How do I learn PowerShell and VBScript?

[ibex333]

So I see just about everyone requires these things for a System Admin job, and even for many entry level Desktop Support jobs these days, which IMO is ridiculous.

Be it as it may, I need to learn this and learn it as fast as possible. I have virtually no programming or scripting knowledge, and I tried finding some books on this stuff, but those seem to be scarce, even on Amazon, and if I will be buying a book, I need a GOOD book, not just a book. Also are there any good online tutorials? Anything from SBT Nuggets, or Lynda or whatever?

also, some people say VBScrip is obsolete and not necessary, and Powershell only is enough, and others say that one cant get into PowerShell without VBScript knowledge, and previous knowledge of Visual Basic. So where is the truth in all this?

I need to sit down and learn this stuff. Learn it well enough to use it in a corporate environment.

 

[mvbighead]

http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Windows-.../dp/1617290211

Highly recommended book for newbs.

If you have any other programming experience, it should help you with the basic concepts of powershell. Don Jones is one of the better guys out there.

Also look at the Scripting Guy's stuff. He's a bit goofy at times, but teaches people with no concept of the stuff through his wife. (Basically teaching by teaching his wife, he learns to teach the most uninformed with scripting, thereby teaching anyone).

Some good videos to get you started can be found here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419.aspx

 

[mvbighead]

Oh, and as far as it being ridiculous... it's not. What's ridiculous is a helpdesker manually updating something on 600 machines throughout a week on each individual system. With powershell (or other scripting languages), if you learn how to do something, you can affect multiple machines on routine intervals automatically.

 

[ibex333]

Oh, and as far as it being ridiculous... it's not. What's ridiculous is a helpdesker manually updating something on 600 machines throughout a week on each individual system. With powershell (or other scripting languages), if you learn how to do something, you can affect multiple machines on routine intervals automatically.

When I said ridiculous, I was referring to the fact that it is ridiculous to require an average entry-level helpdesk guy who has an A+ cert at best, and probably does not have a Bachelor's in Computer Science to have the kind of knowledge that's required for scripting.

Thanks very much. I will check out that book.

 

[Nothinman]

You shouldn't need VBScript or VB knowledge for PowerShell, I don't think they're related in any way although I don't know either well because both are just terrible languages IMO. I would definitely consider VBScript to be legacy, but if you have to support local scripts running on older hosts without PowerShell (e.g. XP and Win2K3) it's still important.

I don't think requiring some experience with one or both is ridiculous, they're just setting their sights a little high is all.

The main problem you will have is that learning to program and learning a programming language are two different tasks. It's not difficult to google for examples and modify them for your purposes, but if you have no real programming experience/knowledge of the underlying concepts of programming, debugging, development, etc you're going to struggle hard with any language.

 

[ibex333]

You shouldn't need VBScript or VB knowledge for PowerShell, I don't think they're related in any way although I don't know either well because both are just terrible languages IMO. I would definitely consider VBScript to be legacy, but if you have to support local scripts running on older hosts without PowerShell (e.g. XP and Win2K3) it's still important.

I don't think requiring some experience with one or both is ridiculous, they're just setting their sights a little high is all.

The main problem you will have is that learning to program and learning a programming language are two different tasks. It's not difficult to google for examples and modify them for your purposes, but if you have no real programming experience/knowledge of the underlying concepts of programming, debugging, development, etc you're going to struggle hard with any language.

But scripting is not programming, is it? Scripting is much easier than programming, is it not?

 

[Nothinman]

But scripting is not programming, is it? Scripting is much easier than programming, is it not?

IMO that's just semantics. I think the primary difference to most people is compiled vs interpreted, but with things like perl2exe that doesn't really matter either. Most people consider perl a scripting language, but I've seen (and used for a while) a full featured IMAP mail client written in perl.

 

[veri745]

But scripting is not programming, is it? Scripting is much easier than programming, is it not?

Scripting is definitely programming. Scripting languages are generally not strongly-typed, and interpreted instead of compiled, but it's a programming language none-the-less.

In some ways, those differences make scripting languages harder to understand and learn than if they were more strongly-typed.

What's "easier" about scripting is not having to compile and the fact that scripts are generally less complex than large programs.