Introductory learn to program text using Au3

[Jfish]

Wow, 3 years of hard work! you deserve a gold medal!

Thanks but I it was not exactly that.  I started it last year and probably had an older version installed at the time.  Also, I don't want anyone to think I hammered it out all day every day.  It was several weekends over the course of a several months. 

[Jfish]

@Jfish how technically you are create this PDF ?

Which program / tool you are using ?

 

I used Word "Save As" -> PDF.  I am not a PDF expert by any stretch.  I created the artwork in Photoshop working off an image I purchased from Shutterstock as the background.  The rest is just standard Word with a TOC saved as a PDF.

[TheDcoder]

@mLipok http://www.pcworld.com/article/253618/how_to_use_microsoft_word_to_create_an_ebook.html

[mLipok]

@TheDcoder

I know how to use Word. The question was is it word ? Open Office ? or other tool ?
After @Jfish answers I know that it be easy to make any other description and just copy paste to the main document.

 

btw.

https://www.autoitscript.com/wiki/Tutorials#Learn_To_Program_Using_FREE_Tools_with_AutoIt

 

[Jon]

Few proposals:

• Add a quick description how to use forum.
• Add a quick description about why and how to use Wiki

EDIT:

Such editorial amendments: Is each chapter can start on a new page?

 

I think anything more than a resources page with a few links to the forum and wiki is overkill  

[Jfish]

@TheSaint

Are you going to add a History element in at all?

I assume you mean a history of the AutoIt language?  If so, I don't think I would because in my mind that would be better suited for the help file.

[guinness]

Agreed. No need to duplicate what has already been written.

[JohnOne]

Quite extensive so have not had time to look at it all, but what I have seen is great, and it's very obvious to me the time and effort put into it.

Fantastic work 

[mLipok]

I think anything more than a resources page with a few links to the forum and wiki is overkill  

Ok but actualy there is no any kind of link, so my idea with your correction is ok.
I hope @Jfish will use it as good proposals.

 

[Jfish]

Seems written in a gentle yet persuasive manner.  Good read so far!  Have noticed a few minor typos:

Page 6:

1) "We will start of by studying core concepts and will demonstrate them in actual programs that you can build and run."  of to off

Page 7:

1) "And did I mention it was FREE."  Should that have a question mark?

2) "That vocabulary word is not terribly important at the moment other than to note that the there are other names for other types of numbers." that the there

3) "So what’s in a name you ask? What difference does it make what I call a number that I want to use?" Make it more literal otherwise it seems like you're asking the reader this question.

"So what's in a name?  What difference does it make what I call a number that I want to use," you ask?  Somehting like that.

Page 8

1) "Many languages will make you “declare” your datatype before you starting using it." Starting to start

2) "One of the nice things about AutoIt is that is a “looser” language." is that it is

Page 11

1) "Likewise, using <=18 to determine who is not eligible would lead to the false conclusion that someone who’s age is equal to 18 is not eligible." who's to whose

Page 12

1) "Many of them are intuitive because we have seen t hem before outside of programming." "t hem"

@jaberwacky - I incorporated your changes and am impressed at how fast you posted them after my original post.  Geez, you missed your calling as an editor.  Thanks.

[Jfish]

I am only curious, but the examples and help file screenshots are from v3.3.8.1. Is there a reason for this?

Also this is wrong...

MsgBox("", ..., ...) ; Should ideally be an integer/messagebox constant

PS I can see it's a lot of work, so for that I say thank you. I have many suggestions/changes, but feel it's out of scope of what the PDF is for.

@guinness -  please forgive my ignorance here as I try to incorporate your comment I gather that you mean it is a general misuse of msgbox is it in passing the blank string as the first parameter?  If so, I confess guilt on that on a regular basis .  I will try to address that - but may take some time because I think there are multiple message boxes in the examples that do that. I will save that treat for the weekend  .

[Jfish]

I too have found a few things so far. All pretty minor, and I haven't read a lot yet ... have a slight headache tonight.

Chapter 16 Compiling: Making youR programs into executables ............................................................... 142

Be more professional to say programs rather than progs I reckon.

As long as you follow the forum rules and are courteous you will NEARLY always get a super-fast response that guides you in the right direction.

As a testament to that there is a section in the forum that contains example applications and it is filled with many stunning entries that you can download, use, and even OFTEN change to suit your own needs.

 

Apart from spelling error, all pretty minor, but more correct.

I am pretty amazed at how much you have done so far, and it reads pretty well so far.

Are you going to add a History element in at all?

 

@TheSaint - I picked up your changes.  They will be in the next draft.  Thanks again.

[jaberwacky]

Geez, you missed your calling as an editor.

I tell myself that a lot actually.

[TheSaint]

@TheSaint

I assume you mean a history of the AutoIt language?  If so, I don't think I would because in my mind that would be better suited for the help file.

Fair enough, though a small/brief overview for those not yet at the Help file point, would round off your book nicely I reckon ... give it a sense of completeness ... as far as that could ever be the case anyway.

In fact, just a quick overview and mention of further history information in the Help file and Wiki, would be the trick I reckon.

P.S. Perhaps as just an addendum at the end.

Edited July 24, 2015 by TheSaint

[guinness]

@Jfish, you're not the only one. In the help file we use

MsgBox($MB_SYSTEMMODAL, "", "Example message box") ; $MB_SYSTEMMODAL is better than 4096, as 4096 has little meaning if you don't look it up

; Or if you would like...

MsgBox($MB_OK, "", "Example message box") ; Again $MB_OK is clear as to what it will show compared to 0 or ""

As AutoIt isn't statically typed, "" becomes 0 e.g. If 0 = "" Then will result in true. Though I personally try to be explicit with everything, so I would write that as If 0 = Int("") Then I know I am comparing two integers.

Honestly though, I do take the JavaScript approach these days with triple equals (in AutoIt it's two) by which I compare both type and value (I noticed you didn't have this in the table =D)

What do you think this displays?

#include <MsgBoxConstants.au3>

Local $iAge = 20
Local $sAge = '20'

If $iAge == $sAge Then
    MsgBox($MB_SYSTEMMODAL, '', 'They are equal')
Else
    MsgBox($MB_SYSTEMMODAL, '', 'They are NOT equal')
EndIf

If $iAge = $sAge Then
    MsgBox($MB_SYSTEMMODAL, '', 'They are equal')
Else
    MsgBox($MB_SYSTEMMODAL, '', 'They are NOT equal')
EndIf

For some they would be like "what the h...?!"

Edited July 24, 2015 by guinness
Code highlighting is broken in my browser!

[Jfish]

New version (1.1.0) posted that includes all the suggested changes (THANK YOU) with the exception of @Guinness' MsgBox note.  That is perfectly legit and when I catch my second wind I will circle back on it (requires wholesale gutting of most code snippet images).  This pass took a long time because I cross referenced each code snippet, made sure I had it on file (and if not, I recreated it).  Then I organized the code by directories and example numbers that matched the text in the book.  Finally, I pushed out the updated text and companion code file(s) .  More to follow after my eyes un-cross.  As always, comments and suggestions most welcome.

Edited July 26, 2015 by Jfish

[jaberwacky]

Chapter Four:

Page Thirteen:

1) "Once their site you will see a section for downloads." Once on

2) You use their and they to refer to Jon's site.  I wonder if you should mention Jon specifically or reword it so that it refers to a single site owner?

3) "If they re-design their site it could move but as of the printing of this book you can find it here:" colon rather than a full stop

Page Sixteen:

1) "NOTE: the versions numbers change with each release." versions --> version

2) "Next you will be in the installer that will walk you through the options to install the AutoIt applications." application

Page Seventeen

1)  "The next screen is asking ..."  Seems like it should be, "The next screen asks...".

Page Twenty-Two:

1) "Scite (we will use this to edit scripts)" SciTE

2) Images are too big for the table.

Page Twenty-Three:

1) "Scite is the tool we will use to create, edit, and run our programs." SciTE ... Might want to do a general whole file search & replace for this.

2) "It has a built in syntax for AutoIt that will help make our code more readable." syntax highlighter

3) "also known as script" as a

Page Twenty-Six:

1) "We could optionally supply a timeout parameter so that the message box closes automatically after so many seconds or we could leave it our entirely and it will use the default behavior that requires a user to click “OK” to close it." leave it our --> leave it out

2) "The hwnd optional parameter is a bit advanced for purposes of this discussion but is handles are basically ways to refer to resources that we want to interact with." "for the purpose of this" and "but is handles" to "but handles".  Also, this might really be a run-on sentence.  Seems like it should be broken into two at the end of "discussion".  Also, the introductory explanation of handles assumes that the reader knows that hwnd is a handle.

Page Twenty-Seven:

1) "Now go back to Scite and select Tools from the top menu, then “Go” (this is how we run the script):" quoted "Go" but not "Tools".

2) "Next, save the file with the name hello world.au3" hello world.au3 not within quotes.

Page Twenty-Nine:

1) "This is different than when we passed a blank argument to the optional parameter of flag." flag is not an optional parameter.

[Jfish]

@jaberwacky Thanks again!  Good stuff.  I plan to turn another version over the weekend if possible.  Whew ... lots of work but I think it is shaping up.  I appreciate everyone's comments and interest.  If anyone else has any comments please shoot them over and I will try to incorporate them on the next pass.

[Jfish]

V 1.2 has been loaded.  It incorporates the last round of comments I received on this thread (special thanks to @jaberwacky), addresses the MsgBox issue from @Guinness, gutted all images that showed a message box (of which there were many) and replaced them with new images, added an Appendix containing all the code samples for those who don't want a separate file, and some other small tweaks.  Once thing that I lost seems to be the ability to upload a preview image for the download page.  I am not sure why that is?  The files I have placed up there are about 5.2 MB total.  ***I even zipped the file and git it down to 4.6MB ... still no luck***.  The image disappeared when I was doing my update and attempts to put it back (file size about 220MB) seem to be failing.  Any advice on that would be appreciated.

***NEW***: I also published it to the Amazon site as a Kindle pub.  They make you charge a fee but I will donate back 100% of the proceeds (if any) to the forum.  Pass the link along if you want: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0137EKESI

 

 

Edited August 2, 2015 by Jfish
New file size referenced.

[Jfish]

Still having problems trying to put the cover back.  I looked at the HTTP traffic on the browser and it gives an OK response.  Not sure why it does not take?

Maybe this should be a separate thread somewhere but I am not sure if it is just my issue (user error / file sizes etc) or something with the site.

Edited August 2, 2015 by Jfish