Which is the best tool for scripting automation?

People normally start with Windows command scripting as it is easy to learn. If your script needs to run on Win 9x too you are in trouble. You can’t write a common cmd script for all platforms.

            I did some research on this and found that perl is the best tool for automation scripting. People treat perl as a programming language and don’t consider it for scripting. Using Perl, you can do file and registry operations. It has a light weight installation an works fine on Win 9x too.