AutoHotkey Community

Great advice!

It seems some people are bitter that someone would swap from AU3 to AHK. Bitter people usually don't have good weekends.

toralf - thanks for your fair judgement. I never caused any trouble at the AU3 forum. I did allow myself to get into a stupid contest with some unreasonable people. That won't happen again. It was a waste of time and ultimately what led me to start with AHK.

As I look back it actually turned out to be a good thing because now I use AHK.

Thanks again!

Like toralf said, Guest, have a good weekend! I know I will too!

Amen!

yes, Amen and a good night to all of you!

with things going on like this, Chris might be forced to force registration before posting.
and could we stop getting into active ahk/au3 comparison in this forum? ... i'm not trying to be a moderator but this will only lead to flaming.

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Hi Rajat,

This isn't about the two softwares any more. It is about how to treat users in the forum. It's all about respect.
And I hope this is settled now. At least I feel good.

Respect, brothers!

Peace out. :)

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Ciao
toralf

Sorry for getting the thread off subject!

I thought about suggesting no Guest posts but then ppl will just sign up with bogus info.

Again, sorry for getting away from AHK vs AU3.

This forum makes AHK THE product to use.

Here are my opinions.

AHK main advantages over AutoIt

. Slightly easier Syntax overall to understand, and the GUI syntax is much easier and better implemented in AHK.

. Friendlier/nicer Forum support

. Source code is easier to get access to. The AutoIt "developer team" appears to have placed some "restrictions" on getting access to newer source code.


AutoIt advantages over AHK

. Advantage is more and slightly better user created tools like modified SciTe (excellent), AutoMacroGenerator (better than AU3recorder for many tasks), etc... Numerous user created tools are constantly be developed, though there is a lack of direction and questionable usefulness for some of things being developed. Another reason for more AutoIt tools may be because it attracts more people because of the language being better known (the term AutoIt has been around longer) and various power user features.

SmartGui (w/ Gui stealer) on the other hand, is an example of a superior AutoHotKey tool, so the argument about tools or power is not one-sided.

. AutoIt is slightly more advanced in its development (like ActiveX/OLE/COM), but this is often offset by difficult syntax and/or general disrespect and meanness towards users asking questions or for help. This is done by certain hardcore AutoIt users at their forum and appears to be tolerated and/or its effects on new and part-time users not understood.


I think the balance of "power" could change by AutoHotKey integrating with CS-Script. CS-Script is a C# scripting language that can do things like MAKE DLLs or about anything C# can do. I think many users embrace AutoIt for its "power" (which is also why more user tools seem to be made for it), but if AutoIt no longer had this "power" advantage than it would be interesting to see how the scripting/programming languages are viewed.

Perhaps the increased integration of AutoHotKey with CS-Script (C#), will increase the number of developers and user tools made for AutoHotKey. AutoHotKey's advantages, such as easier to understand syntax, ease of use, and more user friendliness would appear to tip more advantages into its favor. Of course there may be other factors at work too, so its hard to say what will happen, but it would be interesting.

I also think that the comparisons between AutoHotKey and AutoIt are unavoidable. The scripting languages are similar to each other, come from a common base, and many people will have tried both of them before choosing a favorite or will switch back and forth between them.

to base the use of an app based on a forum is like being a racist.

one race may have more mean people than others. but that doesn't mean the others don't have any. same goes with forums (or any other grouping of people).

if you're willing to deal with a new learning curve to learn a new app, you can also deal with mean people too. both challenges can provide enrichment in your life. who knows, you could also try to teach those "mean" people to be "nice" instead of just abandoning them and bashing them. or you can pick the lesser useful app, and try to find workarounds or help develop the app to be better. so many ways to look at things...

Racist! Wow that seems like a huge comparison for such a thing. I speak from personal experience: If I can buy my apples from a store that is nicer than the other store...I will drive out of my way to purchase my apples at the nicer store. That is not racist it is the way things are.

We all do that with things we like or don't like. I was not treated well in the "other" forum and can find/do the same thing I was doing with the "other" program so why should I go back?

I don't really need an answer to my question it is just my opinion. I respect your opinion even if I think it is off base.

If you want people to shop at your store you should be nice to them! Otherwise you could find yourself out of business!

Back to the subject.
1.) I have been able to do everything I needed to do with AHK.
2.) My code is shorter than when I was using AU3. Some things just dont take as many lines of code.
3.) The forum is nicer more mature place to be.
4.) Active development. Not saying AU3 is not developing product. Things are comeing in AHK and it seems Chris is willing to listen to suggestions. That gives me the ability to put my two cents in. You can do this in AU3 it just seems to be better in AHK.

Those are my reasons/opinion why AHK is better.

I guess you value service more highly than I do. What do I want from an apple store? I want apples. Do I care if they criticize me? No. Would I drive more and pay more elsewhere to get the same apples? No. Just get me apples. The same goes for applications...I want an application.

You want a friendly environment with your apples and apps? That's fine...that's just an extra requirement for you which may force you to compromise on other things.

I believe price+quality is more important than service. I can deal with mean people. I need the apple to survive...I don't need the service. If I can buy more quality apples with the same money...I'm all for it.

There is no excuse for those people who treat you badly. But there are mean people everywhere...maybe in this forum too. Don't take it personally...it'll get in the way of what you're trying to accomplish. Don't learn to be mean from them by repeating their behavior...and try to teach others to be nice by being nice.

Honestly...I'm just tryin' to help by giving a different perspective. If this all sounds like hogwash, just disregard.

Good points! As I stated I've got it all! Good apples and good service!

Thanks

I think its not just about service or forum support. It just that in addition to the other things that are in favor of AutoHotkey, it also has a good forum.

I also think how the syntax in AutoHotkey has been implemented should not be overlook. AutoHotkey is just about as powerful as AutoIt, but is much easier to learn. The ability to understand and use the scripting language is part of the whole point. Otherwise, why not just learn C++, Java, or whatever.

But, I do have a bit of criticism. I do think that the AutoHotkey help files don't make this advantage of AutoHotkey more easily seen.

For instance:

Gui, Add, Button, default, OK ; The label ButtonOK (if it exists) will be run when the button is pressed.


ButtonOK:
Run, Notepad.exe, C:\My Documents, max

If it was typed that by adding the term "Button" with the label "OK" you get the term ButtonOK. You now can type an "action" underneath the label "ButtonOK:", for instance "Run, Notepad.exe, C:\My Documents, max"

Anyway, these types of things in Autohotkey syntax makes it a wonderful scripting language to work with. I also think that this type of GUI syntax has more of a future, and this will be seen later. Its not just the GUI, but things like easier method to do loops, etc... and other things all through out the syntax of the language.

The only thing that I've seen close to being as easy of a scripting/programming language to AutoHotkey was Leopard, http://www.leopardprogramming.com/ , but it LACKS power and has some issues. After that you might be talking php-gtk ( http://gtk.php.net/ ), Euphoria ( http://www.rapideuphoria.com/ ), or Limnor ( http://www.limnor.com/...arguably the best of the 3 shown). And with those others it depends more on what you are doing ( like making dlls, databases, being on different OSes, etc.. for example ), than on syntax...

Few things can beat AutoHotkey's syntax power, ease, and be truly open source free. So I think the debate is more than just nice people at the forum.

I'd welcome further advice about the documentation because I know there are a places that need improvement (but I'm often blind them due to my perspective).

That quote is from an example script, for which concise comments seem best. The automatic labels for buttons are explained in more detail in the Button section, which states, "If a button lacks an explicit g-label, an automatic label is assumed. For example, if the first GUI window contains an OK button, the ButtonOK label (if it exists) will be launched when the button is pressed."

Maybe it could be clarified further, such as making "label" a link to a section that explains subroutines.

Thanks for your praise and for all your other posts detailing the future direction AutoHotkey might take.

Talking about AHK syntax: Why is AHK syntax so similar to AutoIT V2 syntax and why are there so many similarities? I heard, that AHK has "borrowed" quite a bit from the AutoIT V2 source code. Is that true?

As far as I know it's right that AutoHotkey "borrowed" (as you say) code from AutoIt. But where is the problem?

AutoIt2 was released under GPL and the programmers are credited in the helpfiles and elsewhere. So it's no "stealing" in my eyes, just as you tend to indicate with your "borrowed".

What I want to know from my point of view is, what do all the guys from AutoIt expect from Chris (or AutoHotkey) to make an end to this useless flaming, and make peace.

Just two proposals :

• every AHK script must popup a msgbox reading "Hooray AutoIt"?
• every page in the documentation must begin with "We prostrate before the AutoIT team"

Tell me - what do they want?