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

[TheDcoder]

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

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

[water]

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

[TheDcoder]

"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 May 2, 2018 by TheDcoder

[Jos]

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

[water]

Didn't know. Seems I learned something new today

[TheDcoder]

@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

[BrewManNH]

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}")

 

[TheDcoder]

@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.

[BrewManNH]

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.

[Gianni]

Local $hPid = Run(@AutoItExe & ' /AutoIt3ExecuteLine  "Send(""{UP 999999}"")"') ; simulates the Send("{UP down}")

Sleep(10000)

ProcessClose($hPid) ; same effect of Send("{UP up}")

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by Chimp

[TheDcoder]

@Chimp That would work great . 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.