What to learn for programing

DevilWAH

OK after a small expedition in to PERL a month or so back. I am ready for the next step.

This time a slightly more ambitious project.

So my last project was to build a web page that you can enter in switch, port and vlan info to create a implementation script something like below

www.devilwah.com\switch.shtml

PORT PROVISIONING IMPLEMENTATION SCRIPT
=======================
implementation date - 30/03/2011
=======================
========================= REF NUMBER ====================================
TPM engineer: Aaron     Scripted on 30/03/2011
TPM Start time:      TPM End time:    Time Worked: 0min
=========================================================================
Server Name: SERVERXXX
Location: London
Rack: 45
Digram: 
ITSM ref: 
 
=========================================================================
******** START OF SCRIPT ********
Log on to Switch: londonSW1 
 
conf t 
 
int Gi0/20
description SERVERXXX
switchport access vlan 201
Speed Auto
Duplex Auto
no shut
exit
int Gi0/19
description SERVERXXX_ilo
switchport access vlan 656
Speed 100
Duplex Full
no shut
exit
exit
sh int status
wr mem
 
VLAN 201 = Subnet 172.16.5.0 / 24
VLAN 656 = Subnet 192.168.5.0 / 24
******** END OF SCRIPT ********
==================================================================================================
******** START OF SCRIPT ********
Log on to Switch: donSW2
 
conf t 
 
int Gi0/20
description SERVERXXX
switchport access vlan 201
Speed Auto
Duplex Auto
no shut
exit
exit
sh int status
wr mem
VLAN 201 = Subnet 172.16.5.0 / 24
******** END OF SCRIPT ********
==================================================================================================
 
Commenced at:
Completed at:
Completed by:
Successful YES/NO
Script auto generated by web script

So next step it to create a stand alone application that can them parse this script, log on to the devices, carry out verification of the script, carry out pre checks of the ports to configure to insure they are not in use, apply the config and verify it has been implemented correctly. (providing a full report).

And yes I know I could purchase a program to do this but where is the fun in that

This program has to run on windows, and has to be stand alone. So I will need to find a open source ssh implementation.

But the question is what language to do it in?? many years back I did C++ but forgotton most of that, and been out of the programming loop for to long.

So any programers out there. If you where getting in to programming now, for windows applications. What would you chose? Keep hearing dot net thrown around, but this came after my experince.

Cheers

Aaron

Webmaster

DevilWAH wrote:

If you where getting in to programming now, for windows applications. What would you chose? Keep hearing dot net thrown around, but this came after my experience.

That's your answer right there, if you want to develop Windows applications "dot net" is the way to go. More specifically, the Express editions of Visual Studio are great to get started, and can be downloaded free at Visual Studio2010 Express Editions |Microsoft Visual Studio. You can choose C++, C#, or Visual Basic. Personally I wouldn't go for the C++ version if just starting with Windows applications, but many networking related code examples and open source projects are in C++ and you do have some experience with it so that might be a better choice for you.