Autoit vs lower level language

[faldo]

I love autoit, in fact i've never bothered learning another language since autoit has so much to offer... but to be honest i feel a bit ashamed when ppl ask me what language i know and i have to tell them that i program in a scripting language.

So i have to ask you guys, if i were to "grow up" and take the step into learning a slightly lower level of language, maybe not as low as ASM but easier to understand that C/C++... what language would resemble Autoit the most, making the transision as painless as possible.

I know some of you are gonna say that C/C++ is easy... well, that's because you already know it! There are lots of other languages out there, are there something that resembles Autoit at all? Is VB-script more powerfull? Is Python an alterative?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[Authenticity]

VB.NET because AutoIt is mainly and only for Windows based systems. VB.NET is one of the better developing environment for, surprisingly, Windows (of-course after AutoIt );].

It's depended on your needs.

Real-time code can't be written in Java for example, but making C/C++ programs inter-platform compatible is very hard unlike coding in Java that is able to run on any platform that SunJava is installed on.

I'd recommend to learn C/C++ because it reveals the principles that many high-level languages use like encapsulation, polymorphism and so forth, is also a good start for later use for Windows for example.

Edited March 8, 2009 by Authenticity

[Melba23]

faldo,

My first reaction is: Do NOT "feel a bit ashamed" when you say you program in AutoIt! The fundamentals of programming are not language dependent - good habits you acquire with AutoIt will stand you in good stead over your programming career - bad ones will do the opposite (you have been warned!). :-)

Next language up? Probably C/C++ for the same reasons - it offers a grounding in the elements of high-level programming that you will need if you want to move on in the future.

Of course, if you want to stay a hobbyist coder like me - just stick with AutoIt!

M23

[E1M1]

C++ is nice language, but it is hard to understand it, I cant even understand examples from beginner's tutorial.In C++ you will have 10+ lines code that does same as 1 line code in autoit.

Basic is good if you already had programming experience on autoit and you want extend your programming skills, but If you want earn money as programmer, you should learn C/C++,php, maybe mysql and so on.

Basic is easy and its more like autoit.

E1M1

[ACS]

Another vote for C/C++ here. Mainly because many languages out there nowadays are pseudo-C, and if you know C you can pick up on these very easily.

C++ is nice language, but it is hard to understand it, I cant even understand examples from beginner's tutorial.In C++ you will have 10+ lines code that does same as 1 line code in autoit.

Well of course; C++ is a much lower-level language than AutoIt, which means you have WAY more control over what happens.

Java is good for cross-platform apps, but since it's compiled to bytecode and not native code it tends to run slower.

Although I don't know it myself, I've heard excellent things about Python. This is one language that enforces nicely-formatted code, because apparently it's part of the language syntax.

And I'll have to throw in a final vote for one of my favourite languages, C#. This language was introduced with .NET and it's fantastic for cranking out GUIs with easy-to-write code. It's got a plethora of libraries that will handle most of what you need already. But this language is not cross-platform (unless you count the open-source implementation called Mono) and it tends to run a bit slower as well, since it's compiled-on-demand.

I would advise against VB, since it really doesn't teach good programming practices. I'm not sure how VB.NET is since I've never really used it, but to be honest, many people consider VB to be kind of a joke.

Edited March 8, 2009 by ACS