Programming Question

Unused Account Safe to Delete

Well, here in Cuba the whole process of grading the National Programming Contest for High School students is done using bat files. The last one I made for that earned me the nickname "batman".

richard_k

Actually, on Unisys mainframes it is called 'Work Flow Language' (WFL, or as everyone called it 'wiffle'). I wrote a lot of that in the mid 80s.

Floydslips

I still write an occasional batch file, although I use the newer .CMD file extension. For more advanced needs, I rely on WinBatch.

Conan Callen

Whateva does the job. My favorite has always been Kornshell. Powershell is cool, but seems to lack the elegance of some of the Unix Shells. .bat files are quick and easy, take very little setup/configuration. However, I emphisize with younger programmers, who want to use something new, or improve make thier skill set more competitive. Just remember that if you dont want to box yourself in (kill any oportunity for promotion), dont make it so complex that someone will never be albe to replace you.

Derek Altamirano

I still use .cmd files quite a bit (haven't done .bat's since moving to NT; I still use the term batch file, though I think the proper term for a .cmd is command file :-D). Although I am learning to use PowerShell more, I can still usually whip out a batch file much quicker, depending on what I am doing, though I expect that will change as I become more fluent in PS. I have written some pretty neat and complex batch scripts in recent years (man do I love that for command!).

galumpa

I'm 4 years out of the university and have only used a .bat file recently when I switched companies. Previously I used shell scripts.

Earl Truss

My first real program in my first real programming job was written in CDC 6000 assembler on two boxes of cards. I try to forget how I would have to make corrections to the cards and then read them back in again to test it. Oh, and yes, I still have a few BAT files that are in use. Don't write very many new ones much any more.

Earl Truss

Steven.M.Hunt wrote:

the government agency I work for (hint: we sent people to the Moon that one time) just turned off our last mainframe this month

I read about that. That was an IBM wasn't it? I used to work in Range Safety at the Cape on CDC Cyber 8xx-somethings. Are there any mainframes still use in the guv'ment any where?

Steven M Hunt

Yes we had IBMs, and we had ADABASE and NATURAL running on them. I'm not sure if there are any other agencies running them still, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are still out there. We haven't had any running here at the Cape for a while, but the last ones to get turned off were up in Huntsville. -- Steven

Lost User

Hey, Don't I know you? :) /invis;goto 10 500 516 500;slay auct

galumpa

Of course ;) and that is the script to slay the Auctioneer! hahaha I remember that!

cpkilekofp

I write .cmd files for use in SQL Server jobs, very useful for moving files back and forth and for calling bcp to force bulk imports into a process other than SQL Server (odd how that must work, but "the documentation says so so it must be true." ;)

ClockMeister

I don't write many but do occasionally still use it. -Max

ClockMeister

Dalek Dave wrote:

It's a shame Henry isn't here

He could tell us of his days poking holes in cards!

OK, since he's not here then I'll tell you. I used to write FORTRAN IV programs when at GA Tech back in 1976. We used IBM 029 and 026 keypunch units to build our deck which we then fed into a Cyber-74 for compile/run. The output would come out 10 to 30 minutes later on the express printer in the other room. Lather, rinse and repeat. -Max :)

Lauren Lilly

Now I feel old. My first job was purely punch cards. (1977 Burroughs minicomputers)

msvbdev

I'm 16 and I still like the command-line better than GUIs for a lot of things :) I don't know how to do some of the advanced shell programming things, but I do write .BATs for efficiency (for example, cding to very long directories to execute programs with complicated arguments)

Redsn0w10

Dalek, I'm only 14 and I use Batch files. I actually want to use MS-DOS in a virtual machine. Justin

fjancic

Automating repetitive tasks like running update sql scripts on several network instances or updating backups and ftp servers. They are flexible and quick to write and use.

SenseiJae

I occasionally will throw one down to automate a tedious task. Awesome skill to have.

48kGeneration

I do, and it is still very usefull. When things go "wrong", there is nothing like a command prompt and some .bat files to fix things fast. :) Long live the knowledge!