Fed up with Java, switching to a new language

Posted on April 1, 2005 by Todd Huss

I’ve had it with Java, too much technology to learn with Unit testing, ORM, IoC, AOP, and SOA, not to mention static typing and waiting to compile. That’s why as of right now I’m a converted .BAT programmer and here’s why:

1. .BAT is already installed on 90+% of the computers in the world
2. .BAT supports dynamic typing (set FOO=x, set FOO=1)
3. .BAT is interpreted, no build (and waiting) necessary to run my code
4. .BAT is modular and extendable (FOO.BAT can call BAR.BAT)
5. .BAT supports a variable number of arguments to other .BAT modules (BAR.BAT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7)
6. .BAT has more IDE’s than any other language (although my favorite is Notepad)
7. The OS has built in refactoring support allowing me to move and rename my .BAT modules without starting up my favoriate IDE (Notepad)
8. .BAT is cross-platform (DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, 2003)
9. .BAT supports running from a GUI by double clicking on it or using it from the command line
10. .BAT makes accessing environment variables easy so I can move most configuration out of my .BAT module
11. .BAT has built in debugging and logging with PAUSE and ECHO

Things I’m hoping to see in the next release of .BAT (shipping with Longhorn)

1. Improved ODBC driver support in .BAT
2. Improved regular expression support (although their * and ? filesystem regex support is already the best in the business)

I only wish I’d seen the light sooner before I wasted the better part of a decade on Java!

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21 Responses to Fed up with Java, switching to a new language

  1. Steve Prentice says:
    February 20, 2006 at 8:17 pm

    All laughing aside, I’ve seen way too many Java programs that have been written to tackle things that *should* have been written in one shell language or another…bash, bat, or whatever.

    Case in point, a recent command line interpreter that I had to work on weighed in at over 10K java lines of code. The bash replacement was 50 lines. Hmm.

  2. John Stone says:
    February 20, 2006 at 10:01 pm

    BAT rocks! I’m going to make this required reading for any new system admin I hire that comes in bragging about their special skills with VBscript.

  3. Way cool says:
    February 21, 2006 at 2:54 am

    BAT allows easy calling of OS-specific functionality. You can call any command line utilities in the operating system.

    You can extend BAT in C or almost any other language.

    BAT contains a built in interpreter your program’s users can use for scripting! Just call command.com or cmd.exe from your BAT file, and the powerful interpreter appears in all it’s glory!

    BAT comes bundled with a powerful text entry feature! Unlike editing controls found in other programming languages, this is simple to use. Just call

    COPY CON file-name.txt

  4. Peter Blue says:
    February 21, 2006 at 5:15 am

    When I used Windows, I used a .BAT program (running XCopy) to auto backup all my new (or changed) files onto another hard drive each time Windows was started. Who needs expensive backup software ?

  5. peter blue is special says:
    February 21, 2006 at 5:47 am

    My. Aren’t you clever Peter Blue

  6. J says:
    February 21, 2006 at 6:37 am

    Grab yourself some GTK-Server and you can even write interactive GUI programs:

    http://www.gtk-server.org/index.html

  7. Ryan says:
    February 21, 2006 at 7:41 am

    You forgot to include the percentages on the parameters – see quake.bat:

    quake.exe %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6

    Also, don’t forget the robust commenting system via REM

  8. grulos says:
    February 21, 2006 at 7:53 am

    BAT io: copy readme.txt lpt1:

    can you imagine the possibilities?

  9. Ron says:
    February 21, 2006 at 12:11 pm

    Actually, if you used 4NT from JPSoft (I’m not affiliated but I am a happy user), you have excellent regular expression support. It also has block- structured IF statements and all kinds of new goodies that Java will NEVER support.

  10. Koston says:
    February 21, 2006 at 12:50 pm

    Also, don’t forget the fact that one of the system default startup files is a .BAT script.

  11. cyber_rigger says:
    February 21, 2006 at 6:43 pm

    So, ROM basic’s not good enough for you?

    :^)

    I would rather use a Linux shell myself.

  12. cyber_rigger says:
    February 21, 2006 at 6:47 pm

    “DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, 2003”,

    IMO, does NOT mean “crossplatform”.

  14. AJ says:
    February 22, 2006 at 1:40 am

    cyber_rigger, perhaps we should start an open-source project to create a linux implementation of .BAT? Let us spread the goodness of .BAT to the world! OSX.BAT, anyone?

  15. sebsauvage says:
    February 22, 2006 at 1:54 am

    How about Python ?

    It has all the feature you mentioned, and it’s crossplatform.
    (I wrote webGobbler, and it runs without any change on Windows, Linux, MacOS X, …)

    It’s a free (as in speech) language and comes with batteries included.

    http://python.org

  16. Paul Henman says:
    February 24, 2006 at 8:35 am

    BAT – the poor-man’s Bourne shell 🙂

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  20. crysfel says:
    October 13, 2006 at 9:23 am

    hahahahahahhaha LOL…. this is so fun!!! hehehehhehe

  21. Pingback: Paul Henman - find me at henman.ca » Blog Archive » Neat new feature

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