Octamed experts: can it be customized to be used via joystick?

[superfrog76]

I would like to "automate" Octamed as I would like to run it on a emulated device while on the go. As I do not have a mouse on the emulated device, I was hoping I can assign controls to the joystick.
Is that even an option? I can write scripts in shell if that is something that can run in the background and redirect controls to the joystick. Thanks

[amigakit]

Hello

We have the source code to OctaMED and currently enhancing the latest version 8.

What did you have in mind specifically and we can see if this can be implemented

Thanks

[polyp2000]

Isnt this the purpose of AREXX ? and IIRC Octamed has AREXX support ?

[polyp2000]

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/octamed-technique-arexx

[superfrog76]

Awesome! I was not aware that the source was available for changes.
The idea is to make the interface driven by joystick instead of mouse and keyboard; so if you are using something like a portable console, like a gameboy, you can use Octamed just by using the joypad and the buttons.

I tried with mouse emulation but it is not exactly simple to do, and workflow really get affected. Hope this is possible to consider, otherwise I will check Arexx

[Jope]

That's a huge ask. The joystick + four buttons paradigm for controlling LSDj and similar Gameboy trackers would require a complete rewrite of the UI in Octamed.

Currently Octamed SS is based on the Amiga's Intuition UI libraries. Intuition does a lot of the heavy lifting for dialog boxes, menus and so on, and Intuition expects the user to have a full keyboard and mouse.

Octamed 5 or Protracker 2.3 would be likely easier to adapt for joystick input due to them having a fully custom non-intuition UI, but even those would require massive changes.

[superfrog76]

Agree, that's why I was wondering how feasible it is to do an add-on in the app versus just add automation.

Problem is, I doubt that Intuition has anything remotely close to an automation API for remote clicking and simulating keyboard and mouse events, so getting the movements translated is mostly a lost cause without putting in a ton of efforts.
The amiga was not made for this purpose in the end, unless you write the interface from scratch to use just the joystick; it is understandable. And nobody would ever imagine that one day you would have the need to use a tracker via a joystick

[Minuous]

Fake input events could be generated as required, so certainly it is something that is supported by the OS.

[ncafferkey]

JoyRide (see Aminet) could be part of the solution. IIRC it generates input events for joystick input, and maybe they could be remapped to existing or new keyboard shortcuts. That would be enough to assign specific actions to joystick buttons and directions, or do you want to navigate around the UI with the joystick?