launchpad for Kindle is a small program supporting extended input
capabilities. The main purpose of it is providing the ability to run
any 3rd-party programs from within the original unmodified Kindle
Framework software. It can be also used to organize custom keyboard
shortcut operations and to simplify input of special symbols.
Also it fully supports the hotkey script files used by the popular
hotkeys package for Kindle.
This program was originally written for Kindle DX Graphite and later
extended in order to support Kindle3* operation. It has been successfully
tested on Kindle DX Graphite and Kindle3 WiFi and hopefully will also
work on older Kindle models.
Runtime parameters are fully controlled by a set of configuration files
of .ini type which are interpreted at program startup. Any number of
configuration files is allowed, three of them have predefined contents
and exist by default: launchpad.ini, fbreader.ini and servicecmds.ini .
The .ini files consist of text lines in a form <KEY> = <VALUE> , these
lines are grouped into logical sections by the specially formatted lines
indicating start of section. Similar format is widely used in .ini files
on Windows platform.
Currently only two section names are recognized in the launchpad
configuration files:
[Settings] section describes various runtime parameters,
[Actions] section contains definitions of hotkey sequences
It is recommended (but not required) to keep the whole [Setting] section
in a single file called launchpad.ini . As opposite to that, it is
recommended to keep logical groups of hotkey action definitions in separate
custom configuration files under [Actions] section.
These definitions, combined at startup, will constitute the supported hotkey
sequence repertoire.
Note: configuration files are processed in chronological order, as their
names are physically stored in a directory. All duplicate hot sequence
definitions, are ignored, if found.
When running, the Program just transparently scans keypad and fiveway
keystrokes until the user presses and releases the hot sequence Introducer
key. This causes the launchpad to enter the hotkey mode: it captures all
system input, engages the interval timer to trigger after specified HotInterval
milliseconds and starts collecting further keystrokes in internal hotkey
sequence buffer.
When the hotkey interval timer triggers or the Trailer key is pressed,
the system input capture gets released, and an attempt to execute collected
hotkey action is made. Available hotkey sequence actions are defined by
the configuration files as described above.
[Actions] section of the configuration file contains hotkey sequence
definitions in a form
<key_sequence> = <action_command> ,
one single action definition per text line.
<key_sequence> is a blank separated list of key symbolic names.
See keydefs.ini.default file for details.
<action_command> describes the action to execute on a particular
hotkey sequence.
Currently three type of action supported depending on the first character
of the <action_command> string:
'!' -- shell command. The <action_command> string excluding the leading
'!' is sent to the system shell, exactly as it was typed from
the console.
'@' -- Kindle Framework script. The <action_command> string excluding
the leading '@' is interpreted as a name of a special script
containing command information obeying format of the known hotkeys
package. The main purpose of these scripts is to simplify input of
special symbols into kindle Framework search box
'#' -- Kindle Framework key sequence. Similar to the above, but doesn't
require external script.
all other command strings are interpreted as a sequence of a send_key
commands. The contents of these commands gets interpreted and sent as
a sequence of simulated keystrokes to the input subsystem. Such commands
consist of the space-separated tokens, which can be symbolic key names
and/or ascii strings enclosed in quotes (")
Note: to correctly accept kindle key sequence starting with a special
symbol, the Framework search box should be brought up, if not
already. Press the 'Del' key on Kindle in order to bring the
search box up
Input key code definitions are hardcoded and cover the input capabilities of
Kindle DX Graphite and Kindle3 models.
There is a way to redefine these definitions at a startup by providing custom
keydefs.ini configuration file. See keydefs.ini.default example for details.
Fresh launchpad installation contains some useful hotkey sequences defined
by default. These definitions are listed below.
Note: the leading Shift introducer key is shown for convienience, it is not
a part of the hot section definitions found in .ini files:
FBReader group (fbreader.ini):
Shift F B -- run FBReader
Shift F R -- run the fbKindle port of FBReader.
Service commands group (servicecmds.ini):
Shift Shift Space -- reread hotkey sequence database
used in order to reinitialize hotkey sequence database without
restart. Launchpad home directory is re-scanned and all .ini files
found are re-interpreted. launchpad.log file containing minimal
diagnostics along with the list of actual hotkey sequence definitions
is created
Shift Shift I -- install custom updates
can be used as an alternative for the 'hack installation' technique.
This hotkey sequence runs the(provided) customupdate.sh shell script
which, in turns, scans the customupdates directory and, if
found, unpacks all .zip , .tar.gz and .tgz archives to kindle user root
[/mnt/us/] directory. Then all customupdates/*.sh shell scripts are executed.
Archives and scripts within a group are processed in alphabetical order.
Successfully processed archives and/or installation scripts are deleted
from customupdates directory. Processing failure, if happens, stops
execution of this action.
Shift Shift S -- Sleep/show screensaver
Note: the complementary Wakeup hotkey sequence cannot be implemented,
because the keyboard gets blocked in a sleep mode.
Shift Shift A -- restart Amazon Kindle framework
Shift Shift C -- kick/continue mistakenly stopped Amazon Kindle framework
this is related to fbKindle operation. Hopefully will not be needed
in a nearest future
Shift Shift R -- Reboot
Shift Shift H -- Shutdown
(starting from version 0.0.1b):
Shift Shift Shift -- takes a screenshot and saves it as screenshot.bmp
in the root user folder
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/*
* Copyright (C) 2010 Andy M. aka h1uke h1ukeguy @ gmail.com
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
* the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
* (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
*/
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