For those more used to Perl and to command lines, it is also possible to define and alter macros from the command line. This is done with a series of Perl function.
Macros are set defining, as mentioned above, a
key and an
action. The key
is key keycode for the key you wish to assign the macro to. The
easiest way to get the keycode for a given key is with the
$world->getkeycode function. This function takes
no parameters. When run, it prompts you to press a key, and then
prints the keycode for the key. It also returns the keycode as a
string, so you can save it in a variable and use when defining the
macro.
Here's a way to define a macro:
/$key = $world->getkeycodePress a key to get its keycode.Press the F5 keyKey code: F5/$world->macro($key, 'drink from fountain')
The above session shows how to assign drink from
fountain to the F5 key. Note that
$world->getkeycode prompts you for a key and
prints its keycode. Additionally, the keycode is returned, and it is
stored in the $key variable. This variable is used
as the first argument to the $world->macro
function, that takes two arguments: the keycode and the action. We
could have entered 'F5' directly, but using the
keycode returned by $world->getkeycode is easier
and less error-prone.
That's pretty much all about defining macros. They do not take
arguments, it is all about executing simple commands. Other things
that could be done are executing several commands (separating them
with %;) or executing a Perl statement or
function.
Before going into editing, let us see how to get a list of all
macros that are currently defined for the World. Just use the
$world->listmacro function without arguments. You
will be presented with a list of the currently defined macros.
There are four columns: Num is
the number of the macro. Macros are numbered sequentially starting at
zero. This number will be useful when we start editing them. After
that, Ena tells whether the macro is
enabled. Macros that are disabled are not executed even if the key is
pressed. This is a nice way to stop a macro from working, but keep it
stored for later use. We will see how to enable and disable macros
later in this section. The final two columns list the keycode and
action of the alias.
The listing produced by $world->listmacro
is compact, showing all macros but possibly truncating the keycode
and/or action. If you give a macro number as argument to
listmacro, it will display that macro's
information detailedly.
To edit a macro, you need to know that macro's number. (And that
can be discovered with the listing functions just described.
Alternatively, the $world->getmacronumber can be
used to discover a macro's number if its name is known.) The same
function used to add macros can also change existing ones, you just
need to pass the macro number as the first argument.
Calling
$world->macro( changes the key of
the macro with that number. If you want to change the key and action,
include the substitution as a third argument:
number,
new keycode)$world->macro(. What if you want to change only the
action? Since passing only one string argument would change the key,
this is done in a different way. In brief, this is how you would
change only the key:
number,
new key, new
action)$world->macro(. Notice that the
key is passed as an attribute inside the curly braces. It is also
possible to change the key this way, just use the attribute
number, { action =>
new action })key.
The only attribute for macros, besides the key and action, is
enabled. It was mentioned briefly when we described
how to list macros. It can be set just like the other attributes and
is binary, that is, takes the values
true (represented by anything different from 0)
or false (represented by 0). When the value of
this attribute is true (which is the default), the macro is run
normally. When it is zero, even if the key is pressed, the macros is
not run. This way, disabling an alias effectively turns if off, as if
it did not exist, but the macro is still saved, and can be turned on
again when necessary.
Here's an example of disabling a macro (number 3 in this case):
$world->macro(3,
{ enabled => 0 })
However, there is a shorter way: the
$world->dismacro function disables the meacro whose
number is passed as argument. So the example above can be rewritten in
a shorter way as:
$world->dismacro(3)
The corresponding function $world->enamacro
enables the specified macro.
It is also possible to temporarily disable all macros. Just use the menu → and this will prevent macros from running. This does not change the "enabled" status of any macros, it just prevents all macros from running. When you select the menu again, macros that were enabled will run again, and those that were disabled will remain disabled.
There are times when you want to delete a macro. This is easy to
do, use the $world->delmacro function. It takes
as argument the number of the macro you wish to delete. Be aware that
once deleted it is not possible to recover the macro (unless you
create it again). Many times just disabling the macro is a better
idea. The second thing to note is that when you delete a macro the
numbers of the other macros may change, so be careful when you try to
delete several macros in sequence.
It is possible to assign names to macros. When a macro has a name, you can enable, disable, or delete it using its name instead of its number.
To assign a name to a macro, specify the name
attribute when creating it:
$world->macro($key, 'drink from fountain',
{ name => 'drink' })
You can now disable this macro with
$world->dismacro('drink'). The name can also be
used in the $world->enamacro,
$world->delmacro and
$world->listmacro functions.
It is also possible to assign a name to an existing macro. Just
edit it as described in Section 10.2.1, “Editing Macros”,
passing the name attribute. Use this same process
to change the name of a macro.
Another feature of macro names is that several macros can have the same name. In this case, all these macros will be treated as a single group. The functions above, when passed a macro name, will act upon all macros of the group, that is, on all macros with that name.
Macros are tried from the first to the last, so in some cases
the order of the macros matters. It is possible to move an macro to
another position with the $world->movemacro
function.
The function takes two parameters: the first is the name or number of the macro that you want to move. The second is the new position that the macro will take in the list. 0 means move the the first position. If you specify a negative number or a number greater than the number of macros, the macro will be moved to the end of the list.
If there are several macros with the same name, only the first one found will be moved. And when an macro is moved, other macros might move up or down to accomodate the change.