Keyboard map chords (e.g., Ctrl+X Ctrl+C)

Bill Stewart

For anyone interesting in viewing/voting for this feature:

https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/5191

Mikhail V

I was the one who proposed adding input ‘modes’, like in Vim, which somewhat relates to what you describe. Namely I proposed to add a command mode, as an additional ‘page’ for keyboard input where keys do not type characters but rather can be bound to commands.
As it seems though, majority of users do not appretiate any departure from standard windows’ edit box behaviour, mainly because it is additional learning.
At the same time, adding such features requires changing the core parts of the editor — that means the change must be really worth the deal, and there hardly will ever be consensus what should be optimal input scheme.

As for me, I have found an excellent solution - Autohotkey app. This app is made exactly for input customization and automation. Also I have Pythonscript plugin in Npp, so using combinations of Autohotkey scripts and some Pythonscript plugin scripts, I can do almost any input customization.
E.g. I can have Vim-like command mode with only ~50 lines of Ahk script plus some Pythonscript code for visual feedback (it changes GUI colors in different modes).

So, to be honest, if you like experimenting with input, you could start with Autohotkey. It would be IMO more productive than hoping for this feature addition ;-). Just make up an more or less concrete idea of what input combination/scheme and functionality you seek for and try to implement in Autohotkey / Pythonscript plugin.

Alan Kilborn

@Mikhail-V

Sounds interesting. How about posting a working example from your own efforts, both to illustrate the idea more fully and give a proof-of-concept.

Mikhail V

@Alan-Kilborn

Sure, here is an examlpe AHK I use for toggling command mode with Capslock, and example commands respectively, comment and un-comment bound to q and w keys:

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.

CMode := false

#If winActive("ahk_exe notepad++.exe") && WinActive("ahk_class Notepad++")
; global hotkeys (active in all modes)

capslock::
	if (CMode = false) {
		CMode := true
		send +{F11}			; execute visual feedback PS script inside NPP 
	} else {
		CMode :=  false
		send +{F12}			; execute visual feedback PS script inside NPP 
	}
	setCapslockState off	; keep capslock always off
return


#If CMode && WinActive("ahk_exe notepad++.exe") && WinActive("ahk_class Notepad++")
; command mode hotkeys 

; comment
q:: 
	send ^q
return

; uncomment
w:: 
	send ^+q
return

Visual feedback is implemented in PS plugin scripts which are executed on Shift-F12 and Shift-F11 shortcuts (see send +{F12} above code).
E.g. this indicates command mode with blue folder column highlighting:

editor.setFoldMarginHiColour(1, (180, 200, 220))
editor.setFoldMarginColour(1, (180, 200, 220))

And the second sets it back to my default color:

editor.setFoldMarginHiColour(1, (226,226,220))
editor.setFoldMarginColour(1, (226,226,220))

As for OP idea with sequences - it is actually almost the same, if you want only 2-command sequences.
Just need to add code to get back to default mode from the hotkey in the second section.
If want support for more than 2 commands in a sequence, it will get more complicated of course.

Eko palypse

That issue made be curious and I wanted to see if this could be solved with the PythonScript plugin in some way.
It is more of a proof of concept than a working solution but I thought it might be useful for some.
The script doesn’t prevent npp from executing registered shortcuts, if those are similar to the ones configured in the script.
Like if the script defines CTRL+K+L and you do have CTRL+K or CTRL+L mapped to some functions those get called,
as said - more of a proof of concept. But was really fun :-)

from __future__ import print_function
import ctypes
from ctypes.wintypes import DWORD, HRESULT, INT, WPARAM, LPARAM, HINSTANCE, HHOOK, BOOL, MSG
import threading

user32 = ctypes.WinDLL('user32', use_last_error=True)

def ErrorIfNone(result, func, arguments):
    if result is None:
        raise ctypes.WinError(ctypes.get_last_error())
    else:
        return result

def ErrorIfZero(result, func, arguments):
    if result == 0:
        raise ctypes.WinError(ctypes.get_last_error())
    else:
        return result

HOOKPROC = ctypes.WINFUNCTYPE(HRESULT, INT, WPARAM, LPARAM)

SetWindowsHookEx = user32.SetWindowsHookExW
SetWindowsHookEx.argtypes = [INT, HOOKPROC, HINSTANCE, DWORD]
SetWindowsHookEx.restype = HHOOK
SetWindowsHookEx.errcheck = ErrorIfNone

UnhookWindowsHookEx = user32.UnhookWindowsHookEx
UnhookWindowsHookEx.argtypes = [HHOOK]
UnhookWindowsHookEx.restype = BOOL
UnhookWindowsHookEx.errcheck = ErrorIfZero

WH_KEYBOARD = 0x2
HC_ACTION = 0

VK_SHIFT = 0x10
VK_CONTROL = 0x11
VK_MENU = 0x12

MODIFIER_MAP = {VK_SHIFT: 'SHIFT',
                VK_CONTROL: 'CTRL',
                VK_MENU: 'ALT',}

SHORTCUT_MAP = {'CTRL+L+K': lambda: print('do something\n'),
                'CTRL+K+L': lambda: print('do something other\n'),}

class KEYLOGGER(threading.Thread):
    def __init__(self):
        threading.Thread.__init__(self)
        self.hookHandle = None
        self.hookFunction = None
        self.keyCombo = ''
        self.modifier = { VK_SHIFT:False, VK_CONTROL:False, VK_MENU:False }
        self.modifier_keys = self.modifier.keys()
        self.KEYUP = False
        self.curr_class = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(256)

    def register(self):
        self.hookFunction = HOOKPROC(self.keyboardHook)
        self.hookHandle = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD, self.hookFunction, user32._handle, 0)

    def unregister(self):
        if self.hookHandle is None:
            return
        UnhookWindowsHookEx(self.hookHandle)
        self.hookHandle = None

    def exec_shortcut(self, shortcut):
        func = SHORTCUT_MAP.get(shortcut, None)
        if func:
            func()

    def keyboardHook(self, nCode, wParam, lParam):
        user32.GetClassNameW(user32.GetFocus(), self.curr_class, 256)
        if self.curr_class.value == u'Scintilla' and nCode == HC_ACTION:

            self.KEYUP = user32.GetKeyState(wParam) & 0x8000 == 0
            if wParam not in self.modifier_keys and self.KEYUP and any(self.modifier.values()):
                if 65 <= wParam <= 90:
                    self.keyCombo += '+{}'.format(chr(wParam))

            elif wParam in self.modifier_keys:
                if self.KEYUP:
                    self.modifier[wParam] = False
                    if not any(self.modifier.values()):
                        self.exec_shortcut(self.keyCombo)
                        self.keyCombo = ''
                    else:
                        self.keyCombo += '+{}'.format(MODIFIER_MAP[wParam])

                else:
                    if not any(self.modifier.values()):
                        self.modifier[wParam] = True
                        self.keyCombo = '{}'.format(MODIFIER_MAP[wParam])

        else:
            self.modifier = { VK_SHIFT:False, VK_CONTROL:False, VK_MENU:False }

        return user32.CallNextHookEx(_keyLogger.hookHandle, nCode, wParam, lParam)

    def run(self):
        self.register()
        msg = MSG()
        user32.GetMessageW(ctypes.byref(msg), 0, 0, 0)


try:
    _keyLogger.unregister()
    del(_keyLogger)
except NameError:
    _keyLogger = KEYLOGGER()
    _keyLogger.start()

Alan Kilborn

@Eko palypse

Interestingly, that’s what I meant when I said above:

Another option might be to do something in a scripting language.

However, since then I’ve looked at the code I had that was somewhat similar to yours and it suffers the same problem: If a keycombo is mapped via Shortcut Mapper, I haven’t found a way to snag the keycombo for my own purpose and NOT have Shortcut Mapper decoding also see it. Too bad @ClaudiaFrank isn’t around any more because I’m sure she’d solve that one in a second! :)

To be more accurate, if a keycombo is mapped via Shortcut Mapper, then SM will see it and my code then won’t even get a chance at it.

Eko palypse

@Alan-Kilborn

if a keycombo is mapped via Shortcut Mapper, then SM will …

you are right - two cooks in a kitchen isn’t good.
If I’m right, the only way to intercept the message flow is to hook into the message queue,
which I should have done in first place anyway, but playing with some kind of keylogger sounded more exciting at that time.
And concerning the code, I have to admit, I got a lot of inspiration, sounds better than stealing,
doesn’t it, from @Claudia-Frank and @Scott-Sumner :-)
Maybe I will have a look at it some time later but for now I’m more interested in the the topic LSP,
as this has some benefits for me as well.

Alan Kilborn

@Mikhail-V

Thanks for posting the example, it really clarifies. I see it uses coloring of the fold margin. What about when you are working with files with no fold margin, example *.txt files? Then you don’t get the feedback about what “mode” you are in. :(

Wouldn’t it be better to color the line-number margin (presumes you have that turned on–side note: I’m always amazed that people post asking how to turn that OFF)? Of course, I can suggest that but I myself don’t see how one would change the color (via code) of that margin.

Alan Kilborn

@Alan-Kilborn said:

but I myself don’t see how one would change the color (via code) of that margin.

I must correct myself. I DO see how to do it, half-an-hour later:

editor.styleSetBack(STYLESCOMMON.LINENUMBER, (255, 0, 0))

will turn the background of the line-number margin a rather glaring red, for example.

Mikhail V

@Alan-Kilborn said:

editor.styleSetBack(STYLESCOMMON.LINENUMBER, (255, 0, 0))

will turn the background of the line-number margin a rather glaring red, for example.

Yes, changing the line number color is actually better solution in general and it can be better visible.
I’ve used folder margin from the beginning and just was too lazy to experiment further :)
BTW, if you want to make permanently visible folder margin in any file, it can be done with Pythonscript plugin via “startup.py” script.

Disable folder margin:
Settings - > Preference -> Editing : set “Folder margin style” to “None”
Add e.g. this to startup.py:

editor.setMarginWidthN (2, 16)				# set folder margin to 16 pixel
editor.markerDefine (MARKEROUTLINE.FOLDEROPEN,  MARKERSYMBOL.ARROWDOWN)
editor.markerDefine (MARKEROUTLINE.FOLDERSUB,  MARKERSYMBOL.EMPTY)
editor.markerDefine (MARKEROUTLINE.FOLDERTAIL,  MARKERSYMBOL.EMPTY)
...

then Restart Npp. So can even define custom marker symbols or just set them all to EMPTY.
see:
https://www.scintilla.org/ScintillaDoc.html#Markers
http://npppythonscript.sourceforge.net/docs/latest/enums.html#markeroutline