I am making an application using Cocoa-Applescript which identifies local IP addresses which are up and running, by pinging x.y.z.[1-255] and appends running IPs to a text file. I already have a GUI for choosing x, y and z and have already made the script to ping each address:
repeat 255 times
try
do shell script "ping -o -t 1 -c 1 " & ipstamp & num4
do shell script "echo " & ipstamp & num4 & " >>/Users/DJ/Desktop/GoodIPs.txt"
end try
set num4 to (num4 + 1)
end repeat
Where ipstamp is x.y.z and num4 is the [1-255]. But now I want a progress indicator to show where it is up to in the process. I know how to get an indeterminate indicator which simply starts and stops:
ProgressBar's startAnimation_(ProgressBar)
## code to ping IP address
ProgressBar's stopAnimation_(ProgressBar)
But that is only indeterminate and I can not find any info on setting determinate ones in Cocoa-Applescript, setting their maximum steps and setting their current step - much like in regular Applescript's:
set progress total steps to x
set progress completed steps to y
Except it is in the GUI, and so i need to use NSProgressIndicators to do it. So summed up, how do you make a determinate progress bar, how do you set its total steps and how do you update its current step?
EDIT
It can be changed to determinate in the menu builder's Attribute Inspector, as can max, min and current steps. However I do need to be able to change the maximum and current steps from within the script, so those still apply.
Well you can make a Determinate progress indercator but the problem is you have to repeat telling it to go to a certain lenght by using the
setDoubleValue_()
message, but anyway here is a simple script to tell it to go to go up to 100
property MyProgressBar : missing value -- Progress Bar IB Outlet
on applicationWillFinishLaunching_(aNotification)
set c to 0
repeat 100 times
set c to c + 1
delay 0.2
tell MyProgressBar to setDoubleValue_(c) -- Tells Progress bar the % to go to
if c > 99 then
exit repeat -- If current repeat is 100 or more then cancels adding more
end if
end repeat
end applicationWillFinishLaunching_
Hope this helped!
just do:
set progress total steps to -1
-- do something
set progress total steps to 0
Remember, that the visualization depends on how the script is executed.
I'm basically trying to figure this out because I want to use my iMac as an external monitor for my macbook air. I also want to use the iMac keyboard for my macbook air however for some reason, Apple has decided that once you press and hold Command F2 to activate Target Display Mode (meaning it is now an external monitor) that the keyboard paired with the iMac cannot be unpaired with the iMac.
To work around this I thought I would just pair the keyboard with the macbook air initially (leaving the iMac without a keyboard) and create an Applescript macro that would simulate the keyboard pressing and holding the Command F2 for five seconds eliminating the need to go buy another Apple keyboard.
Here's what I have so far and it doesn't work. It's telling me F2 is not right. I'm pretty sure F2's key code is 120.
tell application "System Events"
key down Command
key down F2
delay 5
key up Command
key up F2
end tell
Does anyone know how I might accomplish this?
Observations as of OS X 10.9.1:
There's a problem with the way you're sending F2 (you need to use (key code 120) instead of just 120), but the larger problem is that key up/down only works as expected with modifier keys.
While NON-modifier keys can be sent (using (key code <n>) syntax), the up / down aspect is ignored, making both key down (key code <n>) and key up (key code <n>) statements effectively the same as key code <n> (i.e., a Key Down event immediately followed by a Key Up event is sent).
There's a suggested workaround here, based on repeatedly sending keystrokes in short sequence - it's worth a try, but from a technical perspective it's not the same as keeping a key [combination] held down, so I'm not sure it'll work.
Adapted to your situation (and replacing key down with key code), we get:
tell application "System Events"
set now to the seconds of the (current date)
set later to now + 5
if later > 60 then set later to later - 60
key down command
# Workaround: send F2 repeatedly.
repeat while the seconds of the (current date) is not later
key code 120
end repeat
key up command
end tell
As I said: this may not work; also note that the loop is "tight" meaning that it'll make your machine pretty busy (if sending keys repeatedly, but not necessarily as fast as possible is an option, you could insert a short delay).
Some optional background info:
The key up and key down commands, while also requiring the System Events context, are NOT exposed in the System Events.sdef, the app's dictionary (only key code and keystroke are listed) - this may indicate that Apple doesn't officially support them.
On OS X 10.9.1 (unlike on OS X 10.8 - don't know about earlier versions) there is a bizarre bug where an extra "a" keypress is sent whenever you use key down with a (keycode <n>) specifier.
Ways of determining key-code values (gleaned from various other SO answers, mostly here):
Key Codes, a free GUI app for interactive use - very handy.
The following header file on your system (list of codes in hex format):
/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Headers/Events.h
List of decimal codes (incomplete):
I've started a project to do something similar, namely monitor the iMac and automatically trigger target display mode and toggle off bluetooth when a Macbook is connected. You can download it from https://github.com/duanefields/VirtualKVM.
Currently I am working on a project which has following setup.
AVR micro-controller
IDE - AVR Studio
Operating system - FreeRTOS
For input I am using a keypad matrix of 4x3. I have already coded for 4x3 keypad to take inputs as numbers. But now I want to make it alpha-numeric. Like we see in our mobile phone keypads.
Example - Key 2 will be used to take input for 2,a,b,c. Single press key 2, we will get number 2, double press key 2 then we will get 'a', tripple press key 2 then we will get 'b' and fourtimes press key 2 then we will get 'd' on scree.
I hope all of you understood what I mean above. Can anybody give some code idea in C to implement this type of functionality?
You most likely just need to keep track of the system time of the last key press and compare it to the system time of the next key press. If the current key is the same key as the last press and the time between presses is small (say, under one second), replace the current input character with the next character in the list of characters for that key. If the time difference is more than one second, or if a different key was pressed, accept the current character and add a new character, starting at the first character in the list for the key.
see the issue is when you press 2(say) in xxx sec time later after 30 millisec if you check and find that 2 is pressed then there are two cases.
case1> the pressed key is new and is same as previous
case2> the pressed key is same as previous and it is pressed from xxx till now contineously.
I have a bad habit of using the cursor keys of my keyboard to navigate source code. It's something I've done for 15 years and this of course means that my navigating speed is limited by the speed of the keyboard. On both Vista and OS X (I dual boot a MacBook), I have my key repeat rate turned all the way up. But in Visual Studio, and other apps, the rate is still much slower than I would prefer.
How can I make the key repeat rate faster in Visual Studio and other text editors?
In Windows you can set this with a system call (SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFILTERKEYS,...)).
I wrote a utility for myself: keyrate <delay> <repeat>.
Github repository.
Full source in case that link goes away:
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
BOOL parseDword(const char* in, DWORD* out)
{
char* end;
long result = strtol(in, &end, 10);
BOOL success = (errno == 0 && end != in);
if (success)
{
*out = result;
}
return success;
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
FILTERKEYS keys = { sizeof(FILTERKEYS) };
if (argc == 1)
{
puts ("No parameters given: disabling.");
}
else if (argc != 3)
{
puts ("Usage: keyrate <delay ms> <repeat ms>\nCall with no parameters to disable.");
return 0;
}
else if (parseDword(argv[1], &keys.iDelayMSec)
&& parseDword(argv[2], &keys.iRepeatMSec))
{
printf("Setting keyrate: delay: %d, rate: %d\n", (int) keys.iDelayMSec, (int) keys.iRepeatMSec);
keys.dwFlags = FKF_FILTERKEYSON|FKF_AVAILABLE;
}
if (!SystemParametersInfo (SPI_SETFILTERKEYS, 0, (LPVOID) &keys, 0))
{
fprintf (stderr, "System call failed.\nUnable to set keyrate.");
}
return 0;
}
On Mac OS X, open the Global Preferences plist
open ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist
Then change the KeyRepeat field. Smaller numbers will speed up your cursor rate. The settings dialog will only set it to a minimum of 2, so if you go to 0 or 1, you'll get a faster cursor.
I had to reboot for this to take effect.
Many times I want to center a function in my window. Scrolling is the only way.
Also, Ctrl-left/right can still be slow in code where there are a lot of non-word characters.
I use keyboardking also. It has a couple of isssues for me though. One, it sometimes uses the default speed instead of the actual value I set. The other is sometimes it ignores the initial delay. I still find it very useful though. They said 4 years ago they would release the source in 6 months... :(
Ok, on the suggestion of someone that modified HCU\...\Keyboard Response, this works well for me.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\Keyboard Response]
"AutoRepeatDelay"="250"
"AutoRepeatRate"="13"
"BounceTime"="0"
"DelayBeforeAcceptance"="0"
"Flags"="59"
Windows standard AutoRepeat delay.
13 ms (77 char/sec) repeat rate.
flags turns on FilterKeys?
These values are read at login. Remember to log out and back in for this to take effect.
For Windows, open regedit.exe and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard. Change KeyboardSpeed to your liking.
I'm using KeyboardKing on my PC. It's freeware and it can increase the repeat rate up to 200 which is quite enough. I recommend to set the process priority to High for even smoother moves and less "repeat locks" which happen sometime and are very annoying. With high priority, it works perfectly.
No one understands why we navigate by arrows. It's funny.
Visual Assist has an option to double your effective key movements in Visual Studio which I use all the time.
As mentioned by the hyperlogic, on Mac OS X, internally, there are two parameters dealing with the keyboard speed: KeyRepeat and InitialKeyRepeat. In the System Preferences they are mapped to the Key Repeat Rate and the Delay Until Repeat sliders. The slider ranges and the associated internal parameter values (in parenthesis) are show below. They seem to be multipliers of the 15 ms keyboard sampling interval.
Key Repeat Rate (KeyRepeat) Delay Until Repeat (InitialKeyRepeat)
|--------------------------------| |----------------------|-----------------|
slow (120) fast (2) off (30000) long (120) short (25)
0.5 char/s 33 char/s
Fortunately, these parameters can be set beyond the predefined limits directly in the ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist file. I found the following values most convenient for myself:
KeyRepeat = 1 --> 1/(1*15 ms) = 66.7 char/s
InitialKeyRepeat = 15 --> 15*15 ms = 225 ms
Note that in the latest Mac OS X revisions the sliders are named slightly differently.
I do like to work on the keyboard alone. Why? Because when you use the mouse you have to grab it. A time loss.
On the other hand sometimes it seems that every application has its own keyboard type-rates built in. Not to speak from BIOS-properties or OS-settings. So I gathered shortkeys which can be pretty fast (i.e. you are faster typing Ctrl + right(arrow)-right-right than keeping your finger on the right(arrow) key :).
Here are some keyboard shortcuts I find most valuable (it works on Windows; I am not sure about OS X):
ctrl-right: Go to the end of the previous/the next word (stated before)
ctrl-left: Go to the beginning of the previous/the word before (stated before)
ctrl-up: Go to the beginning of this paragraph
(or to the next paragraph over this)
ctrl-down: Go to the end of this paragraph
(or to the next paragraph after this)
ctrl-pos1: Go to the beginning of the file
ctrl-end: Go to the end of the file
All these may be combined with the shift-key, so that the text is selected while doing so. Now let's go for more weird stuff:
alt-esc: Get the actual application into the background
ctrl-esc: This is like pressing the "start-button" in Windows: You can
navigate with arrow keys or shortcuts to start programs from here
ctrl-l: While using Firefox this accesses the URL-entry-field to simply
type URLs (does not work on Stack Overflow :)
ctrl-tab,
ctrl-pageup
ctrl-pagedwn Navigate through tabs (even in your development environment)
So these are the most used shortcuts I need while programming.
For OS X, the kernel extension KeyRemap4MacBook will allow you to fine tune all sorts of keyboard parameters, among which the key repeat rate (I set mine to 15 ms, and it works nice).
I don't know how to accelerate beyond the limit, but I know how to skip further in a single press. My knowledge is only in Windows, as I have no Mac to do this in. Ctrl + Arrow skips a word, and depending on the editor it may just skip to the next section of whitespace. You can also use Ctrl + Shift + Arrow to select a word in any direction.
Seems that you can't do this easily on Windows 7.
When you press and hold the button, the speed is controlled by Windows registry key : HCU->Control Panel->Keyboard->Keyboard Delay.
By setting this param to 0 you get maximum repeat rate. The drama is that you can't go below 0 if the repeat speed is still slow for you. 0-delay means that repeat delay is 250ms. But, 250ms delay is still SLOW as hell. See this : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978658.aspx
You still can go to Accesibility, but you should know that those options are to help disabled people to use their keyboard, not give help for fast-typing geeks. They WON'T help. Use Linux, they tell you.
I bieleve the solution for Windows lies in hardware control. Look for special drivers for your keyboards or try to tweak existing ones.
Although the question is several years old, I still come across the same issue from time to time in several different developer sites. So I thought I may contribute an alternative solution, which I use for my everyday-developer-work (since the Windows registry settings never worked for me).
The following is my small Autorepeat-Script (~ 125 lines), which can be run via AutoHotkey_L (the downside is, it only runs under Windows, at least Vista, 7, 8.1):
; ====================================================================
; DeveloperTools - Autorepeat Key Script
;
; This script provides a mechanism to do key-autorepeat way faster
; than the Windows OS would allow. There are some registry settings
; in Windows to tweak the key-repeat-rate, but according to widely
; spread user feedback, the registry-solution does not work on all
; systems.
;
; See the "Hotkeys" section below. Currently (Version 1.0), there
; are only the arrow keys mapped for faster autorepeat (including
; the control and shift modifiers). Feel free to add your own
; hotkeys.
;
; You need AutoHotkey (http://www.autohotkey.com) to run this script.
; Tested compatibility: AutoHotkey_L, Version v1.1.08.01
;
; (AutoHotkey Copyright © 2004 - 2013 Chris Mallet and
; others - not me!)
;
; #author Timo Rumland <timo.rumland ${at} gmail.com>, 2014-01-05
; #version 1.0
; #updated 2014-01-05
; #license The MIT License (MIT)
; (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php)
; ====================================================================
; ================
; Script Settings
; ================
#NoEnv
#SingleInstance force
SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
; Instantiate the DeveloperTools defined below the hotkey definitions
developerTools := new DeveloperTools()
; ========
; Hotkeys
; ========
; -------------------
; AutoRepeat Hotkeys
; -------------------
~$UP::
~$DOWN::
~$LEFT::
~$RIGHT::
DeveloperTools.startAutorepeatKeyTimer( "" )
return
~$+UP::
~$+DOWN::
~$+LEFT::
~$+RIGHT::
DeveloperTools.startAutorepeatKeyTimer( "+" )
return
~$^UP::
~$^DOWN::
~$^LEFT::
~$^RIGHT::
DeveloperTools.startAutorepeatKeyTimer( "^" )
return
; -------------------------------------------------------
; Jump label used by the hotkeys above. This is how
; AutoHotkey provides "threads" or thread-like behavior.
; -------------------------------------------------------
DeveloperTools_AutoRepeatKey:
SetTimer , , Off
DeveloperTools.startAutorepeatKey()
return
; ========
; Classes
; ========
class DeveloperTools
{
; Configurable by user
autoRepeatDelayMs := 180
autoRepeatRateMs := 40
; Used internally by the script
repeatKey := ""
repeatSendString := ""
keyModifierBaseLength := 2
; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; Starts the autorepeat of the current captured hotkey (A_ThisHotKey). The given
; 'keyModifierString' is used for parsing the real key (without hotkey modifiers
; like "~" or "$").
; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
startAutorepeatKeyTimer( keyModifierString )
{
keyModifierLength := this.keyModifierBaseLength + StrLen( keyModifierString )
this.repeatKey := SubStr( A_ThisHotkey, keyModifierLength + 1 )
this.repeatSendString := keyModifierString . "{" . this.repeatKey . "}"
SetTimer DeveloperTools_AutoRepeatKey, % this.autoRepeatDelayMs
}
; ---------------------------------------------------------------------
; Starts the loop which repeats the key, resulting in a much faster
; autorepeat rate than Windows provides. Internally used by the script
; ---------------------------------------------------------------------
startAutorepeatKey()
{
while ( GetKeyState( this.repeatKey, "P" ) )
{
Send % this.repeatSendString
Sleep this.autoRepeatRateMs
}
}
}
Save the code above in a text file (UTF-8), for example named "AutorepeatScript.ahk"
Install AutoHotkey_L
Double click on "AutorepeatScript.ahk" to enjoy much fast arrow-keys (or put the file into your autostart-folder)
(You can adjust the repeat delay and rate in the script, see '; Configurable by user').
Hope this helps!
On Mac, it's option-arrow to skip a word and ⌥+Shift+Arrow to select. ⌘+Arrow skips to the end or beginning of a line or the end or beginning of a document. There are also the page up, page down, home and end keys ;) Holding shift selects with those too.
Well, it might be obvious, but:
For horizontal navigation, Home (line start), End (line end), Ctrl-Left (word left), Ctrl-Right (word right) work in all editors I know
For vertical navigation, Page Up, Page Down, Ctrl-Home (text start), Ctrl-End (text end) do too
Also (on a side note), I would like to force my Backspace and Delete keys to non-repeat, so that the only way to delete (or replace) text would be to first mark it, then delete it (or type the replacement text).
Don't navigate character-by-character.
In Vim (see ViEmu for Visual Studio):
bw -- prev/next word
() -- prev/next sentence (full stop-delimited text)
{} -- prev/next paragraph (blank-line delimited sections of text)
/? -- move the cursor to the prev/next occurence the text found (w/ set incsearch)
Moreover, each of the movements takes a number as prefix that lets you specify how many times to repeat the command, e.g.:
20j -- jump 20 lines down
3} -- three paragraphs down
4w -- move 4 words forward
40G -- move to (absolute) line number 40
There are most likely equivalent ways to navigate through text in your editor. If not, you should consider switching to a better one.