CapsLock as an additional modifier

▌ Introduction

I was uncomfortable pressing Ctrl-F4 to close a tab in VisualStudio, I tried to reassign this function to the standard for Internet browsers and some other programs Ctrl-W, but I ran into difficulties and decided to find a more flexible solution.

On Habré there are already articles devoted to Caps Lock, and probably the most canonical option is to use it to switch layouts. I want to show a more flexible and, at the same time, quite simple approach.

▌ Idea

And why is CapsLock worse than Shift / Ctrl / Alt? Why not use it in the same way? So, the idea is this: write a program that will track the pressing / release of the caps and the pressing of some other keys in the interval between these two events and perform some action based on the result.

▌ AutoIt

AutoIt is a free scripting language for automating task execution in Windows. To start working with it, just download AutoIt Full Installation , install and run a truncated version of the SciTE editor that comes in the package.
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▌ Source Code

 #include <Misc.au3> ;  Misc.au3   _IsPressed,     Global $isSingleCaps = True ;        HotKeySet("{LAUNCH_MAIL}", "HoldModifier") ;     ,       While 1 Sleep(60000) ; " " WEnd 

The HotKeySet function can only accept a specific set of keys and handles the CapsLock / NumLock / ScrollLock switch keys in a special way, so to simplify, CapsLock is reassigned to me via {LAUNCH_MAIL} through the registry ( SharpKeys is a free utility that, in essence, is a graphical interface to reassign keys through the registry). There are more advanced versions of HotKeySet, but I didn’t want to complicate the example.

The infinite loop shows an example of the “event-based execution model” for AutoIt: when you call a function assigned to a hot key, the execution of the payload stops and continues after the end of the function. Later I will show another option.

 Func HoldModifier() $isSingleCaps = True If _IsPressed("B4") Then ; _IsPressed            HotKeySet("w", "CloseTab") ;    ,      HotKeySet("t", "RunAllTests") HotKeySet("]", "RestartExplorer") HotKeySet("a", "Play") HotKeySet("{NUMPADSUB}", "VolumeUp") HotKeySet("0", "RealCaps") While _IsPressed("B4") ;    sleep(0) WEnd Unset() EndIf If $isSingleCaps Then ;  $isSingleCaps   , ,          Send("!+9") ; "!" - Alt, "+" - Shift,  Alt+Shift+9           EndIf EndFunc Func Unset() HotKeySet("w") ; HotKeySet        HotKeySet("t") HotKeySet("]") HotKeySet("a") HotKeySet("{NUMPADSUB}") HotKeySet("0") EndFunc 

This ends the fundamental logic of using CapsLock, as I wanted to show, further examples of what can be done with AutoIt.

Closing tabs in VS:

 Func CloseTab() $isSingleCaps = False If StringInStr(WinGetTitle("[active]"), "Microsoft Visual Studio", 1, -1) Then ;    Send("^{F4}") Else Send("^{w}") ;         Caps+W EndIf EndFunc 

Run all tests:

 Func RunAllTests() $isSingleCaps = False If StringInStr(WinGetTitle("[active]"), "Microsoft Visual Studio", 1, -1) Then Send("^u") Send("^l") EndIf EndFunc 

Restart the explorer process (it helped, until the Win8 activation servers were running):

 Func RestartExplorer() $isSingleCaps = False ShellExecute("taskkill", "/im explorer.exe /f") ProcessWaitClose("explorer.exe") Run("C:\Windows\explorer.exe") EndFunc 

I did not find how to change the volume change step using the multimedia keys in the eighth Windows, so I went this way:

 Func VolumeUp() $isSingleCaps = False Send("{VOLUME_UP 3}") ;  {VOLUME_UP}   EndFunc 

Send to play in AIMP the folder where the cursor is in TotalCommander (Ctrl + P - sends the path to the current folder to the command line, I did not find the path to the folder under the cursor, so I got this crooked but working version (build PowerUser, if it matters)):

 Func Play() Unset() $isSingleCaps = False If StringInStr(WinGetTitle("[active]"), "Total Commander", 1, -1) Then Send("{RIGHT}") ;    Send("+{RIGHT}") ;       Send("aimp3.exe /add_play ") ;        Send("{BACKSPACE}") ;  /   Send("^p") ;      Send("{ENTER}") Send("{ENTER}") Send("{LEFT}") ;     EndIf EndFunc 

The CapsLock function as it is.

 Func RealCaps() Unset() $isSingleCaps = False $var = InputBox("To UpperCase", "     UpperCase") Send(StringUpper($var)) EndFunc 

▌ Other performance model

In general, it looks like this:

 While 1 If _IsPressed("B4") Then ... EndIf Sleep(50) WEnd 

It requires a little more resources, but allows you to use any virtual code.

▌ Conclusion

The final step is to compile the program Ctrl + F7 and place the link to the resulting file in the startup folder.

A similar mechanism, of course, can be implemented in other programming languages ​​and for other operating systems; there is no rocket science here.

This method has several significant positive qualities:

• Switching the layout by a single click CapsLock-as usual for many option.
• The direct function of the caps is preserved, since sometimes it, nevertheless, is useful.
• If you ideologically do not like this approach - you can simply not use it. And if someone else uses it, and you are forced to work behind his workplace, you stop the script execution with one click and continue to work in a comfortable environment.
• If everyone uses this method, rather than reassigning standard hotkeys, then sitting down at someone else’s workplace, you disable the running version of the script and get the standard and familiar hotkeys as in option a), or run your version of the script and work in a completely optimized for you setting.