Macro Editor (Windows)

[LawrenceF]

Here is the beta download for the Windows add on. Just copy the "Bitwig Macros" folder in the zip and paste it in your "Documents" folder and manually make a taskbar shortcut to the program file.

Bitwig_Macros_Beta_1_Win.zip

• - Windows 7/8 only. It uses the .Net 4.5 framework so no installation is required.
  - The file paths are hard-coded so don't place the app folder anywhere else.
  - Bitwig has to be running for the add-on to complete it's launch, if it can't find Bitwig it will terminate.
  - No one but me has used this app so things like Norton will "flag" it because it's not in their database.
  - The source file for the actions is 'commander.txt' in the app folder. You can manually edit it.
  - The macro window is currently static, can't be moved. I'll make it drag-able later.
  - I'll also add a search filter for the action list at some point.

** Remember, it's a beta 1 so some bugs will likely pop up. **

[billcarroll]

Nice work! This is something that should be built into Bitwig.

It seems like we could make this cross-platform somehow. I get this uses uses the .Net 4.5 framework. I wonder how we need to do this for Mac and Linux?

[el_maniaco]

Wow! that looks amazing! exacly what I needed, can't wait to try this thing

Bitwig - hire this man!

[LawrenceF]

It seems like we could make this cross-platform somehow.

It would probably be easy enough to duplicate on Mac for anyone so inclined, especially with something like Xojo which compiles for Win & Mac. Like I mentioned earlier the only really time consuming part was the the menu and list themes, without using custom controls already setup for that.

The actual command sending is just Windows "SendKeys", really simple stuff tbh. The Win API gives the app window focus and just sends it whatever key commands you send it. Took like 15 minutes to make commands work, but some hours to design and code the UI bits.

Anywho, that commander.text file is still kinda wacky, needs more editing, has some duplicates and some items where I couldn't find the actual command to use.

[TeotiGraphix]

I know I have done cross platform apps with LibGDX, runs with Java.

Is the source code available for this Lawrence?

Are you using Windows specific things that Java couldn't access?

Mike

[billcarroll]

I'll check out Xojo.

I've been digging into Keyboard Maestro for the Mac - http://www.keyboardmaestro.com. You can string together complex keyboard and menu driven Macros easily, but there is no real UI. I have my app launcher Alfred --http://www.alfredapp.com -- integrated with Keyboard Maestro, so I can just quickly fire off any Keyboard Maestro Macro. However, there is real appeal to making the Macro system look like it's part of the Bitwig UI.

edit - just saw the post from TeotiGraphix re: LibGDX. This shows some promise.

[LawrenceF]

Is the source code available for this Lawrence?

Are you using Windows specific things that Java couldn't access?

Mike

I mostly code in VB for this kinda stuff, it's just faster for simple things like this. I might share the source code later once it gets deeper into beta. It's a pretty small project.

And yes, the Windows .Net framework is not at all directly compatible with anything else afaik, without some bridging. What you'd do is just use similar methods in the other frameworks, Mac or Linux to get to the same place.

[TeotiGraphix]

Is the source code available for this Lawrence?

Are you using Windows specific things that Java couldn't access?

Mike

I mostly code in VB for this kinda stuff, it's just faster for simple things like this. I might share the source code later once it gets deeper into beta. It's a pretty small project.

And yes, the Windows .Net framework is not at all directly compatible with anything else afaik, without some bridging. What you'd do is just use similar methods in the other frameworks, Mac or Linux to get to the same place.

Ok, yeah I have used a little of the .NET framework, mainly a Java dev so..

I don't quite get what you are doing under the hood, that is the only reason I asked about the source code to see if the techniques you were using could be translated into something java.

Mike

[LawrenceF]

Here's the source that sends the commands when you double click a macro. It's only in two sub routines here because the second one "RunMacro" gets used by other controls. "SetForgroundWindow" is a Windows API call that gives a window focus when you need it to have focus.

That part could have been done with other API's, sending keystrokes directly to another app window without giving it focus (SendMessage API) but SendKeys works fine for this purpose.

Code: Select all

    Private Sub SavedMacros_DoubleClick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles SavedMacros.DoubleClick

        ' Clear the Editor List
        MacroList.Items.Clear()

        ' Load the macro 
        MacroList.Items.AddRange(IO.File.ReadAllLines(AppFolder & "\Macros\" & SavedMacros.Text & ".bwsmacro"))

        ' Update the macro name in case the editor is open
        MacroName.Text = SavedMacros.Text

        ' Run the macro
        RunMacro()

    End Sub

    Private Sub RunMacro()

        ' Arry for splitting the list item
        Dim CmdKeys() As String

        ' Give BWS the window focus
        SetForegroundWindow(BWS)

        Dim I As Integer

        ' Iterate through the macro list steps, split and send each key command [ary(1)]
        For I = 0 To MacroList.Items.Count - 1

            ' Split the item and assign it to the array var
            CmdKeys = Split(MacroList.Items(I), "|")

            ' Send item 1, the command
            SendKeys.SendWait(Trim(CmdKeys(1)))
        Next
    End Sub

[TeotiGraphix]

Ok, I see what you are doing. So if it was Java, there would have to be a way to send key strokes to another application. Which I have never done, so thanks (if even possible?).

"Apparently the only way to do this is to have a JNI layer that will make the conversion from java to native. Java has no easy way to provide such functionality."

So its what I figured, there would have to be a C++ layer in between for each OS.

EDIT: It doesn't have to be C++, I meant a compiled library that java could load and then use JNI to call methods of the library specific to the OS.

Mike

[LawrenceF]

Ok, I see what you are doing. So if it was Java, there would have to be a way to send key strokes to another application. Which I have never done, so thanks (if even possible?).

It should be possible on any platform really, they all have window handles or ID's. Now if they have a built in function like SendKeys in Java, no idea, if not you'd likely have to get there another way, via whatever API functions that serve basic messaging.

"Me no know Java." Javascript, sure. Java, never touched it. I wouldn't know a Java Bean from a real Coffee Bean.

Anyway, what's obviously missing from the add-on's command list is a "Sleep" command action, for times when you'd want to fire a step and have the macro sleep for 500ms or something before firing the next step because of something not immediately happening. I'll add that later.

[ThomasHelzle]

Microsoft just open-sourced Net, so who knows what will happen

Cool work Lawrence!

Many of these things can also be accessed with the controller API in 1.1. through "Actions", but of course that has no real UI.

But I can see a less-controller-centric API in the future.
That could also bridge the gap between keeping the direct and easy to use concept BWS has now and still allow power users to customize to their hearts content.

Cheers,

Tom

[TeotiGraphix]

But I can see a less-controller-centric API in the future.
That could also bridge the gap between keeping the direct and easy to use concept BWS has now and still allow power users to customize to their hearts content.

Hmm, this seems like a lead in... thanks for giving us all the info you know!! HAHA

Mike

[ThomasHelzle]

No, it's just my personal vision, not any deeper insight.
It's something I personally think would make sense.

Cheers,

Tom

[billcarroll]

Well, there is Python, which is also cross-platform.

For instance, to minimize the current window on OS X you can do something like this:

Code: Select all

import os
cmd = """
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "m" using {command down}' 
"""
# minimize active window
os.system(cmd)

No reason you can't run different application specific commands based on OS, although I've always avoided coding stuff for Windoze.