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May 15

Technical side of WP:B

Over the past few months, I've been introduced to basic scripting for the first time, which in this case is simple keyboard and mouse macros — I knew they existed, but I never had a clue how they worked, how to write them, how to understand the code, etc. Having recently filed a simple bot request, I'm left wondering — if your bot's fulfilling a simple task (which in this case encases a date with a template, and if it has a specific category, it removes it), is it reasonable to program your bot by using a keyboard-and-mouse macro, or are there typically other, more-substantial types of programming that work better? I mean, I could easily write a Macro Express macro to fulfill the bot task in question (but I don't have access to the program except on a work computer, so there's no point in trying), but I don't have any choice, because I'm not familiar with normal programming languages. If you could write in Java, C++, Python, Pearl, and various other languages, would you typically find a macro the simplest way of programming a simple find-and-replace bot, or would one or more of the more advanced languages generally be simpler? Nyttend (talk) 00:57, 15 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In programming, there is usually about a hundred (at least) ways to do something. Idiots argue about the best way. Whatever gets it done is fine. For text manipulation, I would use Perl or sed. That is their strength. But, I could use PHP or Java or C++ or Ruby or Haskell or Ada or... I actually have trouble remembering all the llanguages I've had to use over the years. 75.139.70.50 (talk) 03:27, 15 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Well, some methods are better than others, but it is true that perfectionism in programming can be problematic. That is, you can spend more time, effort, and money trying to find the best solution than it's worth. A cost/benefit analysis figures in here. StuRat (talk) 04:25, 15 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]