Sometimes it feels like my blood contains zeros and ones...

Programming is something that comes naturally and I've honed the craft over my entire career. On these pages I'll share documentation, training guides that I used when teaching at a local college, and an extensive collection of Kixtart functions.

Intro to Programming

This guide was written for a course I presented at a local college. The course was intended to teach network administrators the fundamentals of scripting and automation so that repetitive tasks could be performed consistently and accurately. We start with analogies of things everyone understands - a recipe for a P&J sandwich, Tupperware containers, and Ice Cube trays. The course develops concepts and ideas that can be applied to most languages, and uses the freely available Kixtart admin scripting language for training examples.

Download the Guide

Kixtart - Admin Scripting Language

Kixtart was originally released as part of the Windows 2000 Resource Kit as a login script processer. Over the years, it has developed into a powerful yet easy to learn and use language for any administrative task. Beyond the built-in functionality, Kixtart benefits from a community-driven library of functions that extend its capabilities. It can also employ COM, allowing it to communicate with any COM-enabled application, such as MS Office, SQL, WMI/WSH, PowerShell, and more.

I have personally developed an extensive library of Kixtart functions, some based on those available publicly, most developed internally, but all written in a consistent format that assures that they will all work together. 

Having an extensive library means needing an innovative way to leverage it. KGen is a tool I developed for this purpose. KGen works as a form of linker - it starts by indexing your function library and creating a map of function to filename. Next, it scans your source code and identifies each external function that is referenced. It then assembles your script, automatically loading any externally referenced function or library, then rescanning to recursively resolve dependencies. When the complete script is generated, it performs a "Sanity Check" by looking for undeclared variables, variables declared but not referenced, and any mis-matched objects, from quotes and parenthesis to For/Next and If/EndIf pairs. KGen lets you leverage your UDF library as if every function was built into Kixtart directly. The KGen tool has a comprehensive User Guide that explains it's configuration and operation.

You can learn more about the Kixtart language at www.kixtart.org, which hosts a discussion forum for exchanging information and answering questions, as well as an extensive function library.

Downloads