I want to learn how to write small, customized programs (scripts I guess?) that can be popped out in a minute or two to automate cumbersome or annoying tasks as they come up. Things like searching and renaming large batches of files, keeping tabs on a web page and logging changes, pulling out text of specified format or content from a database or highly-formatted source, etc. It's most important that these things can be made and run on any given Windows machine (think fresh install), with OS X and in-browser support being lower priorities. Mobile OSes aren't important.
Given that aim and those criteria, in which language should I learn how to do this and why?
So does Windows simply not natively recognize any languages, thus the need to install Cygwin despite my having said "any given machine" and "fresh install?" Or is all of this empty posturing from most replies meant to conceal that you guys just don't know much of anything about the OS?
You could try PowerShell but it's a piece of shit.
There's also Microsoft's POSIX utils thing that I can't remember the exact location or name for, and it might give you a few UNIX-like tools that you could use instead of having to install Cygwin.
So am I simply not natively able to do gymnastics, thus the need to jump and run despite my having said "I have a broken leg" and "I am reliant on crutches?" Or is all of this empty posturing from most replies meant to conceal that you guys just don't know much of anything about my leg injuries?
SFU/SUA/Interix. It's basically the same idea as Cygwin, except it's a first-class NT Subsystem just like Win32 rather than a wrapper library on top of it.
Unfortunately with Windows 7 they started including it as a value-add for the more expensive versions of Windows, and I don't think they have a download to run it on Windows 7 Home Edition like they did for XP and Vista.
Name:
Anonymous2012-11-23 17:01
Unfortunately with Windows 7 they started including it as a value-add for the more expensive versions of Windows, and I don't think they have a download to run it on Windows 7 Home Edition like they did for XP and Vista.
It's deprecated in the Windows 8 developer preview, and apparently gone in Windows 8.
A much better option would be Portable VirtualBox (http://www.vbox.me/) with a PC-BSD VM.
>>12
VirtualBox only needs drivers installed on the host for bridged networking and USB support. Neither of these are necessary for most uses.
It should also be possible to set up portable versions of VirtualBox for OS X and Linux that share the same settings files the Windows one, but I don't really care enough to do it.