I was helping a customer out today who is still using Macro Scheduler version 9. I hadn’t looked at version 9 for a long while and using it made me realise how much of an improvement the current version (12) is, especially in regards to the debugger.
Version 9 – released 5 years ago now – did not support multiple breakpoints or running from breakpoints which made debugging this customer’s script much less simple than it would have been in v12. There was also no protection from stray key-sends landing in the debugger itself (later versions ensure the script is read only during debug).
It was actually kind of nice to use v9 for a change as it made me appreciate all the more the improvements and progress we’ve made since. And I’m not dissing v9 – it itself was a great improvement over the previous version and I was very proud of it. But working with an old version for a change reminded me how far we’ve come.
Of course version 9 also lacked important commands that have come along since like WaitScreenText and WaitScreenImage. I say important because more and more applications these days are browser based where the containing window doesn’t change, so using good old WaitWindowOpen to ensure new “screens” are ready is not always possible. These types of applications benefit immensely from commands like WaitScreenText and WaitScreenImage which allow you to wait for text within the screens so that you can be sure you’re at the right place in the application before entering data.
If you’re also using an old version of Macro Scheduler please take some time to look at the latest release, as I think you’ll be impressed with the improvements which will make you more productive and allow you to make more robust scripts.
And don’t forget that v9 is scheduled to be “end-of-lifed” on 1st January 2012.
