Creating commercial quality software with AutoIt?

[gordo]

I'm no programmer by any means. The learning curve for something like C++ is just too steep for me to put the time in now, with a full time job and all... I started goofing around with AutoIT 3.1 about 6 weeks ago, and in that time, I've managed to create a few useful scripts, including a simple client-server application that monitors my computer remotely, has a reasonably small memory footprint and takes up 0% processing time for the most part. Cool!

So... I was daydreaming today and wondered whether it was realistic to use AutoIT to create real commercial quality programs... It seems to be a very powerful language that's capable of performing just about any task I can think of (though, truthfully I really don't have much to reference it against.) Anyway, in a single click I can compile a script to an exe that will run on any Windows machine. I can probably figure out a way to tie such an exe to a basic installshield-type program, read and write registry keys and for the most part, quack like a real application.

Perhaps I won't obtain the kind of real-time performance that a C++ or assembly tweaked app gets, but considering I've proven my ability to hen peck my way through the function reference and ended up with some useful scripts in a matter of hours, I wondered whether I'm dreaming here, or if anyone has done or considered something along these lines already?

Incidentally, I'm aware that the AutoIT functions are available through DLLs so that other apps can take advantage of its functions, but what I'm wondering is whether AutoIT is worthy of being considered a standalone programming language in its own right... or have I just not run up against its limitations?

[autoitNOW]

I don't know about what others think, but I think AutoIT is not "there" yet as an Rapid Application Development platform when you compare it to various kinds of Basic/VB, Pascal, Limnor (codeless), Euphoria, etc... it also depends on the size of the apps that you are talking about too. For small apps, AutoIt is much closer to being "there".

I can see it getting "there" eventually (seeing how many people are using it now, maybe even as short as a year from now) and I think this will come about when more and better IDEs are developed for it or when there is more a focus on RAD. For now, AutoIt is like a "super script" language on massive steroids.

I also think that there is an issue over whether or not AutoIt will be more than just a script language and should be considered more like a programming language. Basic and Perl are example of languages that have gone through all kinds of changes in how people look at them. Interestingly, I like to compare AutoIT to WinBatch in terms of its development. At this point, short of making DLLs, you can also do nearly anything other program languages do. Actually, I think if the will was there, AutoIT could also solve the DLL problem in a way similar to Visual Basic by making Active X DLLs or something along those lines. AutoIT is develping so fast that the only thing anybody can really say is, "Stay tuned!".

Edited July 21, 2005 by autoitNOW

[scriptkitty]

In some ways I have to agree, but in other ways, I look at what people release as "professional" or "commercial quality programs" and I have to laugh. I am not saying autoit is a rapid application framework or anything, but when you need something done, it can do a lot.

AutoIt has come a long way, and it reminds me of PhP and MySQL. Free, easy to learn (long time to master,) yet capable of doing incredible things.

[flyingboz]

So... I was daydreaming today and wondered whether it was realistic to use AutoIT to create real commercial quality programs... It seems to be a very powerful language that's capable of performing just about any task I can think of

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, "commercial quality" is not the standard for which we are shooting. We aim MUCH higher, when you consider the amount of crap being sold. Au3 applications are "real" applications, they are not faking or emulating anything, nor do they require a runtime environment or .NET "framework".

A robust application is one that performs its designed tasks reliably, and is adequately error-checked to handle the unexpected or possible. Quality programming is quality programming, regardless of the language.

I have autoit programs performing operations that handle literally millions of dollars a week. They have done so without a single failure daily since I first wrote the scripts in Au2.

The stability, documentation, and Internet support of Au3 make it a perfectly legitamate language to consider programming anything for which its feature set allows. That feature set continues to get larger.

Will it ever be as fast and as powerfull as C++? No. But if it continues to be programmed well, regression checked properly, and utilized by programmers who care about it, it will continue to be a platform on which competent programmers can build robust solutions, without having to distribute MSVC*.dll, download and install a JRE, or build a house of sticks called a .NET "framework" big enough to build a mansion out of.

Edited July 22, 2005 by flyingboz