Is LuaMacros right for me - multiple *identical* keyboards?

[fizzybrain]

Please forgive these questions by a complete newb; I'm happy to learn but I'd like to know if LuaMacros will be worth learning for my project.

I would like to remap keypresses on multiple external keyboards - USB numeric keypads in this case. The idea is to end up with an ultra-cheap split keyboard (with similar concepts to Ergo Dox, "tie-fighter"-style, TEK, etc). I'm at the earliest stage, working out what software to use - I'm not committed to anything in particular (except it should be FOSS, ideally).

I have read up a bit about HIDmacros, but IIUC it can't cope with simultaneous keypresses - not in the way I will want to anyway (I will want one ENTER Key to work as SHIFT, "+" might be CTRL, etc). Would Luamacros solve this?

Also, will LuaMacros cope with multiple *identical* keyboards? They will probably send identical hardware ID, so I'd need to use dynamic ID with some configuration system to distinguish between them.

So, in summary:
1. can I reassign numeric keypad keys to Ctrl, Alt and Shift?
2. can I use identical keypads?

Thanks for making this happen - HIDmacros is recommended by many, and I hope Luamacros will be just as useful for my particular needs.
All the best,
Ian

[admin]

Hi Ian

Short answers:
1) No
2) Yes

Long version
1) those modifier key have special handling in windows and Hid/LuaMacros is not designed to work in this way. I doubt if it's even possible to have regular key (like 'a' or enter) to behave like Ctrl or Shift
2) I haven't tried personally but I think windows assign this id dynamically. Also there are projects using LuaMacros with many keyboard and I would expect those are of the same type

[fizzybrain]

Thanks Petr,

1. I have had success using Interception and a command-line program Intercept by Kamaz (described here http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=30829) to map "simple" keys to Shift, Ctrl, Alt etc. For example, if I wanted to use "A" as "shift", it simply traps the "press A" code and sends the "press shift" code, then (after pressing and releasing whatever keys I want Shift-ed) it traps the "release A" code and sends the "release Shift" code. It works quite well for me, even handling Ctrl-Shift-KEY, etc. So it can be done, but if that's not been a design consideration for you then that's fair enough - thanks for making what you've made and sharing it with the world
2. Great, that will be the third part of the puzzle, I think! I imagine Interception would do it as well, but it is far less well documented than HIDmacros/Luamacros). I might end up with a combination of Luamacros, Interception and Autohotkey!

My Tendonitis-inflamed wrists thank you, as do I,

Ian