Programming- Network Engineers

cdad2000

Hello,

Should net-engineers have programming experience? I would like to learn but don't know where to begin. I hear alot about Ruby, shell script,and python, but which would be beneficial to a network engineer?

veritas_libertas

cdad2000 wrote: »

Hello,

Should net-engineers have programming experience? I would like to learn but don't know where to begin. I hear alot about Ruby, shell script,and python, but which would be beneficial to a network engineer?

Somebody correct me if I am wrong but my assumptions would be: PowerShell, Batch, and SQL.

Met44

Depends on what type of equipment you want to work with and what you foresee your role to be with that equipment.

If you are using the Cisco IOS, you can cook some things up with TCL.

If you're using an open source implementation (Vyatta, xorp, quagga, etc.) on a GNU/Linux system, you can use whatever you please. If you're working with Linux systems exclusively and really want to understand how they work, C would also be good to learn.

No matter what you're supporting, if you just want a general purpose scripting language, perl and bash (or other shells) are simple, powerful, and can be used in almost any environment. Python is a good choice too. Less familiar with ruby. If you are working on or with Windows systems, veritas_libertas's suggestions of PowerShell and Windows batch are also good recommendations.

cdad2000

Thanks, I appreciate the break-down. I'm spending a huge amount of time on cisco IOS, so TLC will be a good place to start.

chrisone

cdad2000 wrote: »

Thanks, I appreciate the break-down. I'm spending a huge amount of time on cisco IOS, so TLC will be a good place to start.

my scripting language is text on notepad

Forsaken_GA

it all depends on your environment. I don't touch windows boxen anymore, so my scripts generally are of the bash shell or perl variety

ColbyG

Perl. I wish I knew it.