Why AutoIt, and not another language like C# or Python?

[junkew]

Python has extensions for win32 and uiautomation https://github.com/yinkaisheng/Python-UIAutomation-for-Windows

So mixing python with autoit makes on first sight for me no sence. But maybe in a specific context you have it can make a difference.

[Jos]

14 hours ago, odaylton said:

sorry for the recklessness

No worries, but please do us a favor and don't post any other language than English is these forums or else things will be very hard to read.

Thanks

Edited August 19, 2023 by Jos

[TheDcoder]

8 hours ago, junkew said:

Age 65 probably c an assembler

I didn't know I was 65

---

Age 85 punch cards

Age 95 paper

[argumentum]

1 hour ago, odaylton said:

1 ) The issue I'm raising is that there are people in the Python World who are using the name and idea of Autoit in Python.
2 ) As the fantastic developers of our work environment are very skilled, I think that migrating all this knowledge to a multi-platform option would be great

1) import win32api and win32con in python (to click). It's been there for a long time now. It's ok. Use it.
2) Well, the idea was to make installation of other software installers easier when you had to install it to a lot of computers and installers were not as though out as they are today. Then AutoIt3 came along with more power, ...and here we are.
Multi-platform sounds nice, very nice. Now go code it !, it's a pain.
Android is linux kernel with ..android ?. Linux is linux with .. a thousand desktops..., Mac is Mac and is anewed in each version.
I guess you can use .NET or python with QT or, ...no clue. I only use windows PCs.
So "AutoIt, coming soon to a flavor of OS near you ! ", ain't gonna happen.

Going back to "import win32api and win32con in python (to click)", someone would have to write a wrapper for it as "def ClickIt():" for each OS. It would take very many people to take on that endeavor. Am up for testing in each Windows (98SE to 11) but not every hardware and OS there is.

So the 1st is not a problem and the 2nd, is not as easy as it sounds. My 2 cents worth of wisdom  

[TheSaint]

But is PyAutoGui really using the name AutoIt?
'Auto' is a very common term, and it is the additional 'It' that is really important.

And I say again - so very few, relatively speaking, are interested in cross-platform .... not many more folk than five years ago, and in five years or even ten years, probably not a great many more folk either. The majority of computer users don't care about cross-platform. Something significant in the computing world would have to change, for there to be a change of interest in cross-platform in any kind of major way.

And most folk who are truly into programming, don't use AutoIt ... or it is just another tool in their coding toolbox.

AutoIt is more under threat by the future of computer use ... especially with the advances in AI.

Edited August 19, 2023 by TheSaint

[Jos]

17 hours ago, TheDcoder said:

Age 85 punch cards

Nah ...   RPG & Punch cards were related as it used the 80 columns card format for the syntax.  
...and I punched punch-cards too for a IBM RJE system.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Jos

[odaylton]

On 8/18/2023 at 4:30 PM, junkew said:

Python has extensions for win32 and uiautomation https://github.com/yinkaisheng/Python-UIAutomation-for-Windows

So mixing python with autoit makes on first sight for me no sence. But maybe in a specific context you have it can make a difference.

I agree that it makes no sense, but the idea of this discussion is not to use autoit within python, but to migrate the knowledge of autoit development to python, thus making it multiplatform

[odaylton]

On 8/18/2023 at 6:06 PM, argumentum said:

So the 1st is not a problem and the 2nd, is not as easy as it sounds. My 2 cents worth of wisdom  

Great moments of wisdom, Thank you.
I agree that everyone here uses autoit to solve small (big) problems quickly and easily but here's the tip ... check what they are doing in python:
https://pypi.org/search/?q=autoit

Edited August 20, 2023 by odaylton

[odaylton]

21 hours ago, TheSaint said:

But is PyAutoGui really using the name AutoIt?
 

 

check what they are doing in python:
https://pypi.org/search/?q=autoit

[argumentum]

36 minutes ago, odaylton said:

check what they are doing in python

Thanks. There is nothing new nor anything that can be done about it. Nothing there affects anyone here.
If there was something that could be done, big name companies would have done it but, it's impossible. Hence the movement to SaaS and every effort to have users run everything online.

Whatever language you choose to code with, know that there are competitions among groups of "hackers" to crack it.
There is nothing new under the sunRAM. Everything is known. If you know how and care to mess with it, that is.

Again, thanks. Thanks for the concern but is all good  

Edited August 20, 2023 by argumentum
spelling

[TheSaint]

2 hours ago, odaylton said:

I agree that it makes no sense, but the idea of this discussion is not to use autoit within python, but to migrate the knowledge of autoit development to python, thus making it multiplatform

If that is the case, then yes I guess it makes Python more powerful. It doesn't really impact AutoIt users though, unless they are a Python user who only uses AutoIt to make up for the previous limitations of Python.

Generally folk who come to AutoIt and then stay, are not looking to go to Python instead. It is all about how you use AutoIt, which is very different to how you use Python, even if they have the same feature set. So in a nutshell, it is all about understanding and comfort and relating to how things are named and structured. Python is very different to AutoIt in that regard. So for me personally, I rarely dabble in Python, only at need, because I simply don't like it, despite how powerful and how cross-platform it is.

Edited August 20, 2023 by TheSaint

[TheSaint]

2 hours ago, odaylton said:

check what they are doing in python:
https://pypi.org/search/?q=autoit

Thanks and all very interesting, but I stand by my last post.  

Many are just leveraging AutoIt in some way, and though I did not dig deep into any of them, they hardly seem a threat.

For Python to be a threat to AutoIt, it would have to be rewritten to feel like you are using AutoIt ... same structure, same naming conventions, same method of use, same kind of Help file examples, etc.

P.S. I don't think many folk are going to say - Let's use Python instead, because on the tin it says it does all that AutoIt can do and more. Folk tend to use AutoIt for its simplicity, and Python is nowhere in that same ballpark.

Edited August 20, 2023 by TheSaint

[UEZ]

Since I have been programming with Freebasic for several years, I would like to say that Freebasic has many advantages compared to Autoit, such as speed (compiler), inline assembler, multi-platform, open source, etc..
Autoit on the other hand scores in terms of UDFs, i.e. a large part of WinAPI is implemented in UDFs, whereas in FB you have to create everything yourself.
Both languages are relatively easy to learn, a BASIC language, have good IDEs and are easy to install (no gigabytes of installation!)
BASIC languages are unfortunately outdated and replaced by other languages.
I personally work primarily with both languages and I am completely satisfied.

Edited August 22, 2023 by UEZ

[odaylton]

On 8/20/2023 at 12:47 AM, argumentum said:

Again, thanks. Thanks for the concern but is all good  

Thanks for clarifying....

[odaylton]

On 8/20/2023 at 2:47 AM, TheSaint said:

P.S. I don't think many folk are going to say - Let's use Python instead, because on the tin it says it does all that AutoIt can do and more. Folk tend to use AutoIt for its simplicity, and Python is nowhere in that same ballpark.

Thanks for clarifying....

[odaylton]

On 8/22/2023 at 2:13 PM, UEZ said:

I personally work primarily with both languages and I am completely satisfied.

as always, thank you

[kcvinu]

On 8/20/2023 at 11:17 AM, TheSaint said:

For Python to be a threat to AutoIt, it would have to

For Python to be a threat to AutoIt, it would have to reduce the exe size when we convert the script to exe. And that's not possible. I think we can do almost any automation tasks in python too. But when we convert our script to an exe file, Autoit would make 1.2 MB file and python script would be 7+ MB file.

[TheSaint]

2 hours ago, kcvinu said:

For Python to be a threat to AutoIt, it would have to reduce the exe size when we convert the script to exe.

While that can certainly be an important factor, even if you could, it still wouldn't make any difference as a threat for all the reasons I stated earlier.

[lIlIIlIllIIIIlI]

What I really dislike about python is how many files a simple program will write to disk, because of all the dependencies and libraries it's using which are also writing to disk. Running a python program, for example webtorrent cli, and checking later on with software for reading overwritten data, it is almost a thousand various python files that were deleted.

That annoys me for some reason. When I run a program, I like when it's just a tool and it does something simple. But these python and javascript and other package managed languages that effortlessly summon a million other python programs and their dependencies and their specific versions... I can't fully explain why it annoys me but it just seems really sloppy and bad. There is beauty in a compiled program that doesn't rely on other things, but this view does not seem supported by python developers, I guess is a good way to put it.

I also don't like how there is no end statements (or closing bracket equivalents for code depth) in python. It looks ugly in my opinion, visually unbalanced, and I rely on those end statements to parse stuff. Lua in my opinion is like a prettier version of python because of the end statements it has.