Use of Orthogonal Design in Keyboard Maestro

Questions & Suggestions
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Sure. The way I am using it (and it may be my maths background) is that (in theory) each part of Keyboard Maestro is designed to do something that behaves in a different direction to each other. But not just somewhat different. At right angles (hence the term orthogonal). That is, each part should do what it does, and nothing of what something else does.

So this is an example of two ways of make available the functionality of "Type 'x' five times":

  • Have an action that types a key, and an option in it to repeat the key multiple times.

or

  • Have an action that types a key
  • Have an action that repeats other actions

The first action does nothing about repeating, and the second action does nothing about typing.

This is one of the guiding principles of Keyboard Maestro. It does not apply just to actions, but to everything.

  • Macro Groups control when macros are active - macros have no configuration for when they are active.
  • The Engine does that actions, the Editor does the macro editing.
  • Triggers control what is required to fire a macro, but they don't affect the actions that happen afterwards, or control when the macro is active.
  • Functions and Tokens can be used in all sorts of actions, but don't depend on the action they are in.

And so on.

Now, anyone will see that this principle is not applied absolutely in all ways.

  • Insert Text by Typing and Type a Keystroke overlap in functionality.
  • The Activate Application action has extra functionality for hiding or quitting an application.
  • Macros can be disabled.
  • The engine can disable macros.
  • Insert Text’s behaviour can depends on the Typed String trigger.
  • Some functions are context sensitive, based on the action that contains them.

And so on.

But the principle applies generally. This allows me to add new things that are orthogonal to all others, that lets me add power that becomes available without adding complexity when learning.

So the principle is an important part of keeping the complexity level of Keyboard Maestro at a minimum while adding an ever increasing amount of available power.

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