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auto-type

Never live code again! Type it up ahead of time in a simple format, then replay it for 100% typing accuracy each time.

Features

In addition to typing code, auto-type can :

  • move the cursor left and right
  • move the cursor up and down
  • Move the cursor to the beginning and end of the line
  • delete characters

Here is auto-type in action:

A simple auto type script in action

To use auto-type, you type up the script you want to follow, one page at a time. The script pages are stored in the .auto-type directory in the root folder of your project. The script pages are ordered by filename.

Tip: To order your pages, give each page a name that starts with a number like 001-description, 002-description-of-page-2, etc.

Script pages look like:

file: scripts/app.js
line: 46
align: top
---
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓⇥
    if (!app.selectedCities) {
      app.selectedCities = [];
    }↓↓⇥
    app.selectedCities.push({key: key, label: label});
    app.saveSelectedCities();

Pages consist of two parts (separated by a line with three dashes):

  1. The front-matter, which describes which file you're editing, line numbers, etc.
  2. The actual characters to type.

Front-matter

Front-matter goes at the top of the script page, above the triple-dash separator. Supported attributes include:

  • file - the path to the file to be edited (required, can be relative to your project's root directory)
  • line - the line number to start at (optional, defaults to 1)
  • col - the column number of start at (optional, defaults to 1)
  • align - where to position the active line in the editor viewport (optional, defaults to middle, can also be set to top)

IMPORTANT: the file should already be open in VS Code when starting the script. Don't rely on auto-type to open it!

Tip: Use col sparingly. It's more realistic to start at the beginning of the line, then arrow over to the place you want to start typing (see Script Content below)

TIP: Setting align to top is useful with large functions / methods.

Script Content

Inside script page files, the content can be as simple as code that you want to type:

file: service-worker.js
---
var cacheName = 'weatherPWA-step-6-1';
var filesToCache = [];

The real power of auto-type comes from it's active unicode support. Following is the list of active unicode characters supported by auto-type:

Character Name Description
↓ Down Arrow Move the cursor down one line
↑ Up Arrow Move the cursor up one line
→ Right Arrow Move the cursor right one character
← Left Arrow Move the cursor left one character
⇥ Right Arrow Bar Move the cursor to the end of the line
⇤ Left Arrow Bar Move the cursor to the beginning of the line
⌫ Backspace Delete the character to the left of the cursor

Tip: combine active unicode to achieve realistic typing. For example, to move to the end of the line, then back three characters, use: ⇥←←←.

Tip: newlines are significant. Don't hit Enter in between active unicode unless you want a newline. Newline at the end of the file will type insert a newline at the very end of typing.

More Examples

A complete auto-type reference repo is available at https://github.com/eee-c/your-first-pwa. That repo has 5 different scripts, each with multiple pages, in five tags listed in the README.

Running Script Pages

Scripts are run one page at a time with the Play Code Script command.

While developing script, the Restart Code Script will restart the script with the first page.

Requirements

I am unsure if this works on Windows yet.

Extension Settings

There are no supported settings yet.

Known Issues

This is a very early release. It likely does not work on Windows yet with CRLF newlines and probably doesn't work with Windows file paths.

auto-type does not:

  • trigger code completion
  • trigger auto-termination of blocks (e.g. the closing parenthesis when the opening parenthesis is typed)

auto-type uses VS Code's insert API to "type." In other words, it copies and pastes code, one character at a time.

Release Notes

0.1.0

Initial beta release. Minimal viable features:

  • Left/right cursor movement
  • Up/down cursor movement
  • Beginning/end of line movement
  • Delete