catching ctrl+key combination

maurice_chevalier has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

hail thee, monks.
platform is windows with active perl.
what i'd like to do is the following:
main part will be a perl tray-application sitting there waiting.
whenever a user marks something in another application and presses a ctrl+key combination ( i.e. "ctrl+a+b" )
i'd like to pass the marked string to the tray app for further computings.
question is how to "catch" the ctrl+key combination and how to reference the marked text ?
any tips greatly appreciated.

Comment on catching ctrl+key combination

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Re: catching ctrl+key combination (hotkey) by Anonymous Monk on Jul 30, 2013 at 08:24 UTC
any tips greatly appreciated. Seek answers on MSDN, MSDN is the source of all win32 wisdom; autoit is also a source of win32 wisdom, especially this kind. Also, see killkeys it catches keys, its open source OTOH, global keyboard shortcuts aka hotkeys is a very old windows feature, so just use that hotkey,hotkey -> Win32::GlobalHotkey, Windows Hotkey, Perl Hotkey/Shortcut, Continueing the Quest to get RegisterHotKey to work!	[reply]
Re: catching ctrl+key combination by samwyse (Scribe) on Jul 30, 2013 at 18:19 UTC
Skip Perl, use AutoHotKey instead. To quote their home page: AutoHotkey is a free, open-source utility for Windows. With it, you can: Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder. Create hotkeys for keyboard, joystick, and mouse. Virtually any key, button, or combination can become a hotkey. [and a lot more that isn't relevant to your needs] The only "problem" is that it's syntax is like nothing you've ever seen. OTOH, (a) you can launch external programs, such as Perl scripts, without much effort, and (b) there's a forum that's always willing to help.	[reply]
Re^2: catching ctrl+key combination by SuicideJunkie (Vicar) on Jul 30, 2013 at 18:30 UTC
I'll second that. AHK is specifically targeted for the OP use case. You can do the key monitoring, the selection grab and the pass-on-to-perl script in about one line each. The syntax and commands are certainly unique, so you'll want to have the AHK help file open at all times.	[reply]