Category: programming

Expect is a great utility for automating sys-admin tasks. It's been on my to-do list for learning for some time now. I've seen it used by one of the admins where I used to work and was amazed at what it can handle.
To quote the Expect website, "Expect is a tool for automating interactive applications such as telnet (ssh), ftp, passwd, fsck, rlogin, tip, etc. Expect really makes this stuff trivial. Expect is also useful for testing these same applications."

O'Reilly books has a great book on the subject, Exploring Expect, and has been a title I have been searching for, but this year it's high on my wishlist I got it for Christmas.

Expect is based on the Tcl ("tickle") scripting language, combined with the Tk extensions, Tcl itself is pretty nifty. Here's one example of what you can do with Tcl/Tk. (and that's one example i use quite a bit when i'm at a console!)

I'm taking a C++ and COBOL class at SFA State this semester.
I already know C++ to the point that I am fairly comfortable with it. I hope to expand on this knowledge during the semester, and to learn the "right" way to code.
As for COBOL? I'm not too sure how enjoyable it will be.
This cool link shows how each language differs by presenting the most simple "hello world" program. There are some very odd-looking programs/scripts listed on there, I'm sure you havent heard or seen at least 75% of the languages listed on there.

I've been learning Regular Expressions lately. I must say, they are very nifty. Knowing them will save you alot of time if you're trying to match a word or string of characters from an outside source. I found this page that seems to be pretty easy to understand and geared towards those that are learning regex's.
If you are learning, try using them in vi or awk.