Tutorials

There are a few good tutorials with precise examples of working with AutoIt code.  Several are already listed in the menu at http://dundats.mvps.org/autoit/ and I hope to soon add this one to the list.
http://403forbidden.dyndns.org/?page_id=26

SQLite UDF

This is a great little library with only one minor drawback.  The SQLite.au3 file #Includes File.au3 (Which I seldom use at all) all for the sake of a little 6 or 8 line function.  Now what?
Simple, I'm going to copy that _TempFile() function into a new copy of SQLite.au3, give the function a new name, modify the calls to it with the new name, and then rename the SQLite.au3 file to SQLiteEx.au3.  That will solve the issue and the file changes are very simple with a script doing all the work.  I may even go so far as to make a copy of SQLite.dll.au3 and call it SQLiteEx.dll.au3 and make the asociated chnages for that as well.  Yes there is a reason for doing it and I'll go into those details at a later time.

_GUI Library functions

While I realize that it was a lot of work re-writing PaulIA's old library functions, the one thing I certainly don't appreciate is the lost functionality.  They definitly needed work but at least the functions you needed were there.
I don't know who made the decision about what should be removed and what should simply be changed but somewhere along the way things got messed up.  On top of that, most of the examples are total garbage.  They simply don't apply to what the average user is going to need.  I'm also very well aware that I'm not the only one that feels this way, not by a longshot and when it come time to prune down the size of the AutoIt install I'm very apt to suggest that they can all be removed since it's a total waste of time trying to work with them.

That's my gripe for today.  Feel free to comment but I'm not in the mood to argue about them and if we get into an argument... you lose.

Scripting for cash

There has been a suggestion recently that a forum where people could request a script and then people could bid to write that script for them with some of the proceeds going to AutoItScript.com.  On the surface it would appear to be a good suggestion and is primarily the same as RentACoder.  I'm not at all sure just how practical it would be in the end.  There is a tremendous amount of potential for abuse and indeed even for malicious code to be inserted.  In order for it to work as intended, I think it would require a lot of oversight by moderators as well as a registry of users who are able to code the scripts properly.  Making it onto that list would require a high level of AutoIt skills and the code would then have to be checked by someone to make sure there is nothing malicious happening in it.  Most of the forum moderators are already overburdened with their own work and their forum duties, so who is going to do all this moderating?

Then there is the question of payment.
Just what is the best way to go about making sure that everything is collected for and the proceeds properly apportioned?  Can we trust everyone to collect and then forward the correct amount to AutoItScript.com or not?  If not then again it takes someone to handle the bookwork and collections.  Should there be a minimum charge for the service?

My last question for today is;
Does Jon want this type of service running as a part of the forums?  It's really up to him and long discussions about how it could be incorporated and indeed whether or not it should be incorporated are moot at this point.
Personally, it is going to take a lot more thought and some input from Jon before I will decide whether or not to support such an undertaking.

PCRE Toolkit Question

I've been asked why the database for the libraries uses binary data.  The answer is simple enough, because of some characters used in the Regular expressions, databases wouldn't play nicely so there were 2 possible solutions.

• Use Binary
• Escape the stored data

The second may have been a bit more user friendly since it would allow the user to edit the data directly in the database, however the binary method was one that I'm very familiar with and has worked well in the past.  I now have a couple of simple escape functions (compliments of jchd) for the database and I may indeed switch to method 2 at some point in the future.  There is definitely no rush because anything that should be edited by the user can be done with the edit button on the Library tab.  The new version includes a new database table that includes some application settings and the editor does not have access to that table.

Another question.
Why can't I delete the Samples library?  You can as long as it's not the default library.  In order to do that, at least one other library must exist and you must change the default to a different library.

Whats in store for the next release?  Hopefully I'll get rid of the Up/Down buttons and make it so you can move an item just by dragging it where you want it to go.  I'm also considering having new libraries available for download at some point and that may be started in time for the next release.  I'm also going to attempt to get at the much hated documentation.

Enjoy what there is and check back for changes.

You can either report bugs to me through a PM in the AutoIt forums or by leaving comments on this blog.

PCRE Toolkit Beta

Announcement:
The newest beta release of the toolkit is now available for download.  Currently only available as an installer file.  The source code is available by request only.

Available at
http://dundats.mvps.org/beta/pcretest.zip

Extract the Setup.exe file from the Zip and install it.
Stay tuned, there are yet more features in progress and I will update the file as they are completed.

What's new? too many things to list but for openers, the button to make the selected library item the current expression is now gone.  Just double click the library item and it's taken care of.

Edit: Updated June 11, 2010 (mainly cosmetic)
Edit: Updated June 04, 2010
    Now with a new tab for running commands using @ComSpec and reading the StdIO stream so you can check things like Ping 127.0.0.1
Edit:  Updated   May 19, 2010
Edit:  Updated   May 10, 2010
Download was updated May 06 /2010

Now with the ability to insert standard RegEx elements into your expression from the Expression>> Insert menus.