idea

Dorian (MJT support) · Post by **Dorian (MJT support)** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:31 pm

Hey support guys and fellow enthusiasts,

I've been using MS for a number of years now, and even though I am "experienced" I still find new commands I hadn't noticed before, or new ways of doing things.

Why don't one of you experts out there (Bob, Lumumba, Support, sorry if I missed anyone out) write some kind of tutorial, or "macro scheduler in 24 hours" (like those SAMS books) ?

I am sure people here would buy it if it was reasonably priced.... I know I would.

The help files are great, but unless I read through every command I'll always miss something. In fact, when I first bought MS I actually read every command in the help file, and printed them off. Somehow I've missed some of the news ones which have been added.

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 6:35 pm

Great idea Horoscopes2000.....

So when will it be available to the public, lumumba?

Dorian (MJT support) · Post by **Dorian (MJT support)** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 6:46 pm

Maybe I should have kept that idea quiet, and mentioned it privately .... then I could claim my 10%!

Lumumba · Post by **Lumumba** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:17 pm

So when will it be available to the public Lumumba ?

You may know that if you point with your finger to someone minimum 3 fingers are pointing back to yourself

armsys · Post by **armsys** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:38 am

Definitely I support the wonderful proposal. The theme should focus on scripting tricks, techniques, VBscript, and, above all, a lot of samples. The book should be distriubted electronically in (protected) PDF ebook format.

armsys · Post by **armsys** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:38 am

Sorry for the above message being duplicated again.
Armstrong

Dorian (MJT support) · Post by **Dorian (MJT support)** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:37 am

Here, I'll start you off...

WriteLn>c:\bob and lumumba's amazing project\v1.txt,result,The amazing book of scripts, samples, and how-to's. A repository of every script ever written for Macro Scheduler!

Anyone would think you guys were too busy with your real jobs!

I'd do it if I was clever enough. Or if I knew enough. I wonder how many MS users there are out there. Maybe the market would be too limited for you to earn enough money to make it viable anyway..

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:14 am

Hi guys,

We would support this idea. Often been asked if such a book exists. There is of course the command reference and getting started guide, but a more comprehensive book would be welcomed. Not an easy thing to do. I wouldn't know where to start. How to accommodate every possible scenario (impossible as limitations are infinite)? Often people just expect to see an example of how to solve their exact problem. But no one can predict every user's scenario.

So a book somehow needs to discuss all or most common functions with clear examples. Another challenge is making examples that will work on every PC in the world. For an automation language that interracts with other applications by simulating a user this is not easy. It's all very well for regular programming languages where the outcome is predictable and you build the app. That's why most examples seen previously are lame "hello world" scripts that open up Notepad and write some text. Most people need to do something more complicated but have different applications to automate on their system than the next guy. You end up with theoretical examples which can't be executed.

So, a book like this is quite a challenge I think. But I'm sure something can be done. I would suggest a collaborative approach as everyone has different skillsets. Different people could write different chapters for example.

The first step would be a table of contents. What should be in a book like this? Why don't we use this thread to thrash out such a contents list? Make suggestions as to what should be in the book. Once we have a contents list we can work out who writes what. What do you think?

armsys · Post by **armsys** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:50 pm

Hi Marcus, Bob, lumumba, Horoscopes2000,....

You got it in no time:
Macro Scheduler Professional Projects
Part 1 Introducing Macro Scheduler
Ch 01 What's Macro Scheduler
Ch 02 Errors, constants, and variables
Ch 03 Conditional logic and iterative Structures
Ch 04 Subroutines
Ch 05 Arrays
Ch 06 Data collection, notification, and error reporting
Ch 07 Dialog objects
Ch 08 Macro Scheduler and Internet Explorer
Ch 09 Macro Scheduler and VBscript
Ch 10 Macro Scheduler and WSH
Ch 11 Macro Scheduler and Microsoft Office
Ch 12 Macro Scheduler and Crystal Reports
Part 2 Project 1 Desktop Administration Using Macro Scheduler and VBScript Overview
Ch 13 Projects Case Study: Desktop Customization and Deployment
Part 3 Project 2 Analyzing Windows System Performance
Part 4 Project 3 Creating a Centralized Report Management Station
Part 5 Project 4 Reporting Application Summary Data via the Web
Part 6 Appendices−Macro Scheduler Command Reference

The outline is meant to be some tangible ideas whereby we can discuss further. Shall we start up the fellowship?

Dorian (MJT support) · Post by **Dorian (MJT support)** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:19 pm

Hi Marcus,

It's great to see you posting here, as I haven't seen your posts in a while.

One addition to that very comprehensive list armsys came up with could be

Macro Scheduler and CLI.

I have found this very useful.

Oh, also how about a list of those very useful programs we can use MS to control, which have been mentioned in this forum. For instance ImageMagick, and there was anothe rone which could be used for changing screen resolution (reschange?). They are mostly freeware and work really well with MS.

And there was another post which had a link to the various DLLs we can make use of.

So much of that info has been posted here over the years, but sometimes it's hard to refer back to... if it was in the book it would be really helpful.

Dorian (MJT support) · Post by **Dorian (MJT support)** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:21 pm

+ CH14 Macro Scheduler and the Windows Registry ?

armsys · Post by **armsys** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 9:45 pm

Hi Horoscopes2000 ,

Sorry I missed those interesting topics too. BTW, what's CLI? Another chapter disccusing about managing and FTP synchronizing Macromedia html contents and CSS definition files wouldbe nice. Now we have a tentative ToC, more or less. How should we proceed from here on? Who would be interested in authoring these chapters?

Dorian (MJT support) · Post by **Dorian (MJT support)** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 12:15 am

Isn't the CLI the command line interface? that's what I've always called it, anyway. I use MS with dos commands all the time.

I don't think I'm expert enough to actually write any of this , as my scripts are always a million time longer than they should be, and usually you, bob, or lumumba manage to point out the way I *should* have done it in the first place. My programming days started and ended with Commodore 64 BASIC, which is why I like MS so much because it's pretty similar.

I'll see if I can find those topics and post the links here.

Dorian (MJT support) · Post by **Dorian (MJT support)** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 12:30 am

Here are three of them...

Re Imagemagick. The lumumba's post 6 up from the bottom
http://www.mjtnet.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... magemagick

Reschange
http://www.mjtnet.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... =reschange

RUNDLL
As usual, the amazing lumumba. 2 posts up from the bottom
http://www.mjtnet.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... ght=rundll

Dorian (MJT support) · Post by **Dorian (MJT support)** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 8:51 pm

Did I kill this thread?