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Reciprocally, it's just amazing how much better AutoHotKey is at scripting the computer is than everything else is. The language was clearly never the reason wh

Reciprocally, it's just amazing how much better AutoHotKey is at scripting the computer is than everything else is. The language was clearly never the reason why AHK persisted. There's works like AutoPy (https://github.com/autopilot-rs/autopy https://github.com/autopilot-rs/autopy) and AutoPilot-rs (https://github.com/autopilot-rs/autopilot-rs https://github.com/autopilot-rs/autopilot-rs), but they offer like 1/100th the capabilities AHK does. Personally I think this kind of computer-control is the perfect environment for teaching computing. Rather than writing apps or webapps, I feel like the idea of just writing code to do what you the user would do anyways, but better, is a fantastic introduction to computing & programming. In my ideal world, we'd have an EVE Online server that specifically re-enables the game-client's python interpretter (and periodically does total wipes), so folks can learn to program by scripting not just their desktop, but a complex & interesting game, via it's rich api.

selimco 3y ago
I actually started coding that way. Back then I automated some parts in video games like pressing a key to pickup items. There was even a GUI designer which was pretty easy to use. For me it was AutoIT rather than AHK but if I remember correctly they're quite similar.
elcaro 3y ago
> Personally I think this kind of computer-control is the perfect environment for teaching computing. Rather than writing apps or webapps, I feel like the idea of just writing code to do what you the user would do anyways, but better, is a fantastic introduction to computing & programming. AHK is how I got into programming. I started with a few hotstrings, slowly added more functionality, a GUI, etc. While writing a specific tool, I learned about ReGex, and would often refer to the RegEx table in the AHK docs. Eventually, I attempted to write a tools to audit network device config with AHK, and a colleague said "why don't you write it in Perl". In looking up Perl, I learned about Python and kinda them at the same time (though interestingly, I still prefer Perl to this day). I also never realised RegEx was a thing people struggled with because I learned it almost immediately after getting into "programming", so I was just part of the learning process. All in all, I credit AHK with getting me into coding.

selimco 3y ago

I actually started coding that way. Back then I automated some parts in video games like pressing a key to pickup items. There was even a GUI designer which was pretty easy to use. For me it was AutoIT rather than AHK but if I remember correctly they're quite similar.

elcaro 3y ago

> Personally I think this kind of computer-control is the perfect environment for teaching computing. Rather than writing apps or webapps, I feel like the idea of just writing code to do what you the user would do anyways, but better, is a fantastic introduction to computing & programming. AHK is how I got into programming. I started with a few hotstrings, slowly added more functionality, a GUI, etc. While writing a specific tool, I learned about ReGex, and would often refer to the RegEx table in the AHK docs. Eventually, I attempted to write a tools to audit network device config with AHK, and a colleague said "why don't you write it in Perl". In looking up Perl, I learned about Python and kinda them at the same time (though interestingly, I still prefer Perl to this day). I also never realised RegEx was a thing people struggled with because I learned it almost immediately after getting into "programming", so I was just part of the learning process. All in all, I credit AHK with getting me into coding.