To make a long story short, HotKeySwitcher is very similar to Microsoft Window's™ alt-tab functionality - that is, it gives you the ability to press a hot-key and cycle through processes, to select a new one to bring to the front.
If you're not familiar with Microsoft Window's™ alt-tab functionality, let me at least explain how HotKeySwitcher works: HotKeySwitcher is a simple application that runs in the background and waits for the user to press a "hot-key". This hot-key can be configured to be the ctrl, option, or command key. Once the key is pressed, the application brings itself to the front and displays a window. By holding down the hot-key and pressing tab/shift-tab (which isn't configurable at this point) repeatedly, the window will display all process names running on the Macintosh (I'll call this the process window later in this readme file). The user can then select a process he or she would like to bring to the front and release the hot-key. HotKeySwitcher will then activate this process.
Of course, this isn't a replacement for System 7's application menu, but simply an alternative way of switching between processes.
System requirements:
HotKeySwitcher requires system 7 or above, and about 60K of free memory.
HKS (HotKeySwitcher) configuration options:
HKS has a configure dialog. The following attributes are configurable:
1. Define HotKey1: You can choose the ctrl key, the option key, or the command key. Combinations of these keys are not allowed at this time.
2. Show Icon: HKS will display the icon of the process if you want it to.
3. 1 key pull-up: If this option is selected, HKS will show you it's process window if you press the single hot-key alone. I like this option selected. Since I don't use my option key for much of anything, I dedicate it for HKS. If this option is not selected, you must press the hot-key AND the tab-key for the process window to appear. Note: usually you have to press and hold the two keys for about 2-tenths of a second or so. HKS is not super instaneouus.
4. Q for quit: If this option is selected, HKS will quit using the Q keystroke. If the option is not selected, we can prevent HKS from being accidentally quit.
The default configuration is :
1. HotKey1 = ctrl key
2. Show Icon = true
3. 1 key pull-up = true
4. Q for quit = true
5. Font = default system font
Other things about HKS:
HKS remembers the last application you were in. This way, if you use HKS repetitively, you can easily flip between the applications you use most often. Also, holding down the shift key while cycling through processes will go backwards through the process list. Microsoft Windows™ does these too.
Upon launching HKS, it will activate the Finder. This way, you can put HKS in your Startup folder and it will activate the Finder like it should upon startup.
The font is configurable, via the FONT menu.
Once you press the hot-key, you can also use the mouse button or space bar instead of the tab key to cycle through processes. No big whoop.
If memory for the application is running low, HKS should notify you of this, and suggest that you allocate more memory to HKS in it's Get Info box.
Whether HKS will bring itself to the front varies depending on what other applications are doing. For instance, it will not bring itself to the front if you're currently in a modal dialog box. Also, most games will not yield CPU to other applications while they're running. This is perfectly normal, and accepted behavior on HKS's part.
When the 1 key pull-up option is selected, you are essentially reserving a key for HKS, since HKS will activate itself whenever you press the key. If you really do need to use that hot-key for other things, unselect this option.
When the 1 key pull-up option is not selected, you may experience the occasion where the tab key is intercepted by the application you're currently in. For example, you might be in a word processor. The word processor will "see" the tab key and insert it into your document. Then, HKS will come up. These type of situations are annoyances, indeed.
Things I'm sure will be requested as enhancements:
1. The ability to ignore processes that are hidden (via the application menu).
2. Possibly make program a control panel instead of an application. I would be glad to do this if I knew how!
3. Install jGNEFilter so program doesn't have to loop to check if the user has pressed the hot-key.
4. Provide the ability to configure the tab key.
5. Alphabetize the list of processes which appears in the process window.
6. Provide a nice help facility.
7. Fix so that really long process names will not be clipped in the process window.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Allen Stenger for his suggestions for improvement, and source code bits. Also thanks to the small group of beta-testers, and James W. Walker, for his library routine "Find_Icon".
Where to reach me:
HotKeySwitcher is Freeware. I do however have the copyright on the program. This means others cannot sell my program for profit. You can freely distribute HotKeySwitcher, if:
- you don’t alter either HotKeySwitcher or this document,
- this document always accompanies HotKeySwitcher
- you give HotKeySwitcher away for free
HotKeySwitcher is my first Macintosh program. I do not claim that it's perfect, and it may have bugs/flaws. I can be reached at:
