Scripting Repetitive Tasks
Turn boring manual computer chores into quick, reliable automations you can run with a single click. Learn how to write simple scripts that batch-rename files, sort messy folders, and safely run tasks on autopilot.
Like Duolingo, but for Scripting Repetitive Tasks. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Building Quick Automations and Making Scripts Smart and Safe. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Scripting Repetitive Tasks
- A script is fundamentally an automated list of ordinary terminal commands
- A script runs the commands you write in sequence from line 1 down to the end
- Each command must finish before the script moves to the next line
- Plain-text editors save only the exact characters you type without hidden styling
- Word processors embed hidden formatting codes (like font metadata, margins, and curly quotes) that break script interpreters
- Script interpreters can only parse raw, unformatted text characters
- Operating systems treat new text files as non-executable by default to protect against running accidental or malicious code
- A script file must be granted execute permission (such as via chmod +x on Unix-like systems) before the system allows it to run as a program
- A proper file extension (like .sh) clarifies file purpose, but permissions control whether it can run
- Defining a variable once at the start of a script centralizes values that might change later
- Commands inside the script refer to the variable name, letting you redirect the whole script by changing a single line
- Hardcoding specific folder paths throughout a script makes it brittle and difficult to reuse
- Scripts run silently by default, which can make it impossible to tell if a long task is still running or frozen
- Status messages break long-running tasks into clear milestones visible in the terminal
- If a script errors out, the last printed message shows exactly which stage it reached before failing
- A script loop repeats the same command over and over without waiting for you to press Enter each time
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Scripting Repetitive Tasks the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
How does your computer read and execute the lines in a script?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where Scripting Repetitive Tasks takes you
- 1
Building Quick Automations
- Your First Reusable Script
- Batch Work with Loops
- 2
Making Scripts Smart and Safe
- Decisions and Filtering with Conditions
- Defensive Scripting and Dry Runs
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Scripting Repetitive Tasks is taught in the Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Scripting Repetitive Tasks today.
Download Tomo, search Scripting Repetitive Tasks, and play your first lesson in under a minute.