Book Image

Network Programming and Automation Essentials

By : Claus Töpke
Book Image

Network Programming and Automation Essentials

By: Claus Töpke

Overview of this book

Network programming and automation, unlike traditional networking, is a modern-day skill that helps in configuring, managing, and operating networks and network devices. This book will guide you with important information, helping you set up and start working with network programming and automation. With Network Programming and Automation Essentials, you’ll learn the basics of networking in brief. You’ll explore the network programming and automation ecosystem, learn about the leading programmable interfaces, and go through the protocols, tools, techniques, and technologies associated with network programming. You’ll also master network automation using Python and Go with hands-on labs and real network emulation in this comprehensive guide. By the end of this book, you’ll be well equipped to program and automate networks efficiently.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Part 1: Foundations for Network Automation
6
Part 2: Network Programming for Automation
11
Part 3: Testing, Hands-On, and Going Forward

Applying best practices in coding

Here are points that are not necessarily standards, but they are important when we are writing code for networks.

Follow the standards

In the '90s, the internet was starting to grow fast, and programmers started to become more present in the community. Shell scripting started to grow as a viable tool to help system engineers work with their servers. Then came Perl as a powerful scripting language to help as well. Other languages were also mature, such as C, C++, and Java. But every developer wrote differently with their own style, which did not help code collaboration and made sharing code a disaster. When Python was created, the coding style problem already existed. Something had to be done to avoid confusion when sharing code.

Let’s check now what the standards are for Python and Go languages.

Python standard style

Python can be written in so many different ways. If you are an old programmer, you would remember Perl, which...