Why it's fun to know a scripting language.

[SketchMaster]

This is how I feel when I spend five minutes writing a script for a coworker, and save them hours of mindless clicking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQWq1Z-J-EE *NSFW*

 

[Ichinisan]

Awaiting details on the functions of this particular script...

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Just remember, good tools make the work faster and more efficient but, they aren't the work.

 

[ImpulsE69]

One of the things I wish I knew how to do better than I do.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I lost my company over a million dollars of revenue this year because of some automation code I wrote.

My manager was not sure what to think.

 

[lxskllr]

I lost my company over a million dollars of revenue this year because of some automation code I wrote.

My manager was not sure what to think.

Seriously? That's a bitch. Makes me feel better about my tens of thousands of dollars fuck ups :^D

 

[SketchMaster]

Awaiting details on the functions of this particular script...

Just moving tasks/files from one server to another, really basic, just a lot of little things. They were going to try and re-create/move everything by hand. Googled what I didn't know, then stitched it into one script.

Just remember, good tools make the work faster and more efficient but, they aren't the work.

Indeed.

I lost my company over a million dollars of revenue this year because of some automation code I wrote.

My manager was not sure what to think.

I knew a guy that automated his whole job using VB and Perl to the point where he could spend the whole day playing ping-pong if he wanted, and leave the office with everything done. I'm not sure I would entrust all of my daily tasks to a collection of scripts.

 

[lozina]

One of my favorite things was writing bots which automated tedious stuff in MMORPGs

 

[Childs]

I knew a guy that automated his whole job using VB and Perl to the point where he could spend the whole day playing ping-pong if he wanted, and leave the office with everything done. I'm not sure I would entrust all of my daily tasks to a collection of scripts.

My first full time tech job out of college was as a DB analyst. Took a bunch of records on tape, then used sql to import, scrub, then purge. It was graveyard, and I was the only person on shift. I got a bash scripting book from somewhere and automated everything. Actually, I don't even think there was a bash shell then, just sh or csh. Even wrote a neat UI using curses. So my job was basically one hour waiting for the import from tape, and the rest I spent doing whatever I wanted.

It was a cool job because after I initially met everyone and learned what to do, I didn't see anyone at all. I remember when I left I told my manager how to use the interface, and he was like..."Wait, this is how you were doing you job this whole time? I don't even think we need to hire a replacement." haha Anyways, for job security never let them see the automation.

 

[Imp]

I can only do that in Excel...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Just remember, good tools make the work faster and more efficient but, they aren't the work.

Actually, they're my work.

/Tools guy.

 

[Jeff7]

This is how I feel when I spend five minutes writing a script for a coworker, and save them hours of mindless clicking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQWq1Z-J-EE *NSFW*

Don't they have to submit a writeup detailing how your five minutes will save them more than that in the long run? You'll just do it for them?
There are two approaches here, depending on who's called on to do something:
- You'll get what you asked for in a few days, and probably a few other things in the process, and a couple of bugs were found and fixed in the process.
- Two months after the request, someone will ask for a recap of the original request. Either everyone here has been asked to do way too much stuff, or......:hmm:

...

I knew a guy that automated his whole job using VB and Perl to the point where he could spend the whole day playing ping-pong if he wanted, and leave the office with everything done. I'm not sure I would entrust all of my daily tasks to a collection of scripts.

Meanwhile, here we're trying to script and automate as much as possible so that we don't have to rely on people to make potentially incorrect decisions. In many ways, it can be nice to have the same mistake made the same way every time. It's at least consistent and (usually) easier to track down. A person who occasionally just does a crappy job of something isn't as easy to troubleshoot or accurately correct for.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Actually, they're my work.

/Tools guy.

And like accountants and other support groups, your work is to aid others in doing their work. Your work is important but the reason you have a job is due to something or someone else.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Has anyone ever played the online web game Evony? The ones with the ads that show cleavage. (BTW that part is a lie).

I decided to try it out as a side thing to play with at work and at home during dead times. Well I got pretty deeply into it and had several towns with lot of troops. Problem is you need to feed your troops just to keep them and the rate at which they eat food is a bit over the top. The only way to really get enough food was to farm NPC towns by attacking them. They would regen within 8 hours.

The game was basically a large map with x/y coordinates and the dialogs even had places where you can enter coordinates. I wrote a script that would farm fully automatically for all my towns. I set it up in a VM with a consistent screen size and would maximize the game and calibrate the various buttons in the game then let it go. I first had to enter the x/y coordinates of all the NPC towns in my towns area. The program would then keep track of when was the last time one was farmed so that it would farm other closer ones. The time it took to travel between two points was actually a fairly linear math equation so I was also able to calculate how long it takes for my troops to get there and back, so that would get deducted from the 8 hours it takes for a town to refresh.

The whole process was ridiculously efficient and fully automated. when I wanted to actually play the game I'd just go stop the script then load it on my main machine and play, but I only had an hour or two before my troops would starve so I'd go run the script again.

It got a bit ridiculous so I ended up quitting and gave all my towns to other people in the guild I was in.

Automating stuff is awesome. I could almost automate my job if I wanted to, but I choose not to, it's a very risky thing to do. It might just work too well.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

And like accountants and other support groups, your work is to aid others in doing their work. Your work is important but the reason you have a job is due to something or someone else.

Umm, no shit?

Guess what, developers are the same way. The something or someone else is the customer.

And from there it's just turtles all the way down.

Fucking ubermensches.

 

[Jeff7]

And like accountants and other support groups, your work is to aid others in doing their work. Your work is important but the reason you have a job is due to something or someone else.

This could be said of any job.

 

[lxskllr]

This could be said of any job.

Work for yourself. Be a subsistence farmer!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Umm, no shit?

Guess what, developers are the same way. The something or someone else is the customer.

And from there it's just turtles all the way down.

Fucking ubermensches.

There's a difference between internal customers and external. I guess it comes down to the level of participation. In the hospitality business, it makes me crazy that accountants and other support groups have as much or more influence over policy making than front line managers. I appreciate the insight on why something will, won't or, may work given these constraints but, when it comes to making policy and deciding what the product/service will be/presented, sit down, shut up and, listen.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

There's a difference between internal customers and external. I guess it comes down to the level of participation. In the hospitality business, it makes me crazy that accountants and other support groups have as much or more influence over policy making than front line managers. I appreciate the insight on why something will, won't or, may work given these constraints but, when it comes to making policy and deciding what the product/service will be/presented, sit down, shut up and, listen.

I get that I'm support, and that my job is to enable other people to do their jobs. And I'm not a big fan of playing gatekeeper anyway - I'd much rather give people what they want; it's easier on me.

But for every ten good developers, there's that one guy who'll try to browbeat me into waving my magic sysadmin wand and check his stuff into source control without manager approval. Or the guy who breaks the dailies by using some obscure, bleeding edge SCM feature without letting us know and checking to see if the scripts on the build infrastructure support it.

With all due respect to Ronald Reagan, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I don't know, it worked fine on my desktop."

Oh well. I fixed two bugs today, my potted plant is doing well, and there's free hot cocoa in the kitchenette all this month. :thumbsup:

 

[rh71]

I know how to script to a certain extent but the other day I learned how to use the vLookup function in Excel that saved me at least 2 hours with manually doing the same thing using MS SQL Server and something like ColdFusion. That felt great too. For as much tech experience that I have, I still don't know the ins and outs of Excel/Word/PPT. Hell I still struggle with all the damn ribbon options.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I knew a guy that automated his whole job using VB and Perl to the point where he could spend the whole day playing ping-pong if he wanted, and leave the office with everything done. I'm not sure I would entrust all of my daily tasks to a collection of scripts.

That is essentially my job. I implemented the physical design flow that my department uses - EDA tools stitched together with Perl, Ruby, Tcl and (lately) a little Scala

Anyways, for job security never let them see the automation.

^ This. I release little bits now and then to score innovation points, especially when it's time for a promotion

 

[Jeff7]

...
Anyways, for job security never let them see the automation.

"I figured out how to make a tool that makes me twice as productive. Can I have more money now?"

"No. I expect you to be three times as productive in another month."

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah never automate too much of your job. You're basically making it that much easier for the company to get rid of you. A company's #1 priority is to find ways to get rid of people so they can maximize profits. They'll lay off people in a heart beat if it does not affect productivity, thus, profits. You always want to look busy and be needed.

 

[gorcorps]

Just think of how good the coworker feels, having all that time saved and not even having to know how to do it. THAT'S how it's done

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Yeah never automate too much of your job. You're basically making it that much easier for the company to get rid of you. A company's #1 priority is to find ways to get rid of people so they can maximize profits. They'll lay off people in a heart beat if it does not affect productivity, thus, profits. You always want to look busy and be needed.

That's why you don't comment your code.