Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Scripting on Windows: a generic scripter for old apps

Author:Michael Winser
Posted:1/12/1999; 10:26:35 AM
Topic:Scripting on Windows
Msg #:2028 (In response to 2026)
Prev/Next:2027 / 2029

In a general sense it would be nice to have a generic tool for scripting non scriptable apps. Simply being able to launch an app and then simulate keystrokes or specifically declared menu items would be very nice.

In some cases this is very straightfoward. In other cases it can be very complex as more and more apps are doing menus on the fly or menus that aren't built using the standard windows menu (and as such are harder to spy on). The good news is, most of these newer more advanced applications (e.g. IE, Office) are already scriptable.

Think of the old recorder applet and add script.

BTW, writing this is by no means trivial. Windows NT inter-app security makes it a lot harder to record another app's activity or even to simulate mouse events and keystrokes. It can and has been done but it isn't nearly as easy as it was in Windows 3.x.

Michael

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