mini command palette hidemaru

A simple command palette. (Experimental stage)

Features

• Macro File List
  • Automatically generates a list of macro files, allowing you to select and execute any of them. No need to assign keys to macro files.
• Command Palette
  • Similar to VSCode’s command palette (or a browser’s address bar), you can narrow down the display of target macro files by typing a few characters, then select one with the arrow keys and confirm with ENTER.
• Incremental Search and Filtering
  • As you type, you can narrow down and display the target lines.
• AND Search
  • You can filter by AND search by separating keywords with spaces.
• Migemo
  • For example, typing siyou can filter for words like 「使用」(usage) and 「仕様」(specifications).
• Customization
  • You can freely add lines.
  • Aliases
    • For example, you can assign custom aliases to macros.
    • You can use Migemo to assign Japanese aliases to macros.
  • Generation
    • You can generate and add lists, similar to the macro list.
• Filtering and Jumping in Currently Edited Files
  • You can filter currently edited files using Migemo or AND search, and jump to the selected line.

What makes it easier?

• Just Type
  • Simply place macro files and filter them from the command palette to use them.
  • You don’t need to remember key assignments for each macro, which is convenient.
• Just Register Easily Remembered Words as Aliases
  • For example, suppose you have a macro to insert today’s weather and another to insert today’s news, and you’ve registered aliases like ‘今日の天気’ (Today’s Weather) and ‘今日のニュース’ (Today’s News) in the customization file.
    • You can use them intuitively by typing ‘tenki’, ‘news’, ‘nyu-su’, etc.
  • This is powerful when you might forget which key or menu a macro is assigned to.
  • It might be useful if you want to recall and use macros quickly with your own aliases, or if you frequently use a macro but finding it is tedious, so you want an alias that’s easy to filter.
  • We consider this alias usage to be in an experimental stage.
    • For example, I am not aware if there are cases where VSCode uses aliases in this manner, due to my lack of knowledge.
    • As a similar example, afxfazzy, which inspired this project, has achieved significant results in my own operational use.
      • Therefore, I believe such usage might also be valid for text editors.
• Multi-stage Filtering of Currently Edited Files
  • You can list multiple search results like grep, dynamically change search conditions like incremental search, and also use Migemo and AND search.
  • For example, it’s easy to filter error lines from a log file and then further refine the search with an AND query.

Supplementary Feature Descriptions

• Listing Macro Files
  • Registers them in the command palette list on first launch.
  • Subsequently, you can update the list by selecting ‘Reload’ from the command palette.
  • The list is maintained independently by the command palette. Rest assured, it does not affect Hidemaru’s settings.
• Concatenating Customization List and Macro File List
  • Concatenated upon reload.
  • If the customization list does not exist, it will be copied from custom_sample.mac.

Requirements

• Windows 64bit
• Wait from execution until the window appears (typing before the window appears will not activate it).
• A playful spirit
  • Since it’s still in the experimental stage, there are challenges (described later). A playful spirit is required to use it.

Install

• Download
  • In your Hidemaru macro directory, paste the following into the command prompt and press ENTER:

    curl.exe -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cat2151/mini-command-palette-hidemaru/main/install/installMiniCommandPalette.bat --output installMiniCommandPalette.bat && installMiniCommandPalette.bat
    

• Macro Registration
  • Open Hidemaru and navigate to Menu / Macro / Macro Registration.
  • In an empty slot from Macro 1 to Macro 80, register the following macro:
    • Title :
      • Command Palette
    • Filename :
      • miniCommandPalette\miniCommandPalette.mac
• Key Assignment
  • Open Hidemaru’s Menu / Others / Key Assignment screen.
  • On the Command to Key tab, check Shift and Ctrl in the bottom left.
  • Assign ‘Macro xx : Command Palette’ to Shift + Ctrl + P. (xx is a number from 1 to 80)
• Test
  • Press Shift + Ctrl + P and confirm that the command palette screen opens.
  • Select Customize Command Palette, press ENTER, and confirm that custom.mac opens.
• To update
  • Simply perform the Download step again. (Don’t worry, it won’t overwrite your configuration files.)

Tutorial

• Customization
  • Open Hidemaru.
  • Press CTRL + SHIFT + P.
  • Select Customize Command Palette.
  • Confirm that custom.mac opens.
  • Add the following line:

    /* こんにちは */ message "hello, world";
    

  • Press CTRL + SHIFT + P.
  • Select Reload Command Palette.
  • Confirm that /* こんにちは */ message "hello, world"; has been added.
  • Select /* こんにちは */ message "hello, world";.
    • Type kon or hel to confirm that you can select it using both Japanese and English input.
  • Confirm that the dialog hello, world is displayed.
• Filtering Currently Edited Files
  • In Hidemaru, open a log file with errors, for example.
  • Press CTRL + SHIFT + P.
  • Select Filter Current File.
    • It’s easier to select by typing he, fa, or si (Migemo for ‘編集中’ (editing), ‘ファイル’ (file), ‘絞り込み’ (filter), respectively).
  • Type error.
  • Confirm that ERROR, error, エラー, etc., are filtered (Migemo matches エラー as well).
  • Select a line and press ENTER.
  • Confirm that you jumped to that line.

Future Plans

• The following features might be useful. They might be implemented, or they might not.
  • List of ‘Hidemaru’s built-in functions’
  • List of ‘Recently edited files’
  • List of bookmarks

Challenges

Not as feature-rich as VSCode’s Command Palette

• It lacks history, the ability to match by continuously typing the beginning or parts of words without spaces, and action switching via prefixes like > or @. It does not have the extensive features of VSCode’s command palette.
• This is because it is in an experimental stage.
• Whether features will be added in the future is undecided. They might not be.

Macro File List uses full paths, making selection difficult

• Countermeasures are under consideration.
  • Proposed solutions :
    • When generating the list, insert the macro filename at the beginning, like /* foo.mac */, using a script.

To speed up startup

• It might be faster if it could be made resident using tkinter’s minimization-related features and Hidemaru macro’s Windows-related features. (Whether this is possible is unknown.)
• It would likely be faster if built with VC++. Reference: afxfazzy
• It would likely be faster if created as a DLL plugin for a text editor.
• When it will be created is undecided. It might not be created.

Name is too long and cumbersome

• If a VC++ or text editor plugin version can be created, a shorter name might be considered then.