Add Interception builds of the Windows GUI app

[eugenesvk]

Describe your changes. Use imperative present tense.

Add Interception builds of the Windows GUI app

(also based on the notification PR #1031 to make it easier to add later and also test since I can just observe mouse tooltips changing to see whether it works, so will rebase on whatever that one ends up being after review)

By the way, the docs say that

I think it has something to do with being installed in the privileged location of system32\drivers.

But on my system the install script didn't copy/move any of the dlls anywhere, so I guess that's the real reason why it's incosistent - if you copy the dlls to a PATH'ed location, it works, otherwise it fails
Are you sure that you have interception.dll in Windows\system32\drivers?

Fixes the other part of #990 (comment)

Checklist

• Add documentation to docs/config.adoc
  • N/A
• Add example and basic docs to cfg_samples/kanata.kbd
  • N/A
• Update error messages
  • N/A
• Added tests, or did manual testing
  • Yes

[eugenesvk]

@gerhard-h could you please test these interception builds?

[gerhard-h]

@gerhard-h could you please test these interception builds?

the old compile error is still there

$ cargo build --features interception_driver --features cmd --features gui
   Compiling kanata v1.7.0-prerelease (C:\path\kanata)
error[E0061]: this function takes 2 arguments but 3 arguments were supplied
   --> src\main_lib\win_gui.rs:161:5
    |
161 |     Kanata::event_loop(kanata_arc, tx, ui)?;
    |     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^               ----
    |                                      | |
    |                                      | unexpected argument of type `SystemTrayUi`
    |                                      help: remove the extra argument
    |
note: associated function defined here
   --> C:\path\kanata\src\kanata\windows\interception.rs:13:12
    |
13  |     pub fn event_loop(kanata: Arc<Mutex<Self>>, tx: Sender<KeyEvent>) -> Result<()> {
    |            ^^^^^^^^^^

For more information about this error, try `rustc --explain E0061`.
error: could not compile `kanata` (bin "kanata") due to 1 previous error

did something go wrong with the merge?
8730678 (HEAD -> main, origin/main, origin/HEAD, help) feat(layers): allow use of var for name (#1028)
520ab00 feat(chords): read chords from text file (#984)
c704b93 doc: adjust release template
d538d1c chore(win): kanata_passthru.dll to release just workflow (#1032)
06273d8 fix(win,gui): add a missing console disabling attribute (#1048)
34882a6 fix(win,gui): don't hide error message on GUI creation
490e2cc doc: update release template
e83c809 feat(win-gui): Add more correct winiov2 handling method to the gui app (#1047)

[eugenesvk]

Did you check the latest-greatestd-rebased branch fcacbf8? Builds here just fine

did something go wrong with the merge?

No, I just rebase it on top of another PR to make it easier for me to test (and also to merge later), so it has those extra unrelated-to-interception commits, but it still works

[gerhard-h]

Did you check the latest-greatestd-rebased branch fcacbf8? Builds here just fine

when I follow the link, there is a warning "This commit does not belong to any branch on this repository, and may belong to a fork outside of the repository."

git cherry-pick fcacbf870ef24aae71e567bdbf06b5430f5908e2 or git show fcacbf870ef24aae71e567bdbf06b5430f5908e2
tell me fatal: bad object

even the base string like CFG, GUI_CFG_TX, GUI_ERR_MSG_TX, GUI_ERR_TX... not exists in win.rs for me

[eugenesvk]

well, yeah, the commit isn't merged yet, so it indeed exists only in my fork eugenesvk@fcacbf8

Guess something's wrong with your local repo, it needs to be reset to this

[gerhard-h]

Guess something's wrong with your local repo

I started over with git clone https://github.com/jtroo/kanata.git -> no compile

git clone https://github.com/eugenesvk/kanata.git -> no compile

finaly git checkout gui_intercept_build within your repo -> compiles and runs properly

[jtroo]

Regarding:

I think it has something to do with being installed in the privileged location of system32\drivers.

It's been a while, but I do recall checking and seeing that the dll was indeed there but somehow wasn't being discovered correctly.

[gerhard-h]

works great :) but...

• icon-match-layer-name yes does not work (icons .ico are in . \icon and \icons)
• tooltip-layer-changes yes ;;|false| the default should be no not false (no even works )
• notify-cfg-reload-silent yes silents lrdl but not when reloading per gui
• (cmd) now runs visible (flashing) in foreground, wich is anoying

[eugenesvk]

false is fine, it's a sample config, so shows some valid variety for options, the sound/icons are fixed in the linked PR

[eugenesvk]

re (cmd) you're explicitly asking to launch command prompt, so isn't it supposed to... launch it?

I think you might need to find a separate Windows trick to hide the flashing window similar to something like https://whatsoftware.com/hidden-start-runs-batch-files-silently-without-flickering-console/ or https://superuser.com/questions/191149/how-to-execute-cmd-exe-silently etc from

As far as I know, there is no direct way with cmd to completely avoid a console window, you'd need to use an intermediary

[gerhard-h]

As far as I know, there is no direct way with cmd to completely avoid a console window, you'd need to use an intermediary

The thing is: there was no flicker with the non gui build.
Also I use (cmd-output-keys timek.cmd) wich requires to read the output (and only the wanted output).
the straight forward (cmd-output-keys r#"start "" /MIN C:\path...\timedek.cmd"#) does not work

also
(cmd-output-keys powershell.exe -NoProfile -NoLogo -NonInteractive -Command r#"echo "(" ((Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd").toCharArray() -join " ") ")""#) is maximum explicit about not to flicker, but it does.

[eugenesvk]

The thing is: there was no flicker with the non gui build

Because you had this whole non-flickering console. Console commands launched from within the console use existing console

is maximum explicit about not to flicker,

You could even be more diret -WindowStyle hidden :), though still woudn't help

start

this is a batch command, can only use it from cmd

The VBS method "works" - it hides the console window. But then you actually want to communicate output of a console command, and if you suppress console, you get no output! This seems conceptually incompatible, but maybe there is some hidden way to circumvent (feel free to google more deeply)

Think the only proper way something you've already discussed in other issues like #275:

• add some modern wasm-based plugin system Feature request: action accepting an arbitrary string handled by user-written code #797 (comment) where you could just write your own function in "any" language and
• add a proper scripting language
• add a function to kanata for this case
  Or maybe there are still a simpler workaround?
• execute a gui command that "types" the date
• execute a gui command that copies the date to the clipboard / pastes it form the clipboard
• something else?

[eugenesvk]

By the way, why do you just use AutoHotkey? This seems to works without any flashes

(cmd "path2/AutoHotkey.exe" "path2/insert_date.ahk")

#Requires AutoHotKey 2
#NoTrayIcon
curtime := FormatTime(,"dddd MMMM d, yyyy H:mm:ss")
Send(curtime)