When comparing AutoHotkey vs Rapid environment editor, the Slant community recommends AutoHotkey for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for Windows?” AutoHotkey is ranked 7th while Rapid environment editor is ranked 24th. The most important reason people chose AutoHotkey is:
Basic Stuff is very easy and even advanced programming is possible, as the language is now able to use objects and classes and has a ton of free libraries and one of the most helpful and friendly communities on the Internet.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy To Learn but extremely Powerful
Basic Stuff is very easy and even advanced programming is possible, as the language is now able to use objects and classes and has a ton of free libraries and one of the most helpful and friendly communities on the Internet.
Pro Powerful
Can interact with any Windows program / dialog / form, filling fields, submitting data, etc., without dependency on the window placement.
Pro Allows for extremely easy remapping keys and buttons on your keyboard, joystick, and mouse
You can reprogram any key combination, including the Windows key with a syntax like this one:
h::msgbox true
that automatically remaps the H key to show a message box.
Pro Can map keys to scripts
Pro Scripting of common procedures
AHK allows full scripts to be created and used, it is very flexible.
Pro Helpful forum
Pro Programming language is easier to learn and to use
Pro Good help documentation
Pro C-like syntax
C-like languages dominate the industry, making it easier to switch over to other ones in the C family.
Pro Fully programmable
With a full programming language powering the hotkeys, including GUIs, it is powerful and flexible.
Pro Warnings
Displays wrong entries in red, e.g. paths that do no longer exist.
Pro Easy
Editing of Windows environment variables is easy, splits long lines.
Pro Resolve variables values, make easy a refactoring of PATH by extracting different elements in their own new variable
Pro Convert variables between verbatim and expandable
Windows supports referencing variables within variables, but only if they're marked in the registry as expandable, and conversion between the two types is exposed in the context menu for each variable.
Cons
Con Programming language is primitive
The base syntax, inherited from the first version of AutoIt, is primitive (a bit like an improved batch syntax).
Con Simple
Some may not consider it a "power" user tool.