AutoIt Introduction
©1999-2015 Jonathan Bennett & AutoIt Team
AutoIt v3 Homepage
Features in Detail
Basic-like Syntax and Rich Function Set
AutoIt has a BASIC-like syntax which means that most people who have ever written a script or used a high-level language should be able to pick it up easily.
Although it started life as a simple automation tool, AutoIt now has functions and features that allow it to be used as a general purpose scripting language. Language features include:
- The usual high-level elements for functions, loops and expression parsing
- A staggering amount of string handling functions and a Perl compatible regular expression engine (using the PCRE library).
- COM support
- Call Win32 and third-party DLL APIs
Built-in Editor with Syntax Highlighting
AutoIt comes with a customised "lite" version of SciTE that makes editing scripts easy. Users can also download a complete version of SciTE that includes additional tools to make things even easier.
Standalone and Small
AutoIt is a very small and standalone application with no reliance on massive runtimes like .NET or VB. All you need to run AutoIt scripts are the main AutoIt executable (AutoIt3.exe) and the script. Scripts can also be encoded into standalone executables with the built-in script compiler Aut2Exe.
International and 64-bit Support
AutoIt is fully Unicode aware and also includes x64 versions of all the main components! How many other free scripting languages can you say that about?
Key and Mouse Simulation
Much time has been spent optimizing the keystroke and mouse simulation functions to be as accurate as possible on all versions of Windows. All the mouse and keyboard routines are highly configurable both in terms of simulation "speed" and functionality.
Window Management
You can expect to move, hide, show, resize, activate, close and pretty much do what you want with windows. Windows can be referenced by title, text on the window, size, position, class and even internal Win32 API handles.
Controls
Directly get information on and interact with edit boxes, check boxes, list boxes, combos, buttons, status bars without the risk of keystrokes getting lost. Even work with controls in windows that are not active!
Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)
AutoIt v3 will also allow you to create some complex GUIs - just like those below!
And much, much more...