GUI automation tool (windows)

[Tim Harig]

On 2010-08-11, Steven D'Aprano <steve at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> Mouse and keyboard event recording software used to be one of the killer 
> apps for power users back in the days of classic Apple Mac and early 
> versions of Windows. I'm not entirely sure why they've faded away... it 

It faided away because automation based on on mouse clicks, and to a lesser
extent key injection, is very fragile.  GUIs are subject to changing in
ways that are unpredictable and difficult to detect.  Some GUI widget sets
provide some programatic way to access the GUI items directly for testing
and debugging purposes; but, that isn't always available in the final
product.

> Another common use is automating interactions with web sites via 
> mechanize.

There are better ways of automating web site interactions.  You can other
generate the GETS and POSTS directly or you can use import the browsers
through COM/XPCOM and manipulate the pages using the browser's DOM object.