I think it would be helpful to have a "playback speed" option while running macros. This speed option would have "Normal" or various degrees of slowdown.
I don't mean this to substitute for using lots of "IfWindowOpen", "WaitWindowOpen", etc commands which ARE necessary to make the macro reliable...... This would work SIMILAR to the TRACE feature of debug if the "refocus windows" option is NOT checked..... ONLY I DON'T want to be in the script editor to get this feature.
I want the playback engine to insert VIRTUAL WAIT commands inbetween every action. The wait time should be user configurable ( i.e. .5 second, 1 second, etc).
This would be helpful in debugging, as I could instantly SLOW the macro WAY DOWN with just a click, and this would tell me (assuming the macro works while going SLOW), that I have to put in extra code to detect and wait for window events, or some other thing. Then with just one click, its back to running at normal speed.
Another scenario where this is helpful....... I am using macro scheduler to test other software for bugs. I have created macros which work perfectly for testing a particular version of the software..... Now, a newer version of the software comes out, and now the macro is broken. (This is EXACTLY what the macro was designed for...... To detect bugs, problems in the software being acted upon) BUT, now knowing a macro fails, I need to SLOW IT WAY DOWN, so I can see visually what is happening. Sure, I can use the logging feature ( And I do make extensive use of this feature), but sometimes it is quicker and more intuitive to SEE the failure.
This seems like a feature with a lot of "bang for the buck". Should be relatively easy to implement, and give quite a bit of functionality. Hopefully this feature would also function exactly the same in the compiled EXE macros.
Playback speed enhancement suggestion
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Bob Hansen
- Automation Wizard
- Posts: 2475
- Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2002 3:47 am
- Location: Salem, New Hampshire, US
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Good idea., hope it gets implemented.
In the meantime, here is a temporary method to do the same thing:
1. Replace RTN codes (\n RegEx) with RTNWait>%T%RTN (RegEx = \nWait>%T%\n)
2. This will insert a Wait>%T% between every line.
3. For your first line in the macro, put Let>T=1 (or 2 or 3 or 5 or 27, etc.) defining the delay period to use between each line. That way you can easily increase/decrease the delay.
4. When done testing, just delete the lines with the Wait>%T%., or leave the lines, and make T=0 so you can use again in the future if needed.
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Macro Scheduler Search/Replace will not do the replacement, even witht Regular Expressions checked, so you may need to do this in another text editor like TextPad
In the meantime, here is a temporary method to do the same thing:
1. Replace RTN codes (\n RegEx) with RTNWait>%T%RTN (RegEx = \nWait>%T%\n)
2. This will insert a Wait>%T% between every line.
3. For your first line in the macro, put Let>T=1 (or 2 or 3 or 5 or 27, etc.) defining the delay period to use between each line. That way you can easily increase/decrease the delay.
4. When done testing, just delete the lines with the Wait>%T%., or leave the lines, and make T=0 so you can use again in the future if needed.
-----------------------------
Macro Scheduler Search/Replace will not do the replacement, even witht Regular Expressions checked, so you may need to do this in another text editor like TextPad
Hope this was helpful..................good luck,
Bob
A humble man and PROUD of it!
Bob
A humble man and PROUD of it!
