Making HWKey and HWEncoder functions available in release builds.

Hi all,

first off, apologies if this should be in the LUA plugins subforum, I wasn't sure if any folks from MA/the distributors are lurking around there.

The system_test plugins that can be found distributed with the software indicates an internal HWKey and HWEncoder LUA function that is used in tests to verify the software is working correctly.

This means these functions exist and could be used, if they were not stripped from release builds. In release versions of the software, these functions are nil, and there are even tests that verify that these functions are not included with release builds.

Is there anybody willing to comment on why this feature is intentionally disabled? I'm currently looking for a way to control the MA key from a plugin, and I'm finding it impossible to get it working without this HWKey method.

I'd love if this function could be included in future release builds of the software.

If this isn't possible I'd love to know why it's not possible, or if there is any workaround that would be applicable for my problem.

In any case, thank you to any folks at MA responsible for the huge leap in documentation for the LUA interface we've seen with the last few versions.

Cheers,

Fabian

MA3 ships with some LUA plugins created by MA. Some are intended for users, such as the start show plugin shipped a few versions ago, and others are (presumably) used by MA in their internal QA tests. You can find these plugins in the resources/lib_plugins folder inside the program data directory of the used MA3 software version. One of these plugins, called systemtests (I think, I’m not at a computer right now) has source code that calls a function called HWKey(). This function is used in the LUA plugin that MA3 ships, but if executed in a publicly available build of MA3 this will cause an error, as the environment does not actually ‚define‘ this function.

This is what I mean by stripped out, we can see that this function is used internally at MA, but cannot be used in release versions of the software.

Yes, the functions are used in a way (even documented) that makes it obvious they are used to simulate a keypress. Feel free to have a look, they’re used in systemtests/ui/uitf/system_test_uitf_hw.lua

That does sound promising, if there's a workaround/better option planned for the next versions, that's fantastic!

And, yes, I really was just wondering why MA chooses to strip this API specifically, while leaving other debug APIs such as mouse or keyboard simulation in the final software. It kind of seems like an oversight being unable to press buttons or turn the encoders from a LUA plugin (at least to me), so I was curious if there is something I'm missing here.

Valid point, yeah. I always got the impression that the selling point of getting MA hardware is the parameter unlocking. I think there’s a well established set of macro keyboards and such for MA2 that people use for programming. I really don’t think a Commandwing is intended to compete with an iPad sized macro pad for preprogramming.