WSHHelper link and questions (attn: Steegy & anyone)

imd1b4u · Post by **imd1b4u** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 10:35 am

On the Scripting Tips & Tricks wiki page page you (Steegy) mention "WSHHelper".

(EDIT: Well, you used to. I removed that paragraph so it doesn't confuse anyone else. It should be easy for you to revert my edit if you want to add it back. If so, please fix the link.)

#1) The link is broken.
#2) A search of Google for it turns up nothing, except for that wiki page and a forum message by Peke saying he uses it.
#3) Google has 53 links for "WSHelper". It appears to be some sort of object. WSHHelper apparently was an object, too.

By "WSHHelper" did you mean WSHelper?
If not, does anyone know if WSHelper is worth using?
Does anyone know where to get WSHHelper?

BTW, the answers are not obvious to me. One page Google returns says that WSHelper is a component of Microsoft Vista (too new to be WSHHelper I think), but there is also a WSHelper.py, which is a Python module released under the GPL, which would probably have much more to do with Linux than Windows. There is even a Java WSHelper!

EDIT: And I thought I was confused before!
It turns out that WSHelper is "Windows Sockets Helper", developed by MIT when Windows 95 came out, but not included as part of Windows until Windows Vista!!! This could still be WSHHelper, because the debugger it is supposed to work with debugs local and remote processes, so it uses Windows Sockets. My head is spinning! And this was supposed to make writing scripts easier?!?!

Of course, none of the documentation (other than the wiki page) even mentions WSHHelper or WSHelper! That's MediaMonkeyScripting.chm, Microsoft's Scripting Help or Sysinternal's DebugView's help! I am beginning to think it is not worth worrying about, and that goes for MM scripting in general. What a mess!!!

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 2:04 pm

WSHHelper = Windows Scripting Host Helper

it is what is used to run vbs scripts.

imd1b4u · Post by **imd1b4u** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:01 pm

rovingcowboy wrote:WSHHelper = Windows Scripting Host Helper

it is what is used to run vbs scripts.

Normally WScript.exe or CScript.exe are what Microsoft provides to run vbs scripts, but of course other software (such as MM) can, too. So is WSHHelper another alternative for running scripts, kind of like "WScript.exe //D //X MyScript.vbs"? (The "//D //X" enables debugging.) If so, it won't help me at all, because it won't know anything about the MM API.

Steegy · Post by **Steegy** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 1:33 pm

I added the WSHHelper tip because it was mentioned by a trusted source (Peke) as tip on the forum here. Since Peke's site went down, the link doesn't work anymore (apparently).
Maybe Peke can add the tip back if he still has a working link to WSHHelper (which may be a program created by himself).
What WSHHelper does is enabling scripters to easily send some type Windows API Debug messages, that can be read e.g. by DebugView.
This is certainly not the same as the scripting host that "enables debugging" (with the command line parameters) that means that you can e.g. execute the script line by line, stop it, read variable values, ... in a program like VbsEdit (hint hint).
A lot of script programmers use MsgBox'es to debug programs (e.g. get value of a variable), but by using the debug messages with DebugView, you can get the same information like the stuff you show with MsgBox, but it doesn't pop up a message window, plus you get it in a history list.

Post by **Peke** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 6:53 pm

I've sent you mail, hope we can put some use of it.

This is strange all WSHHelper reference from internet vanished

Only thing I remember is that I needed to use it back
in 2004 when I worked on some scripting projects and
that it came along with license for Primal Script and
some other programs that I needed for work.

Post by **Peke** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:31 pm

Add-On for scripters:
There are OutputDebugString and OutputDebugStringMM methods in SDBTools object.

Code: Select all

SDB.Tools.OutputDebugString("Test1")
SDB.Tools.OutputDebugStringMM("Test2")

This should make debugging much easier.

imd1b4u · Post by **imd1b4u** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:24 pm

Peke wrote:Add-On for scripters:
There are OutputDebugString and OutputDebugStringMM methods in SDBTools object..

Where? In MM2 or MM3 or some plug-in?

I just checked the IDL file I generated from MM 2.5.5.998 and they don't seem to be there. That still seems to be the latest version on MM's download site.

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:26 am

And can you be a little more specific about what they do? Where does the message appear and what is the difference between the two?

Steegy · Post by **Steegy** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:51 pm

Ok, so the SDB.Tools.OutputDebugString("Test1") and SDB.Tools.OutputDebugStringMM("Test1") methods make WSHHelper needless on MM3.

The second one only outputs messages to the debug API when MM itself is in debugging mode (beta/debug release).
The debug message can be "trapped" using the DebugView program, and it's working in the same way as MM sends its debug messages.

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 4:15 pm

Ok, cheers for that.