Modal keybinding implementation inquery

[khalidchawtany]

• Version: 2.2 (33)
• macOS: 10.11.5

First of all this is not an issue.

I want to have a modal keybinding to operate Phoenix. Ultimately, I wan to have a mode which could be activated with a HYPER and then terminated with ESC. When inside that mode, pressing single letters should be enough to trigger phoenix actions (No HYPER press needed till ESC is pressed).

Any help is appreciated.

[kasper]

Cool! Have you tried implementing this? There’s at least two strategies you could apply here:

1. Bind HYPER, ESC and all action keys
2. Store references to the action keys (from new Key(...))
3. Disable all action keys immediately
4. When HYPER is pressed, enable all action keys
5. When ESC is pressed, disable all action keys

Or you could:

1. Bind HYPER and ESC keys
2. When HYPER is pressed, bind all action keys (with new Key(...) or Key.on(...))
3. Store references to the action keys (references or identifiers)
4. When ESC is pressed, release all action keys

[khalidchawtany]

Thanks, I will try you suggestion.

I have taken a look at a modal config. However, it was for a previous version. I was wondering if there is any new stuff that would make it easier to implement.

[kasper]

@khalidchawtany Let me know how it goes! Key.on(...) and Key.off(...) may help with the second strategy, but I would say the first one is easier.

[khalidchawtany]

@kasper I have found that bound keys are not repeated when pressed and hold. You have to press and release each time to make it trigger :(

You can test it using this:

var counter = 0;
Key.on('p', [],  function() { alert(counter++); });

alert is modal showing the passed message.

[kasper]

@khalidchawtany That is by design (kEventHotKeyPressed). What would you use this for?

[khalidchawtany]

I want to micro-manage window movements and resizes. I want to move a window 10 pixels to the left on pressing h, holding h should move it multiples of 10 pixels.

[kasper]

@khalidchawtany Let me see if this is an easy fix.

[khalidchawtany]

I really appreciate your hard work 👍

[kasper]

@khalidchawtany Unfortunately, there is no automated way and it seems this has to be implemented with a timer. 😭

[mafredri]

@kasper if it's any comfort, I might have some uses for this as well. I've ran into this a couple of times but thought I'd just live with it :). And like @khalidchawtany said, your work is appreciated, you've been on fire lately ^_^.

[kasper]

@mafredri @khalidchawtany Oh well. What would be a suitable interval? 60 times per second? You could then throttle that to your needs with for example _.throttle(...).

[khalidchawtany]

That would be awesome :)

[mafredri]

That would be more than enough in my opinion. How fast do we think Phoenix needs to be able to respond? I think a suitable range would be between 20 - 50ms, with 20, it would be 1000 / 20 = 50 and with 50ms it would be 1000 / 50 = 20. So maybe 50x / second and we get a nice round number (20ms)?

On the other hand, how precise would the timing be, this being JS and all, would other operations block, etc?

[kasper]

@mafredri I’ll first try with 0,05 seconds.

[kasper]

Actually, you can get it from the system with [NSEvent keyRepeatInterval]. Seems to be 0.083333333333333329.

[kasper]

Issue #119.