June 26, 2008 - WinTask - Undocumented Workarounds

As with any tool, there are a few undocumented problems and limitations in WinTask.

Here are some that I know about.  I'll add more as I learn of them.

#ScriptAfterTimeout$

#ScriptAfterTimeout$ does not allow you to use a .rob file name containing a space. It works correctly if the .rob doesn't contain any spaces in the file name.

 

So this will not work:

#ScriptAfterTimeout$="After Timeout"
#ExecTimeout = 20

 

Pause 30 secs
MsgBox("Ok")

WinTask Tech Support says that the " needs to be doubled:

The " needs to be doubled, so try:

#ScriptAfterTimeout$=chr$(34)+"After Timeout"+chr$(34)

and it will work.

Capture$

The argument in the Capture$() function cannot be a variable.  It must be a constant.

 

So something like this will not work

var = 0
Capture$("window name",1,var)

It will get the following syntax error:

A number is expected

As a workaround, you could create a function like this and use it in place of Capture$:

Function MyCapture$(window_name$, instance, mode)

Local a$
  Select Case mode
    Case 0
        a$=Capture$(window_name$, instance, 0)
    Case 1
        a$=Capture$(window_name$, instance, 1)
    Case 3
        a$=Capture$(window_name$, instance, 3)
    Case 5
        a$=Capture$(window_name$, instance, 5)
    Case 7
        a$=Capture$(window_name$, instance, 7)
    Case 9
        a$=Capture$(window_name$, instance, 9)
    Case Else
        a$=Capture$(window_name$, instance, 0)
  EndSelect
MyCapture$=a$

EndFunction

MsgFrame

MsgFrame() cannot display an ampersand (&) as part of the text.

 

So, MsgFrame("A&B",1) will just display "AB"

 

WinTask Tech Support says to use two & characters instead of one

In the Windows control which is used for MsgFrame/MsgFrameTitle, the & is a special character (keyboard shorcut underlined). So to force the display of this character, you need to double the &

MsgFrame("A&&B",1)

MsgFrameTitle

MsgFrameTitle() cannot display an ampersand (&) as part of the text.

 

So, MsgFrameTitle("The Title","A&B",1) will just display "AB"

 

WinTask Tech Support says to use two & characters instead of one

In the Windows control which is used for MsgFrame/MsgFrameTitle, the & is a special character (keyboard shorcut underlined). So to force the display of this character, you need to double the &

MsgFrameTitle("The Title","A&&B",1)

Do you know of any undocumented WinTask problems and/or workardounds?
Email Me