Notices

You might be surprised how long it takes a newbie to do some of these things! But, I'm getting there!

At this point I have an xautomation folder (post-gunzipping-and-tarring) in my /usr/bin/ folder. I went into the folder in Xterm, as root, and tried doing this
but it said, after lots of other messages, that there was no acceptable C compiler in $PATH. Then I just tried but it said
So, now that I have the files untarred (or is it tarred?) in a folder in /usr/bin/, what might I do next to get to where xte is a meaningful command? (Thanks again.)

Good instincts, but this time you don't want ./configure and make; the program is already built, so they're unnecessary.
Obviously, you need to have make installed for that plan to work; I do, but evidently it's not default (as I had assumed it was)...

I guess falling back to manually copying the one binary needed is sanest at this point.

So if I'm reading you right, you have everything in /usr/bin/xautomation-1.02/ ? That's not where I'd have put it, but it'll do.

What you want to wind up with is just the file xte in /usr/bin.

So, assuming it's in /usr/bin/xautomation-1.02/, do something likeand, optionally,to remove the source and other programs afterwards.

Well, Benson, I'm getting there. All that stuff for just one little file? I took your advice and moved everything but xte out of /usr/bin/. After a while I'll delete it.

So far I would swear that xte's output is partially random. Your basic idea is being vindicated to my satisfaction. Next I have to get better at xte. I mean it though, xte seems to have a mind of its own. I put in a command or whatever you call it that follows xte in "Command to execute:" in PM. The string has uppercase and lowercase letters, but xte will type only the capital letters. Later I try adding a keystroke for a return. That doesn't work, but after I remove it and go back to exactly the command that I previously had, it starts typing both upper- and lower-case letters.

Then I put in a different command (a key shift), but instead of doing what I want, xte goes crazy and keeps typing spaces -- it would type spaces no matter what was open; it seemed there was no way to stop it except by shutting down.

Then I go back to what I last had, but now it refuses to type anything but uppercase again. (Actually, what it does is ignore all lower-case input while outputting a lower-case letter for each upper-case character in the requested string!)

So, I have more work to do on xte, but it looks like you got me on the track I was asking for.

As Arnold would say, I'll be back.

With str, it tries to translate a string into key press (and release) events. If you're having trouble with that, you could try to run individual keys, giving you more direct control...

But it was working fine for me; the exact example shown typed Foo quite nicely. <shrug \>

There's a man page here:
http://linux.com.hk/penguin/man/1/xte.html

HTH

Well, when I use your Foo command, I just get f (since the F in Foo was uppercase, it gets printed lowercase, and the lowercase o's get ignored).

But I've made the macros I want, and I'm a happy camper. If I want, say, "Gerald Ko", I use: I was even able to do a complete name-and-address with all the relevant tabs -- click one button and it tabs through all the fields, entering the name and then street address, etc., all on its own. The only weird keystroke is 'key Return' which brings up the finger keyboard and does not enter a return.

So, Benson, thanks!


(Now iif fiferboy will just give us a multi-headed Personal Menu -- a MIRV among launchers -- with the capability to password-protect one of its icon-sets, he'll also have the most convenient maemo password manager, filling in the username then tabbing then entering the password all from one click. )