IDE support for Game controllers etc. on Linux

[MarkMLl]

A few months ago I added a couple of pages to the wiki on using a game controller to drive the IDE, which is something I find particularly useful:

https://wiki.freepascal.org/Lazarus_IDE_with_Nostromo_Keypad_on_Linux
https://wiki.freepascal.org/Lazarus_IDE_with_Gamepad_on_Linux

The downside of this is that it needs a key combination for every function, and doing something like allocating a button for every bookmark in a file would both be arduous and would risk clashing with combinations normally reserved for the desktop environment.

Noting a forum discussion yesterday where I pointed somebody at using evtest to get keycodes, is there an "easy" way that an HID device could be plumbed directly into the Lazarus IDE, e.g. by having a plugin detect kernel-level events and inject them as IDE operation codes after the normal key translations?

As a related issue, it would be very useful for the "Set a free bookmark" to also remove an existing bookmark. Can this be done?

MarkMLl

[avra]

Wouldn't it be easier to simply use some software to map joystick to keyboard?

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=map+joystick+to+keyboard

[MarkMLl]

Read the links, that's exactly what I've done. However if you go that way you have to reserve a key-combination for every operation, and something like the Nostromo pad (again, described in one of my links) has more events than are available. In addition I've already had to tell KDE to ignore one particular combination so as not to do something inappropriate when it sees one of the IDE's shortcuts.

[avra]

Then you need to make an IDE plugin which would listen to joystick events and directly call particular IDE method or menu item, or indirectly generate keyboard press that you map in your code or external file.

[MarkMLl]

Exactly. So as I put in my original question, is there an "easy" way to do that or does anybody have any example code etc.?

[MarkMLl]

I notice that when one tells the IDE to "Set a free bookmark", if the cursor is on a line with a bookmark in increments the bookmark number rather than clearing it which I would have thought was more logical.

looking at SrcNotebookEditorDoSetBookmark in ide/main.pp, I see

Code: [Select]

    while (ID <= 9) and (Project1.Bookmarks.BookmarkWithID(ID) <> nil) do
      inc(ID);
...
  if (OldEdit<>nil) and OldEdit.EditorComponent.GetBookMark(ID,OldX{%H-},OldY{%H-}) then
  begin
    if (not Toggle) and (OldX=NewXY.X) and (OldY=NewXY.Y) then
      exit;  // no change
...

I've not tried stepping through that, but since ID has been stepped to the first unused bookmark won't that exit never be taken?

MarkMLl