Auto Hot Key - can't interrupt a loop - autohotkey

Question

Here is an example auto hot key script:
^j::
WinActivate, MyWindow
WinWaitActive, MyWindow
Loop
{
If GetKeyState("Shift", "P")
Break
Click, 44, 55
Sleep, 1000
Click, 144, 155
Sleep, 1000
}
return
Everything works fine but I can't interrupt the loop by pressig "Shift". What is wrong ?

Answer 1

You have to hold the Shift key for more than 2 seconds pressed, because of the sleep times.
Or try something like this:
^j::
Loop
{
If !WinActive("MyWindow")
{
WinActivate, MyWindow
WinWaitActive, MyWindow
}
Click, 44, 55
Sleep_1000()
Click, 144, 155
Sleep_1000()
}
return
Sleep_1000(){
Loop 10
{
Sleep, 100
If GetKeyState("Shift", "P")
exit ; terminate the hotkey's thread
}
}

Answer 2

Using a loop inside a hotkey definition is bad practice.
AHK doesn't provide true multithreading, so long running loops are generally a really bad idea.
Using a timer fixes this, and usage of a timer is anyway always what you want for something like this.
And it'll be much more simple as well.
So, with Ctrl+j we activate the desired window and create the timer and tell it to run our function TimerCallback (which we will shortly create) every 2secs:
^j::
WinActivate, MyWindow
WinWaitActive, MyWindow ;shouldn't be needed, but if you find it helpful, fair enough
TimerCallback() ;run the function once, since the timer is going to
;run it for the first time only after 2secs
SetTimer, TimerCallback, 2000
return
And then we make shift be a hotkey for turning off the timer. And we for sure want to use the ~ modifier to not consume the key when the hotkey is fired:
~Shift::SetTimer, koira, Off
And now lets also define our function TimerCallback:
TimerCallback()
{
Click, 44, 55
Sleep, 1000
Click, 144, 155
}
So here's again the script in full if something was somehow left unclear:
^j::
WinActivate, MyWindow
WinWaitActive, MyWindow ;shouldn't be needed, but if you find it helpful, fair enough
TimerCallback() ;run the function once, since the timer is going to
;run it for the first time only after 2secs
SetTimer, TimerCallback, 2000
return
~Shift::SetTimer, TimerCallback, Off
TimerCallback()
{
Click, 44, 55
Sleep, 1000
Click, 144, 155
}