What is the best way to learn AHK? Topic is solved

[hieveryone]

I've been trying to learn how to code using AHK. But, with little to no progress at all, I have to rely on others to provide me with a solution. I feel awfully guilty.
I have been progressing in other languages such as JavaScript, HTML, and others but AHK seems too hard to learn.

What is the best way to learn AHK?

[geek]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I picked up programming (especially AHK) by helping other people with their coding problems, and asking for help with my own coding problems. I do not believe that "learning AHK" or "learning JavaScript" or "learning Python" are useful, complete statements. You learn how to use those tools to accomplish tasks. You "learn AHK to design a GUI that does X" or "learn JavaScript to make a website do X" or "learn Python to filter data X and calculate figure Y". What tasks are you learning AHK to accomplish?

[andymbody]

What is the best way to learn AHK?

Like anything else... the best way to learn is to just "do". There are many online tutorials, but I have not found any decent ones for AHK. One of the troubles with AHK (in the past) was that the syntax was very inconsistent. The same task can be done with many different syntax's, and one person will show you how to do it one way, and another person in another. It can be very frustrating. AHK v2 has eliminated most of that I think, so is much better in that respect. Also AHK is capable of so much that it is difficult to know where to start. This is why a project becomes a great teacher. The following page was designed for beginners in the language, but unfortunately it covers v1, not v2. It's worth looking at tho.

Beginner Tut

The good news about AHK is this forum. It is very active (probably hundreds of new posts a day) with lots of knowledgeable people willing to provide guidance for projects of all experience levels. And as the previous response indicated, browsing this forum and even pitching in to offer suggestions to others is a great way to learn. Just like teachers often learn in the process of instructing their students. This forum is a great resource and exposes us to situations that we may not have encountered otherwise, and can prepare us in advance for when we do. This forum benefits all parties... teacher and student... and we can all participate in both roles.

If I find more resources, I will post back here. Good luck!

Andy

[gregster]

But the following link might be helpful, if you haven't already looked at it. The trouble is... it covers v1.

Beginner Tut

By simply selecting v2 at the top of that page, or just going to the 'Tutorials' section in the v2 docs, you can of course find this beginner tutorial adapted for AHK v2: https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/v2/Tutorial.htm

PS: I am not sure why the "Tutorials" link in the "AHK Docs" dropdown in the forum header currently redirects to v1, though. Probably an oversight, some redirects were changed some time ago, afaik.
@joedf, I guess this should rather link to the v2 tutorial - or we should have separate links like for the docs. On the other hand, the various (currently six) v2 tutorials are immediately mentioned on the v2 docs landing page... hard to miss.

[andymbody]

find this beginner tutorial adapted for AHK v2:

Cool... Thanks!

Also do a search on this forum for jeeswg posts who has provided many in depth tutorials on many topics. You could probably spend a year of learning just from these posts alone. I don't think this person comes to this forum any more (heard they were banned), but they left invaluable instruction for everyone to benefit.

[hieveryone]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I picked up programming (especially AHK) by helping other people with their coding problems, and asking for help with my own coding problems. I do not believe that "learning AHK" "learning JavaScript" or "learning Python" are useful, complete statements. You learn how to use those tools to accomplish tasks. You "learn AHK to design a GUI that does X" or "learn JavaScript to make a website do X" or "learn Python to filter data X and calculate figure Y". What tasks are you learning AHK to accomplish?

Wow, thanks.
I just find that Autohotkey doesn't get stuck in my head lol, unlike other programs. Maybe it's just me.

For me, I tried autohotkey for an easy way to do automated tasks. Sometimes I've been able to do this, but when I can't I somehow find a javascript alternative like a week later (yes I'm really bad at both javascript and AHK xd)

[guest3456]

What is the best way to learn AHK?

write scripts to solve problems that you are having personally

[kunkel321]

I've been trying to learn how to code using AHK. But, with little to no progress at all, I have to rely on others to provide me with a solution. I feel awfully guilty.
I have been progressing in other languages such as JavaScript, HTML, and others but AHK seems too hard to learn.
What is the best way to learn AHK?

I'm a little late responding to this, but for what it's worth, I feel your pain. I've made 860 posts on the forum over the last 8 or 9 years. I'll bet the first 500 posts and first 5 years were 100% me asking for help. Now, I'm able to sometimes help people, but I'd say that I still ask way more questions than I answer.

I'm not a professional tech person and haven't had any formal training (though Iv'e watched several video tutorials and read books). As others have said, the best way to learn is to make tools for yourself and use them. Start with easy stuff like text-replacement. You can also get sample scripts that people have posted and try to "reverse engineer" them to figure out how they work. That can also be frustrating though. My advice is to not let yourself get too frustrated with it. Take a break for a few months--continuing to use the simple scripts that you've either made or found on line. Then later, come back to it and add a couple more tips and tricks to your AHK toolbelt.

There are some pretty good video tutorials for purchase here:
https://www.the-automator.com/downloads/introduction-to-autohotkey-v2-course/?src=btAc
If you join the monthly "AHK Hero" membership (15 usd/month) then you get a discount.

There are some pretty good AHK books here
https://www.computoredge.com/AutoHotkey/AutoHotkey_Books_for_Beginners_and_Novices.html
unfortunately the books are all for AHK v1. And the author doesn't plan to rewrite them for v2.

You can find lots of videos on YouTube also.