Debugging using ConsoleWrite?

[zaphodikus]

The help document does not say anything about STDOUT handling at all, except that ConsoleWrite will NOT work as one might expect... (you have to compile????)

So here starts my question, just plain simple: How do I debug a script using "print" like statements?

String handling in autoIT is very easy, and writing debug appears to not only be ideal, but also powerful, so why is it so hard to send something to STDOUT? STDOUT is also an idea vehicle for me, for remote or parallel execution of scripts.

I could debug using messageboxes, but that would be troll, or I could using a temporary file and WriteFile(file, data) - but then things like relative-pathing and creating temp files become a question. So, since the intuitive function ConsoleWrite (data) behaves differently depending on some options I have not yet discovered (I think this is obvious to my audience by now) how do I proceed (assuming I have a maximum of 30 minutes before getting bored) what do most coders do to reliably debug?

(Since I'm a beginner, I am not yet up to speed with why or how to compile, and from previous programming experience know that compiling is evil if you have a fast processor and a fast parser.)

[BrewManNH]

ConsoleWrite works whether the script is compiled or not.If you're looking to access StdOutRead/StdInWrite, you should be using those commands but they only work on a process that you run with a script, the script itself uses ConsoleWrite/Read to send and receive from those streams. If you haven't done so already, download the full Scite4AutoIt3 package and use some of the debugging tools that are in the tools menu of Scite, such as debug to console, and run your script from SciTE.

[Melba23]

zaphodikus,

Welcome to the AutoIt forum.

You certainly do not need to compile to use ConsoleWrite - it is designed to be used within the SciTE editor where the output appears in the lower pane.

I debug using a combination of the following:

- ConsoleWrite (which does not pause the script)

- _ArrayDisplay and MsgBox (which do pause it)

- #AutoIt3Wrapper_Run_Debug_Mode (which actually shows the lines being run in the SciTE console) - for this you need the full SciTE4AutoIt3 download.

There is also a graphical debugger in the Examples forum but I have never used it (nor found the need).

Any help?

M23

[Spiff59]

Tooltip() is another command useful as a quick-and-dirty way of displaying values or trace/status information

Edited October 6, 2011 by Spiff59

[Ascend4nt]

Simplest way, other than using an output GUI or notepad or somesuch is using a forced Console. This code only creates a Console if run from *outside* of SciTE:

Global $hConsole=0
DllCall("kernel32.dll","bool","AllocConsole")
$aRet=DllCall("kernel32.dll","handle","GetStdHandle","int",-11)
If Not @error Then $hConsole=$aRet[0]
$sOutput="Console Output"
ConsoleWrite("SciTE or Command-line Console Output"&@CRLF)
If $hConsole Then
    DllCall("kernel32.dll","bool","WriteConsoleW","handle",$aRet[0],"wstr",$sOutput,"dword",StringLen($sOutput),"dword*",0,"ptr",0)
    Sleep(2000)
    DllCall("kernel32.dll","bool","FreeConsole")
EndIf

Obviously putting all this inside functions is preferable. (I have a Console UDF lying around but its messy)

[zaphodikus]

solved!

Thanks a stack - that explains the little implementation note for ConsoleWrite(). So the SCiTE editor actually compiles my script - I was not using the IDE, (because I prefer to use my favourite editor for as many tasks as as possible). When I did use CSiTE I could see my ConsoleWrite() output, hence it seemed natural the commandline would be identical to the editor.

Because of my useage pattern, and the fact that when I'm mostly executing a script remotely I cannot use the SCiTE editor in such case. So the example showing grabbing the STDOUT handle and 'brutally' :-) writing to it, which I could wrap nicely in a console msg with 4 arguments

Func ConsoleDebugString( $scriptfileName, $linenumber, $msglevel, $message )

This approach also gives me flexibility in the case where my "boss" wants an audit log saved to a file suddenly. At the moment my use of AutoIT is just maintenance, I just need to become sensitive to the AutoIT coding standards and script writing guidelines next.

... I am suspecting I might rather enjoy using autoIT going forward.

[zaphodikus]

After playing with AllocConsole() and inspecting the standard handles it got clearer. :-) :-) :-)

AutoIT.exe is a windowless process, not a console process. So what I really want is logging/tracing to a file, and then to "tail" the file in the code that does my remoting - my best bet is to pass in the log filename as an argument to the script to allow duplicates/parallel execution.

1. create a temp file

2. spawn thread to read/tail the tmp file

3. call the autoit binary and script with the name of the tmp file

4. delete the tmp file and by proxy the thread too

start_teabreak()

Edited October 6, 2011 by zaphodikus