A big exception is vendor-hosted browser-based software, which can run on more platforms. Some features could still be Windows-only. Another exception is phone-based software.
I tried Hammerspoon. I thought having a more normal language (lua) would make it easier, but it felt more like fewer batteries were included, which made the ramp up seem steeper. Trivial things in AHK seemed like they needed a lot of extra supporting functions to enable it in HS. Some rose colored glasses could be involved here as well, as AHK had a lot of its own quirks I had to work around to make it reliable… but that was for robust code, not simple functionality. I also had a lot of downtime at work when first using AHK… time I didn’t have when I was trying to get HS going. I stopped using it while trying to diagnose some mouse/windowing issues I was having. It’s safe to say it wasn’t the problem, but I haven’t gone back to it.
AppleScript exists, and JavaScript support has been added, but it seems like Apple doesn’t care much about it anymore.
Shortcuts isn’t as powerful, and without an Apple ID (which I can’t have on my work Mac), I don’t think I can actually share or migrate anything I make, which makes it feel like a dead end. It’s also pretty slow.
Automator also seems like it will be sunset at some point, in favor of Shortcuts.
I thought it used to be more expensive, but maybe I was just making less at the time and that anchor remained in my head.
Though no longer download videos/files enough to complain about it.
(Also with parallels, but that's a whole new price range for just using Notepad++)
