SciTE4AutoIt3

SciTE4AutoIt3 is a specialist editor package based on the excellent SciTE editor. SciTE has been set up to compile AutoIt scripts and has been extended with a multitude of Lua scripts. SciTE4AutoIt3 may be downloaded here: SciTE4AutoIt3

SciTE4AutoIt3 provides:

Syntax highlighting
Calltips (also known as IntelliSense)
Code AutoComplete
Auto Indentation
AutoIt Script help integration
SciTE help integration
Abbreviations
Editing macros
Debugging support
Tools for AutoIt scripting
A toolbar that enables easy access to an array of community created tools
Various other features

Keep in mind that SciTE4AutoIt3 is not an official package. Direct any bug reports or feature requests to the AutoIt3 forum and not the bug tracker.

Syntax Highlighting

File:Syntax Highlight.png

A demonstration of syntax highlighting using the default theme.

SciTE4AutoIt3 comes with a customized AutoIt3 lexer which enables syntax highlighting. Syntax highlighting enables the colorization of various code elements such as variables, strings, operators, comments, etc. This allows one to differentiate the various code elements at a glance without having to specifically read everything. To load a custom theme a user may press [Ctrl] + [1] to bring up SciTEConfig. The options are located under the Color Settings tab.

Some options that are available for customization include:

White Space
Comment Line
Comment Block
Number
Function
Keyword
Macro
String

Quick Tips

To access the helpfile the user may press [Alt] + [F1]. To quickly access help information on a specific function/statement, simply click/highlight the function/statement in question and press the [F1] key to bring up the help file on the relevant page.

For SciTE related help, use the key combination [Ctrl] + [F1] to bring up a help file detailing SciTE related help documentation. It's recommended that you read it.

For anyone not familiar with SciTE, here are a few tips and tricks to help you easily modify the installation to suit your needs. For any "truly" advanced info, you should visit the [SciTE home page].

With the information below, you will be doing some minor editing to SciTE's configuration files. It is imperative that you know the hierarchy of SciTE's configuration files. The main files we will be dealing with here are listed below.

Remember there are four properties files used:

SciTE.properties
SciTEDirectory.properties
SciTEUser.properties
SciTEGlobal.properties

SciTE.properties	Local properties file which may be present in the same directory as the file being edited. This file overrides any other properties files settings below. This file is user created.
SciTEDirectory.properties	Directory properties file which may be present in the same or in a parent directory as the file being edited. This file overrides all properties setting of the files below, but not the local properties settings aka SciTE.properties. This file is user created.
SciTEUser.properties	User properties file, this files settings override only the Global properties settings aka SciTEGlobal.properties. This file is found under the current logged on users profile directory.
SciTEGlobal.properties	All settings in this file can be overridden by any of the above files. Typically you shouldn't mess with this file and use any of the above methods to implement a setting change. This file can be found in SciTE's installation directory.

If you have any trouble finding any of the previously mentioned files then I recommend that you do not continue further.

Inline Errors

Intentional error prone code used to display the "Inline Error" feature.

In the latest version of SciTE, there exists a new feature called "Inline Errors", some users find them annoying. Inline Error marks are error messages that will appear in the source code within the Scintilla window. While helpful, some users prefer to disable this feature. You can quickly disable/enable them using the SciTEUser.properties.

Open the SciTE user properties file in a text editor by selecting from the AutoIt menu Options, Open User Options File and add the following code to the file.

To disable Inline Errors, add the following.

# Display settings for inline errors on the source
error.inline=0

To enable Inline Errors, add the following.

# Display settings for inline errors on the source
error.inline=1

Selection Highlighting

In the latest SciTE4AutoIt3, there is a new feature which highlights other instances of the currently highlighted word or string. Due to the colors, sometimes it's hard to tell the selection apart.

If you'd like, you can do either of two things using the SciTEUser.properties.

Disable it
Change the color scheme

To disable it

highlight.current.word=0

To re-enable it, just delete it and save.

To change the color scheme, add the following to your SciTEUser.properties file.

highlight.current.word.colour=#000040
selection.alpha=50
selection.back=#F025A8

The user should try adjusting the #COLOR values to come to a preferred color.

More Language Highlighting Options

In the SciTEUser.properties file, add the following code.

# Language Highlighting Options
menu.language=\
#FreeBasic|bas||\
Text|txt|Shift+F11|\
#Ada|ads||\
AutoIt3|au3|Shift+F12|\
#Apache Confi&g|conf||\
#Assembler|asm||\
#ASN.1|asn1||\
#Avenue|ave||\
#Baan|bc||\
#&Batch|bat||\
#Bullant|ant||\
#&C / C++|cpp||\
#CMake|cmake||\
#C&#|cs||\
#COBOL|cob||\
#Csound|orc||\
#CSS|css||\
#D|d||\
#&Difference|diff||\
#&Eiffel|e||\
#Erlang|erl||\
#&Errorlist|err||\
#FlagShip|prg||\
#&Fortran|f90||\
#&Fortran|f90||\
#Gap|g||\
#Haskell|hs||\
#H&ypertext|html|$(keyHTML)|\
#&InnoSetup|iss||\
#&Java|java||\
#Java&Script|js||\
#&Kix|kix||\
#Lisp|lisp||\
#Lot|lot||\
#Lout|lt||\
#Lu&a|lua||\
#Matlab|m.matlab||\
#&Makefile|mak||\
#MetaPost|mp||\
#MMIXAL|mms||\
#Modula-3|m3||\
#&nnCron crontab|tab||\
#NSIS|nsis||\
#Objective Caml|ml||\
#Octave|m.octave||\
#Opal|impl||\
#Pascal|pas||\
#Pe&rl|pl||\
#P&HP|php||\
#P&LSQL|spec||\
#P&ostScript|ps||\
#P&OV-Ray SDL|pov||\
#PowerShell|ps1||\
#PowerPro|powerpro||\
#&Properties|properties||\
#Pytho&n|py||\
#R|R||\
#Reso&urce|rc||\
#Ruby|rb||\
#Shell|sh||\
#S&QL|sql||\
#Specman|e||\
#&TCL|tcl||\
#TeX|tex||\
#&txt2tags|t2t||\
#&VB|vb||\
#VBScr&ipt|vbs||\
#Verilog|v||\
#VHDL|vhd||\
#&XML|xml||\
#&YAML|yaml||

For whatever language you wish to have an option appear under the Language menu option, uncomment the language. Say you want to SciTE to give you the option to highlight batch script code, change the following string in the above list from

#&Batch|bat||\

to

&Batch|bat||\

Restart SciTE and if done correctly, the option should be present! Do this for any language listed in the above example list.

In the case that you uncommented a language and you notice that it's not being highlighted correctly, then we will have to edit some things in the SciTEGlobal.properties file.

Open the SciTEGlobal.properties file in a text editor and find the section

# import properties\all the language specific properties files

Below that section there will be a few strings that look like

#import properties\[syntax]

Uncomment the syntax related property you wish to have support for.

Say you wanted support for ruby, just locate the one that says ruby where [syntax] is written.

Colors in the Output Pane

When you use SciTE as your AutoIt script editor it is a simple matter to get color in the output pane while you test run your code. Try this:

 ConsoleWrite("This is plain text" & @LF)
 ConsoleWrite(">Make it have some color" & @LF)
 ConsoleWrite("+Make it have some other color" & @LF)
 ConsoleWrite("-Make it have some other color" & @LF)
 ConsoleWrite("!Make it have some other color" & @LF)

Debugging Code Easily

This is one of my (@uten's) favorites.

 dbg("This is a test")
 dbg("Jump to this line")
 dbg("just by clicking my output line")

 Func dbg($msg, $error = @error, $extended = @extended, $erl = @ScriptLineNumber)
     ConsoleWrite("(" & $erl & ") : = (" & $error & ")(" & $extended & ") " & $msg & @LF)
     If $error <> 0 Then SetError($error, $extended, $error)
     Return $error
 EndFunc   ;==>dbg

AutoIt3Wrapper

AutoIt3Wrapper directives allow much greater and in depth control of programs. Some of these can be very useful under different circumstances.

Stripping Excess Code

For instance, if you have several includes, then you can often strip thousands of lines from your program using obfuscator:

#AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_Obfuscator=y
#Obfuscator_Parameters=/sf /sv /om /cs=0 /cn=0

On a medium sized script, results are often like this:

>Running Obfuscator (1.0.27.0)  from:C:\Program Files\AutoIt3\SciTE cmdline:
- Iteration 1 Strip Functions result: Output  2580 lines and stripped 6741 lines
- Iteration 2 Strip Variables result: Output  1585 lines and stripped 950 lines
- Iteration 3 Strip Variables result: Output  1566 lines and stripped 19 lines
- Iteration 4 Start the actual Obfuscation.
+> Source    26190 lines 1447980 Characters.
+> Stripped  7710 Func/Var lines and  16862 comment lines, Total 1373871 Characters.
+> Saved     93% lines 94% Characters.
+> Obfuscator v1.0.27.0 finished obfuscating 1566 lines, created:C:\MyScript_Obfuscated.au3

Using ResHacker

ResHacker is a very important programming tool for extracting and adding resources into executables. It has a very simple command line interface that allows it to be used easily using the "Run_After" directive. Adding a picture to an executable could be done like this:

#AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_After=ResHacker.exe -add %out%, %out%, MyPicture.bmp, BITMAP, RESOURCENAME, 0

NB:* Reshacker.exe must be copied into the script directory for this to work!

If you then want to use the resources in your code, there is an excellent Resources UDF which will allow you to access the resources from within the exe.

Adding Original Source Code

When using the above tip on stripping excess code, the new source is not readable. As a result, using the standard directive for saving the source:

#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_SaveSource=y

Would add the obfuscated code to the exe, which is not the desired result. The solution is to add it in manually. This code does not require any editing, so you can just copy and paste it in:

#AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_After=ResHacker.exe -add %out%, %out%, %scriptfile%.au3, RCDATA, SOURCE, 0

Creating a Version Directory

When compiling, it is very possible that you want to go back to a previous version. If so, then it is neat to have a directory which will store all previous builds, without the need for you to manually copy and paste every time! Make sure you add these directives in last (after adding resources) as they might not be included in the copied result.

#AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_After=md "%scriptdir%\Versions\%fileversion%"
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_After=copy "%in%" "%scriptdir%\Versions\%fileversion%\%scriptfile%%fileversion%.au3"
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_After=copy "%out%" "%scriptdir%\Versions\%fileversion%\%scriptfile%%fileversion%.exe"

Running the exe on Build

Often you are building as a test, so to have to open up Windows Explorer to get the exe is a pain, furthermore, unless you have a program to do it (or it's a console program) you will not be able to read console info such as the debug messages you put in the exe. The solution is simple:

#AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_After="%out%"

This will run the program and read the console output to the SciTE debug frame.

Extended Reshacker Info

ResHacker doesn't always return with a return code (rc) of not 0 if it fails, to get that info you need to read the ResHacker.log file that is created. This is also pretty simple to do:

#AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_After=ResHacker.exe -add %out%, %out%, MyPicture.bmp, BITMAP, RESOURCENAME, 0
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_After=TYPE ResHacker.log

The new output now looks like this:

>Running:ResHacker.exe -add C:\MyScript.exe, C:\MyScript.exe, MyPicture.bmp, BITMAP, RESOURCENAME, 0
>ResHacker.exe -add C:\MyScript.exe, C:\MyScript.exe, MyPicture.bmp, BITMAP, RESOURCENAME, 0 Ended   rc:0
>Running:TYPE ResHacker.log
[19 Jan 2010, 21:26:22]
ResHacker.exe  -add C:\MyScript.exe, C:\MyScript.exe, MyPicture.bmp, BITMAP, RESOURCENAME, 0
 Added: BITMAP,RESOURCENAME,0

Commands completed
>TYPE ResHacker.log Ended   rc:0

And an example of it showing an error:

>ResHacker.exe -add C:\MyScript.exe, C:\MyScript.exe, MyPicture.bmp, BITMAP, RESOURCENAME, 0 Ended   rc:0
>Running:TYPE ResHacker.log
[19 Jan 2010, 21:32:10]
ResHacker.exe  -add C:\MyScript.exe, C:\MyScript.exe, MyPicture.bmp, BITMAP, RESOURCENAME, 0
Error: "MyPicture.bmp" does not exist
>TYPE ResHacker.log Ended   rc:0

As you can see, Reshacker on its own returns rc: 0, usually indicating no error. This would have gone completely unnoticed except for the log file, which shows the error and an explanation.