Hello Peperoni 
,
as an future "power AutoHotkey user" I can only second your question/suggestion concerning using AutoHotkey with Directory Opus. My approach was to embed the AutoHotkey.dll directly, see
https://resource.dopus.com/t/autohotkey-dll-as-script-option/16182/1]
From my point of view better than using COM. Just DO objects as e. g. structs are needed, see
[url]http://www.autohotkey.net/~HotKeyIt/AutoHotkey/files/Struct-txt.html
@jon
Concerning your question from my approach above:
[quote]Does Autohotkey have advanced string manipulation functions that would let you do things you can't easily achieve in VBScript, etc?[/quote]Didn't have time to answer yet. As Peperoni stated, one of the many advantage of AutoHotkey is its ability to programm GUIs very efficiently. The language of AutoHotkey itself is highly specialized and therefore more compact compared to the integrated WSH (Windows Scripting Host) languages. And you can debug your code.
Summarized unbelievable possibilities... as I mentioned...
Ah, it's (maybe) already 2013 + 1 "down under". So all my best wishes for THE SPECIAL "Opus Year 2014" 
.
Many thanks and greetings
opusfreak