A cross-platform implementation of the AutoIt language

[junkew]

Start with this https://llvm.org/docs/GettingStartedVS.html

You will get multiple target platforms with llvm

[TheDcoder]

@junkew Are you proposing to use LLVM as the backend for processing the bytecode?... I don't think I am ready to go that advanced yet, let me first get a working parser and then I can figure out producing bytecode (which is most likely going to be interperted by a program which I will write)...

[junkew]

Just follow an llvm tutorial and in 16 - 40 hours you get a good feeling with lexer, parser, ast, emitting bytecode. It will save you time compared to do a handwritten compiler.

[TheDcoder]

@junkew I will try, but I doubt I would end up using LLVM as it is essentially a compiler for generating machine code (which is hard to do for AutoIt)

[junkew]

Llvm can do more also with scripting languages. Before you start make sure you have some theoretical understanding of a compiler. I liked compiler construction you can find here. https://inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/index.html

[TheDcoder]

@junkew I tried to go through the first part of the book (Compiler Construction), I didn't have enough patience to continue reading down further. I am more of a "try and see" person, I am not sure if the book had mentioned something necessary which I am not aware of.

I have worked with BNF notation before, the hard bit is constructing that by myself as a reference for AutoIt, maybe someone has already done that for me?

Either way, thanks for the recommendation. I could use that book as a reference if I hit any road-blocks while writing the parser.

12 hours ago, junkew said:

Llvm can do more also with scripting languages.

Oh, I was not aware of that, can you point me towards the relevant documentation?

[junkew]

LLVM JIT compilation is an in memory compiler so more the definition of an interpreter.

You need some library for your interpreter.

Unix and windows compatible that brings you to

1. .NET    (Look for dynamic Language runtime / DLR - examples Iron languages)
2. JAVA
3. C/C++
4. ...

 

[TheDcoder]

8 hours ago, junkew said:

LLVM JIT compilation is an in memory compiler so more the definition of an interpreter.

I see, this is indeed an interesting aspect. We can use LLVM further down the road to perform JIT compilation of bytecode to machine code for faster execution... if that is feasible, but for now I will concentrate on getting the basics working first

8 hours ago, junkew said:

You need some library for your interpreter.

I plan to make my own

It will help me concentrate on the implementation rather than learning another technology and producing bytecode that it can use.

8 hours ago, junkew said:

Unix and windows compatible that brings you to

1. .NET    (Look for dynamic Language runtime / DLR - examples Iron languages)
2. JAVA
3. C/C++
4. ... 

I have already mentioned that I will be using C, the lowest and least (relatively) abstract language among the other choices that you have listed. I have a thing for C

[rcmaehl]

Oh this thread again. Neat

I'd love to see AutoIt on Linux, however it's unlikely to happen. Regardless, if it does start to happen hit me up with the Repository info.

That being said... I had a small workaround with AutoIt. I was working on a "WineBridge" in which a made a bash script that would handle the stdout and stderr pipes from the executable and converting those to python or other language commands. I don't think I ever figured out passing data back into AutoIt, or if I did I don't have the code for it anywhere. It gave Autoit the ability to run commands from wine and I'm sure it could be expanded further.

 

EDIT:

I was able to find some of my old 2012-era code on my github. Please ignore any bad coding practices, I was a lot worse back then, using magic numbers and all sorts of No-Nos. https://github.com/rcmaehl/Discontinued-Projects/tree/master/WineBridge I think half the code is missing as I remember it having more functionality than this.

Edited May 3, 2019 by rcmaehl

[water]

I remember this thread
Interesting how you connected Windows and Linux. IIRC this happened many years ago.

[TheDcoder]

@rcmaehl Good to see you

Thanks for sharing your project, an interesting wrapper for Wine! Even though I did not study your code that much, but I can indeed see how that can be useful to make Linux releases for your AutoIt projects... I myself had this idea of something similar but I never gave it much thought again.

I will make sure to alert all those who have voted to volunteer once I start the project

[BrewManNH]

Don't forget, you can do all of this in Python if you needed to, you only need to import PyAutoGUI to do a lot of the automation you can do in AutoIt. You could make a wrapper for it that mimics AutoIt's functions if you REALLY wanted to.

[TheDcoder]

PyAutoGUI looks like a neat piece of library for python, it has functions for MsgBox and Screenshots too

But I believe it is not relevant in this topic as it is not about having a cross-platform automation toolkit... maybe I should change the name of the topic to mention the AutoIt language specifically?

Edit: Done!

Edited May 26, 2019 by TheDcoder

[jchd]

Why not build your project using SQL alone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPSMH8w7nfw

 

[mLipok]

Thanks @jchd for this link.
I just gave a 👍 on this youtube video..

[TheDcoder]

18 hours ago, jchd said:

Why not build your project using SQL alone? 

Sounds good... that way we can exploit take advantage of all those cheap web hosting services and make a big interconnected cloud using their SQL servers and run our code on it

[Earthshine]

that was pretty cool

[jchd]

A drop of geek fun is always good for health, at times.

[TheDcoder]

Does anyone know of or have a "reference script" which showcases all possible AutoIt syntax? I am planning to write a document which describes the syntax of the language, split it into parts and make it easier to digest.

This will help me understand the syntax more so that I can come up with a proof-of-concept program which does some basic task like parsing a script and and producing an "Abstract Syntax Tree", which in simple terms means an array or structure which programatically holds all the units of the script so that it is easier to process later.

[argumentum]

SciTE has external files that loaded determine the syntax for a given language. Maybe you can use that.