Make AHK_L "main" version?

The site design should be independant from decisions of this magnitude

Agreed. While I actually find the new site design quite nice, it should not "come bundled" with such a unpopular decision.

Your comments and feedback are always welcome.

but not your suggestions :lol:

... so I googled "macro recorder" or some such and found AHK. AHK did the job and did it so well that I started looking for other things to do with it ... Now we want more and more capability - which is reasonable - but perhaps we don't remember what it was like on our first day.

Actually, I do remember such things - where I was sitting, what I was thinking. I was in the same boat - just looking for a "macro recorder." I have regularly voiced my opinion that AHK needs to keep this appeal & ease of use:Where did you hear about Autohotkey?
AutoHotkey v2 Alpha Release
AutoHotkey Nova > Project & discussionCurrently I can only see 2 drawbacks to this with the AutoHotkey_L download package:[*:30l46049]There is no macro recording tool/script
[*:30l46049]Scripts need saved as UTF-8Sure, AutoHotkey_L may have advanced features that new users aren't interested in - but then so does AutoHotkey.

EDIT - concerning needing to save as UTF-8, this is not an issue with the installation - as fincs points out in the next post. However, this may still be a source of confusion for those who don't install, but download & use the binary/exe directly - such as in a workplace where you may not be able to install software.

There is no macro recording tool/script

Solution: either bundle the old one or revamp one of the existing ones, such as *cough* polyethene's.

Scripts need saved as UTF-8

Solution: already solved. The default AutoHotkey_L template (right click > New > AutoHotkey Script) already has a UTF-8 BOM and is seamlessly supported by Notepad.

EDIT: more ideas from this thread.

EDIT2: we already have an user bitten by this change.

I haven't posted much here on the forums, but I am an avid user and developer exclusively with AHK. As for basic being the goto link on the main page, I see no issue with. After all, that's how we all got here, and Chris built something really great with it. Not just a scripting language, but a great community with it.

That said, this being such a great and contributing community, many of the people here are extremely talented and have given us improved variants of the language. I don't think that should not be know to new users visiting the site for the first time.

My vote is not worth much, but I would ask to have a link to variations of AHK from the downloads page, even if it only linked to the "Alternative versions and forks of AutoHotkey" sticky. After all, as much work as Chris did and I know we all appreciate it, almost everyone I know personally that uses AHK uses the _L variation for it's enhanced features.

Open message to AutoHotkey Basic users: calm down and do not be afraid of AutoHotkey_L. Using it does not require you to learn about new features such as objects and COM. You can still do things as you used to, with some additional (and optional) bonuses. It's still perfectly marketable as an automation tool with hotkeys.

You realize that in the AHK section, people are answering questions regarding very basic things by using classes and objects and that junk? Now the new guy has to figure out what makes the answer tick or just use it without being able to modify it. This type of thing is silly.

If AHK stayed the same as 'basic' but only got Unicode support and new features (not a language addition such as objects and the likes), it would be outstanding. The new branches really need their own website/forums IMO.

You realize that in the AHK section, people are answering questions regarding very basic things by using classes and objects and that junk? Now the new guy has to figure out what makes the answer tick or just use it without being able to modify it. This type of thing is silly.

Not necessarily. The only automation-related example that comes to mind is IE automation, and this is not that hard to understand:

pwb := ComObjCreate("InternetExplorer.Application")
pwb.Navigate("www.AutoHotkey.com")

The corresponding AHK_Basic+COM.ahk code is longer, more cumbersome to read and more difficult to set up.

@guest

I have actually argued this very point. we shouldnt be suggesting the more advanced answers to every question. However a more complex answer is in fact called for in some cases. Pushing the class/object array syntax is hurtfull to the nooby community. but this is a forum admin issue

@Fincs I certainly hope that kind of example is not the basis of the statement made by guest