Question

I’ll start to write a automated build/deploy script for our software team, and I’m not sure which scripting language or tool to use. I’m always eager to learn something new and improve my value on the current software market, so what language do you propose?
In the past, I used windows batch files, which are kind of ugly to read and script.

Here are few words as of my requirements and environment:

• developing under Win XP using Visual
  Studio 2008 (C++)
• subversion
• looking for easy to learn & use
  scripting language
• programming experience in PHP & Ruby & C++

I want the script to

• checkout
• clean & build many projects
• check for errors rinse and repeat
  until no errors or timeout
• run unittests and evaluate results (text parsing)
• zip a bunch of dlls/exe and copy to
  server
• brew a cup of coffee if possible

Thanks for any suggestions. Could be a community wiki since there’s no definite answer, not sure about that…

EDIT:

Found those discussions, but they are a little older and perhaps outdated:
How do you automate a Visual Studio build?
Best .NET build tool

Answer 1

It was briefly mentioned, I like PERL for these sorts of things. On an absolutely humongous project I worked on, we had perl scripts practically running the entire build process. It even built classes based upon messaging templates. It was pretty cool, and this was a Windows project to boot.

CPAN provides an enormous resource.

HTH