Use your Xy kbd assignments in all Windows programs

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

I mentioned that I use AutoHotkey. It's a fantastic macro programming
language. It's not, as with every other macro program I've seen, just
something you use a clumsy GUI representation of a keyboard to work with.
It also handles key-press and key-release in the right way, unlike the others.


Basically, AutoHotkey allows you to have something like a Xy .kbd file for
all, or selected, Windows programs. It's a dream come true for me. The
AutoHotkeys file that does this is a plain text file, editable in Notepad
or Xy.


While I'm on the subject, for touch typists who don't want to move their
hands off the "home keys," I have been using for decades the brackets keys
for backspace and delete. Highly recommended. Here's the way you do it in
Xy, followed by how you make it Windows-wide in AutoHotkeys.


In Xy:
26=bd
27=rc

To get the regular brackets, which you use only about one one-thousandth of
the time you use backspace or delete, you assign them to some shifted state
of 26 and 27. Same for the curly braces.


In AutoHotkey:
[::Send {BS}
]::Send {DEL}

You can have AutoHotkey automatically suspend itself when Xy is the active
window, which makes for seamless integration of the two--you don't have to
think about it at all.


The guy at AutoHotkey also provides wonderful, personal support by email.
And AutoHotkey is free! Try it at: http://www.autohotkey.com


Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx