Groovy: using instead of shell UNIX scripting is its purpose?

[Rogerio Kioshi]

Hi,

I've been reading about Groovy and I'm enjoying learning it because it has similar syntax to Java.

I'd like to know if the use of Groovy is more recommended only in situations where I write scripts like the ones are written many times using shell script from UNIX. I've seen (on ancient projects) a .bat file which calls a java class with a "public void main" method, and I agree it is not an elegant code.

[Tom Purl]

It depends on a lot of factors. First, who has to maintain your scripts? If everyone else on your team is competent with bat file scripting, but doesn't understand Groovy, then you're going to be creating code that no one else can maintain.

If the people you work with do understand Java or Groovy, then you have to ask yourself "which language makes me more productive, and which language is easier to maintain ?".

HTH!

[Marc Peabody]

I don't think I've ever written a Groovy script professionally. It's all been about doing the things we used to do in Java but now in a much more expressive language.

Just regular, enterprise application code.

[Gregg Bolinger]

I've written a few scripts in groovy but most were one time only things that would have take 4 times longer to write any otherg way. A couple of examples are here and here.

If you truly are a java shop then Groovy can make a whole lot of sense for this kind of thing. I'm currently consulting for a company that is PHP and Java. All their scripts are bash shell scripts. So to try and throw groovy into the mix would be a bad idea.

[Matthew Taylor]

If you use Ant, then maybe Gant can do some of the things you are trying to do with your scripts. Gant is a Groovy-based build system that uses no XML.

I work with Groovy and Grails professionally, and I still write bourne scripts sometimes . But I grew up on a Sun; it may be that I just can't kick the habit.