Scripting Files

Scripts are saved in the script folder, and bear a .txt file extension. As text files they are ordinary text files, and can be opened for viewing or editing in any text editor the user may desire, such as NotePad.

Scripts can be built, edited, and interactively debugged in the Script Panel of ScanEngine Explorer. The Script Panel assists by provides a structure that only creates syntactically correct script instructions. This is an intentional goal for ScanEngine Explorer's scripting system as not everybody is an experienced programmer and this should not represent a bar for non-programmers to create script functions.

Experienced programmers will readily recognize the intentional limitations of the Script Panel on their ability to author and edit scripts. For this exact reason ScanEngine Explorer employs a completely textual script format that where scripts can be authored or edited at will in any textual editing program the programmer desires. Outside of the ScanEngine Explorer controlled environment, it is left to the experienced programmer to generate syntactically correct scripted instructions. Towards this end, a few notes are appropriate regarding the format of saved text scripts.

• Fields in the Script Panel are tab delimited in saved script files.
• Tab should never appear within any field. Tab within a string literal is represented by the escape sequence '\t'.
• Associated commands are marked by a '>' carrot prefix.
• When a script is saved, indentation of the saved script file is automatic. Indentation is not necessary when editing the script files outside of ScanEngine Explorer. It will be automatically formatted on loading.
• Comments must begin with a double '//' and are displayed in the comment column of the Script Panel which follow the argument column by a tab delimeter. This is not required in ScanEngine Explorer's Script Panel but will be automatically added to the saved script file.
• On blank lines, leading tabs are not mandatory for comments ... they will be automatically formatted to the comment column on loading.
• Not all command lines have argument fields, but tabs must appear between fields (whether they are present or not) for comments to be loaded correctly in the comment column.