May 1, 2026 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Tool is Better than a Script
May 1, 2026 at 6:30 am
It's an interesting trade off for sure. A tool can often be a whole circus. It does 457 things you don't want but does the one thing that you do want. Then it's all the upgrading, repeated visits to the procurement process, which can be quite sapping, and licence verification steps.
I do like a well targeted script when possible. Let's just say in a corporate environment the procurement process can destroy your soul. There's a place for both. Fortunately trusting my team is not issue for me.
May 1, 2026 at 6:16 pm
There definitely is a place for both.
May 1, 2026 at 8:50 pm
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May 5, 2026 at 9:14 am
Where is the borderline between a script and a tool?
Most of my development work is done on a Mac configured to use the ZSH (Z Shell) with https://ohmyz.sh/
We do a lot of Python development for data pipelines, but we tend not to write Python CLI tools because we have had issues with dependencies. I have done some work using PyTest to call shell scripts and functions and test the result.
Where we use shell scripts, we have written our own Oh-My-ZSH plug-ins, which are functions and aliases. The key thing is that we are writing for our team. If it is useful to an individual, it is probably useful to the team, and we discuss it in daily stand-ups. That discussion may reveal that an existing tool already does that job or should naturally absorb the feature. The best code is the code you don't have to write!
We also have Docker images that include a range of aliases, functions and scripts. The goal is to lift everyone to a level playing field, not for there to be a ceiling on where that playing field should be. I think there is a danger of confusing stability and stagnancy.
May 7, 2026 at 7:02 pm
It's a great question. When does a scrip become a tool? I think a tool is a known quantity, versioned, and used by anyone with known expectations. Scripts can be tools, but once people start changing them without a process and a way to store/mark/etc a version, it loses some value as a tool
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