Why is the order relevant when pressing keys down for a key sequence?

So, I've been messing around with the key sequence in BetterTouchTool. I've been making chords (A series of letters when released it creates a word), but the issue is when the key is pressed down the order matters. So if I am pressing b and c to create the word "because," it matters whether I pressed b or c first. This is hassle, because I am not trying to press b and c in order. Is there a way to make the order not important?

So, you expand "bc" to because? If you also want to have "cb" as an abbreviation, then set up a second key sequence.

Ya, that's works, but it gets really complicated when it comes to chords with more than 2 letters. for example if i press "thi" for this, I will need 6 inputs to make it work. It's a very long process, so I want to know if there is an easier way.

Currently there is no other way.

Problem with key sequences is that they need to be fast as they are always monitoring input. If they would cause any input lag, they would be unusable.
The current algorithm is pretty fast, and can run on every keypress without issues. That's partly because of this limitation - it can just discard any events if the order of down keys is not matched.

So e.g. if you type abc and your key sequence is bca, BTT can stop evaluating on your first key press. However if the order of the down keys would not be relevant, it would need to check many things on every key press, increasing the complexity a lot.

To be honest, I've never heard of anyone wanting multiple abbreviations for the same word. Can you explain why you need that? Maybe you can achieve this in another way.

Alright, that kind of makes sense. I don't understand it completely as I don't fully understand what happens behind the scenes, but thanks for letting me know why you can't implement this in the system.

Maybe I can make it an option in the future, with a warning about reduced performance.

So when you "chord" letters (the process of pressing multiple keys at once to output a word), you don't pay attention to the order of what you press because the word outputs when you let go of the letters. So for "b" and "c" turning into the word "because", I don't care whether I press b or c first. I just press both them around the same time, and when I let go, the word because prints. I could make it work like a text expander though by making the phrase "bc" turn into because, but is a little faster and nicer imo.

That sounds great! It's crazy how many updates you manage to put out there to keep the customers happy. Keep up the good work!

Mm, I really write a lot, but do not understand the benefit yet. But would like to understand :slightly_smiling_face: To stay with your example, how do you press "b" and "c" at the same time? With both hands?

ya with two hands. or two fingers depending on what letters you are pressing. If you search up how stenography works(the language that court reporters use to type at conversational speeds), I think that would help.

Ok, stenography, court reporters, it's about speed ... by the way, i am a reporter. I don't want to give you useless suggestions. But what about short/long press? eg long press "b" and "c" both could type "because". And long press is just a blink longer than short press. Probably faster than typing two or even more keys.

Could you explain that a bit more? What do you mean a long press? Is there a setting for that?

Yes, this is a feature of BTT. Any letter can type short press (normal press) this letter, but long press do something completely different, eg write a whole word or a whole sentence, or open an app, a web page or what you want.

Is there a way to enable that? I just put in my key sequence as a short cut. Is that long press?

Look here :slightly_smiling_face:

genuine question , why not use macOS own shortcuts instead ?

settings/keyboard/text replacement

that seems like an idea, but idk. It doesn't seem to "chord", but instead it takes a few letters typed to output a word. Chording means you press two or more letters at the same time to output a word. this is quite a bit faster than typing, so I don't think macOS shortcuts work.

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