How to fire a hotkey when a key is pressed rather than when it is released without exposing its native function? - autohotkey

Question

What I want is to simply use the XButton1 and XButton2 of my mouse as WheelRight and WheelLeft. I initially did this using:
XButton1::WheelRight
XButton2::WheelLeft
But, I was not satisfied with this because each time I would press the XButton, it would scroll only once and that too only when the key was released. So I came up with this:
~XButton2::
Send {WheelLeft}
Sleep, 500
while GetKeyState("XButton2")
{
Send {WheelLeft}
Sleep, 50
}
return
Similar code can be written for XButton1. This works nicely, but the only issue is that the '~' exposes the native function of the XButton2 (which is 'Forward'), which I do not want. (It is fired when the key is released.) I tried to disable the key from within the mouse software but that just caused the hotkey to stop working completely.
Now, I do know that a simple workaround for this would be to map the XButtons to some rarely used keys like RShift and RCtrl, but what I want is a more elegant and direct solution to this problem. Mapping them to keys on the number pad is not an option for me either since I have uses for it, and I'd rather not have keys on my keyboard locked up solely for this.
Edit:
I realized that the code I wrote initially did not work as the code I wrote later on because I had other hotkeys written for XButton1 and XButton2 such as:
XButton2 & WheelUp::
Send {Volume_Up}
return
When I removed these, the initial code worked as I wanted. I was able to come up with a workaround to keep all of my hotkeys by assigning F13 to XButton1 and F14 to XButton2 since these keys don't even exist on my keyboard. I am still leaving this question open though since I haven't gotten the answer I wanted originally. (The logic is that someone in the future may answer which could help out other people later on who unlike me are unable to find any workaround.)

Answer 1

You can use the up and down events and a timer, for example:
*XButton1::SetTimer, WheelRight, 100
*XButton2::SetTimer, WheelLeft, 100
*XButton1 Up::SetTimer, WheelRight, Off
*XButton2 Up::SetTimer, WheelLeft, Off
WheelRight()
{
SendInput, {Blind}{WheelRight}
}
WheelLeft()
{
SendInput, {Blind}{WheelLeft}
}
Or maybe a cleaner version:
;In the auto execute section
WheelLeft := Func("ScrollWheel").Bind("Left")
WheelRight := Func("ScrollWheel").Bind("Right")
;...
*XButton1::SetTimer, % WheelRight, 100
*XButton2::SetTimer, % WheelLeft, 100
*XButton1 Up::SetTimer, % WheelRight, Off
*XButton2 Up::SetTimer, % WheelLeft, Off
ScrollWheel(direction)
{
SendInput, % "{Blind}{Wheel" direction "}"
}
*(docs) is used so you can also hold down modifiers while using the key, and the blind sendmode is used so the send command doesn't remove the modifiers.
Adjust the timer's delay to scroll faster or slower.