Dead key time-out?

[Serkhang]

I just completed another port to Windows of my layout for Lepcha. Using AutoHotkey gave me the advantage of a compilation into a stand-alone application. No 'carrier app' is required as with Keyman, hence I save users from either buying a licence or accepting nags.

In AHK, I made acquaintance of a cool feature applied to strings I'd paraphrase as 'expiring dead keys'.

If I type MA (U+1C15) -> LA (U+1C1C) within a given time span (I take 1 second), the output will be MLA (U+1C16).

If the time span between MA and LA is > 1 second, the output is MALA (U+1C15U+1C1C).

Can something similar be implemented with Ukelele, by chance?

I thought of an extended version of <when state="MA" and time<1000 output="MLA"> or using a given time to trigger termination.

I hope I don't overstrain you patience. Otherwise, please, tell me frankly. :)

[Sorin Paliga]

[...]

In AHK, I made acquaintance of a cool feature applied to strings I'd paraphrase as 'expiring dead keys'.

If I type MA (U+1C15) -> LA (U+1C1C) within a given time span (I take 1 second), the output will be MLA (U+1C16).

If the time span between MA and LA is > 1 second, the output is MALA (U+1C15U+1C1C).

This would be cool indeed!

Can something similar be implemented with Ukelele, by chance?

I thought of an extended version of <when state="MA" and time<1000 output="MLA"> or using a given time to trigger termination.

I hope I don't overstrain you patience. Otherwise, please, tell me frankly. :)

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[Gé van Gasteren]

Dear Serkhang,

This AutoHotkey looks very promising:

1. Since Windows 10, using keyboard layouts created with MSKLC is not really practical anymore – one has to install the program to be able to use the layouts. Do you think AutoHotkey could replace MSKLC, i.e. create a complete alternative for a custom keyboard?

2. In the Netherlands, most Windows computers use keyboard layout "US International" to access accented characters. There is one draw-back: one has to type a space after a quote (single or double), otherwise the quote symbol + the following character may be replaced by an accented character. This could be amended by changing the quotes from "standard dead keys" into such an expiring dead key as you describe.

Thanks for the post! It’s off-topic within this Ukelele group, of course, but we don’t mind too much :-)

[Chopel Serkhangpa]

Dear Gé,

best thanks for your interest.

> 1. Do you think AutoHotkey could replace MSKLC, i.e. create a

> complete alternative for a custom keyboard?

If you consider a Jaguar S Type a replacement for a Fiat Panda: Yes. :)

> 2. This could be amended by changing the quotes from "standard dead keys" into

> such an expiring dead key as you describe.

No problem. This could be done with an automated backspace inserted
via AHK script, to mention the least invasive option.

> Thanks for the post! It’s off-topic within this Ukelele group, of course,
> but we don’t mind too much :-)

If it's ok for the group, I don't mind. Personally, I love to have a
look 'beyond the plate's edge', as we'd term that in German.

[John Brownie]

No, that's not possible with the Apple keyboard system. It would have to
be done as an input method, which works at a different level. There is
no timing in Apple's keyboard layout handling.

John
--
John Brownie, john_b...@sil.org or j.br...@sil.org.pg
Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, Eastern Highlands Province,
Papua New Guinea
Mussau-Emira language, Mussau Island, New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea

[Andrew Cunningham]

Its usability as an alternatove on windows 10, depends on whether ir can integrate into TSF and hook into the existing input framework.

Ie if you create a Dutch alternative with AHK will it enable Dutch proofing tools in MS Word automatically, etc when you enable the AHK layout?

Andrew Cunningham
lang.s...@gmail.com

[Andrew Cunningham]

On Saturday, 7 May 2016, Serkhang <serk...@gmail.com> wrote

Such an input system would assume all users can type as rapudly as each other. Someone just learning to type is likely to have problems and get frusttrated.

It will also be a barrier for people with a range of physical problems affecting motor cordination.

It may be useful for yourself but not an ideal input system gor the aberage user.

> If I type MA (U+1C15) -> LA (U+1C1C) within a given time span (I take 1 second), the output will be MLA (U+1C16).
> If the time span between MA and LA is > 1 second, the output is MALA (U+1C15U+1C1C).
>

--

Andrew Cunningham
lang.s...@gmail.com

[Serkhang]

@John:
Best thanks for the informations. I feared so.

My faint hope was based on the 'long click' feature which gave us a context menu from the one-button mouse in the olden days of MacOS 8 and 9 :) and persists to El Capitan (though I believe it's restricted to the dock only, meanwhile). Long clicks are in use with the keyboard in iOS as well to evoke variants of a certain letter.

@Andrew:
In Win XP to 8.1 it does. In Win 10, I do not know. I dumped it once the required tests were done ...

I feel a second to be quite long in respect to typing. Though the delay is not user-configurable it were a trifle to offer several versions for slow, medium or swift writers.

[Gé van Gasteren]

Thanks Andrew,

Certainly, I was thinking of something for myself only. I’m rarely typing on Windows PCs, so I’ve had no chance to get used to the US International layout—and I have no idea how easy or cumbersome it is felt to be by most Dutch users.

Anyway, the chances of spreading the use of AutoHotkey or anything like that country-wide are exactly zero.
If it’s an indication, just see the absurd situation with the apostrophe (looking like a curled closing quote) which is used quite a lot in Dutch:
Gerard ’t Hooft, ’s ochtends, ’s-Gravenhage.
Because Microsoft’s so-called smart quotes feature erroneously changes the typed ' into an ‘ in all three above cases, and because one sees this wrong usage in newspapers, books, etc. by now, the majority of people perceive the curled opening quote ‘ as a/the correct form of the apostrophe.

All Microsoft has done as a response to reports and complaints is adding a nerdy way to type ’ directly (and thus bypassing the smart-quotes routine) in MS Word: Hold down Ctrl and type ' twice. My guess is that nobody knows that trick except those people who already knew to type Alt + 146 to get the proper apostrophe.

Regarding your question whether proofing tools would still work with AutoHotkey active, I’m pretty sure they would, because, as I understand it, the produced characters are the same with or without Autohotkey; it only changes the way they are entered.