To Script, or Not To Script

It seems to happen all of the time. One of those situations arise where you have a task to accomplish that you know will be simple as pie to script. There's a big smile on your face as you finish writing it, nod approvingly at it's beauty and let it run it's course. Relaxing back into your seat, you bask in the glory of having once again thwarted destinies vain attempts to make you work.

But, this was one of those not-so-rare occasions where the task at hand would have taken you only a few minutes longer, or in some cases less time to accomplish than writing the code to make it work. You were torn for a moment, "Should I just do it? I'll never have to do this ever again and scripting it will take just as long as doing it manually". To script, or not to script?

If you're reading this blog, you're most likely in the demographic that would answer that question easily. Script it! Even though this is a specific case and the actual code will most likely never get used again verbatim, you still gain a lot from scripting tasks like this. Here is why:

Within every task given us is a problem to solve. Some are easier than others, some are difficult, and some may not seem like problems at all. The fact is though that as simple or as direct as a task may seem there is always some level of problem solving involved with it and as it is with any other skill, practice and repetition always make you better. If you approach every task like a challenge and use it to level up in some way, it makes even the simplest script worth writing!

What can you do to make a simple, easy-to-write script more challenging? Some ideas:

• Write it in another language or application
  
• Use commands or functions you've never used before
• Make it more robust, so that is becomes useful in other situations
• Write it in as few lines of code as possible (don't count comments or white space lines)

All of these things will definitely make you better and are usually fun. As long as your skills are improving, you're getting more benefit from scripting a simple one-off task then if you were to just do it manually. Your gaining skills, experience, challenging yourself, and inevitably getting better so that you'll be more apt to tackle a difficult assignment when it comes knocking.

In our line of work, the ones who stop learning are the ones that are left behind. Always seek out new ways to improve your skill-set and keep getting better!