Warp wrote:
>   That seems to be a problem with Windows: It simply doesn't invite you
> to do things by scripting.

Not at the command level, true. Within applications, there's all kinds of 
macro capabilities, at least in the sophisticated apps.

>   I have been a regular Windows user for over 10 years, yet I don't have
> the slightest idea about vbscripts nor even how you could even run them.
> Can you run them directly?

Open a command prompt and type "echo %pathext%"
.vbs is visual basic script.
.wsh is windows scripting host.
.js  is probably javascript.

(Those are the extensions that cmd.exe will treat as executable)



> Do you need some kind of interpreter for it?
> Does Windows support them by default, or do you need to install something?

Yes, built in.

> I really don't have the slightest idea. I don't even know where to start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Scripting_Host   ;-)

>   I have also been a regular Unix user for over 10 years, and I'm somewhat
> fluent in shell scripting. I'm in fact so used to it, that I find a terminal
> emulator much more comfortable for browsing and handling files than a
> graphical file browser (even though all linux distros have both).

Me too, but that's more because the Linux file browsers I've found don't 
really offer enough functionality to make them worthwhile. On Linux I use 
the command prompt for most things, and on Windows I use the graphical shell 
for most things. When I want to do something more sophisticated, I generally 
use Tcl in both cases.

>   I can't say which system I have used more overall, but I think it's
> rather telling that in one system I'm pretty fluent with its scripting,
> while in the other I don't have the faintest idea where to even start
> looking. There is just some fundamental difference in these two systems
> which causes different natural way of thinking.

For one, everything in Windows can assume you have a graphical interface, so 
all the configuration files and manipulations and such all have graphical 
editors for them. Even the registry, which would be ideal for command-line 
stuff, has a graphical editor.  So there tends to be less need to use the 
command line in Windows.

I wouldn't say one is better than the other *because* of the shells. There 
are things that bug me about Linux GUIs, and things that bug me about 
Windows CLI shells. Generally, I think in Windows one tends not to use the 
shell except when specifically scripting or building macros or whatever. In 
Linux, it's the normal way to interact with things (and for the system to be 
configured a la .bashrc), so one tends to learn how to use the Linux shells 
bit by bit.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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