps make a version for sway and other wlroots-using desktops that works mostly like the current tool. For GNOME you might be able to get away with rewriting it in JS as a shell extension, no idea for KDE.
      - llllllllllll9 4y ago
        yeah. this is as far as you get: https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool. begs the question. how come ahk can run on windows(tm) but not wayland? my understanding is that win10/11 are pretty secure.

account-5 4y ago

Like another commenter I learned to program with AHK. I've used it for automating dispetate software that didn't natively talk to each other, automate MS Office tasks via COM objects (think VBA), make use of DLLs for certain tasks, and obviously for text expansion and replacement. I've always looked for software similar for Linux but nothing comes close. The documentation is second to none as well. Anyway I'm really happy to see this, well done I hope it all goes well.

pomatic 4y ago

Perhaps this is the wrong place to ask, but it seems relevant. Having skimmed the documentation I can't see any options around automating selection/clicking of dialogue box buttons? I have a user who has limited dexterity, and the ability to have a macro that selects/clicks on (modal?) dialogue box buttons based on their label (OK/Cancel etc.) would be a life saver for them. (A pre-determined set of keystrokes based on knowledge of the tab order would not work - this needs to be generic, based on the button text for my application.) As things stand, I'm looking at hacking a video capture device and openCV together, but I can't help but think this must be a solved problem and I just have poor google-fu?

ttnj9ZKCVQAAbxK 4y ago
You could probably do it pretty easily for some dialogs, i.e. those drawn by some framework or other. But good luck doing it for all the other frameworks too. Your thought is probably the most effective...
chefandy 4y ago
Out of curiosity is there a reason you're not just biting the bullet and going with a more accessibility-focused proprietary OS? Seems like a big compromise for supporting FOSS, so I'm sure there's more to it. Always interested in hearing accessibility-involved use cases as an interface designer.
- pomatic 4y ago
  By "a more accessibility-focused proprietary OS", do you mean MS Windows? Or MacOS? Or both? So far, the strategy of controlling X-windows apps via piecemeal scripts seems to be paying off OK. The ideal would be full voice control of all UI interactions at an application level. Free form text entry in, say, an editor is easier to deal with. It is handled by injection of keyboard events from third party speech recognition tools that allows for correction prior to final confirmation if required. If PowerShell or Applescript have significantly better capabilities in this arena (or if there is an alternative tool I should be looking at, or other resources that might be useful in the quest), it would be great to hear. At the end of the day though, the end user is dev, and wants a Linux desktop.

Vanderson 4y ago

Thank you! I haven't tried it yet, but this was one of the only things that I sorely missed when I went from Windows to Linux.

boomskats 4y ago

Does anyone know of a stable way to implement SpaceFN under X? Apologies for the hijack, but this thread feels like the right place to ask.

lvass 4y ago
xcape.

neverrroot 4y ago

One of the only things I truly missed under Linux. Much can be solved using various tools such es AutoKey, XbindKeys+Guile etc. but nothing comes close to what AHK was capable of under Windows.

guilhas 4y ago

Good work I have used AHK a lot and looked for a Linux alternative in the past, like AutoKey, Actiona... which did not felt as good But nowadays I think I prefer the "Linux way" tools, the bulk can be done with: sxhkd, bash, zenity, xdotool, expanso... AHK is all-in-one personal automation tool, very useful in Windows, a single tool with a unified language Linux has a CLI tool for everything, more disperse, different implementations, but easier to re-use modules elsewhere Still choice is good

selfhoster11 4y ago
I'd still like my customisations to be cross-platform, so I'm watching this project with great interest.

keybored 4y ago

The state of GUI automation and keyboard remapping on Linux is pretty meh. AutoHotkey seems pretty bespoke but it might be the best option right now.

dustractor 4y ago
I completely agree. Windows had a drag-and-drop keyboard mapping utility twenty years ago. And Mac OS has automator and applescript, with capabilities windows and linux can only dream of since it requires taking a top-down approach with your language and your compiler and basically forcing people through the narrow gates of xcode so that all the compiled binaries get their dictionaries for interfacing with the osa scripting stuff
- anthk 4y ago
  Meh. OSX and Windows can dream upon upgrading everything with Unix/Linux utilities. Half of these crap can be solved with xdotool/wmctrl and some scripts. Everything else it's maked to be scripted. Cron, package managers, X11 events, notifications... One guy posted here an smart automation menu sequence to create a jar from a class within Eclipse. Any competent Unix programmer would create that for Scite, Gvim, Emacs or whatevers with an external script (man java and man javac, FFS) in seconds.

geocrasher 4y ago

AHK is GOLD for me. Power user? Sure. But it ties me to Windows only, and so I'm VERY keen to see a version for another OS. AutoKey failed miserably in my testing, and I have so much tied directly to AHK that I'm okay with choosing Windows to run it. There's a lot of other things that are Windows-only for me, so it's not a big deal. I actually LIKE W10 and W11. But it's great to have options!

AeroNotix 4y ago
I'm interested in hearing what you've built with AHK such that you're so closely tied to it, and by extension windows.
- anotheryou 4y ago
  I have plenty of uses: --- Keyboard layout: my whole keyboard layout used to be a remapping with AHK :) not done by me though and the new implementation of the layout is something else (https://www.neo-layout.org/ https://www.neo-layout.org/) --- Complicated Shortcuts: I still use it for generating and filling site specific mail addresses with a shortcut. My keyboard types "shortcut_site_specific_mailaddress" and ahk replaces it with news.ycombinator.com+is_allowed_to_pass_catch_all@mydomain.com. For some time it was also the one tool that could dim my dell desktop screen by hotkeys with some shady dll someone provided. --- Usability: I also used it for alt+drag for a while (but now have a more native tool with exactly that name). Capslock lights up if I am not in my native input language --- Stress Relieve: When mobile testing a lot in the emulator I got slight inflammation from clicking the mouse too much. If that happens I remap the left mouse key to the keyboard.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

chillpenguin 4y ago

Anyone know of a comparable program for macOS?

akerr 4y ago
Keyboard Maestro? The built-in AppleScript, Services and Keyboard shortcuts support?
rattt 4y ago
BetterTouchTool has a lot of overlap with AHK I believe. Lets you remap keyboard/mouse actions globally and/or per application and perform actions or run scripts on keyboard/mouse input ands lots of features of that kind. (Never used AHK myself but the couple times I looked for something similar to BetterTouchTool on Windows I got recommended AHK)
- jasomill 4y ago
  As someone who has used both, that's not entirely off-base, though the details are very different: AHK is better at lower-level keyboard remapping and related I/O — you really need to combine BTT with something like Karabiner-Elements for more than rough equivalence here — but BTT is much better than AHK for out-of-box support for non-keyboard event triggers, with native support for mouse button-press events[1], trackpad and Magic Mouse gestures, touch bar, Siri remote, MIDI messages, hot corners, BT LE proximity events, all manner of system events (battery status, lock/unlock, Apple Events, distributed notifications, etc.), scheduled and recurring timer events, and the list goes on. [1] Including support for all buttons on n-button mice for all values of n supported by USB standards, something that, last I checked, Windows itself was incapable of handling at the driver level without dropping down to low-level HID event processing that's a bit of a stretch, though not technically impossible, for AHK. This, incidentally, is why many-buttoned Logitech gaming mice come preconfigured to send keyboard events for all but the first few buttons.
mokanfar 4y ago
Karabiner + Goku[1] [1]https://github.com/yqrashawn/GokuRakuJoudo https://github.com/yqrashawn/GokuRakuJoudo

stavros 4y ago

I've been looking for something that can recognize the mute button in call software (Zoom, Meet, etc) and click it, but everything I've found seems to do image detection. I understand that running in a browser makes things hard, but is there a better method? I guess I could write an extension for Meet and Jitsi, but Zoom would then be the odd one out.

voat 4y ago
Nut.js
- grimgrin 4y ago
  aka “nut.js is a desktop automation framework for Node.js that allows you to program your mouse and keyboard with JavaScript or TypeScript” https://nutjs.dev/ https://nutjs.dev/
  - zazaulola 4y ago
    I know JavaScript pretty well too, but I prefer to write local automation in Bash. Why do you need such a twisted solution?
lalopalota 4y ago
Does image detection with "always show meeting controls" not work?
- stavros 4y ago
  It does, but at 5 fps and unacceptable CPU usage, sadly.
  - unicornhose 4y ago
    …you only have to do detection when required though (after the hotkey is pressed). Curious about the architecture of the 5fps solution.

paulryanrogers 4y ago

Wayland support when ~Civvie~?

pantalaimon 4y ago
That would need to be implemented by the Compositor. Wayland does not support this kind of functionality.

iafiaf 4y ago

AHK is excellent; created a fishing bot during the hardcore WoW raiding days (Stonescale eel for Flask of Titans, anyone?)

ricopags 4y ago

I don't have a linux machine handy but I wonder if this can run the excellent Lintalist[0]. I use it daily in my support work and I can't imagine ever getting away from it (also a huge fan of Clipjump[1]) [0]https://lintalist.github.io/ https://lintalist.github.io/ [1]http://clipjump.sourceforge.net/ http://clipjump.sourceforge.net/

rpdillon 4y ago
Likely not, as it requires 1.1.31+[0], and this port supports up to 1.0. [0]: https://github.com/lintalist/lintalist/blob/master/lintalist.ahk#L26 https://github.com/lintalist/lintalist/blob/master/lintalist...

IceWreck 4y ago

I think the reason something like this doesn't exist for Linux is that most Linux users prefer to use a more powerful language to create their own scripts instead.

theonemind 4y ago

Bit of a tangent/slightly off topic: how do HNers make Windows not evil/terrible? Like, it tries to force you into creating a Microsoft account to install Windows, I hear it has ads in the OS, forces reboots when you don't want them, and appears to generally treat its users with contempt and as a resource to exploit. Do you need an MSDN subscription to get LTSC? Any third-party tools that try to fix the horror show? Such a shame to have a solid platform run for evil motives.

paywallasinbeer 4y ago
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 is a good start
stjohnswarts 4y ago
- chocolatey for installing apps (most of what I need anyway) - WSL for command line stuff, python, rust - bleachbit for clean up of files, be careful and pay attention obviously - Immediately switch over to firefox (from Edge) and have brave installed as a backup - I just don't use the microsoft store at all unless I need to - malwarebytes for nightly scans, avira free as a virus program instead of defender - Shutup10++ to turn off most of the privacy invasion antifeatures of windows - Make notepad++ or gvim default editor - You can delay or turn off updates in the settings. I just live with the reboots though. I have a fast machine and most programs will have session save features anyway. That's mostly enough to make it a decent environment.
- majkinetor 4y ago
  You can now use winget to install ms store tools via CLI.
  - stjohnswarts 4y ago
    I've used winget to fetch a couple of things (because of windows support pages). I still use choco as my default though. Unless someone shows a huge advantage for winget then I think I'll continue on. I like using programs that aren't under Microsoft's umbrella if I can. Much the same way as avoiding google and amazon.

georgewsinger 4y ago

Does this support converting new keys into new modifiers? IIRC AHK allows you to do things like: - If CapsLock is pressed, treat it as a new modifier. - If CapsLock is released, send "ESCAPE". If so, that would be swell.

llllllllllll9 4y ago
you can do this with devinput alone, so for sure. see ydotool, xcape, or it's not hard to write your own.

jerrygoyal 4y ago

I also compiled a list of most useful AHK scripts https://gourav.io/blog/autohotkey-scripts-windows https://gourav.io/blog/autohotkey-scripts-windows

raveren 4y ago
I found a lot of inspiration in this list - each compiled into exe's but ship with the source included: https://www.dcmembers.com/skrommel/downloads/ https://www.dcmembers.com/skrommel/downloads/ And here is my script file (10+ years in the making!), some are the same as from your site (like toggle on top) but with minor improvements: https://gist.github.com/raveren/bac5196d2063665d2154 https://gist.github.com/raveren/bac5196d2063665d2154

sanroot99 4y ago

For Linux i used ,xkeybindrc and xdotools

endymi0n 4y ago

Nice! I used to love AHK to death, incidentally it also got me my first paid programming job. It‘s about the only software I dearly missed after switching to Mac, but recently I found Hammerspoon and couldn‘t have been happier. Yep, Lua is a bit weird and exotic, but hey, so is AHK. In the end, you trade in some of AHKs terseness for better modularity and compatibility with existing packages. https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon

smirgel 4y ago
Love hammerspoon! It would be nice if it supported Linux as well.
Ldorigo 4y ago
You might also want to check KeyboardMaestro on Mac. It's honestly the only programme I miss after switching to Linux desktop. 40€ but worth every cent.
spidersouris 4y ago
> incidentally it also got me my first paid programming job How?
erikcw 4y ago
I’ve been using hammerspoon for several years and it has really become integral to my workflow. You may want to check out the extension package spacehammer[0]. It includes a bunch of workflows and shortcuts that I’ve found extremely useful. Interestingly (for me at least), it’s authored in Fennel [1], a lisp that compiles to lua. I actually found spacehammer originally when I was working on converting my personal hammerspoon config to Fennel. [0] https://github.com/agzam/spacehammer https://github.com/agzam/spacehammer [1] https://fennel-lang.org/ https://fennel-lang.org/

CGA11 4y ago

AHK is one of the things I miss from my Windows days (along with Macrium Reflect).

arthurofcharn 4y ago

Wonderful news. Now we have hope of convincing Tom Scott to join the winning team.

smorrebrod 4y ago
Cross platform emoji keyboard!
taink 4y ago
For those unaware, here is the video: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U https://yewtu.be/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U I wonder if it is actually possible to just "connect the flumberboozle to the GKX virtual port"

entropie 4y ago

Nice. I installed autohotkey on windows because I wanted to duplicate subcommands that I use with linux for ages (xmonad has it more or less built in) meta m n # next track meta m space # play/pause Was relatively easy to implement, after i got help in r/autohotkey

llllllllllll9 4y ago
you can implement the wm manager of your dreams in ahk ... in like 500 lines. it's amazing stuff. you can also go all out: https://github.com/fuhsjr00/bug.n https://github.com/fuhsjr00/bug.n

ivanjermakov 4y ago

In case you're looking for QMK[1]-like capabilities for regular non-programmable keyboards - check out kmonad[2] [1]: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware [2]: https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad

sjducb 4y ago

Nice I really missed AHK when I moved away from windows

Vivtek 4y ago

Oh, this is sweet. Back in my Windows days I relied heavily on AHK for hotkeys as well as some glue for various tasks, and while I've managed to figure out most of the glue items on Linux (which I've used for the past five years or so), I've always missed hotkeys, for which I've never found a really good AHK-like solution. We are truly living in wondrous times.

artificialLimbs 4y ago

I used to work as a photographer at a car dealership. I was tasked with taking pictures of all the cars that came to the lot, and uploading them to our web site. I would take pictures in the afternoon, taking 1-2 hours. In the morning I would clock in and then go to a coffee shop for a few hours to let AHK do all the heavy lifting of uploading the images to the 3rd party clunker of a back end website. I would have definitely installed and used Linux if this was around then. Awesome work.

DavidD 4y ago

Does autohotkey have keyboard and mouse recording function when I first learned about scripting 20 years ago Winbatch had that function which took a non-programmer who just wanted to speed up repetitive tasks into an entry level programmer after a few weeks of use.