3 ms·

IMHO powershell resembles more smalltalk than lisp. Trying to write powershell scripts without the ISE (Interactive Scripting Environment) is very hard. Also

IMHO powershell resembles more smalltalk than lisp. Trying to write powershell scripts without the ISE (Interactive Scripting Environment) is very hard. Also powershell is not suitable to just open and "bash" thigs out at it. For example to download a file, you need to remember the corresponding .net package. Or to list a directory, you use -without the alias- get-child-item etc. I think the verb+noun syntax and the ability to use all .net packages are awesome. But you first need to do your research, find the modules, look up the required parameters, put those in a file etc. In bash, most linux users just "bash" things out, if you don't know something no problem, you just "man" that. Although the same thing could potentially established with powershell through aliases and extra binaries/scripts for utilities like diff/curl, powershell in its nature is a different beast. I really like powershell, writing scripts with the ISE and the object oriented design are really powerful. That's why I think powershell resembles smalltalk rather than lisp. In order to write powershell comfortably and efficiently you need to use its development environment with GUI.

pjmlp 10y ago
I agree with you, just I don't get " powershell resembles more smalltalk than lisp." part. While FOSS Lisp environments are pretty bare bones text CLIs, that is not how Lisp should like since Xerox PARC, TI and Genera days. Sadly Lisp IDEs are all commercial, but the experience is pretty much Smalltalk like, or even better, given that they also AOT to native code.
- terminalcommand 10y ago
  I was never aware of the existence of a Lisp implementation with an IDE. Now I see that there is. The two lisp books I read (Paul Graham's ANSI Common Lisp and gigamonkey - Practical commmon lisp) always used text editors. Whereas for smalltalk I installed a VM (scratch) that included a GUI. And also even in an old issue(80s?) of Byte magazine dedicated to smalltalk there were extensive toolings with GUI. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7052479 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7052479 "By resembling smalltalk" I wanted to mean that the user needs to interact with a development environment to get the full benefits of powershell. And that this is in its nature. Nevertheless, I stand corrected. I never knew that there were lisp implementations designed to work with an IDE.
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    You never heard of Lisp Machines or Mac Common Lisp? Lisp stop being based on text mode environments in the late 70's, when it moved out of mainframes into systems with graphical displays. Many of the Smalltalk ideas were inspired from Interlisp-D, the Lisp workstations used at Xerox PARC. Text mode environments for Lisp is a GNU/Linux thing. If you wish I can provide some links.
    - terminalcommand 10y ago
      I had heard of lisp machines as a term, but none of the others mentioned in your comment. Thanks for pointing out, I'll do some research on this topic. If you have links easily accesible to you, I'd appreciate them, if not no problem at all.
cholantesh 10y ago
>In order to write powershell comfortably and efficiently you need to use its development environment with GUI. Which really makes it a questionable choice as a scripting language, IMO, and I say this as a fan.

pjmlp 10y ago

I agree with you, just I don't get " powershell resembles more smalltalk than lisp." part. While FOSS Lisp environments are pretty bare bones text CLIs, that is not how Lisp should like since Xerox PARC, TI and Genera days. Sadly Lisp IDEs are all commercial, but the experience is pretty much Smalltalk like, or even better, given that they also AOT to native code.

terminalcommand 10y ago
I was never aware of the existence of a Lisp implementation with an IDE. Now I see that there is. The two lisp books I read (Paul Graham's ANSI Common Lisp and gigamonkey - Practical commmon lisp) always used text editors. Whereas for smalltalk I installed a VM (scratch) that included a GUI. And also even in an old issue(80s?) of Byte magazine dedicated to smalltalk there were extensive toolings with GUI. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7052479 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7052479 "By resembling smalltalk" I wanted to mean that the user needs to interact with a development environment to get the full benefits of powershell. And that this is in its nature. Nevertheless, I stand corrected. I never knew that there were lisp implementations designed to work with an IDE.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  You never heard of Lisp Machines or Mac Common Lisp? Lisp stop being based on text mode environments in the late 70's, when it moved out of mainframes into systems with graphical displays. Many of the Smalltalk ideas were inspired from Interlisp-D, the Lisp workstations used at Xerox PARC. Text mode environments for Lisp is a GNU/Linux thing. If you wish I can provide some links.
  - terminalcommand 10y ago
    I had heard of lisp machines as a term, but none of the others mentioned in your comment. Thanks for pointing out, I'll do some research on this topic. If you have links easily accesible to you, I'd appreciate them, if not no problem at all.

cholantesh 10y ago

>In order to write powershell comfortably and efficiently you need to use its development environment with GUI. Which really makes it a questionable choice as a scripting language, IMO, and I say this as a fan.