I spent a good part of the weekend 
writing a Windows batch file that 
accepts some user input and then 
automatically generates the html to 
display a directory full of images and 
multimedia files on a local (i.e., 
on your own machine) web page.

It's been a long time since I have 
written a batch file. Probably 10 
years? I really can't remember and 
I've definitely never done anything 
that complicated in a batch file. 
Mostly I just used them for 
hard-to-remember xcopy commands back 
when I had my iomega zip drive. Maybe 
it was more than 10 years ago...

Writing the batch file was quite a 
change from bash scripting and some of 
the syntax definitely created puzzles 
of significant proportions! Probably 
the most difficult part had to do with 
delayed variable expansion. I still 
don't understand *why* I have to do it 
(despite the well-meaning explanations 
on various websites), but I do know 
*how* to do it, and that you have to 
change what I'll call the variable 
identification tags from %%'s to !!'s 
when you do it. Weird.

All things considered, it was an 
enjoyable experience (it's been so 
long since I dir'd and del'd instead 
of ls'ing and rm'ing), and I'll 
probably continue to add improvements 
to the final product in the future.

Batch files probably aren't necessary 
if you install the Windows Subsystem 
for Linux, but they're still useful 
when you're not going to install 
WSL, and they have the ability to call 
file selection dialog boxes, etc. I'm 
not sure whether you can do that from 
WSL.

----

In other news, the odd-diameter 
seatpost for my bike finally arrived 
from Poland. The weather has also been 
changing, but it will still likely be 
a month before bike-riding season 
arrives.

----

Glad to see that baudvision is back! I 
just had to remove the /vcr from the 
end of the address in the shortcut on 
my TV computer's start menu. Now I can 
watch weird videos and irritate my 
wife again.

----

There seems to be a slight gopher 
resurgence. 

----

rach has new macs. I've never owned 
one, but I'm envious.

----

I enjoyed sloum's mini-rant.

----

If you're braver than I am, here's 
cat's latest thing:


    ╭───────────────────────╮
    │  baud.baby presents:  │
    │  Voicemail Dead Drop  │
    │                       │
    │   +1 (929) 601-BAUD   │
    │                       │
    │ baud.baby/1/voicemail │
    │                       │
    │    * call me now *    │
    ╰───────────────────────╯