Scripting skills

[Josephny]

ability to pester those far more knowledgeable

One big trick, I think, is using “/system/script/edit source” to use Mikrotik’s editor. Unlike Winbox’s script editor, it will show red marks if the script is invalid (in realtime in edit).
While I like @rextended, I know he uses notepad.exe to edit script, but without color-syntax coloring he’s crazy. Same with winbox’s script widow. The colors do help.

Take my $PIANO script, if the script is “correct”, you’ll see all the colors indicating types
everyting-is-okay.png
Even a light red shows [undeclared] args, which is correct here, but using function args is rare, and undecleared variables are normally bad… why $bpm, $silient, etc are red - but still parses so you see colors everywhere).

But throw a bad command into the mix, all colors gone means it cannot be parsed. And if edit cannot colorize it, the script engine would be able run it either:
bad-syntax-in-editor.png

Now having it all colored does not mean it will “just work”, but at least it won’t be a syntax error that’s the issue.

There are routeros plugins for other code editors like VSCode, etc. too. But I swear the colors really help with these dense RouterOS scripts. But the “/system/script/edit” is actually the most accurate, since it’s using the real script engine. Winbox’s script window does not help you - it more a hope-and-pray it’s right sitution.

This is a fantastic feature. Which, no surprise, I had no idea existed.

Is this what you use to do your scripting?

Other than having achieved a skill level where syntax errors are not made, why use any other tool for scripting?

I’m sure VSS, notepad, Homesite, etc., but without this level of confirmation of syntax correctness, why use them?