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So yesterday I wrote a script called 2day.pl. It opens up my daily writing file e.g. c:writingdaily20100429.txt in wordpad. Then I decided...
...why not write a batch file called 2.bat which calls 2day.pl? I mean, there's no sense in half-assed laziness. It's paid off already. (Windows start key) R 2 (return) and boom!
Having that utter convenience does trump the utter convenience of web sites I can waste time at. It may take a while to recoup the time writing the script with strictly the keystrokes saved, but taking down one more annoying barrier is a good feeling. It led to several more.
Of course, a problem with 1-letter/number batch files is that there are at most 36 of them--including the numbers. You have to be sure they make sense. And they'd better be relevant ones. I remember thinking as much when I started. So I have stuff like u.bat for going up a directory, g for going to various versions of our technology (g 8, g 80 or g 800 goes to c:tech800final) and other 2-letter commands.
The trick is remembering this language of shortcuts, but then I wrote up documentation on that, with scripts to check all the batch/perl files.
It occurs to me that I've made my own sort of mini-language, though I probably took too long to do it. It is like CS Lewis's old mini-paradox about winding Queen Susan's Horn. "Let's not use it til we're sure we need it" -> using it too late.
And I realized that it'd been a while since I last created a 1- or even many 2-letter batch files. And I had ways to document them clearly, and I could guess at most, anyway.
I really don't know if my coworkers have this semi-language, too. They seem to know the already made ones better than I do. I would like to bridge that gap--both to and from them.
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