AutoIt is one of the simplest programming languages to learn, and also one of the most powerful and useful tools to leverage your coding skills for increased productivity. The unique characteristic of Autoit is that it includes many built-in functions to control other Windows programs. It allows you to programatically interact not only with data and computing elements at a "raw" compositional level, but also with other existing programs and with every element in the Windows environment. You can use the built-in Autoit functions to programatically push buttons, type text, select menu items, choose items from lists, etc. in any program window, as if those actions had been performed by a user clicking and typing on screen. Because those actions can be performed programatically, they can be executed without error, and at lightning speed. This allows you to automate repetitive routines, and to customize the use of existing applications in ways that satisfy users' needs very specifically.
By automating Windows, AutoIt opens up a whole new paradigm and approach to Windows programming. Instead of creating new programs entirely from scratch for an given need, Autoit lets you use and adjust other programs to exactly suit user needs. It allows you to extend and combine the capabilities of existing applications. It allows you to customize those applications, make them easier to use, and provides the ability to create "super applications" by automating interactions between existing programs. This allows you to satisfy very high level user needs with unmatched speed and simplicity.
Most complex commercial software packages are created by teams of programmers, over periods of years, often at the expense of millions of dollars. Even small applications are typically the product of many hours of work by a dedicated developer. AutoIt lets you leverage their efforts in ways that are customizable to users' specific needs.
Programs to accomplish virtually every conceivable user activity have been, and continue to be created, as new mainstream uses for computers are invented. To be useful for any given user's specific needs, however, a given program may not behave exactly the way the user prefers, or may not perform all the user's requirements. Often, several different programs are required to accomplish a usage goal, with lots of required user interaction. AutoIt allows you to tie together and automate disperate applications to accomplish user goals at the highest possible programmatic level, and with very little coding.
AutoIt also provides typical "lower level" abilities to work with raw data at the file, network, and I/O level, using typical function and variable structures to manipulate data. If you've programmed with any modern language, it's syntax and structure will be familiar. Because of that mix of lower level and very high level abilities, it's one of the most useful scripting languages available to both programmers and average users.
AutoIt is strictly a Windows programming solution. It does not allow you to create cross-platform applications for Mac, Linux, Pocket-PC, or other environments. But in the Windows OS (used by the largest percentage of the computing world, by far), it provides an enormous set of features:
- The language is very easy to learn and well documented. The simple help file that comes with AutoIt provides clear, useful examples of every built in function, and the user forums contain a variety of complete applications in most common domains of interest.
- The entire development package is small - less than a 2 meg download - and it installs quickly and easily.
- It comes with a fast compiler that creates small standalone Windows programs that don't require any other supporting dll's or system dependencies. It creates single ".exe" files starting at 60k in size.
- AutoIt scripts can also be run instantly with the interpreter (without being compiled). This makes the development process faster.
- It runs on every version of Windows, starting with Windows95
- It has a modern drag-and-drop GUI creation tool that lets you visually design graphic user interfaces with all the common windows widgets (a free 3rd party add-on).
- It provides all the common file, network, and data manipulation capabilities found in other high level programming/scripting languages. AutoIt also exposes all of the lowest level functions of the operating system (the Windows api), and provides access to all other programmatic building blocks available in Windows (user created dlls, com components, etc.). You can create complete applications of any type using AutoIt as the sole programming language.
- It's totally free, actively improved, and there's a huge user community enhancing and adding to it regulary.
