Charles Ledvina wrote:
|Yes, AutoIt is really cool, but according to my experience AutoIt
|cannot read the Millennium client screen, which is a real drag.  A
|body is able cut keystrokes with it but you do have to babysit the
|process.

I'd like to disagree slightly with your complaint.  I've been writing
scripts that automate Millennium with AutoIt for the past 3 years.
Initially, I had the same complaints and ranted numerous times about
them (see my OML site).  However, with increased experience and
experimentation, I've found that one can figure out many workarounds
that can accomplish things *without* being able to read certain portions
of a screen, and I've incorporated these kinds of things into my
scripting here.

My biggest complaint at the current time is that the III Millennium
modules run just barely faster than a human can interact with them.  III
seems to be completely uncognizant--no, uninterested or even
*ignorant*--of the fact that a computer, rather than a human, might be
"sitting at" the keyboard.  This means that, although in theory scripts
should be able to operate speedily, in Millennium's case scripts have to
be slowed down quite considerably so that Millennium can keep up with
them.  Actually writing scripts to do useful stuff is relatively simple
compared to the effort that has to be put in to make them work with
Millennium.  This screen synchronization issue (that is, keeping
Millennium "in sync" with a script, especially over lengthy repetitive
processes) is, in my opinion, often even more challenging than being
able to "read" the Millennium screens.

Another related complaint I have nowadays is that, as one writes scripts
and tests/runs them with Millennium, it becomes painfully obvious that
III has nowhere near completely documented the system for customers in
terms of situations and error messages that can occur and which "screw
up" scripts.  Successful script writing depends upon the exact operation
of the system being automated.  After all, a system working the way it's
documented is standard business practice.  Apparently not with III,
however!  It is quite daunting when "the unexpected" occurs,
particularly when it's not documented as a possibility.  We're part of a
small INN-Reach consortium, and it's been one unexpected INN-Reach
surprise after another as we've tried to automate our *own* (not
INN-Reach) system to do various things.

FWIW.

Harvey

--
===========================================
Harvey E. Hahn, Manager, Technical Services Department
Arlington Heights (Illinois) Memorial Library
847/506-2644 - FX: 847/506-2650 - Email: hhahn(at)ahml(dot)info
OML & Scripts web pages: http://www.ahml.info/oml/
Personal web pages: http://users.anet.com/~packrat