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For Automated Testing, Better Alternatives To DOS Batch Files?

Posted by timothy on from the run-them-under-wine dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I am working on a project that would allow our customers to test out sending different PCL commands to LAN printers. My initial thought was that a DOS batch file will allow users to select some simple options, send the tests to printers, and even generate a small web page which, when launched from the batch file, will provide email feedback on the tool. This all worked. To spice it up I added some ANSI color commands to the menus, though the implementation of that may prove tricky without resorting to .COM files or forcing the load of the ansi.sys via the command.com shortcut. And this implementation goes against my initial idea that I want the entire thing to be contained in a standalone batch file. My questions are: Is there a better option for this? Are DOS Batch files too 1990s to be taken seriously in 2010? The application needs to (1) be simple (2) be easy to update (3) be able to send PCL commands to LAN-attached printers and (4) allow email feedback. I don't know what other programming language would allow this and be as simple. I tend to think that I have found the best tool for the job but if you have another idea let me know. Call me crazy but I love DOS."

12 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. DOS Is dead use visual basic by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    DOS Is dead use visual basic

    1. Re:DOS Is dead use visual basic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      DOS is dead, and no-one cares
      If there is a shell, I'll see you there

    2. Re:DOS Is dead use visual basic by game+kid · · Score: 5, Funny

      Visual Basic sucks. Get Firefox instead.

      --
      You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    3. Re:DOS Is dead use visual basic by i.r.id10t · · Score: 3, Funny

      I agree, if you are stuck on ms stuff then VB becomes your "shell scripting" language of quickness.

      This being /. though, I'll have to mention a small customized LiveCD (think DSL sized) with a (perl script | python script | brainfuck implementation | emacs extension | vi/vim script | whatever) with i/o to the user being prettified by some shell/exec stuff with zenity or by developing a graphical app using qt/gtk/whatever. Distribute as a business card cd or a bootable usb key. Have the marketing dept come up with some video, etc. to put on it, make it a bigger CD.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
    4. Re:DOS Is dead use visual basic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Rebooting your computer into another OS to test a printer?

      Do you meatbags SEE why you're not commercially viable as developers?

  2. Okay by srwalter · · Score: 3, Funny

    You're crazy.

    --
    Freedom is the freedom to say that 2 + 2 = 4
  3. 15 minutes could save you... by schmidt349 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are DOS Batch files too 1990s to be taken seriously in 2010?

    Is Ed "Too-Tall" Jones too tall?

    1. Re:15 minutes could save you... by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle?

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
  4. Re:Is it pronounced DOHS or DAHS? by AgentPhunk · · Score: 3, Funny

    The other posters are correct. You only say "DAHS" if you're from Boston, as in: "Oh My Gawhd, some retahd on slashdaht is still writing DAHS bahtch files. Why don't we just fihre up Windows fah Workgroups while we're aht it."

    Seriously though - I think nmap can send PCL commands via the nmap scripting engine, which is written in LUA. How about wrapping that with what some of the other posters are suggesting?

  5. size matters by Eth1csGrad1ent · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah. VB, C++, Java, they all do PCL commands.

    ..but will it fit on a floppy ??

  6. Re:Is it pronounced DOHS or DAHS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I never heard anyone say it.

    Ugh. Now I feel old. Screw you, AC.

  7. Re:perl? by nicks,nicks,nicks! · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'll second this one. The place that I work runs almost all of its commands via bat jobs that run from simple to complex. When I started here, I installed Strawberry Perl on my win32 system. I have, since, replaced every functionality that the bat jobs used to do with perl scripts (primarily for my own purposes, but most of my coworkers don't mind them either). The primary reason I did this was readability.

    That's the first time I've heard Perl and better readability together.