Script languages such as AHK (Auto Hot Key), FastTrack, and PowerShell are descendants of the Batch file platform of the old days. Used originally for file access and manipulation, and of course, process automation, all of these languages today are capable of significantly more.
Important to consider that automation in the old days amounted to calling an application, perhaps with a command line argument; or, archiving data files to floppy disks – and all in a stand alone pc environment.
Today even simple process automation involves more complicated server environments, dealing with firewalls, multi-users, multi-tasking and more. These 3 scripting languages are all similar but each has advantages over the others. Next up we’ll review an example of process automation using AHK.