> It's a shame most tools aimed at regular computer users de-emphasize, or fail to recognize entirely, the concept of batch processing.
I don't see it this way at all.
- In MS Word, OSX TextEdit, and most other editors/word processors, search and replace is front and center. Heck, search itself (both within local files and search engines) is the ultimate example of automating and scaling the repetitive, and it's everywhere.
- In OS X Finder, you can batch-rename files by highlighting them, right-clicking, and clicking "Rename [N] Files..."
- Mail merging has been a thing in MS Word and other processors for a long time.
- In Excel, all kinds of repetitive, menial tasks are immediately discoverable to even a complete beginner: highlight more than one numeric cell and the status bar instantly displays the average, count, and sum. Conditional formatting, number formatting, sorting, filtering, and all kinds of data-reshaping tasks are baked into the UI.
> In MS Word, OSX TextEdit, and most other editors/word processors, search and replace is front and center.
What about batch S&R in multiple files? What about S&R by regular expressions? What about both? There are entire dimensions of basic automation that aren't covered, except in editors used by programmers.
> In OS X Finder, you can batch-rename files by highlighting them, right-clicking, and clicking "Rename [N] Files..."
Didn't know that. I have only seen "batch rename" in Windows Explorer, and it's pretty basic (and not even advertised - whether you select one or multiple files, the option is always called just "Rename"). So if you want to turn "foo.exe" and "foo.dll" into "bar.exe" and "bar.dll", that'll work. If you want to turn a bunch of files into "foo1", "foo2", "foo3", I'm not sure if you can do that.
> In Excel, all kinds of repetitive, menial tasks are immediately discoverable to even a complete beginner
Agreed. On top of that, working with Excel is essentially programming (FRP at that), just not advertised as such. Altogether, this makes Excel one of the best pieces of software written in the history of mankind. But it's an exception that proves the rule.
I don't see it this way at all.
- In MS Word, OSX TextEdit, and most other editors/word processors, search and replace is front and center. Heck, search itself (both within local files and search engines) is the ultimate example of automating and scaling the repetitive, and it's everywhere.
- In OS X Finder, you can batch-rename files by highlighting them, right-clicking, and clicking "Rename [N] Files..."
- Mail merging has been a thing in MS Word and other processors for a long time.
- In Excel, all kinds of repetitive, menial tasks are immediately discoverable to even a complete beginner: highlight more than one numeric cell and the status bar instantly displays the average, count, and sum. Conditional formatting, number formatting, sorting, filtering, and all kinds of data-reshaping tasks are baked into the UI.