Genuine curiosity about Unicode characters implimentation

[demetrisag]

ok, I have an autohotkey script with an inputhook on unicode characters

ih := InputHook("V L0") ; V = Visible, let unmapped keys pass
ih.KeyOpt("{vkE7}", "S") ; Suppress Unicode events
ih.OnChar := OnChar
ih.Start()

so when I map a few keys on kanata like f13 and above to unicode characters then my autohotkey of course recognizes them and performs whatever macros I need.

now I have another macro keyboard (sayodevice) which has a scripting engine and I can also make it send Unicode characters but unlike kanata which I just do something like (unicode 😃) I have to actually program the key combination needed to produce certain emojis (e.g ALT+3432) as a macro so when I press the button I put it on, it also gives me the same unicode character, BUT! autohotkey doesnt capture it so it wont trigger anything, instead it just type the unicode character.

What kanata does different that doesnt happen on my macro keyboard?

[jtroo]

It calls the SendInput winapi with the flag KEYEVENTF_UNICODE. This is something external keyboards cannot do easily. It might be possible though, if a driver is capable of calling winapi.

[demetrisag]

So I am guessing if their software supports it, they could do it via software. Thanks for the info, very valuable information.