MS-DOS bat files must die...

[Forogar]

Batch files rule!! I still depend upon them and have done for well over 30 years. How many other technologies "just work" for over three decades?

- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

[obermd]

The .bat extension is handled by the same command line processor as the .cmd extension. Both extensions work except in machine startup scripts where you have to use .cmd.

[rnbergren]

I love the answers to this. For everything someone hates (except maybe linq) there are at least a person or 15 that loves it. I personally use BAT files all the time. Like someone said. Perfect for automation of something simple, IE copy file1 to file location2 at this time everyday. I also use Powershell a ton. It works it is difficult to learn and get accustomed to. But it is powerful. When in Linux I use your good old shell scripts. Those are awesome. But I am stuck with bat and winders powershell at work. Also, love that comment about powershell security for some people to keep them from shooting themselves in the foot. HAHAHAHA

To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer

[ACRowland]

I tried to install 4DOS on my Win10 box the other week so I could use aliases. Should I just die in shame?

[sum none]

Bat/cmd files are and always will be the easiest way to automate the command line. Many times, it's even easier to use a bat file in task scheduler than it is to try and get the commands working with task scheduler, especially if there are multiple commands or maybe other considerations. The right tool for the job, as always. As far as in depth scripting, everyone knows the best tool is vbscript. :cool: When that fails, bust out the Visual Studio...or sometimes powershell once in a blue moon.

[trønderen]

doskey /?

[Member 14136011]

Ah yes! 4DOS. That brings me back a way.

[Peter Adam]

bash is just as awful write-only thing as the cmd processor's language. Which parentheses today, and how much of them? Just look at any java starter sh file how much pain is to figure out where java is installed. Debugger support is also outstanding.

[MKJCP]

It appears it was Tim Paterson and he's not dead yet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBxMPqxJGqI. So, you'll have to wait. My company has been using some .bat files for certain things and they still work decades later, never needing an update or change.

[Hooga Booga]

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx

[davecasdf]

I found that the two big problems with .bat files ( actually the command interpreter ) _wasn't_ it's weakness, but that the bright eyes at Microsoft: 1, typically didn't have commands return anything ( the stupid elephanting "void main(void)" mentality before that plague started ), and 2. edlin can't do search and replace when script driven. ( As I remember, it can't do _anything_ useful without using the "F" keys. ) ( I had a Regulus box years back, it built the apropos database ( overnight ) by reading the man directory and chaining shell scripts, I think the only thing it did other than build scripts with ed that dos couldn't by itself was use "roll" to pick successive keywords)

[Kyle Brown]

Just to clarify the point, modern windows OSs don't run MS-DOS. Early versions of windows and the 9x line ran on top of MS-DOS so launching a command prompt would actually just expose the MS-DOS command interrupter running underneath windows. The Windows NT line, which XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10 are a part of, was developed separately from MS-DOS and doesn't contain the MS-DOS command interrupter. Instead it has a program called cmd.exe which supports a similar set of commands but is very much distinct from MS-DOS. So Windows bat/cmd files still exist and are used but they aren't MS-DOS bat files.

[trønderen]

Kyle Brown wrote:

So Windows bat/cmd files still exist and are used but they aren't MS-DOS bat files.

Obviously, they are still .bat files, though! Like a C++ or C# file: It is still a set of instructions to be interpreted by some compiler and runtime system. Even if one environment retires, the semantics of the instructions remain for interpretation in some other environment. You could easily write a .bat file interpreter for a linux environment, like you can write interpreters for bash or sh scripts in a Windows environment. The underlaying OS and runtime for the interpreter is not essential. (Except, of course, if the interpreter insists on a non-conforming interpretation of the actual environment. Such as insisting on environment symbols being case sensitive, when the environment defines them as not case sensitive. But this is a question of the interpreter honoring conventions of its environment, not of the execution platform of the interpreter.)

[MSBassSinger]

As for me, if the task is too complicated for a simple BAT file, I write it in C#. For me (not speaking for anyone else), I have not found a good use for me to use PowerShell, and I have avoided the UNIX-like OSs (like Linux) as much as possible since the early 90s.

[MadGerbil]

What we need is a library built upon a framework with designers, design patterns, logging, a UI and SASS implementation so that a few lines of code can be turned into the nightmare that is modern web development.

[Member 10642872]

Charlie: I see I am falling into the next thread (Sure sign I should retire -- I know what a Wang and an AS/400 are). Batch files predate MS-DOS. They were how things were done on RT-11 and RSX-11 on PDP-11 computers. Many of the C and Unix and early PC operating system guys all started on PDP-11s (circa 1975) when they were in school. So the guy you are looking for probably is very long dead and buried near Boston. I suppose it is interesting that it is still possible to write really horrible batch files to run in a command window. Just recently did an update on a set of TeraTerm command files. Interesting, but not something I would do by choice! The guy who *really* deserves our hatred is the guy who created all the macros for MASM and early versions of Microsoft C. If you ever had a bug caused by one of those, you could spend a career just trying to unroll all of the macros :-) :-(

[charlieg]

blush, I do now :)

Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759

[charlieg]

Powershell imho is bat files on steroids. I've looked at it, and well X|

Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759

[charlieg]

truth. The group I work in has a lot of old guys (me included) with some less old guys and one youngster. The old guys handle the builds and, well, they use BAT files. I'm taking a crash course on python now. I just want to be able to predictably form strings and what not. Note: first poster indicated I missed the RANT button. Most of the ranting is at myself.

Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759

[charlieg]

lol, this is in fact an issue. Trying to explain to the IT department that we MUST have local admin access. We've finally developed a trained set of IT professionals that understand we accept the big boy warranty.

Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759