Re: [Tutor] [python-win32] Python as scripting glue, WAS Python for sysadmin

2006-12-13 Thread Peter Jessop 

I am a windows system administrator and started learning
python (as an alternative to VBScript) for the following reasons.

1) VBScript has serious limitations as a language
2) Needed access to TCP/IP protocols
3) Ability to to write scripts with GUI.
4) Portability

Windows system administrators need to know VBScript because that is what
most other Windows
admins use and thus most examples are written in this language. However
point 1-4 above are serious limitations of VBScript

Now Powershell has arrived windows has its own usable shell. Of course the
popular tools (and shells) for Unix have been available for a long time on
Windows but the problem is not just the shell. If it is more appropiat to
use awk or bash or sed on Linux, why not use awk or bash or sed on Windows.?
Python does not compete with the shell  but complements it.  Indeed for
a system administrator learning Python is a great investment in the future
precisely because what you learn can then be used with other operating
systems.

Powershell can use .NET
objects but, as I understand it, cannot use .NET libraries to produce
interactive gui scripts. However I think
it addresses point 2) above as .NET does come with TCP/IP libraries.

The only drawback to using Python for Windows System administration is
the lack of uptodate books
dedicated to it. A good book dedicated to this topic will sell well.

Peter Jessop
MSCE
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Re: [Tutor] [python-win32] Python as scripting glue, WAS Python for sysadmin

2006-12-13 Thread Alan Gauld 

Peter Jessop [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote 
I am a windows system administrator and started learning
 python (as an alternative to VBScript) for the following reasons.
 
 1) VBScript has serious limitations as a language
 2) Needed access to TCP/IP protocols
 3) Ability to to write scripts with GUI.
 4) Portability
 
 Windows system administrators need to know VBScript ...
 
 Now Powershell has arrived windows has its own usable shell. 
 ...
 Powershell can use .NET objects 

And for that reason I suspect IronPython might be the best 
option for a Windows sys admin.

Although using IronPython in combination with .NET wouldn't 
be portable to other OS it would give very good access to the 
innards of Windows that are much harder to reach via normal 
Python and winall.

But I'm not an IronPython user so cannot speak from experience, 
but it seems that IronPython would be a very useful tool for 
a Windows Sys admin. Maybe some of those with real experience 
with ironPython can comment?

Alan G

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