This PowerShell Scripting guide to Python is designed to make readers familiar with syntax, semantics and core concepts of Python language, in an approach that readers can totally relate with the concepts of PowerShell already in their arsenal, to learn Python fast and effectively, such that it sticks with readers for longer time.

"Use what you know to learn what you don't. " also known as Associative learning.

Book follows a comparative method to jump start readers journey in Python, but who is the target audience? and who should read this book -

• Any System Administrator who want to step into Development or Programming roles, and even if you don't want to be a developer, knowledge of another scripting language will make your skill set more robust.
• Python Developers who want to learn PowerShell scripting and understand its ease of user and importance to manage any platform.
• This book works both ways: As a reader you can use the book to learn Python if you know PowerShell, or learn PowerShell if you know Python. PowerShell and Python code samples and screenshots next to each other makes it very easy for readers to relate the common concepts and practices and learn the scripting language in no time.

Python is one of the top programming languages and in fast changing IT scenarios to DevOps and Cloud to the future - Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning Python is a must know.

But this PowerShell Scripting guide to Python would be very helpful for you if you already have some knowledge of PowerShell

NOTE! This is a Leanpub "Agile-published" book. That means the book is currently unfinished and in-progress. As I continue to complete the chapters, we will re-publish the book with the new and updated content. Readers will receive an email once a new version is published!

While the book is in progress, please review it and send any feedback or error corrections at prateek@ridicurious.com and you can also tweet me your queries here . Thank you.

Why did we write this book?

We started writing this book to document our journey to learn C#, to be honest, we were scratching our own itch. There is no book or tutorial available today that can bridge the gap between a scripting language like PowerShell and modern programming language like C#, which is a natural language of choice, so we decided to write our own!

This book is the second book of this type since Prateek has written "PowerShell Guide to Python" a year back to take readers on a journey to learn Python using Powershell with the benefits of associative learning. Back then the most popular request\feedback was a book to cover PowerShell and C# together, so here it is! :)

PowerShell cmdlets are mostly written in C# and very often you will see .Net classes utilized in PowerShell scripts, and it seems like both these worlds are very much interconnected but still, there is a lot of friction, especially for IT professionals who lack understanding of object-oriented programming and find it difficult to understand software design patterns.

The purpose of this book is to provide bite-sized easily consumable chunks of knowledge and concepts to the reader, that will make it simple for them to learn and understand C# and improve their skill sets. More than that, leaving readers will tip, tricks and scenarios, that will develop a synergy with C# and PowerShell, and the knowledge attained can be refed further extend their capabilities by writing better and advanced scripts and Automation.

"Your problem is to bridge the gap which exists between where you are now and the goal you intend to reach."

                  ~ Earl Nightingale

Who is the Target Audience?

C# can be used to create almost anything from Windows desktop applications and games to develop powerful web applications and has become increasingly popular for mobile development too. Cross-platform tools such as Xamarin allow apps written in C# to be used on almost any mobile device. On top of that, since the announcement of .NET Core which is an open-source, general-purpose development platform now you can create .NET Core applications using C# for Windows, macOS, and Linux this just opens up a lot of opportunities and horizons for C#.

System Administrators and IT Professionals

System Administrators who want to upgrade their PowerShell scripting skills into C# Development or Programming roles, this book is written exactly keeping you in mind. The purpose of this book is to bridge the gap between PowerShell and C# and leave the readers with enough confidence, exposure, and hands-on experience so that they can develop in C# comfortably. Microsoft's cloud platform 'Azure' is growing rapidly, and having C# and PowerShell in your skill arsenal, that compliment each other and align with Azure automation and development needs, will definitely give you a competitive advantage as an IT professional.

C# Developer

If you are a C# developer and want to learn to write powerful automation and scripts using PowerShell, then you must read this book, because this book will help you associate concepts of modern programming language like C# with PowerShell and make it easy for you to learn PowerShell. Nowadays most of the CI/CD platforms like Azure DevOps leverage some sort of scripting language to run tasks and background jobs in their pipelines, so learning PowerShell will start to impact your day job in a good way.

What to expect from the Book?

Each chapter begins with a set of learning goals for the chapter and the topics covered as a list, which gives a fair idea to the reader what to expect in the chapter. It also enables the readers with a choice to skip the chapter if the topic is familiar and can be revisited later stage. After this a small introduction of the chapter to make the reader comfortable with the topic, followed by the main content of the chapter, headings, and sub-headings, figures, code samples/examples.

Towards the end of the book, all chapters have a 'Key takeaway' section which summarizes key pointers of the chapter. Key takeaways can be used to reinforce the learning and even come handy during revisions without going deep dive into the whole chapter again. Finally, chapters will end with some Exercises\Assignments that will further allow you to use the learnings from the chapter and implement that in code.

All chapters end with some reading recommendations, the official documentation for the reader on the related topic, which readers can follow to gain knowledge on the topic which is out of the scope of the book. Following is the structural pattern you will observe in all the chapters:

• Purpose of the chapter
• Introduction to the chapter
• Main chapter content
• Key Takeaways from the Chapter
• Exercises and Assignments
• Reading Recommendations

Available Book Formats

The book can be download in any of the following formats and it is recommended to read it on a personal computer in PDF format for clarity in images and code samples. We might publish this book on Amazon through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) in digital post-completion and even print it in the future but for now, it is only digitally available here.

• PDF - For laptops and personal computers
• EPUB - For phones and tablets
• MOBI -For Amazon Kindle and E-Readers
• WEB - On the web browser

Book updates and email notifications

This book has been published as we are writing it, a chapter at a time on Leanpub.com , which is a lean publishing platform and we will keep on updating and improving the book so that you have the best version of the book available. This book is work in progress and it is recommended that you allow Leanpub to send you update emails when a new version of the book manuscript is published. 

By default, this setting is not enabled and you have to turn it on by following the below steps, otherwise, you will miss any new chapters or updates we push to the book.

1. Log into your Leanpub.com account
2. From the top-right corner in the 'Account' drop-down menu, click on 'Library'
3. Click on this book in your library.
4. Now on the right-hand side, you will get 'Email Settings'
5. Under 'Email Settings' select the checkbox next to 'New version available'

How to Provide Feedback?

We would appreciate you sending us an e-mail to prateek@ridicurious.com with any feedback about how you are using the content, and how the book could be improved, but this is just a request so that we can improve the book and track how it is being used. You can also use the "Email the Author(s)" option on the book webpage to reach out to both of us!