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

[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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