Scripting Mathematica

Update 2008-07-02

i have been trying to script a mathematica notebook that I have created that creates documents.  I found it not as straightforward as it seems.

 

I started with at test notebook:

My method of getting this scriptable was to save as a .m file.

Then edit it with notepad by removing some of the comments (* to this:

(* ::Package:: *)

(* ::Input:: *)
(*This is a comment.*)

(* ::Input:: *)
(*a = {1,2,3}*)

(* ::Input:: *)
Export[NotebookDirectory[] <> "test.gif",Plot[Sin[x],{x,0,10}]]

(* ::Input:: *)
Exit[]
(**)

Then run it from a batch file like this:

F:
CD "\2008\Mathematica Auto"
"C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\6.0\math"  <"F:\2008\Mathematica Auto\test.m"

When I ran this didn't work as I couldn't use NotebookDirectory so I had to make the directory explicit:

(* ::Package:: *)

(* ::Input:: *)
(*This is a comment.*)

(* ::Input:: *)
(*a = {1,2,3}*)

(* ::Input:: *)
Export["F:\2008\Mathematica Auto\test.gif",Plot[Sin[x],{x,0,10}]]

(* ::Input:: *)
Exit[]
(**)

And this did run although not very elegant and I don't have a solution for running complex notebooks yet.  When you try and load a notebook Mathematica says it wants a front end.  It may be easier to script this inside Mathematica front end.