Well this was back in the Python 2.4 days, I don't think I had even heard of it. And bash isn't easily available on Windows, at least interacting with running win32 programs. Back then it was even worse, I think I used mingw32 when I needed that? Blizzard did offer some sort of official macro system using Lua, but that was a bit advanced for me at the time.
A dedicated language is nice because the syntax can be optimized for its purpose. As a teen with little coding experience, AHK was so easy to get simple ideas working. Often one easy line of code.
Some of the bigger monstrosities I wrote would have definitely been more manageable in another language, but then I'd have to handle always-active input listening, window management, emulating the keyboard and cursor, reading screen pixels, my own state machine for key chording, and so on. Or cobble together libraries (and still learn those).
Also probably the most important part, it was fun to work with and immediate. I wasn't a professional (or even good) programmer. But I had a goal in mind and AHK never made me want to quit.
A dedicated language is nice because the syntax can be optimized for its purpose. As a teen with little coding experience, AHK was so easy to get simple ideas working. Often one easy line of code.
Some of the bigger monstrosities I wrote would have definitely been more manageable in another language, but then I'd have to handle always-active input listening, window management, emulating the keyboard and cursor, reading screen pixels, my own state machine for key chording, and so on. Or cobble together libraries (and still learn those).
Also probably the most important part, it was fun to work with and immediate. I wasn't a professional (or even good) programmer. But I had a goal in mind and AHK never made me want to quit.