AutoHotkey Community

The Window title under the column "window" is no longer printed in the "key history and script info" window. (I am running version 1.0.34.00)


Suggestions to help with debugging a script.

The window displays are good but sometimes it is needed write the info to
a file so that it can be reviewed later or to track a problem back over a longer period of time.

1) ListLines Improved to be able to write the lines out to a file on a ongoing basis or as a "snapshot".
The snapshot would just write out what the window would have displayed
Command eg. ListLines , filename, ON | OFF | SNAPSHOT

2) KeyHistory Improved to be able to write the lines out to a file on a ongoing basis or as a "snap shot".

3) ListVars Write out the list to a file. Just as a snapshot.

4) ListHotkeys Write out the list to a file. Just as a snapshot.


5) HotStrings - to be included with the ListHotkeys ("hotkeys and their methods" window)

6) A way to dump the thread stack (to a window and/or as a snapshot to a file)
(threads waiting to be returned to, current thread executing)
eg.
thread line status
main 45 return
timer1 55 return
~F3 33 current


7) A way to pause all timers using the systray menu and/or a command to pause / resume all timers. That is without the
need to specify each timer separately.

8 ) A new timer that would get triggered when a variable = (=, > , <, etc) a value.
With this I could quickly add a timer on a complex script to execute the above commands when I want to start to watching the script.

Jerry

The window title is only present when:
1) It's different from the window of the previous keystroke.
2) The active window has a non-blank title.

I've made a note of it. If you haven't already looked at it, you might find OutputDebug useful for selective monitoring of a script.

Although I don't think this should be done do to the stigma associated with key logging, the Key History feature was recently improved to allow a greater or lesser number of keystrokes and mouse clicks to be displayed. See #KeyHistory for details.

For these two and ListLines, you might be better off putting breakpoints in strategic locations in your script (temporarily for debugging). For example:

You could also have a conditional check for the above:

Noted; thanks.

This would be difficult to implement because the program uses the call stack to store suspended threads, making their info hard to access without a redesign. But it's something I'll keep in mind anyway.

The "pause" menu item should soon be fixed to allow an idle timer script to be paused. In case you don't know, you can also assign a hotkey to toggle pause On and Off (which also pauses all timers):

^!p::Pause ; Ctrl-Alt-P hotkey.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I think you could already do this:

SetTimer, WatchForDebug, 500
^!d::Debug := not Debug ; Hotkey to toggle boolean value.
...

You know, I started to write the above only to realize I don't really understand what you had in mind. I use the following hotkeys to help debug a script:

^!v::ListVars
^!l::ListLines
^!h::ListHotkeys
^!k::KeyHistory

You could throw in a hotkey that Pauses for good measure.

Thanks for your suggestions.