After finding it surprisingly easy to knock up
JoystickWrapper, I was left thinking "Why stop at DirectInput and XInput"?
I found a
really good tutorial that lets you get started with MEF without having to really understand too much. Example 4 (The advanced version) is particularly interesting - it shows how to rig up a plugin framework and have Intellisense working on the MetaData for the plugins.
I just used the handy refactor tools in Visual Studio, and built a POC for a plugin-driven version of JoystickWrapper which I dubbed
InputWrapper.
Basically, a DLL that can load other plugin DLLs - each of which add support for different input types to AHK.
So, for example, the user uses CLR to load JoystickWrapper.dll, which searches it's plugin folder - in there, you put DirectInput.dll if you want DI support, a XInput.dll if you want XInput support, etc...
This would then let us easily plug in more exotic forms of input such as head trackers or VR trackers.
If I get that going, then I plan to try and make a custom GuiControl in C# that can interface with InputWrapper and query the plugin DLLs to see which devices are available and what inputs it has available - eg an InputButton GuiControl will query all plugins (DirectInput, XInput, RawInput etc) for what devices they have available that support buttons, and can then build a menu to allow the end-user to choose an input (or enter "bind mode" where they press the input).
Basically, the upshot should be that in AHK you add a GuiControl and pass it a callback, and the C# GuiControl handles binding and fires a callback to the AHK code when the input changes state.
Anyone else out there with experience in this area? Any sage words of wisdom?
After finding it surprisingly easy to knock up [url=https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=28889]JoystickWrapper[/url], I was left thinking "Why stop at DirectInput and XInput"?
I found a [url=https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/376033/From-Zero-to-Proficient-with-MEF]really good tutorial[/url] that lets you get started with MEF without having to really understand too much. Example 4 (The advanced version) is particularly interesting - it shows how to rig up a plugin framework and have Intellisense working on the MetaData for the plugins.
I just used the handy refactor tools in Visual Studio, and built a POC for a plugin-driven version of JoystickWrapper which I dubbed [url=https://github.com/evilC/InputWrapper]InputWrapper[/url].
Basically, a DLL that can load other plugin DLLs - each of which add support for different input types to AHK.
So, for example, the user uses CLR to load JoystickWrapper.dll, which searches it's plugin folder - in there, you put DirectInput.dll if you want DI support, a XInput.dll if you want XInput support, etc...
This would then let us easily plug in more exotic forms of input such as head trackers or VR trackers.
If I get that going, then I plan to try and make a custom GuiControl in C# that can interface with InputWrapper and query the plugin DLLs to see which devices are available and what inputs it has available - eg an InputButton GuiControl will query all plugins (DirectInput, XInput, RawInput etc) for what devices they have available that support buttons, and can then build a menu to allow the end-user to choose an input (or enter "bind mode" where they press the input).
Basically, the upshot should be that in AHK you add a GuiControl and pass it a callback, and the C# GuiControl handles binding and fires a callback to the AHK code when the input changes state.
Anyone else out there with experience in this area? Any sage words of wisdom?
