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As a Syasdmin, Powershell is a scripting dream: it has tab completion for the commands and the switches. I don't feel like I have to guess or look at man pages

As a Syasdmin, Powershell is a scripting dream: it has tab completion for the commands and the switches. I don't feel like I have to guess or look at man pages to figure out why there's a -s and an -S. The help pages are usually written for human consumption by comparison. Saying that it is 'unnecessarily inscrutable' is quite hilarious - have you seen some Linux commands & the lack of output they give? Powershell, if anything, ins extremely verbose & is clear in when something goes wrong. At least, it doesn't insult you like Ansible tooling with the ^ YOU MADE A MISTAKE HERE BUT WE CAN'T BE CLEAR WHAT IT IS

mattmanser 9y ago
We have all of that in C# without the rediculously bad syntax. It's such a shame powershell didn't come 2 years later, I feel like they'd have had no choice but to use C# instead of inventing a new language.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  I realise this is a bit of a cop out, but it's fairly easy to mix and match PowerShell and C# code, even without needing to precompile C# code, by using Add-Type. It's worth noting that all code in .NET is enclosed within a type (at a fundamental level .NET code is either contained within a value type or reference type, but knowing those names isn't important when you're starting out), so this doesn't limit you to creating/importing data types, you can use it to write inline C# functions too. It's also interesting to note that the .NET Framework comes with its own .NET compiler, so you don't need to install any dev tools on Windows to code in C#, it's possible to do so with the tools that are available out of the box. If you want to try out referencing C# code using Add-Type, the following article is a good introduction: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_gossner/2010/05/07/using-csharp-c-code-in-powershell-scripts/ https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_gossner/2010/05/0...
- JeffreySnover 9y ago
  We thought about that but the reality is that it does not work well for interactive experiences. When you look at how admins get their job done, it starts in the interactive shell and then when the do things frequently, they put it into a simple script and when then need it to be more formal, they invest in making it production quality. That is the flow that PowerShell was designed to support. Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]
  - mattmanser 9y ago
    I still feel it was a massive waste, the millions of programmers who could be using scripting C# right now, it would have been awesome.
  - figgis 9y ago
    Could you just allow interaction with objects in a shell while just using c#? There are interactive c# interpreters that already do great.
- InclinedPlane 9y ago
  You know you can write PowerShell cmdlets in C# right? It's super easy.
figgis 9y ago
Well bash has (can have) all of that as well.. Those are features of the code editor.. Not the language.
- erk__ 9y ago
  It is a bit differnt because windows is bundled with Windows PowerShell ISE which is the IDE I think he is talking about.
- hoppelhase 9y ago
  I think it's a good thing to have in the language to specify which switches require some options and which exclude some other ones.
wvenable 9y ago
You're comparing PowerShell to Bash -- I'm comparing it to any language written in the last 20 years.

mattmanser 9y ago

We have all of that in C# without the rediculously bad syntax. It's such a shame powershell didn't come 2 years later, I feel like they'd have had no choice but to use C# instead of inventing a new language.

ZenoArrow 9y ago
I realise this is a bit of a cop out, but it's fairly easy to mix and match PowerShell and C# code, even without needing to precompile C# code, by using Add-Type. It's worth noting that all code in .NET is enclosed within a type (at a fundamental level .NET code is either contained within a value type or reference type, but knowing those names isn't important when you're starting out), so this doesn't limit you to creating/importing data types, you can use it to write inline C# functions too. It's also interesting to note that the .NET Framework comes with its own .NET compiler, so you don't need to install any dev tools on Windows to code in C#, it's possible to do so with the tools that are available out of the box. If you want to try out referencing C# code using Add-Type, the following article is a good introduction: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_gossner/2010/05/07/using-csharp-c-code-in-powershell-scripts/ https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_gossner/2010/05/0...
JeffreySnover 9y ago
We thought about that but the reality is that it does not work well for interactive experiences. When you look at how admins get their job done, it starts in the interactive shell and then when the do things frequently, they put it into a simple script and when then need it to be more formal, they invest in making it production quality. That is the flow that PowerShell was designed to support. Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]
- mattmanser 9y ago
  I still feel it was a massive waste, the millions of programmers who could be using scripting C# right now, it would have been awesome.
- figgis 9y ago
  Could you just allow interaction with objects in a shell while just using c#? There are interactive c# interpreters that already do great.
InclinedPlane 9y ago
You know you can write PowerShell cmdlets in C# right? It's super easy.

figgis 9y ago

Well bash has (can have) all of that as well.. Those are features of the code editor.. Not the language.

erk__ 9y ago
It is a bit differnt because windows is bundled with Windows PowerShell ISE which is the IDE I think he is talking about.
hoppelhase 9y ago
I think it's a good thing to have in the language to specify which switches require some options and which exclude some other ones.

wvenable 9y ago

You're comparing PowerShell to Bash -- I'm comparing it to any language written in the last 20 years.