alt Hacker NewsWhat if there was a less cryptic way to have mandatory arguments, something harder to get wrong, like
param(
[parameter(mandatory)] $name
)
"Hello, $name!"
$ ./script.ps1 Dave
Hello, Dave!
$ ./script.ps1 -name Dave
Hello, Dave!
$ ./script.ps1
cmdlet script.ps1 at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
name: <cursor here>
$ pwsh -nonint ./script.ps1
script.ps1: Cannot process command because of one or more missing mandatory parameters: name.Replies
DUDE!
I wrote my first real `.ps1` the other day for auto-installing all dependencies needed to run a `gitea`-runner on windows for windows builds; powershell - felt like the lover I never had. And the documentation in readable comments at the top that just.. generates usable docs? Damn, damn, damn.
There is a part of me that low-key wanna try that as my daily driver for a week or two. But with that said, I'm a zsh vi-mode guy - always have been, always will be.. but I'd happily take powershell on a romantic getaway every once in a while!
PowerShell is a bad choice for the system shell because it's too complex. I'm not trying to justify all the quirks of Unix Shell, but minimalism is a very important feature of such a tool.
Another important feature of a tool like this is the ability to tolerate errors: I can't imagine a Linux today that would be able to even boot if the shell was extra pedantic about errors. A lot of mostly irrelevant things routinely fail on boot and during normal operation. Stamping them all out is an arduous... well, basically, an impossible task for practical purposes where releases are expected to come on time, where users may manipulate configuration in gazzilions of unpredictable ways.
PowerShell is just another language in the same box with Python, Perl, Ruby and many like that. It's not a good language, if you decided to reach for that box. Probably not the worst either.
System shell, however, isn't meant for writing entire applications. Writing applications with elaborate command-line interface should be left to languages that can properly address this problem. PowerShell is trying to be there, but it doesn't hold a candle to its "older brothers" who can, indeed, design a very robust command-line interface, often using a dedicated library for it.
PowerShell appeals to the novice crowd who are very enthusiastic about automatic checks in their code: the benefits are on the surface, the downsides are difficult to assess. This is in line with other Microsoft software products / languages which target novice programmers by implementing as many as possible of the highly-advertised features without regard to the overall usefulness of the product (think about C# or MS Office suit etc.)
PowerShell needs to become more ubiquitous. There are so many things about it that once considered in greater detail make so much sense. Parameter setup, typing, and naming. Flow control. Object-oriented scripting. Built-in parsing for recursive data types like JSON, HTML, XML.
And in my opinion, the most slept-on: the fact it runs on the CLR and direct access to .NET objects and types which means access to P/Invoke and thence the Windows API. One can write business logic in the fast language and write a nice CLI wrapper around that in the natural shell language, and not worry about painful FFI unlike everyone else trying to fit Python or Bash into whatever world they're using.
The typical counter to this will be: PowerShell is verbose, PowerShell used `curl` as an alias to Invoke-WebRequest instead of the Real Thing™. Neither are real arguments.