Can a Mac be programmed to simulate pressing a key at a certain rate via software?

Question

Is there a way or a 3rd party application which would let me specify, for example, that I want it to send a keyboard event (so that it has the same effect as physically hitting the key on the keyboard) every 5 seconds?

So, for example, I could tell it to hit K every 5 seconds, 15 times in total?

Basically, I'm looking for something like AutoHotkey but for OS X.

Answer 1

Here's an AppleScript to do what you want:

set i to 0
repeat while i < 15
    set i to i + 1
    delay 5
    tell application "System Events" to keystroke "k"
end repeat

You can inline it in a shell script like this:

echo "set i to 0
repeat while i < 15
set i to i + 1
delay 5
tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"k\"
end repeat" | osascript

(Thanks to @houbysoft for the echo "script" | osacript syntax!)

Answer 2

I found a way to do this in a bash script:

#!/bin/sh
# Simulates hitting a key on OS X
# http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/63899/72339

echo "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"$1\"" | osascript

Save as hitkey, chmod +x hitkey, hitkey k to hit K.

From there it's simple to use Automator to loop over the script several times or make an iCal alarm to initiate the script at a specific time.

Answer 3

Here is my type workflow

1. in command line, type Ctrl + x then Ctrl + e to enter Vim and type there.

2. type below ; you see there is no backslash.

     cat << EOF | osascript
     set repeat_number to 5
     set i to 1
     repeat while i <= repeat_number
     tell application "System Events" to keystroke "k"

     display notification "repeat keystroke " & i & "time"
     set i to i + 1
     delay 1
     end repeat
    EOF

3. then save vim and exit command, supposed you know how to out in vim ;)

   • Esc :wq

4. Back to terminal to run typed above.

+++ Oh one more thing.

     cat | osascript
     display alert "typeing like Script Editor, no need to type backslash!"
     display notification "type ctrl + d to end typing and run it."