A Portable Scripting Toolbox
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Windows scripting is like anything else. Having the right tool for the job makes life a whole lot easier. There are a plethora of coding environments and IDEs that have been built for Windows scripting. Unfortunately, quite often scripts need to be written on location, without the help of these friendly applications.
Thankfully, you're not out of luck. There are a number of stand-alone applications that can make your life easier and provide you with more than Notepad when you're away from your development machine. Here's some of the ones that I recommend and think that no scripter should do without.
I've taken special care to choose tools that I know work, and don't require installation. Since these tools are portable, you can throw them on a USB drive and literally carry everything you need to write any script right in your pocket. You may find some of these tools so useful that you'll keep them on your development machine as well.
As I see it, a scripter has three basic areas of need. The first of these is a decent editor. While Windows scripts are nothing more than plain text files, you don't want to resort to using Notepad if you really don't have to. Good editors geared toward Windows scripters are very hard to find, but I've got a suggestion for you that you'll probably find very useful.
The second need as I see it is being able to find the objects that you need and to be able to see their methods and properties. Without auto-complete, and possibly without Internet access, writing scripts can become extremely frustrating without a little help. This is where object browsers come into play. They have the ability to examine the registry and local type libraries and expose information about the objects that are installed on the current system. This applies for WMI as well.
The third need that I see is good documentation. Simply finding objects and methods is not always enough. Having a good error code reference and documentation of common objects can save loads of debugging time. While most people won't be able to carry the MSDN Library with them, there are several reference sources that can prove invaluable. Along with documentation, I'll also show you several sample code libraries that you can take with you on the go as well.
I've also decided to include one last group of tools for scripters. While this doesn't address a specific need, it can certainly increase productivity. These are portable code generators. You provide a few simple details about a task you wish to perform, and these guys can spit out relevant code for you-saving lots of development time.
Next: Every script author needs a good editor! >>
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