Messages

OK, thanks Paul, sorry it's taken a while to get back to this. I can confirm that I've ensured my code follows the requirements for forever loops and it's now completely consistent and completely solid.

I'll try the logging thing.

But unless the clicks are getting buffered in some way, a loop of 5000 takes a noticeable amount of time to complete. 5000 clicks x 25 milliseconds is 125 seconds, or just over 2 minutes. I can terminate a 5000 loop after 5 seconds with a single Esc and it'll stop. If I try to terminate a forever loop without a test for Esc by pressing the Esc key, even after 5 seconds, it'll continue indefinitely -- which is what's happening with the update, even by holding Esc down. (The only way out of a forever loop without a test is to hold Esc down then right-click on Toolbox and exit without letting go of the Esc key.)

But I really have to go now. I understand what you're saying but I don't think it quite aligns with what's actually happening. I'll try to get back to this tomorrow.

Thanks, Paul, I'll give it a go.

It's still bugging me slightly that Esc fails in a forever loop even if it's pressed more or less straight away, but doesn't fail in a finite (say 5000) loop whenever it's pressed. But I'll try the update and see what happens.

(Might not be today, though, we're going to see some flavour of Queen tribute act in a bit and probably not worrying about loops very much during it!)

To add to this -- my early actions were made in the functional group it seemed like they belonged in, alongside all the examples that get made by the "add default actions" and the ones that are already there.

Which made sense to me but I kept forgetting where I'd put them, for some reason. It's me age, I expect.

So I've now moved everything I've made and some of the existing ones I've modified extensively into a single group ("My Useful Stuff!") and it occurs to me that the ability to back up a whole group off a right-click would also be a Useful Thing.

I was starting to think it was something external to Toolbox meaning me seeing something different to you! Thanks for confirming the issue  

And yes, sometimes I probably am that annoying edge case. If that's the phrase.

Hi Paul,

Try this. Notepad fullscreen, Toolbox minimised. The test from previously, with a single modification, then try to abort it with Esc.

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 String: Assign "10000"
0002 Action: Repeat this block "string$"
0003  Macro: Type keys or use mouse "{@300,450}{leftclick}{z25}"
0004 Action: End of block ""
(End)


Esc stops it and it (a) doesn't restart, and (b) doesn't crash Toolbox.

Change the parameter in line 1 by adding a pair of zeroes to the end, try again. This time, the loop stutters and continues until you hold Esc down and, once it's stopped, the crash happens.

Now do you see why I think it's a bug?

I've rewritten the code to simplify things a bit. Well, quite a lot. It's now just a forever loop.

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 Action: Comment "This macro was targeted for: Cookie Clicker"
0002 Action: Comment "You can edit the 'Window: Assign' step to change the target."
0003 Window: Assign "Cookie Clicker.exe"
0004 Macro: For assigned window only "1"
0005 Window: Activate for use ""
0006 Macro: Typing speed "def"
0007 Alert: Ask for a choice "Where is Cookie Clicker?~External monitor~Laptop screen~"
0008 Action: Do next step if "alert$=blank$"
0009   Action: Finish ""
0010 Action: Repeat this block "forever"
0011   Action: Do next step if "alert$=External monitor"
0012   Macro: Type keys or use mouse "{@370,600}{leftclick}{z25}"
0013   Action: Do next step if "alert$=Laptop screen"
0014   Macro: Type keys or use mouse "{@300,450}{leftclick}{z25}"
0015   Action: Do next step if "{esc}=1"
0016   Action: Finish ""
0017 Action: End of block ""
0018 Action: Finish ""
(End)
I thought about posting this in the Tips area but I remain determined that 15 and 16 shouldn't be necessary (and don't need to be present if the loop's set to repeat for, say, 10000 steps), and that the coding's very specific to a two-monitor setup where the monitors have different characteristics, so it's barely even a template...

And I only mention it at all because my first go at this routine set string$ to the appropriate coordinates then tried to click {@string$} and it didn't work. So maybe that's a request?

OK, that seems to fix it. Still don't really understand why the "forever" loop behaves differently to the finite version but a fix is a fix

I think you can test it with anything. Open notepad fullscreen and let it rip.

As far as I can tell, it's utterly reliable as long as you're not triggering the forever parameter on the block that starts on line 11. Only one Esc required to terminate it. If it's running indefinitely (or, previously, with a very large number for the loop) then a single Esc causes a hiccup and a continue, then Esc needs to be leaned on, then Toolbox (quietly) crashes. No errors, nothing like that, it just goes away.

For what it's worth, I've reworked it slightly so I don't have to remember which coordinates I want the mouse to click at. The action now looks like this:

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 Action: Comment "This macro was targeted for: Cookie Clicker"
0002 Action: Comment "You can edit the 'Window: Assign' step to change the target."
0003 Window: Assign "Cookie Clicker.exe"
0004 Macro: For assigned window only "1"
0005 Window: Activate for use ""
0006 Macro: Typing speed "def"
0007 Alert: Ask for a choice "Where is Cookie Clicker?~External monitor~Laptop screen~"
0008 Action: Do this block if "alert$=External monitor"
0009   Alert: Ask for a line of text "How many clicks?"
0010   String: Assign "alert$"
0011   Action: Do next step if "string$>99999"
0012   String: Assign "forever"
0013   Action: Repeat this block "string$"
0014   Macro: Type keys or use mouse "{@370,600}{leftclick}{z25}"
0015   Action: End of block ""
0016 Action: End of block ""
0017 Action: Do this block if "alert$=Laptop screen"
0018   Alert: Ask for a line of text "How many clicks?"
0019   String: Assign "alert$"
0020   Action: Do next step if "string$>99999"
0021   String: Assign "forever"
0022   Action: Repeat this block "string$"
0023   Macro: Type keys or use mouse "{@300,450}{leftclick}{z25}"
0024   Action: End of block ""
(End)
However, I think you could test just by opening notepad fullscreen and running a script that just consisted of lines 21-24 then aborting it with Esc after 20 seconds or so.

I've just tried it.

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 String: Assign "forever"
0002 Action: Repeat this block "string$"
0003   Macro: Type keys or use mouse "{@300,450}{leftclick}{z25}"
0004 Action: End of block ""
(End)
You won't see much happening, apart from the flickering of the Toolbox icon in the notification area, but you should see exactly what I mean when you try to stop the loop.

Oh. Well, that was a quick experiment.

The updated code is:

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 Action: Comment "This macro was targeted for: Cookie Clicker"
0002 Action: Comment "You can edit the 'Window: Assign' step to change the target."
0003 Window: Assign "Cookie Clicker.exe"
0004 Macro: For assigned window only "1"
0005 Window: Activate for use ""
0006 Macro: Typing speed "def"
0007 Alert: Ask for a line of text "How many clicks?"
0008 String: Assign "alert$"
0009 Action: Do next step if "string$>99999"
0010   String: Assign "forever"
0011 Action: Repeat this block "string$"
0012   Action: Comment "Next line is for external monitor, line after for internal"
0013   Macro: Type keys or use mouse "{@370,600}{leftclick}{z25}"
0014   ;Macro: Type keys or use mouse "{@300,450}{leftclick}{z25}"
0015 Action: End of block ""
(End)
So it works, as far as it goes. Asking for 1000 clicks in line 7 delivers 1000 clicks then ends. Asking for 5000 clicks in line 7 and then interrupting (with Esc) after a thousand or two aborts processing as expected.

Asking for 5000000 clicks should set the block repeat instruction in line 11 to "forever" -- and apparently does. However, while it clicks away cheerfully at the assigned location indefinitely, an interruption (which is now a requirement!) needs to be made twice and then Toolbox terminates. Toolbox is running as admin (it can't see the target program if not, for some reason) and minimised.

The block that's being executed doesn't change, just the loop parameters do. And it's not about the number of times you go round the loop, I don't think, because it neither crashes nor fails to complete 5000, but DOES crash if it's been round the loop with the "forever" parameter fewer than 5000 times and is then terminated with Esc.

Thanks for looking, Paul.

The script is fine up to about 15000 clicks -- haven't tested it incrementally beyond that. The problems only occurred with loops of half a million and beyond but I think what I might do is put in a condition to click indefinitely if the number input is >99,999 -- see what happens then. If the issue is "too many loops" it'll happen again, and if it's "counting down from half a million" then it won't.

Mouse positioning isn't an issue as I'm handling that within the script anyway.

Less than serious, I suppose... but I've recently got slightly addicted to a silly game called Cookie Clicker. And I made this, to automate clicking on the cookie to bake more cookies. (Look, I SAID it was silly.)

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 Action: Comment "This macro was targeted for: Cookie Clicker"
0002 Action: Comment "You can edit the 'Window: Assign' step to change the target."
0003 Window: Assign "Cookie Clicker.exe"
0004 ;Window: Resize to "1696,1089"
0005 Macro: For assigned window only "1"
0006 Window: Activate for use ""
0007 Macro: Typing speed "def"
0008 Action: Comment "You can right-click the next step to change the macro speed."
0009 Alert: Ask for a line of text "How many clicks?"
0010 Action: Repeat this block "alert$"
0011  Macro: Type keys or use mouse "{@370,600}{leftclick}{z25}"
0012 Action: End of block ""
(End)


Generally, it works pretty well. But if I set it off to do -- say -- 500,000 clicks while I go off and do something else, if I interrupt it (by pressing Esc) it generally stops and restarts, then after a more energetic Esc (by leaning on the key for a couple of seconds) it stops OK but, after a few seconds, so does Toolbox.

For clicks up to a few thousand, it's fine, so I'm wondering if there's a counter somewhere that's objecting to the size of the loop?

Sadly, opening the direct link directly still gets me a big purple rectangle with the same message. I suspect it's age verification as Imgur can host potentially <cough> steamy images.

Not sure why, but I get a big notice "Content not viewable in your region." Which seems strange. UK? Can't imagine you've made something that needs age verification to see but is the image hosted somewhere where that might be a thing?

This was an idea that came to me suddenly about ten minutes ago. I like it so much I'm going to share it.

We all (probably) know that if you need fast access to the desktop, you can hit Win+D and everything's instantly minimised.

And anyone who's used that from any sort of workflow -- like, six windows open and you were working that way and it was fine until you suddenly needed access to the desktop -- you'll remember that you then end up restoring one window at a time, there's no instant way back.

Now, with a Toolbox action, there is.

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 Computer: Show the desktop ""
0002 Alert: Show a message "Click OK to restore"
0003 Computer: Restore minimized windows ""
(End)
I've assigned this to ctrl-shift-D as ctrl and shift are right by the win key on my keyboard so building a new muscle memory should be simple.