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For Automated Testing, Better Alternatives To DOS Batch Files?
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."
DOS Is dead use visual basic
There's Windows ports of Perl, both Cygwin and ActiveState, last I checked.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I don't know who your customers are ... is this a sort of IT mass production heavy printer thing you're producing? I'm guessing so if they're LAN printers but who knows? Anyways if you're shipping this thing to residences, give the tool to your parents or -- failing that -- someone age ~15 or ~65. Give them the documentation you have and do not say a word. See what they do with it and how intuitive it is to them and take notes while they're using it. Do they successfully test the printer or fail? If they fail, that's actually your failure. So know your audience and maybe rethink the tool. But assuming that your audience isn't afraid of a command line interface, go for it. I guess you could look into whether or not Powershell gives you any advantages (probably not). You're in a different world than I so that last suggestion may be off the mark.
My work here is dung.
The modern way of doing shell scripting in Windows is now powershell, and most things are quickly moving toward that. Its not as integrated in the OS, but its damn close, and in many ways its better than alternative scripting languages (object piping instead of text piping, for example).
Now if its the best thing for your requirement? I don't know. But if you're planning to stick to shell scripting, do yourself a favor and upgrade.
Python would be my first choice.
Python is my scripting language of choice because it's easy to use and it has it's own "os" module that you can use to launch commands and the like, not to mention the "glob" module, which can grab all file names in a given directory into an array. I highly recommend it. (2.6)
Its a great tool thats free, and has good GUI and has good scripting capabilities too:
http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/index.shtml
DOS batch files has too many limitations when compared to other scripting languages. It's frozen in time. I consider Windows PowerShell to be the batch file successor.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/powershell.aspx
You're crazy.
Freedom is the freedom to say that 2 + 2 = 4
Is Ed "Too-Tall" Jones too tall?
For Windows platforms, there's nothing better for rapid prototyping than VB.NET - or really any of the .NET languages. Plus, you can get a version of Visual Studio from Microsoft for free that will do everything you want. Plus, you definitely won't regret having VS as a debugging environment.
Think of how happy your customers will be to interact with a modern-looking app that only took you a few hours to put together!
must be nostalgic for you or something...
If it were me, I would put together what you need to work with Cygwin, then it could be cross platform. You could even ship a copy of cygwin.dll and any binaries you need, like bash, netcat, or what have you. I prefer Unix apparently.
Python is much easier to write and much more maintainable than a batch script. Unfortunately it can be unfeasible to require this dependency on Windows machines.
Good dependency-free (albeit platform-specific) alternatives are .vbs (visual basic script) and .js. Both allow access to more modern dialog boxes etc. Either script should be executed under wscript.exe (windows scripting host) but I believe there is an automatic file association by default (at least for .vbs files).
For a more modern alternative, try Powershell, however it is only present by default on Windows 7.
Give them the documentation you have and do not say a word
If your product requires a manual than your user interface sucks.
Add a wizard for common scenarios... anything but documentation that no one will read.
DOS sounds like "Boss" not like "dose".
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
"If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid."
There are plenty of doges you can use, perl, python, bash, and lots more. But all of them add a level of complexity to this that the batch file doesn't have. Which leads me to my second saying:
"If it's simple and it works, it's elegant."
Sounds like you've found an elegant solution to a problem. I'd stick with it if it works for you.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
PowerShell is the new Batch File Scripting, so if you need more power, learn PowerShell and use that. (I am assuming you're in a Windows environment where change of OS isn't an option.)
But DOS batch files still work just fine. In my last job at $major-hardware-vendor, we used DOS batch file-based menus all the time; because they were simple, they got the job done, and all the people who had any need to maintain them knew all about them. Some were particularly large/gnarly batch files, too. (Think 3 KB of one single .bat file menuing to do a few dozen tasks.) When choice is used liberally, along with variables, you can make it very simple to maintain, too. (We used it for updating various things, and the very first section was where all the variables were set, all you had to do when it came time to update was throw the updated file in the right place, and change a number in the batch file.)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Why would you consider messing with something that works?
Your description suggests that, for anybody who doesn't really want to get their hands dirty, there is an adequate if rather retro menu driven interface. Great. A little reading never hurt anybody important.
Even better, if your application is written within the limitations of CMD batch files, it'll be trivial for any admin who cares and has a copy of notepad to pick it apart, if needed.
I, for one, fucking hate shiny-but-opaque vendor tools("Oh, great, you made it so easy that a trained monkey could do it, once. I need to do it 10,000 times, I see that your only officially supported method is '10,000 trained monkeys'. Would it have killed you to include some useful command-line options?". If your application is "send PCL test commands to networked printers" you ain't selling to grandma and cousin jim-bob. You may well be dealing with somebody who might need to programmatically test dozens or hundreds of printers. He will appreciate being able to rework your tool.
CMD sucks; but it ships with every version of Windows since ever, and(since you've already written your application) apparently its limitations didn't cripple you. Why mess with it?
Did some quick research on it and it does look like it would work. But I did find this information:
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=655463&page=6
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
I would also look to Powershell to solve his issue.
Before Powershell, I would have went with VB Script.
Because he was wanting a bit more of a GUI, HTA (HTML Application) would be a simple option. It is a local web page named .hta instead of .html and it runs with application security on the local computer. Any script you can put in a .vbs file, you can also put into a script block of a .hta. This is one of those little tricks that not to many people know about.
I use hta when I want to keep the flexibility of html/script as an alternative to a compiled vb.net app.
Im a gamer, not a grammer major. This post is full of spelling and grammer mistakes.
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?
Yeah. VB, C++, Java, they all do PCL commands.
..but will it fit on a floppy ??
I never heard anyone say it.
Ugh. Now I feel old. Screw you, AC.