iSwitchw - cosmetically enhanced edition - Scripts and Functions

Hi all,

Below is a version of keyboardfreak's popular Incrementally Switch Windows script, with some minor code changes (clearly marked in the script) which lead to some major changes in appearance.

* Window has no border
* Font is much larger
* Window is semi-transparent
* No textbox
* No text labels
* No title bar
* See only what you need

I am posting it here because the original thread is huge already, and because this is actually a sub-version and not the original

Screenshot (Google in the background):

; 
; iswitchw - Incrementally switch between windows using substrings
;
; [MODIFIED by ezuk, 3 July 2008, changes noted below. Cosmetics only.] 
; 
; Required AutoHotkey version: 1.0.25+ 
; 
; When this script is triggered via its hotkey the list of titles of 
; all visible windows appears. The list can be narrowed quickly to a 
; particular window by typing a substring of a window title. 
; 
; When the list is narrowed the desired window can be selected using 
; the cursor keys and Enter. If the substring matches exactly one 
; window that window is activated immediately (configurable, see the 
; "autoactivateifonlyone" variable). 
; 
; The window selection can be cancelled with Esc. 
; 
; The switcher window can be moved horizontally with the left/right 
; arrow keys if it blocks the view of windows under it. 
; 
; The switcher can also be operated with the mouse, although it is 
; meant to be used from the keyboard. A mouse click activates the 
; currently selected window. Mouse users may want to change the 
; activation key to one of the mouse keys. 
; 
; If enabled possible completions are offered when the same unique 
; substring is found in the title of more than one window. 
; 
; For example, the user typed the string "co" and the list is 
; narrowed to two windows: "Windows Commander" and "Command Prompt". 
; In this case the "command" substring can be completed automatically, 
; so the script offers this completion in square brackets which the 
; user can accept with the TAB key: 
; 
;     co[mmand] 
; 
; This feature can be confusing for novice users, so it is disabled 
; by default. 
; 
; 
; For the idea of this script the credit goes to the creators of the 
; iswitchb package for the Emacs editor 
; 
; 
;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; User configuration 
; 

; set this to yes if you want to select the only matching window 
; automatically 
autoactivateifonlyone = 

; set this to yes if you want to enable tab completion (see above) 
; it has no effect if firstlettermatch (see below) is enabled 
tabcompletion = 

; set this to yes to enable digit shortcuts when there are ten or 
; less items in the list 
digitshortcuts = 

; set this to yes to enable first letter match mode where the typed 
; search string must match the first letter of words in the 
; window title (only alphanumeric characters are taken into account) 
; 
; For example, the search string "ad" matches both of these titles: 
; 
;  AutoHotkey - Documentation 
;  Anne's Diary 
; 
firstlettermatch = 

; set this to yes to enable activating the currently selected 
; window in the background 
activateselectioninbg =  

; number of milliseconds to wait for the user become idle, before 
; activating the currently selected window in the background 
; 
; it has no effect if activateselectioninbg is off 
; 
; if set to blank the current selection is activated immediately 
; without delay 
bgactivationdelay = 300 

; show process name before window title. 
showprocessname = 

; Close switcher window if the user activates an other window. 
; It does not work well if activateselectioninbg is enabled, so 
; currently they cannot be enabled together. 
closeifinactivated = 

if activateselectioninbg <> 
    if closeifinactivated <> 
    { 
        msgbox, activateselectioninbg and closeifinactivated cannot be enabled together 
        exitapp 
    } 

; List of subtsrings separated with pipe (|) characters (e.g. carpe|diem). 
; Window titles containing any of the listed substrings are filtered out 
; from the list of windows. 
filterlist = asticky|blackbox

; Set this yes to update the list of windows every time the contents of the 
; listbox is updated. This is usually not necessary and it is an overhead which 
; slows down the update of the listbox, so this feature is disabled by default. 
dynamicwindowlist = 

; path to sound file played when the user types a substring which 
; does not match any of the windows 
; 
; set this to blank if you don't want a sound 
; 
nomatchsound = %windir%\Media\ding.wav 

if nomatchsound <> 
    ifnotexist, %nomatchsound% 
        msgbox, Sound file %nomatchsound% not found. No sound will be played. 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Global variables 
; 
;     numallwin      - the number of windows on the desktop 
;     allwinarray    - array containing the titles of windows on the desktop 
;                      dynamicwindowlist is disabled 
;     allwinidarray  - window ids corresponding to the titles in allwinarray 
;     numwin         - the number of windows in the listbox 
;     idarray        - array containing window ids for the listbox items 
;     orig_active_id - the window ID of the originally active window 
;                      (when the switcher is activated) 
;     prev_active_id - the window ID of the last window activated in the 
;                      background (only if activateselectioninbg is enabled) 
;     switcher_id    - the window ID of the switcher window 
;     filters        - array of filters for filtering out titles 
;                      from the window list 
; 
;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

AutoTrim, off 

;this section modified by ezuk, 03 July 2008
Gui, +LastFound +AlwaysOnTop -Caption   
Gui, Color, black,black
WinSet, Transparent, 180
Gui,Font,s30 cYellow bold,Calibri
Gui, Add, ListBox, vindex gListBoxClick x-2 y-2 w810 h602 AltSubmit -VScroll
;end of modifications by ezuk

if filterlist <> 
{ 
    loop, parse, filterlist, | 
    { 
        filters%a_index% = %A_LoopField% 
    } 
} 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; I never use the CapsLock key, that's why I chose it. 
; 
CapsLock:: 

search = 
numallwin = 0 
GuiControl,, Edit1 
GoSub, RefreshWindowList 

WinGet, orig_active_id, ID, A 
prev_active_id = %orig_active_id% 

Gui, Show, Center h600 w800, Window Switcher 
; If we determine the ID of the switcher window here then 
; why doesn't it appear in the window list when the script is 
; run the first time? (Note that RefreshWindowList has already 
; been called above). 
; Answer: Because when this code runs first the switcher window 
; does not exist yet when RefreshWindowList is called. 
WinGet, switcher_id, ID, A 
WinSet, AlwaysOnTop, On, ahk_id %switcher_id% 

Loop 
{ 
    if closeifinactivated <> 
        settimer, CloseIfInactive, 200 

    Input, input, L1, {enter}{esc}{backspace}{up}{down}{pgup}{pgdn}{tab}{left}{right} 

    if closeifinactivated <> 
        settimer, CloseIfInactive, off 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:enter 
    { 
        GoSub, ActivateWindow 
        break 
    } 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:escape 
    { 
        Gui, cancel 

        ; restore the originally active window if 
        ; activateselectioninbg is enabled 
        if activateselectioninbg <> 
            WinActivate, ahk_id %orig_active_id% 

        break 
    } 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:backspace 
    { 
        GoSub, DeleteSearchChar 
        continue 
    } 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:tab 
        if completion = 
            continue 
        else 
            input = %completion% 

    ; pass these keys to the selector window 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:up 
    { 
        Send, {up} 
        GoSuB ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled 
        continue 
    } 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:down 
    { 
        Send, {down} 
        GoSuB ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled 
        continue 
    } 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:pgup 
    { 
        Send, {pgup} 

        GoSuB ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled 
        continue 
    } 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:pgdn 
    { 
        Send, {pgdn} 
        GoSuB ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled 
        continue 
    } 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:left 
    { 
        direction = -1 
        GoSuB MoveSwitcher 
        continue 
    } 

    if ErrorLevel = EndKey:right 
    { 
        direction = 1 
        GoSuB MoveSwitcher 
        continue 
    } 

    ; FIXME: probably other error level cases 
    ; should be handled here (interruption?) 

    ; invoke digit shortcuts if applicable 
    if digitshortcuts <> 
        if numwin <= 10 
            if input in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 
            { 
                if input = 0 
                    input = 10 

                if numwin < %input% 
                { 
                    if nomatchsound <> 
                        SoundPlay, %nomatchsound% 
                    continue 
                } 

                GuiControl, choose, ListBox1, %input% 
                GoSub, ActivateWindow 
                break 
            } 

    ; process typed character 

    search = %search%%input% 
    GuiControl,, Edit1, %search% 
    GoSub, RefreshWindowList 
} 

Gosub, CleanExit 

return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Refresh the list of windows according to the search criteria 
; 
; Sets: numwin  - see the documentation of global variables 
;       idarray - see the documentation of global variables 
; 
RefreshWindowList: 
    ; refresh the list of windows if necessary 

    if ( dynamicwindowlist = "yes" or numallwin = 0 ) 
    { 
        numallwin = 0 

        WinGet, id, list, , , Program Manager 
        Loop, %id% 
        { 
            StringTrimRight, this_id, id%a_index%, 0 
            WinGetTitle, title, ahk_id %this_id% 

            ; FIXME: windows with empty titles? 
            if title = 
                continue 

            ; don't add the switcher window 
            if switcher_id = %this_id% 
                continue 

            ; show process name if enabled 
            if showprocessname <> 
            { 
                WinGet, procname, ProcessName, ahk_id %this_id% 

                stringgetpos, pos, procname, . 
                if ErrorLevel <> 1 
                { 
                    stringleft, procname, procname, %pos% 
                } 

                stringupper, procname, procname 
                title = %procname%: %title% 
            } 

            ; don't add titles which match any of the filters 
            if filterlist <> 
            { 
                filtered = 

                loop 
                { 
                    stringtrimright, filter, filters%a_index%, 0 
                    if filter = 
                      break 
                    else 
                        ifinstring, title, %filter% 
                        { 
                           filtered = yes 
                           break 
                        } 
                } 

                if filtered = yes 
                    continue 
            } 

            ; replace pipe (|) characters in the window title, 
            ; because Gui Add uses it for separating listbox items 
            StringReplace, title, title, |, -, all 

            numallwin += 1 
            allwinarray%numallwin% = %title% 
            allwinidarray%numallwin% = %this_id% 
        } 
    } 

    ; filter the window list according to the search criteria 

    winlist = 
    numwin = 0 

    Loop, %numallwin% 
    { 
        StringTrimRight, title, allwinarray%a_index%, 0 
        StringTrimRight, this_id, allwinidarray%a_index%, 0 

        ; don't add the windows not matching the search string 
        ; if there is a search string 
        if search <> 
            if firstlettermatch = 
            { 
                if title not contains %search%, 
                    continue 
            } 
            else 
            { 
                stringlen, search_len, search 

                index = 1 
                match = 

                loop, parse, title, %A_Space% 
                {                    
                    stringleft, first_letter, A_LoopField, 1 

                    ; only words beginning with an alphanumeric 
                    ; character are taken into account 
                    if first_letter not in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z 
                        continue 

                    stringmid, search_char, search, %index%, 1 

                    if first_letter <> %search_char% 
                        break 

                    index += 1 

                    ; no more search characters 
                    if index > %search_len% 
                    { 
                        match = yes 
                        break 
                    } 
                } 

                if match = 
                    continue    ; no match 
            } 

        if winlist <> 
            winlist = %winlist%| 
        winlist = %winlist%%title%`r%this_id% 

        numwin += 1 
        winarray%numwin% = %title% 
    } 

    ; if the pattern didn't match any window 
    if numwin = 0 
        ; if the search string is empty then we can't do much 
        if search = 
        { 
            Gui, cancel 
            Gosub, CleanExit 
        } 
        ; delete the last character 
        else 
        { 
            if nomatchsound <> 
                SoundPlay, %nomatchsound% 

            GoSub, DeleteSearchChar 
            return 
        } 

    ; sort the list alphabetically 
    Sort, winlist, D| 

    ; add digit shortcuts if there are ten or less windows 
    ; in the list and digit shortcuts are enabled 
    if digitshortcuts <> 
        if numwin <= 10 
        { 
            digitlist = 
            digit = 1 
            loop, parse, winlist, | 
            { 
                ; FIXME: windows with empty title? 
                if A_LoopField <> 
                { 
                    if digitlist <> 
                        digitlist = %digitlist%| 
                    digitlist = %digitlist%%digit%%A_Space%%A_Space%%A_Space%%A_LoopField% 

                    digit += 1 
                    if digit = 10 
                        digit = 0 
                } 
            } 
            winlist = %digitlist% 
        } 

    ; strip window IDs from the sorted list 
    titlelist = 
    arrayindex = 1 

    loop, parse, winlist, | 
    { 
        stringgetpos, pos, A_LoopField, `r 

        stringleft, title, A_LoopField, %pos% 
        titlelist = %titlelist%|%title% 

        pos += 2 ; skip the separator char 
        stringmid, id, A_LoopField, %pos%, 10000 
        idarray%arrayindex% = %id% 
        ++arrayindex 
    } 

    ; show the list 
    GuiControl,, ListBox1, %titlelist% 
    GuiControl, Choose, ListBox1, 1 

    if numwin = 1 
        if autoactivateifonlyone <> 
        { 
            GoSub, ActivateWindow 
            Gosub, CleanExit 
        } 

    GoSub ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled 

    completion = 

    if tabcompletion = 
        return 

    ; completion is not implemented for first letter match mode 
    if firstlettermatch <> 
        return 

    ; determine possible completion if there is 
    ; a search string and there are more than one 
    ; window in the list 

    if search = 
        return 
    
    if numwin = 1 
        return 

    loop 
    { 
        nextchar = 

        loop, %numwin% 
        { 
            stringtrimleft, title, winarray%a_index%, 0 

            if nextchar = 
            { 
                substr = %search%%completion% 
                stringlen, substr_len, substr 
                stringgetpos, pos, title, %substr% 

                if pos = -1 
                    break 

                pos += %substr_len% 

                ; if the substring matches the end of the 
                ; string then no more characters can be completed 
                stringlen, title_len, title 
                if pos >= %title_len% 
                { 
                    pos = -1 
                    break 
                } 

                ; stringmid has different position semantics 
                ; than stringgetpos. strange... 
                pos += 1 
                stringmid, nextchar, title, %pos%, 1 
                substr = %substr%%nextchar% 
             } 
             else 
             { 
                stringgetpos, pos, title, %substr% 
                if pos = -1 
                    break 
             } 
        } 

        if pos = -1 
            break 
        else 
            completion = %completion%%nextchar% 
    } 

    if completion <> 
        GuiControl,, Edit1, %search%[%completion%] 

return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Delete last search char and update the window list 
; 
DeleteSearchChar: 

if search = 
    return 

StringTrimRight, search, search, 1 
GuiControl,, Edit1, %search% 
GoSub, RefreshWindowList 

return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Activate selected window 
; 
ActivateWindow: 

Gui, submit 
stringtrimleft, window_id, idarray%index%, 0 
WinActivate, ahk_id %window_id% 

return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Activate selected window in the background 
; 
ActivateWindowInBackground: 

guicontrolget, index,, ListBox1 
stringtrimleft, window_id, idarray%index%, 0 

if prev_active_id <> %window_id% 
{ 
    WinActivate, ahk_id %window_id% 
    WinActivate, ahk_id %switcher_id% 
    prev_active_id = %window_id% 
} 

return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Activate selected window in the background if the option is enabled. 
; If an activation delay is set then a timer is started instead of 
; activating the window immediately. 
; 
ActivateWindowInBackgroundIfEnabled: 

if activateselectioninbg = 
    return 

; Don't do it just after the switcher is activated. It is confusing 
; if active window is changed immediately. 
WinGet, id, ID, ahk_id %switcher_id% 
if id = 
    return 

if bgactivationdelay = 
    GoSub ActivateWindowInBackground 
else 
    settimer, BgActivationTimer, %bgactivationdelay% 

return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Check if the user is idle and if so activate the currently selected 
; window in the background 
; 
BgActivationTimer: 

settimer, BgActivationTimer, off 

GoSub ActivateWindowInBackground 

return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Stop background window activation timer if necessary and exit 
; 
CleanExit: 

settimer, BgActivationTimer, off 

exit 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Cancel keyboard input if GUI is closed. 
; 
GuiClose: 

send, {esc} 

return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Handle mouse click events on the list box 
; 
ListBoxClick: 
if (A_GuiControlEvent = "Normal"
    and !GetKeyState("Down", "P") and !GetKeyState("Up", "P"))
    send, {enter} 
return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Move switcher window horizontally 
; 
; Input: direction - 1 for right, -1 for left 
; 
MoveSwitcher: 

direction *= 100 
WinGetPos, x, y, width, , ahk_id %switcher_id% 
x += %direction% 

if x < 0 
    x = 0 
else 
{ 
   SysGet screensize, MonitorWorkArea 
   screensizeRight -= %width% 
   if x > %screensizeRight% 
      x = %screensizeRight% 
} 

prevdelay = %A_WinDelay% 
SetWinDelay, -1 
WinMove, ahk_id %switcher_id%, , %x%, %y% 
SetWinDelay, %prevdelay% 

return 

;---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
; 
; Close the switcher window if the user activated an other window 
; 
CloseIfInactive: 

ifwinnotactive, ahk_id %switcher_id% 
    send, {esc} 

return
May i ask you what other solution for windowswitching you are using today?
I usually run a limited set of applications (browser, editor, total commander, consoles, etc), so I've dedicated my numeric keypad to application switching.

This way I can switch to any application by pressing a single key assigned to it (e.g. numpad up activates total commander). Pressing an activation key more than once toggles between the different instances of the same application (usually consoles) using GroupActivate.

The iswitchw script is useful if one runs dozens of applications at a time. I usually run less than 10, so for me it's an overkill.

Now I can switch to any of my running applications by pressing a single key, instead of pressing capslock, typing several characters, and pressing Enter. It's much more convenient and faster too.
iSwitchw - cosmetically enhanced edition

Sign In
