As a general-purpose scripting environment I have found JSDB -
previously released as a compiled executable - to be a superbly
powerful and extensible environment for managing batch tasks. Because
Javascript has structured exception handling, it is possible to build
robust installation and deployment scripts, manage databases, as well
as perform many other tasks, and distribute only a small executable to
support these, while working in a standardised language (unlike
proprietary solutions).
I would like to thank Shanti Rao and Raosoft for gifting a
considerable amount of hard work to the community. From my point of
view JSDB has freed us from a serious problem - to distribute
Javascript code previously required us to install Microsoft's
scripting runtime - problematic on older versions of Windows - and
Spidermonkey itself provides a general purpose scripting engine core
that can be integrated into other applications without the onerous
licensing restrictions Microsoft impose.
Previously our only other options were various oddball scripting
languages (e.g Kix32) or (gak!) batch files or Perl.
If you are looking for a general purpose batch scripting environment
and find Perl a bit rich for your taste, try JSDB. I highly recommend
it.