Windows PowerShell Programming - for the absolute beginner

By Jesse Hamrick • August 24th, 2007

PowerShell book review:

Microsoft Windows PowerShell Programming - for the absolute beginner by Jerry Lee Ford, JR. There are a number of you whom are just starting-out learning PowerShell, first-off congratulations on that! What Jerry has cleverly done is to write a PowerShell book that makes the process of learning PowerShell fun!

Some tech books and manuals literally bore you to tears, not this one. Jerry teaches PowerShell through the technique of building computer games. If terms like; objects, variables, arrays, hashes, conditional logic, loops, functions, and debugging are foreign to you, you will want to crack open the pages of this PowerShell book. Personally, I learn more by doing not just reading. The examples in this book quickly and easily assist in the understanding of PowerShell terms and concepts.

This PowerShell book teaches the basic fundamentals of PowerShell scripting and programming. Jerry exposes the more creative and playful side of PowerShell and gives us an insight to how versatile PowerShell really is. In this PowerShell book each chapter is a new project, a game building exercise that develops your skills:

Knock, Knock… Who’s there? - Introducing Windows PowerShell.
The Three Amigos - Interacting with the command line.
Fortune Teller - Object-Base Scripting with .NET.
Trivia - Working with variables, arrays, and hashes.
Guess My Number - Conditional logic.
Rock, Paper, Scissors - Using loops.
Hangman - Using functions.
Tic-Tac-Toe - Working with files and folders.
Blackjack - Basic Systems Administration.

Who should read this book: I think the title says it all, “for the absolute beginner, No Experience Required.” If PowerShell and Scripting Languages are new to you, this PowerShell book will be a tremendous help. Why? Most importantly, you won’t get bored. Secondly, you will build a solid understanding of the fundamentals required for making the next step in your PowerShell training.

If you own a copy of this PowerShell book, what has been your experience?

More books available in the PowerShell Pro! book store