Investment Studio > Setup > ActiveX Scripting

You can think of ActiveX Scripting engines as Windows plug-ins, or installable modules, each implementing a programming language. When you install an ActiveX Scripting engine on a Windows PC, it becomes possible for applications running on that PC to connect to one or more instances of the engine and let them execute program instructions. Applications which connect to ActiveX Scripting engines in this manner are known as ActiveX Scripting hosts.

Investment Studio is such a host. It uses ActiveX Scripting in two contexts: macro functions and downloader scripts. Both uses require that (1) at least one ActiveX Scripting engine has been installed under Windows and (2) that a corresponding engine record (containing information like engine name, associated filename extensions and syntax highlighting conventions) has been created in Investment Studio.

For the first point, see the installation instructions distributed with each engine.

For the second point, you can choose between the macro editor (in the Macros view) and the script editor (opened from the single item editor in the Downloads view). Both allow you to add, delete and modify engine records.

Which one you choose is a matter of taste, since the same engine records are used for macros and scripts. In practice, the Macros view is often more readily available (just click the Macros tab in Investment Studio's main window). See the discussion on managing ActiveX Scripting engines in the Macros view for details.

Detailed information about ActiveX Scripting, including engine downloads and language references, can be found online at Microsoft's MSDN site (search on "scripting").