Everyone must record code

I remember mucking around with Rexx in OS/2. It was a truly liberating experience, especially after spending way too much time with Edlin and batch files. It's OO-ness, simplicity and consistency helped me automate a variety of mundane systems admin tasks. But after the demise of OS/2, I found myself staring yet again at a less-than-useful set of scripting tools on the Wintel desktop.

That is perhaps one reason why CLI-savvy OSes like Linux, BSD, and even Mac OS X are findings their way onto many admin desks. They are rife with tools that let non-coders create a wide range of scripts. But one often overlooked capability available within these OSes is that of automation routines.

Just ask any Photoshop user how to tackle a repetitive task, and she'll tell you to just record a set of actions while performing the task at hand.

No scripting, just doing. Record once, run anytime.

I'd like to see the same notion applied in a standardized manner across apps as well as OSes. A systems admin in South Bend Indiana could then record and annotate a set of "backup" actions for a given environment. He could post those actions to a shared source server, returning the favor for already downloaded actions created by other admins. Others could download this source code and modify it to suite their specific needs.