Using Python instead of DOS shell scripts

[haddock]

I am just getting started myself and can really recommend "learning
python" by Lutz and Aescher (O'Reilly). This book really starts at the
beginning, covers several OS, and really explains well. I only knew
some Java before, and have never been great at command line things, so
this book really helped me a lot. If you are already a pro with
computers and other languages it might be too detailed.