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Comment by modernerd | Hacker News Reader

AutoHotKey (in addition to WSL and VS Code) was enough to make me Windows-curious and eventually try a Windows laptop again after 10+ years on Mac.

I first found out about AHK via Tom Scott's similar ode here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U

He describes it as “a bodge that helps you make other bodges”, which is beautifully put.

[For those outside the UK, a “bodge” is a clumsy hack or repair.]

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The odd thing about that video is that Tom claims he uses Windows because 1) it is cheaper, and 2) it allows him to "bodge" (aka create quick hacks). And he explicitly dismissed Linux.

But his example, creating an emoji keyboard, would be far easier with Linux. And Linux is cheaper (in terms of money, not necessarily time). Someone in the YouTube comments actually posted how to do it in Linux, which is basically:

    xinput list
    xkbcomp $DISPLAY mapping.xkb
    vim mapping.xkb
    xkbcomp -i <id from xinput> mapping.xkb $DISPLAY

I saw this video last week and it reminded me of an AHK tool I wrote years ago to work around some ERP flaws, can't really say more.....

The video also reminded me to let some of the young guns in my team into the AHK secret

The American version of "bodge" is the similar "kludge". And yes, AHK is a kludge that makes kludges. Kludges are wonderful.

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