What's the difference between AHK_Basic and AHK_L?

3
votes

I've noticed that some AutoHotkey scripts specify that they were created specifically for either AHK_Basic or AHK_L.

From searching AHK questions on Stack Overflow, AHK_L seems to be the more popular variant, with one question asking how to enable AHK_L features in AHK_Basic.

  • What's the difference between AHK_Basic and AHK_L?
  • How can I tell which version I have?
  • Which version is distributed on the AutoHotkey website?
1
autohotkey
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoHotkey – Ken White
I found an answer to my question on the AHK forums. (Posted as a comment to avoid taking credit for someone else's answer – Stevoisiak
AHK_Basic and AHK_L are not to be confused with AHK_H. – Laurie Stearn

1 Answers

2
votes

TL;DR: Any official version of AutoHotkey released within the past six years is based on AutoHotkey_L.

AutoHotkey Basic refers to AutoHotkey 1.0, while AutoHotkey_L refers to AutoHotkey 1.1

This is confirmed on the AutoHotkey download page:

  • AutoHotkey 1.1.* - previously known as AutoHotkey_L.
  • AutoHotkey 1.0.* - also retroactively known as AutoHotkey Basic, Classic, Vanilla, etc.
  • AutoHotkey 2.0-a* - see AutoHotkey v2.

Source: AutoHotkey: Downloads

AutoHotkey_L was originally a fork of Autohotkey created by Lexicos. To distinguish between the original AHK and Lexicos's fork, users began referring to them as AHK_Basic and AHK_L respectively.

AHK_L was at one time a very popular fork of AHK, and when AHK's creator began to lose interest in maintaining the official branch many people called for AHK_L to be designated as the official branch of the program.

It took some years to decide to make AHK_L the official branch, so in the meantime users here coined the terms "AHK Basic" and "AHK_L" to help users distinguish between the different versions. But since AHK_L is now the official branch, it is AHK and there's no need to distinguish.

Source: Post by sinkface on AHK_Basic vs. AHK_L, what's the difference?

AutoHotkey_L was made the official branch of AutoHotkey in 2012. The source code can be found at https://github.com/Lexikos/AutoHotkey_L

If you're curious, the source code for AutoHotkey Basic (1.0.x) is publicly available on GitHub. The last non-readme update for AHK Basic was made on September 25, 2009. (v1.0.48.05).