How to get an AHK console?

5
votes

I'm constantly trying to run quick tests in AHK. It's a pain to have to think of a new hot key, write all the environmental variables, save, build, etc. I'd like to be able to type out a short test, press enter, and get some feedback from AHK.

Where is the AHK console? / Is there a way to run quick commands from a console-type entity?

For instance: I'd type Run, Notepad in an AHK console, press enter, Notepad opens, and some feedback is displayed in the console. Then I can go back, play around with options, press enter, etc. So it would look like this:

> Run, Notepad
Running Notepad.exe
Activating Window Untitled - Notepad, ahk_class Notepad, ahk_id ...
Window Active
> Run, NotARealThing
Error: Could not find 'NotARealThing'
>

Things I've tried

  1. GirlGamer's "Script for quick run of scripts" However...

    • I get an error at Run, TempScript.ahk because the system could not find it, even though FileAppend is supposed to create a new file if it doesn't exist.
    • With that said, the GUI (^!W) is pretty close to what I'm looking for. But, I'd like to press Enter and have it run, and Shift+Enter goes to the next line...
    • Also there's no feedback in the window. It would be nice to see everything AHK is doing while it's processing my quick test.

  2. AutoHotkey Console Log/WriteLine Equivalent.

    • Initially I thought this was the solution, but it says "If you run this from console..." What console?

    • Furthermore, it claims you can do something like > AutoHotKey test.ahk but I see a few problems with this:

    • My system doesn't recognize AutoHotKey as a command. I'm sure this means I simply need to add the path to AutoHotKey.exe to my PATH variable.
    • Will this only allow me to run saved files? If so, That defeats the purpose of having a console to run quick tests.
    • "AutoHotKey" is not something I want to type every time I run a quick test. I'd much rather run a console from SCiTE4AHK and do rapid tests there.

  3. SCiTE4AHK but I don't see anything that says "console" there...

  4. Hachi's answer to "Best way for debug ?"

    • "so run from console myscript.ahk >log.txt or myscript.ahk |more"

    • Is this referring to an actual AHK console, or that his script would create a console-esque entity?

  5. Also a bunch of Google search results. But it seems like everything refers to the console, never how to actually get to the console. What am I missing?

2
autohotkey

2 Answers

7
votes

Ahk doesn't work like that, out of the box. The Console they are referring to is the Windows Command console. Now with that said:

Check this out: https://github.com/G33kDude/Console And this: https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6113

0
votes

For CodeQuickTester, copy the code (found here), put it in a new .ahk file, and build it to start the AHK console. It doesn't have the Enter functionality you wanted, but you can easily set that up if you want.

You can also setup a script to launch the console, like this:

; win+c launches the AutoHotKey Console
#c::
    Run, AHK_Console.ahk, C:\path\to\ahk\scripts
Return