When I first had the need to write scripts, this was the first place I looked. Here's some of the things I always do:

• Before writing any code, know exactly what it is you want your script to do and plan for the unexpected (error-handling, false user-input,etc).

• Write clean code, use indents and use comments to explain parts of your code!!!

• Scripting works better if you feel comfortable using shell-commands on the host-system.

• Variables are your friends!

• Use functions.

• Open another terminal and try out parts of the code to see its output on screen (good for those extra spaces that screw up IF-statements).

• In case of the above, sed is your friend.

• More friends: awk, head, tail, wc, grep, ps, etc...

• Apropos is your friend too.

• http://google.com/groups is invaluable. So is this here forum!

• Get comfortable using a text-editor like vi, if all else fails I recommend UltraEdit which is extremely handy.

• Don't be affraid to ask someone else if you're stuck. You can find my share of stupid questions on this forum, but you know what? I just started out then. My position now? I write really really large scripts for my company and they have come to depend on them!

• Word of caution: sometimes scripts really stress a server. Try to be there the first few times they run, just in case.

• Use logging when needed. Create a log-function, so you don't need then ">" and ">>" to write to or append to a logfile. One typo can clear your logs. Using a log-function prevents this.

• Many of my scripts send me email. To stop the confusion , I always print the name of the script in the mailmessage, you'll start to appreciate this!