This library provides you with a way to capture keyboard events (key press, release, and repeat events) and direct those events to different objects. This makes it easy to do a few things:
1. Bind actions to keys. You don't have to define a verb, make an interface file, open the interface file, edit the macro set, and add a macro that calls the verb you defined. You just have to add a couple of lines of code to make a specific keyboard event trigger an action (ex: make the A key call the attack() proc).
2. Handle input in different ways. The library lets you redirect keyboard input to different objects using the client.focus var. When you press a key, client.focus.key_down() is called. This lets you write a key_down() proc on the mob that binds keys to actions the mob can perform. It also lets you define a key_down() proc on a /Menu object which binds keys to menu actions (ex: the up arrow key moves the cursor in the menu up). All you have to do to switch between the two modes is set client.focus to the player or to the /Menu object.
Version 6 (posted 07-13-2012)
- Added support for the numpad with numlock on. These keys have different macros but they're converted to the symbols. For example, the numpad4 macro is translated to "4" and the "multiply" macro is translated to "*".
- Added the client.translate_numpad_to_numbers var which is 1 by default and can be used to enable or disable this new behavior.
- Fixed a bug with the Click() proc. For some reason I had it call ..() twice so that projects using this library would often have Click() events fire twice.
Version 5 (posted 05-12-2012)
- Added the client.use_numpad var which can be 0 or 1. If it's 0, it converts the "northeast" and "southeast" keys to "page up" and "page down" and the northwest and southwest keys to "home" and "end". If it's 1, the names are left alone. Its value is 1 by default.
- Added "insert" to the EXTENDED set of keys.
- Added a call to ..() in the library's client.Click proc, this way the atom's Click proc will still fire no matter what the focus is set to.
- Made the library use the Forum_account.Text library instead of including its own implementation of the split() proc.
Version 4 (posted 02-29-2012)
- Changed the way macros are defined, again. You can still use the old method of setting client/keys to a list of keys to be macroed. You can also use some new constants that define groups of keys:
- ARROWS: the four arrow keys
- LETTERS: a - z
- NUMBERS: 0 - 9
- NUMPAD: the 8 directional keys and center
- EXTENDED: space bar, shift, ctrl, alt, escape, return, tab, back, delete
- PUNCTUATION: tilde, plus, minus, brackets, slashes, semicolon, apostrophe, comma, period
- FUNCTION: F1 - F12
- ALL_KEYS: The combination of all these constants
For example, you can set client/keys = LETTERS to only macro the letter keys.
- Added default.dm which contains some code that had been in keyboard.dm. This contains the default behavior for a client's key_up/down/repeat procs.
- Added support for macroing certain symbols. Previously, the equals sign and other symbols couldn't be macroed. Now they should all work.
Version 3 (posted 02-20-2012)
- Changed the way macros are defined. Macros are now defined for every key in the client's keys list. If you want to change what macros are defined you can simply override the default value for client/keys at compile time. This now lets you control what keys are macroed from outside the library.
- Added the keys-demo to show how to use the keys list to control what macros are defined.
Version 2 (posted 12-03-11)
- Added the datum/click() proc which can be used to handle click events. It is passed two arguments: the object that was clicked on and the client that did the clicking.
- Made the client/Click() proc call the click() proc for the object that client.focus refers to (by defaut, the client).
- Added the NO_KEY_REPEAT and NO_CLICK flags which can be used to disable parts of the library. If you don't need to handle key repeat events in your game, you can put #define NO_KEY_REPEAT to disable the macros for these events. Keep in mind that with this flag defined, BYOND's default key repeat macros still exist (which call client/East(), etc.).
- Changed the order of events in the library's client/New() proc so that focus is set (to the client) before ..() is called (which triggers Login() to be called). This means that if you set client.focus inside mob/Login(), client/New() won't revert focus back to the client.
- Added support for some additional keys: backspace, delete, maybe some other ones too.
Version 1 (posted 12-02-11)
- Provides the key_up, key_down, and key_repeat procs for all objects which are passed the key and client when a keyboard event occurs.
- Provides the client.focus var, which is a reference to an object that will receive keyboard events. When a key press, release, or repeat event occurs, client.focus.key_up/down/repeat will be called. By default client.focus is the client itself.
- Provides a default implementation of the client's key_down and key_repeat procs which call the client's North, South, Center, etc. procs.
- Provides the client.keys var which is an associative list which stores the state of each key - client.keys["a"] is 1 if the A key is being held and 0 if it's not held.
- Provides the client.lock_input, unlock_input, and clear_input procs. The first two are used to lock/unlock input - while input is locked the key_up/down/repeat procs will not be called (but the keys list will still be updated to reflect key releases only). The clear_input proc clears the keys list (sets all values to zero).
- Provides five demos:
- focus-demo: Shows the effect of changing client.focus.
- icon-selection-demo: Shows how to use client.focus to create an icon selection feature that uses keyboard events to change your icon.
- mob-demo: Shows how to control other mobs by changing client.focus.
- movement-demo: Shows how to create a different movement system by using the client.keys list.
- simple-demo: Shows how to use the mob's key_down proc to cause actions to occur when certain keys are pressed.
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With BYOND's default movement that'll happen. You can use the Pixel Movement library to avoid that.