Jump to content

Holding down an arrow key is not the same as holding down your arrow key physically


Recommended Posts

Hello everyone, long time since I made a post in the H&S sub-forum :)

I am working on a project where in a situation I would have to hold down an arrow key and release it in another statement/command, however when I wrote the code it isn't working exactly like I thought it would. Here is an example:

Send("{UP down}")

Sleep(10000)

Send("{UP up}")

This should hold the up arrow key for 10 seconds before releasing it again, but when I run this code the cursor in SciTE moves up only once :unsure:

If I hold the up arrow manually for 10 seconds it "repeats" and the cursor moves up several times until I release the key... Is this a known limitation of Send? Is there any other way I can accomplish this?

Thanks for all the help and feedback in advance! TD :thumbsup:

EasyCodeIt - A cross-platform AutoIt implementation - Fund the development! (GitHub will double your donations for a limited time)

DcodingTheWeb Forum - Follow for updates and Join for discussion

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • TheDcoder changed the title to Holding down an arrow key is not the same as holding down your arrow key physically

Where in the list of supported keys do you find the "UP down" key?

My UDFs and Tutorials:

Spoiler

UDFs:
Active Directory (NEW 2022-02-19 - Version 1.6.1.0) - Download - General Help & Support - Example Scripts - Wiki
ExcelChart (2017-07-21 - Version 0.4.0.1) - Download - General Help & Support - Example Scripts
OutlookEX (2021-11-16 - Version 1.7.0.0) - Download - General Help & Support - Example Scripts - Wiki
OutlookEX_GUI (2021-04-13 - Version 1.4.0.0) - Download
Outlook Tools (2019-07-22 - Version 0.6.0.0) - Download - General Help & Support - Wiki
PowerPoint (2021-08-31 - Version 1.5.0.0) - Download - General Help & Support - Example Scripts - Wiki
Task Scheduler (NEW 2022-07-28 - Version 1.6.0.1) - Download - General Help & Support - Wiki

Standard UDFs:
Excel - Example Scripts - Wiki
Word - Wiki

Tutorials:
ADO - Wiki
WebDriver - Wiki

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"To hold a key down": https://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/appendix/SendKeys.htm

In the example the letter a is used but I tried using the {UP} key, not sure if it is supported though.

Edited by TheDcoder

EasyCodeIt - A cross-platform AutoIt implementation - Fund the development! (GitHub will double your donations for a limited time)

DcodingTheWeb Forum - Follow for updates and Join for discussion

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Developers

It is the keyboard that does the repeat action, so you need to do the same in the script yourself as you are emulating the keyboard. :)

Jos

SciTE4AutoIt3 Full installer Download page   - Beta files       Read before posting     How to post scriptsource   Forum etiquette  Forum Rules 
 
Live for the present,
Dream of the future,
Learn from the past.
  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Didn't know. Seems I learned something new today ;)

My UDFs and Tutorials:

Spoiler

UDFs:
Active Directory (NEW 2022-02-19 - Version 1.6.1.0) - Download - General Help & Support - Example Scripts - Wiki
ExcelChart (2017-07-21 - Version 0.4.0.1) - Download - General Help & Support - Example Scripts
OutlookEX (2021-11-16 - Version 1.7.0.0) - Download - General Help & Support - Example Scripts - Wiki
OutlookEX_GUI (2021-04-13 - Version 1.4.0.0) - Download
Outlook Tools (2019-07-22 - Version 0.6.0.0) - Download - General Help & Support - Wiki
PowerPoint (2021-08-31 - Version 1.5.0.0) - Download - General Help & Support - Example Scripts - Wiki
Task Scheduler (NEW 2022-07-28 - Version 1.6.0.1) - Download - General Help & Support - Wiki

Standard UDFs:
Excel - Example Scripts - Wiki
Word - Wiki

Tutorials:
ADO - Wiki
WebDriver - Wiki

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Jos Ah! I see... but there is a setting in windows which can control the rate of the key is repeated when it is held down, am I right? Doesn't this mean that Windows is responsible for repeating action?

@water We learn something new everyday :)

EasyCodeIt - A cross-platform AutoIt implementation - Fund the development! (GitHub will double your donations for a limited time)

DcodingTheWeb Forum - Follow for updates and Join for discussion

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could do something like this if the keyboard repeat doesn't work.

$Timer = TimerInit()
While TimerDiff($Timer) < 5000
    Send("{up down}")
WEnd

Send("{up up}")

 

If I posted any code, assume that code was written using the latest release version unless stated otherwise. Also, if it doesn't work on XP I can't help with that because I don't have access to XP, and I'm not going to.
Give a programmer the correct code and he can do his work for a day. Teach a programmer to debug and he can do his work for a lifetime - by Chirag Gude
How to ask questions the smart way!

I hereby grant any person the right to use any code I post, that I am the original author of, on the autoitscript.com forums, unless I've specifically stated otherwise in the code or the thread post. If you do use my code all I ask, as a courtesy, is to make note of where you got it from.

Back up and restore Windows user files _Array.au3 - Modified array functions that include support for 2D arrays.  -  ColorChooser - An add-on for SciTE that pops up a color dialog so you can select and paste a color code into a script.  -  Customizable Splashscreen GUI w/Progress Bar - Create a custom "splash screen" GUI with a progress bar and custom label.  -  _FileGetProperty - Retrieve the properties of a file  -  SciTE Toolbar - A toolbar demo for use with the SciTE editor  -  GUIRegisterMsg demo - Demo script to show how to use the Windows messages to interact with controls and your GUI.  -   Latin Square password generator

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@BrewManNH That would work, but it would block the execution of the script, maybe using Adlib is a work around.

I am still looking for ways to emulate it using some API though, not just sending the UP arrow in a loop.

EasyCodeIt - A cross-platform AutoIt implementation - Fund the development! (GitHub will double your donations for a limited time)

DcodingTheWeb Forum - Follow for updates and Join for discussion

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I've read, using Sendkey, or in AutoIt Send, and holding the key down does not trigger the keyboard repeat in windows. You have to simulate it in your script, and an AdLib would be a good option.

If I posted any code, assume that code was written using the latest release version unless stated otherwise. Also, if it doesn't work on XP I can't help with that because I don't have access to XP, and I'm not going to.
Give a programmer the correct code and he can do his work for a day. Teach a programmer to debug and he can do his work for a lifetime - by Chirag Gude
How to ask questions the smart way!

I hereby grant any person the right to use any code I post, that I am the original author of, on the autoitscript.com forums, unless I've specifically stated otherwise in the code or the thread post. If you do use my code all I ask, as a courtesy, is to make note of where you got it from.

Back up and restore Windows user files _Array.au3 - Modified array functions that include support for 2D arrays.  -  ColorChooser - An add-on for SciTE that pops up a color dialog so you can select and paste a color code into a script.  -  Customizable Splashscreen GUI w/Progress Bar - Create a custom "splash screen" GUI with a progress bar and custom label.  -  _FileGetProperty - Retrieve the properties of a file  -  SciTE Toolbar - A toolbar demo for use with the SciTE editor  -  GUIRegisterMsg demo - Demo script to show how to use the Windows messages to interact with controls and your GUI.  -   Latin Square password generator

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Chimp That would work great :D. Even though it doesn't exactly address my actual issue.

The problem was that I was testing with only text editors and the repeating actions wasn't there, so I assumed it would be equal to a single press. But I was proven wrong once I tried {UP down} in an application which does not actually care about repeating action. It worked perfect so there isn't an issue for me really.

This was an interesting topic, thanks to everyone who participated in it :)

P.S Thanks to @Jos for telling me that the keyboard is responsible for repeating action, after taking that fact in I tried it with something which doesn't depend on repeating action.

EasyCodeIt - A cross-platform AutoIt implementation - Fund the development! (GitHub will double your donations for a limited time)

DcodingTheWeb Forum - Follow for updates and Join for discussion

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...