What does the term mean to you?

9/24/2008 9:10:53 PM

it means you can write scripts. that do things.

9/24/2008 9:15:21 PM

sometimes yea

9/24/2008 9:35:46 PM

someone whose extent of programming ability is in writing scripts.

IOW, not a software engineer.

9/24/2008 9:36:32 PM

Someone who couldn't tell you how a linked list works, or calculate the running time for a recursive algorithm they use.

9/24/2008 9:39:39 PM

i think you can be a scripter and be a software engineer but the both don't intertwine very well - i'd bet most scripters could tell you all of ^

unless they are only a scripter and know nothing else - i'd bet that's more rare though than someone proficient in both

back to the topic: a person that is proficient in one or more "scripting languages" such as perl / python / jacl / tcl

and i consider myself to be a decent scripter by i would never label myself with that term

[Edited on September 24, 2008 at 9:44 PM. Reason : thread title]

9/24/2008 9:43:27 PM

i've done some interesting, even significant things using "scripts", both professionally and personally. tend to use interpreted languages like perl, javascript, php but i've even made a few "scripts" in c#. scripts usually are much shorter, less application-like and for that reason maybe don't take advantage of things like OO or design patterns - perhaps why scripts are looked down upon by professional software engineers.

[Edited on September 24, 2008 at 10:04 PM. Reason : .]

9/24/2008 10:03:59 PM

^ Perl can go pretty low level, compared to those other languages.

I was thinking "scripters" in general though. I have a friend who does stuff in VB for his work, but his degree is in physics, and he probably couldn't tell you what object oriented means. That what I think of when I hear "scripter."

But, that doesn't mean that a "real" programmer couldn't make a respectable career writing scripts.

9/24/2008 10:07:59 PM

Quote :

"i consider myself to be a decent scripter by i would never label myself with that term "

Quote :

"scripts usually are much shorter, less application-like and for that reason maybe don't take advantage of things like OO or design patterns"

9/24/2008 10:17:19 PM

Awesome responses actually Thanks!

9/24/2008 10:38:24 PM

I script and I program. Used to be a serious VBScripter.

9/24/2008 10:52:46 PM

Quote :

"IOW, not a software engineer."

not a software engineer, not a computer scientist, not even a "programmer"

9/24/2008 10:57:53 PM

I was never a "script kiddie", but lately scripts are all I have time for.

9/24/2008 10:57:55 PM

I thought a scripter was someone from southeast Asia who works for $7/hour?

9/24/2008 11:12:59 PM

i enjoy a nicely written shell script.

9/24/2008 11:27:13 PM

to me a scripter is someone who writes at an abstraction level higher than a typical program. scripting languages are rarely typed and generally work with text or pipes. scripts tend to be more for information parsing, generating, and passing, than analysis and transformation like a program. I script considerably more than I program, but I apply the best practices of programming in my scripts (use of macros/environment vars where ever possible to prevent code repetition, using parameters where ever possible, etc). to me a script(er) is designed to the data flow to and execution of compiled code

9/24/2008 11:37:03 PM

^talk about a hard to read paragraph.

9/24/2008 11:54:47 PM

words.

9/24/2008 11:55:44 PM

fuck

it's really bad when you spend the morning doing php and the evening doing c++

$s everywhere

9/28/2008 10:39:49 AM

awesome,

(int)(log(64)/log(2))

equals 5. gg

9/28/2008 3:36:51 PM

integer math y0

9/28/2008 10:33:56 PM

The compiler should optimize that anyway shouldn't it?

9/28/2008 10:41:09 PM

wot?

9/28/2008 11:39:54 PM

what brought up this question?

9/28/2008 11:42:13 PM

^The compiler can. Probably should. Doesn't mean it does.

9/28/2008 11:57:24 PM

..... what? you forgot some carets there, mon ami

9/29/2008 12:29:36 AM

I would consider myself a scripter.

I write vbs/bat(is that even a script shrug) scripts for about 90% of my admin tasks. I could probably punch out some vb code and compile it and all that jazz (i haven't touched something i needed to compile since 2006) and i have considered making some kinda UI to fire off some of the B.S things i do 90 times a day.

Scripting type languages save me time, I can debug and troubleshoot easily, and I don't have to worry about the semantics of an actual programming language.


Overall scripts save me time and most of them get written for a specific task and never used again. (IE addign all the machines in certain OUs into a group in AD

Ive also started keeping certain script building blocks that ive been using...Ehh i guess you could kinda say libraries except much more stupid and simple. In IT I honestly expected alot of people to be able to script, however I recently got asked




[Edited on September 29, 2008 at 10:05 AM. Reason : dd]

9/29/2008 9:55:34 AM

Quote :

"what brought up this question?"

Two parts:

1) To see what the general perceptions of "scripter" are amongst tdub.

2) To find good candidates to participate in research (which have been found, thanks guys!)

9/29/2008 4:04:55 PM

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001216.html

1/26/2009 11:49:08 AM

Scripting is, to me, essentially automating a process in some application you do not have the source to, be it a rich client with local data, web application, or other client/server application.

I don't really think there's any distinction in difficulty between "scripting" and "programming" as disciplines. It's often true that scripts are less maintainable, more quick-and-dirty hacks; though in other cases automation of the work flow may require more documentation and programming than some of you folks turning your nose up at scripting regularly see.

It follows that a scripter is someone who attempts to automate various aspects of their work flow, and a capable scripter is someone who doesn't shy away from the task when it doesn't have VBscript bindings and help files (think re-impementing based on packet captures enough of the application's function to achieve an automated bulk operation where previously a single operation GUI was the alternative, or interfacing with the application via trapped X events to achieve the same end).

I've scripted various work flows in pretty much every job I've worked, though I don't consider myself exclusively a "scripter".

[Edited on January 26, 2009 at 12:41 PM. Reason : .]

1/26/2009 12:36:29 PM

i don't know what the term means, to me

i do the standard web stuff (X/HTML, CSS, JS) with the addition of PHP, ColdFusion, XML, and Perl...i've written full standalone applications and tiny scripts...i haven't written in C++ or Java in 7-8 years

1/26/2009 12:45:02 PM

ps. nice thread necromancy, qntmfred

1/26/2009 12:49:13 PM

#!/bin/bash

#!/usr/bin/perl

</thread>

2/18/2009 9:13:02 PM

I'm definitely a scripter, being fluent in perl, lisp, tcl, and familiar with python, lua, and shell... To me, scripting is all about automation. I can maintain object oriented stuff, but typically try to stay away from creating it (I've got it on my list of things to re-learn). Most of my scripts are sequential but recently I've been using finite state machines a lot.

I have seen some code written in perl/lisp/tcl (none that I wrote) that would blow the socks off of what the best "software engineer" could hope to write. It just depends on who's writing it.

Last week I wrote some lisp that dynamically generated 7 tcl scripts which I ran to create 14 text files which I parsed with a little grep piped to awk piped to sed and finally merged with perl ... That was just proof of concept - It's all tidied up in one script now


[Edited on February 19, 2009 at 12:02 AM. Reason : s]

2/18/2009 11:42:26 PM

Quote :

"i consider myself to be a decent scripter but i would never label myself with that term"

I wear the scripter hat quite often, being a good scripter doesn't make you less of a developer/architect/analysist/consultant. Sometimes a script makes much more sense than something else, why not be good at it?

Quote :

"scripts usually are much shorter, less application-like and for that reason maybe don't take advantage of things like OO or design patterns"

I think of scripts more of something that isn't "compiled" but is a runtime parsed.

2/18/2009 11:58:11 PM

I think the only real differences are speed and compatibility. Scripting trades off run time for decreased programmer time. Thus, it should be very easy to do complicated things in scripts. I don't even see why you shouldn't be doing OO and more elaborate programs in scripts(^^).

If runtime and compatibility are not an issue, scripting languages are the way to go.

Decreased programmer time and increased manageability are very valuable things.

2/19/2009 12:50:12 AM

In fact, there can be a real need to use OO techniques in scripts. In the end, its just a programming technique and if it fits the problem, then its the correct thing to do.

2/19/2009 8:08:55 AM