App is perfection

Originally posted by: garrattg

I read read this. I meant to say, that if I held shift or command, it would allow standard THREE finger gestures (essentially disabling the standard middle drag), not four fingers like I said before. This would then allow four types of THREE finger drags, up, down, left, right... These could be tied to short cuts...

I could then bring back three finger swipe to switch spaces (holding shift or command), which I can't use right now.

Sorry for the confusion.

Originally posted by: garrattg

So I managed to figure out a way to do this but its not for the faint hearted, which if you could get this built-in, it would easier for users. So what I did is make a hammerspoon INI that uses function. I then used better touch tool to create a 3 finger swipe, when FN is held down. Works pretty good, so what it does is shut down middle drag when holding fn, and when i let go it relaunches it. Crude but effective.

-- =========================================
-- MiddleDrag clutch using Fn modifier flag
-- Hold Fn => MiddleDrag OFF (quit)
-- Release Fn => MiddleDrag ON (relaunch)
-- =========================================

local appName = "MiddleDrag"

local fnDown = false
local wasRunning = false

local function isRunning()
return hs.application.get(appName) ~= nil
end

local function quitApp()
local app = hs.application.get(appName)
if app then
print("[MiddleDrag] quitting…")
app:kill()
return true
else
print("[MiddleDrag] not running")
return false
end
end

local function launchApp()
print("[MiddleDrag] launching…")
hs.application.launchOrFocus(appName)
return true
end

-- Console helpers
_G.quitMiddleDrag = quitApp
_G.launchMiddleDrag = launchApp

-- Fn clutch watcher (flagsChanged)
if _G.fnClutchTap then _G.fnClutchTap:stop() end

_G.fnClutchTap = hs.eventtap.new({hs.eventtap.event.types.flagsChanged}, function(e)
local f = e:getFlags()
local nowFn = f.fn == true

-- Fn pressed
if nowFn and not fnDown then
fnDown = true
wasRunning = isRunning()
print("[FnClutch] DOWN | MiddleDrag running =", wasRunning)

if wasRunning then
  quitApp()
  hs.alert.show("MiddleDrag OFF (Fn held)")
end

end

-- Fn released
if (not nowFn) and fnDown then
fnDown = false
print("[FnClutch] UP")

if wasRunning then
  hs.timer.doAfter(0.05, function()
    launchApp()
    hs.alert.show("MiddleDrag ON")
  end)
  wasRunning = false
end

end

return false
end)

_G.fnClutchTap:start()

hs.alert.show("Loaded ✅ Fn clutch for MiddleDrag (flags.fn)")
print("Loaded ✅ Fn clutch for MiddleDrag (flags.fn)")
print("Console tests: quitMiddleDrag(), launchMiddleDrag()")