Creative ways to time scripts?

What I mean by "creative" is to avoid using Wait/Pause/Whatever
commands, but commands that also don't do anything. The command
would try to get the system to tell when the current program is
ready for input and the next script line should be executed. I
realize that is a difficult task, and that timing oftentimes depends
on the circumstance. Any guesses would be appreciated.

My application for scripting is typically within Windows
applications other than Internet Explorer.

Thank you.

Anthony
Fri May 12 07:23:07 CDT 2006


"John Doe" <jdoe@usenetlove.invalid> wrote in message
news:Xns97C0880B085F0123456789@207.115.17.102...
> What I mean by "creative" is to avoid using Wait/Pause/Whatever
> commands, but commands that also don't do anything. The command
> would try to get the system to tell when the current program is
> ready for input and the next script line should be executed. I
> realize that is a difficult task, and that timing oftentimes depends
> on the circumstance. Any guesses would be appreciated.
>

It's not clear what you want to acheive and/or why.

The command is part of the current program or a shelled program?

Perhaps if you outlined a scenario it would be clearer.



> My application for scripting is typically within Windows
> applications other than Internet Explorer.
>

John
Fri May 12 17:37:36 CDT 2006

"Anthony Jones" <Ant yadayadayada.com> wrote:

> "John Doe" <jdoe usenetlove.invalid> wrote in message
> news:Xns97C0880B085F0123456789 207.115.17.102...
>> What I mean by "creative" is to avoid using Wait/Pause/Whatever
>> commands, but commands that also don't do anything. The command
>> would try to get the system to tell when the current program is
>> ready for input and the next script line should be executed. I
>> realize that is a difficult task, and that timing oftentimes
>> depends on the circumstance. Any guesses would be appreciated.
>>
>
> It's not clear what you want to acheive and/or why.

I wonder the same about Visual Basic Scripting programmers/users.

>
> The command is part of the current program or a shelled program?

The script could be for either.

>
> Perhaps if you outlined a scenario it would be clearer.

I'm talking about running a script that manipulates data and/or
Windows. Either in a single program or systemwide (in Windows of
course). Running a script without manually entered timing is often
impossible, the program/system cannot keep up. I have been writing
macros/scripts since Windows 3.1's Macro Recorder. Systemwide
macroing/scripting has been so much fun, I wrote my own macro
recorder in C++. Before switching to Windows XP, I nearly perfected
playback so that manually entered timing was not necessary.
Something went wrong when I switched to Visual C++2003 in Windows
XP, it might have been a simple programming mistake on my part. But
at the same time I switched to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional
and voice activated scripting. The benefit of voice activation is
extreme in that you have practically unlimited two syllable
activators as opposed to a very limited number of keyboard shortcut
activators, so I have mostly forgotten about my program. Apparently
the commands available in DNS are similar to Visual Basic Scripting.

When you write a script, do you use timing commands? Wouldn't you
rather have the script execute as fast as possible without having to
guess at how much time the program/system needs?






>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: "Anthony Jones" <Ant yadayadayada.com>
> References: <Xns97C0880B085F0123456789 207.115.17.102>
> Subject: Re: Creative ways to time scripts?
> Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 13:23:07 +0100
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John
Sat May 13 09:31:47 CDT 2006

"Anthony Jones" <Ant@yadayadayada.com> wrote:

>
> "John Doe" <jdoe@usenetlove.invalid> wrote in message
> news:Xns97C0880B085F0123456789@207.115.17.102...
>> What I mean by "creative" is to avoid using Wait/Pause/Whatever
>> commands, but commands that also don't do anything. The command
>> would try to get the system to tell when the current program is
>> ready for input and the next script line should be executed. I
>> realize that is a difficult task, and that timing oftentimes
>> depends on the circumstance. Any guesses would be appreciated.
>>
>
> It's not clear what you want to acheive and/or why.
>
> The command is part of the current program or a shelled program?
>
> Perhaps if you outlined a scenario it would be clearer.

A recent post is one of a million examples.

Message-ID: <D988A177-1BEC-4FDA-9424-61829C0F8093 microsoft.com>

He needs to know when a file has been completely downloaded so that
he can copy that file. Using a generic timing method for playback,
that probably would be difficult if not impossible to do without
help from the operating system.

My best effort, before moving to Windows XP, would properly time
file operations in Windows Explorer.

Message-ID: <Xns9545963F8C237wisdomfolly 66.150.105.41>

The playback timing is dynamic so that many script operations within
Windows will not begin until the prior operation is complete. For
example, I could delete an entire directory that would take two or
three seconds, and the next operation in the script which depended
on the new directory structure would not execute until the end of
that directory deletion operation. The idea is pretty simple, to get
your script to wait until the program has finished with your script
directed operation, to wait until the application(s) has finished
processing input, and to do that programmatically without polling.

What I'm talking about with Visual Basic Scripting VBS is not to
rewrite the code responsible for playing script lines (I guess that
would be Windows Scripting Host, or whatever), but to
programmatically insert do-nothing commands that can help with
timing.

I don't expect active cooperation from the operating system, but
there's lot of room for hacking.