Today Microsoft announced the release of Powershell RC1. This is a task-oriented shell, formerly known as Monad. I saw a very impressive demo a couple of weeks ago at the Longhorn Server SDR, and, as a UNIX shell geek, I have to admit that I am in love with it.
I definitely love the way you work with objects and properties, instead of having to parse a text entry to obtain some information. I always keep forgetting if it is cut -c 10-17 or 9-16 or some other variation.. I can now do a File.Name on a shell script - how cool is that!!
Another thing is that it really enforces the naming conventions when you create a new command, or CmdLet as they’re know in MonadSpeak. ALL cmdlets have to be named in the form verb-noun, so they are easy to remember and you can also figure out what they do very easily. For example, if you want you cmdlet to be called get-ewis, you create a .NET class and define it in the following way:
namespace ais.samples
{
[Cmdlet(VerbsCommon.Get, "ewis")]
public class GetEWIsCommand: Cmdlet
...
By doing it this way, there is no possibility of creating strange-sounding names - you never name you cmdlet explicitly, you just describe the verb and noun that you'll use. You could still create a cmdlet with a weird combination of verb-noun, but it would require a deliberate effort to mislead your users.
And, finally, you are working with the complete .NET object model. This gives all the power of the .NET framework on the command line.
We were also told at the SDR that new servers coming out of Redmond will have their admin tools based on Powershell (can't get used to the name..), starting with Exchange 12. Servers that are currently close to release won’t support it because of scheduling issues, but we were assured future versions will. At last, Windows will be manageable from the command line - and with the Server Core capability coming out, that will become a big deal.
The press release for Mon..Powershell is here, and you can download RC1 here.