detect when only the Ctrl key is pressed (not in combination)

[orbs]

hello all,

i'm trying to detect a long click on left or right Ctrl. my purpose is to assign a custom command to it, so instead pressing some weird keyboard combinations, i'll just need to click one of the Ctrl keys for ~300ms, and my script will perform some action (which i'll define later, intention to switch keyboard layout and typing direction simultaneously, similar to some Linux distros, which i find very convenient).

i can pretty much detect the key press and the duration, with slight modification to the _IsPressed example:

#include <Misc.au3>

Local $hDLL = DllOpen("user32.dll")

While True
    If _IsPressed("A2", $hDLL) Then ; left Ctrl was pressed
        ConsoleWrite("_IsPressed - left Ctrl key was pressed." & @CRLF)
        ; Wait until key is released.
        $hTimer=TimerInit()
        While _IsPressed("A2", $hDLL)
            Sleep(100)
        WEnd
        $nTime=TimerDiff($hTimer)
        ConsoleWrite("_IsPressed - left Ctrl key was released after "&$nTime&' ms' & @CRLF)
    ElseIf _IsPressed("1B", $hDLL) Then
        MsgBox(0, "_IsPressed", "The Esc Key was pressed, therefore we will close the application.")
        ExitLoop
    EndIf
    Sleep(250)
WEnd

DllClose($hDLL)

but that does not exclude a combination click, like Ctrl+A.

how would i detect when Ctrl only was pressed and released?

or perhaps there is a completely different approach to this?

thanks for any suggestion.

[Danyfirex]

Hi.

#include <Misc.au3>

local $hDLL = DllOpen("user32.dll")
Local $begin = 0

Local $dif =0
While 1
      If _IsPressed(11) Then
        ConsoleWrite("CTRL was Pressed" & @crlf)
        While _IsPressed(11)
            ConsoleWrite("CTRL keep Pressed" & @crlf)
            Beep(1000, 100)
        WEnd
        ConsoleWrite("CTRL was  Release" & @crlf)
     EndIf



    Sleep(100)
WEnd

saludos

Edited February 5, 2014 by Danyfirex

[BrewManNH]

Danyfirex,

That script does practically the same thing as his script, except you look for any CTRL key instead of just the left one. Which is not what he's looking for.

[JLogan3o13]

I believe the OP is asking how to distinguish between pressing just CTRL, and CTRL used in a combination. You script works when CTRL is struck, but I can still use CTRL + A in combination.

Edit: Too slow

Edited February 5, 2014 by JLogan3o13

[Danyfirex]

I got his answer wrong. sorry.