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The Command Launcher Part 1

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Trevor Williams edited this page Apr 26, 2020 · 1 revision

Do you consider yourself a keyboard-savvy power user but dislike remembering the dizzying array of keyboard shortcuts? Or perhaps you just want to get more functionality out of TKE? If so, then the command launcher will soon become your favorite go to tool within TKE. It works a lot like system-wide application launchers such as Spotlight, Alfred, Quicksilver, Gnome DO, KRunner, Ubuntu HUD and the like, but on TKE-specific functionality.

The application features that the command launcher can access are the following:

  • Run menu accessible commands
  • Install and uninstall plugins
  • Run plugin commands
  • Open favorited and recently opened files/directories
  • Open, switch and delete sessions
  • Change language syntax
  • Change theme
  • Jump to a symbol (like jumping to a specific procedure in a Tcl file, for example)
  • Jump to a marker
  • Access clipboard history
  • Access snippets
  • Perform calculations
  • Launch/bookmark URLs in your default web browser
  • Launch/bookmark system available URIs

Using the Interface

The command launcher can be invoked using the Tools / Launcher menu option or the (default) keyboard shortcut "Control-Space". This will display the command launcher interface which looks like the following:

Once the command launcher entry field is displayed, executing commands is as simple as entering a portion of the command to execute. As each character is entered, the command launcher will display a list of commands that match the input using a fuzzy match algorithm and sorting the results based on history and quality of match.

The best match will be listed at the top of the resulting dropdown match list and will be selected. Entering the RETURN key at any time will automatically execute the selected item in this list. Use the UP or DOWN keys to select different entries in the match list.

As you can see in the example above, we can quickly find and excute commands using the launcher with only a few keystrokes without requiring the use of the mouse. However, you can use the mouse to select an item in the match list left-clicking the item. The selection will follow the position of the mouse cursor.

Entering the ESCAPE key at any time will dismiss the command launcher UI.

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