Customer Reviews

Windows Script Host

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is an excellent reference and tutorial on WSH and VBScript. It seems to be somewhat geared toward system administrators, but any Windows user seeking to utilize WSH would benefit from this book. I was pleased with the thorough coverage of VBScript. Since I could find no other book on the subject, this was a gold mine to me. Only a couple of things I would like to see different: (1) The author explicitly recommends using Cscript.exe instead of Wscript.exe (I would like to see more examples geared towards Wscript.exe), and (2) I would like to see coverage of other scripting languages in addition to VBScript (e.g. JScript). For the topics this book does cover (WSH and VBScript) you won't find a more thorough book.

Another Tim Hill masterpiece. While most other related books try to cover a subject in as many pages as possible, this one manages to cover the essentials of WSH 2.0 in about 400 pages. It even includes an introduction to first-time programmers learning VBScript as their first language. Still, the structure of the book makes it very adequate for experienced programmers who just want to get into WSH.

The book is a treasure for Windows system administrators as it also got a bunch of useful administration script samples. Actually, ASP programmers using VBScript might find the book pretty useful as well, since many ASP specific books has a pretty poor VBScript coverage.

I recommend this book to people who wish to grasp WSH 2.0 using the VBScript engine. Read it and experiment with the examples together with online reference manuals for WSH and VBScript. ...

At the time of writing this review Tim Hill's book about WSH scripting technology is probably the best one on the market. If you're serious about replacing or (re)writing from scratch all those awkward batch files with more powerful WSH scripts then this is the book to start with. Usually programmers guides tend to be dry - certainly not the case with this one. Topics are presented with short samples and just enough explanation to understand the concept. No waste of paper! I like Notes and Program Guide sections throughout the book that provide additional explanation of some terms that I was not familiar with (If you're experienced VB/VBSCript developer then this book is probably not for you ;-). You should be aware however that this book is not organized as an reference guide for VBScript - if you're not satisfied with on-line documentation that came with WSH then look around for reference book on VBScript(or whatever script engine you prefer) with better index and page layout.

I found this book to be very readable and provided a good introduction to Windows Script Host. I did have a dificult time following the advanced chapters (11 - 14), and felt that the author needs to expand upon them to match the quality of the first 10 chapters. I ended referring to Sams Teach yourself Windows Script by Thomas Fredell to cover some of the advanced topics.

I agree with the other comments that the author does not cover JScript, but I thing that this is a positive point - WSH is hard enough without having to learn two languages. If your goal is to learn WSH using JScript or PERL, then this is the wrong book for you.

I liked this book a lot. In fact, I selected it it as the text book a class I am teaching. Of the few WSH books that are out there, I think that this one provides the best introduction. But, if you really want to learn WSH, you will also want to by either Dino Esposito's and/or Thomas Fredell's book too.

Good book.

But be warned: the code samples, supposedly available online (the book does not come with a disk or CD), are not available on the web site given. My emails to the publisher and webmaster inquiring as to the whereabouts of the code samples have gone unanswered.

This book is not as general as the title implies. Over half of the book is dedicated to covering vbscript, with almost no mention of the other activex scripting languages available. All of the examples are geared towards administration tasks; if that's all you need, this book is ok. If you need a programming reference that covers the capabilities of the WSH, this book is a poor choice (my personal recommendation would be the WSH programmer's reference by Dino Esposito).

I am currently reading this book and have found it to be very helpful so far. I have already read Tim's NT Shell scripting book and loved it.
The main reason for writing this review is to tell users that YOU CAN DOWNLOAD SOURCE CODE but not from the link listed in the book. You must go to new riders website and do a search on the book. Once you find the book there is a link to download the source code.

Tim Hill again proves himself to be a through writer and excellent teacher on WSH. This book focuses EXCLUSIVELY on VBScript with no examples of JScript (both languages native to WSH). However, if you build, deploy, manage, maintain, query, or generally support Windows platforms, you should have a copy of this book. It serves as an excellent VBScript/WSH primer covering programming concepts and built-in functions in detail. It them moves on to cover objects and classes from introductory to advanced topics. His examples are clear and to the point.

Tim's writing style is VERY easy to undertand and VERY thorough. This book is a MUST HAVE for admins wanting to go well beyond batch files for logon scripts and administration. Combined with a good WMI book, you've got a powerful aresenal.

BTW, the downloads from the publisher were easily available...

I am a system administrator who used this book to get started with VB Script. It is what it says and what you'd might expect -- a very good book on the Windows Scripting Host under Windows 2000. If you're looking for something else, or if you're already a VB script expert, this may not be the book for you.

The only significant downside I found to this book is that I could not find any trace of downloadable code where it told you to look on the publisher's web site. This means that if you want to use some of his longer code samples, you have to retype them. (ugh)

I enjoyed the Shell Scripting book and was excited to sample Tim's new book. Like others that reviewed it I attempted to download the scripts so I could start understanding the code better. There is no web site any more and apparently no one cares at InFormit to answer mail. The links to contact MacMillan Technical Publishers are all broken and it is a dead end. I'm still undecided on whether to return the book. Those of us that have been faithful MacMillan customers have gotten used to downloading the source code.