KiXtart

KiXtart

Paradigm	scripting
Designed by	Ruud van Velsen
First appeared	1991
Stable release	4.66 / 24.07 2015
License	Careware
Website	http://www.kixtart.org/

KixStart - script language, intended for Windows operating systems administration. Developed by Microsoft.

History

Ruud van Velsen created KiXtart in Netherlands. Firstly it is developed for scripting in Microsoft LAN Manager network operation system. This language get its name from "kick" and "start".

Application

System administration, logon-scripting special. For example, on habrahabr the problem of automatic Adobe Flash Player & Java RE updates in Windows/AD domain is solved by kiXtart-script.

Feautures

• Executables file format is .kix. Kix2Exe compiler can convert kix-file into exe-file.
• Plugin KiXforms is used for graphical user interface developing.
• On official website is more than 600 user defined functions.

Functionality

• Access to different Windows services:
  • Active Directory service, which allows to setup Group Policy for users, and also to install software on multiple computers
  • ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) - interface to programming the ActiveX data from variety sources access
  • WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) - tool kit for computer infrastructure centralized management
• Display information
• Set the environment variables
• Internet connection
• Registry editing
• COM-client support
• Easily extensible
• Exe-files compiling
• Debugging scripts tools

Syntax

• Variables
• Teams
• Built-in functions
• Macros
• Labels
• Branching
• Cycles

Versions

The newest version of KiXtart is 4.66 published in 2015. It supports by Windows 10.

4.50 verison

• Inbuild pre-tokenization system (selection of words and sentences borders) to convert the script into a set of symbols. It makes loading faster and scripts smaller.
• Intellectual property protection

4.60 version

• It is possible to use kixtart from any windows application

Examples

Hello, World!

/* multiline
comment */
"Привет, KiXtart!" ; comment

Script launch

kix32.exe test.kix

Using variables, commands, built-in functions and macros

; SetConsole function hides console window:
SetConsole("HIDE")
; PLAY command (speaker sound):
PLAY "0g256t 0g8d247f 4d165f 247f 8d262f 4d165f 262f 8d277f 4d165f"
; SetConsole function shows console window:
SetConsole("SHOW")
CLS ; CLS command clears the console 
/*******************************************************************/
; using variables:
$One = 1
$Two = 2
BIG ; BIG commands displays bigger pseudographics
; displays sum from new line ("?" symbol):
? "1+2=" $One + $Two
SLEEP 3 ; SLEEP command makes pause
CLS
SMALL ; SMALL command returns the normal output
/*******************************************************************/
"System information" ?
; macroses can provide useful information:
? "The process ID KiXtart: " @PID
? "Operation system`s type: " @PRODUCTTYPE
? "Computer`s name: " @HOSTNAME
? "Terminal session sign: " @TSSESSION
? "User: " @USERID ", " @SID
? ? "Work is over."

Licanse

Originally KiXtart was distributed freeware as a part of Microsoft Resource Kit. Later it changes to careware.

Links

1. KiXtart.org - home of KiXtart
2. KiXtart