[python-win32] Help on using win32api.SendMessage to send keystrokes

[Tim Roberts]

Daniel F wrote:

>How about getkeyboardstate/setkeyboardstate functions, put together
>with attachthreadinput? would that be on the keyboard driver level,
>above directinput? or still below it, and thus bypassed?
>  
>

Actually, after doing some more reading, there may be a way to do what 
you want with the SendInput API.  I don't see SendInput in any of the 
Win32 wrappers in Python, but you should be able to access it with 
ctypes.  Here's a link to some C# code that demonstrates it:

    http://split-s.blogspot.com/2005/01/emulating-keystrokes-in-windows.html

Note that this wants scan codes, not virtual keys.

>Also... why don't i really want to do the kernel filter drivers? They
>certainly sound like i dont want to do them :) but i wonder why. Too
>involved and painful? Chance to screw up the whole system?
>  
>

The kernel world is a strange and magical one.  The learning curve is 
steep, and the environment is unforgiving.  If you make a mistake in a 
Python app, you get an exception and you try again.  If you make a 
mistake in a kernel driver, you get a bluescreen and you reboot, and you 
hope that the NTFS file system remembered to flush the pending changes 
to disk.

I write drivers for a living.

-- 
- Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.