[TUHS] most direct Unix descendant

[Ed Bradford]

Hi A.P.,

I agree powershell supports automation. However, it so complex and
non-portable
that even learning about it and how to use it takes considerably longer than
learning about Unix automation. It puts a significant burden on developers
to
document their DLL's and make the interfaces permanent. Complexity produces
more
expensive and less reliable software.

BTW, what about the non-major apps? From your view, they are simply excluded
from automation.


In PS, type "help cmdlet" to see
the complexity of each and every command. PS does allow automation, but
it is very expensive because most people will be daunted when trying to
learn how
to solve problems with it, people who know how to write stuff in PS are
more expensive
employees, and development time for asking a simple question like

  "Show me the last 5 files read in a directory tree"

can require days or more of research and experimentation.

A help page on almost any cmdlet produces a full page-width
pages of options, many of which lead to further questions about
usage.

Yes, PS automates Windows -- but at what cost?

Ed

PS: I should write my book of "Why Windows is not my favorite
operating system" (paraphrasing a famous BTL TM).

PS2: Speaking of complexity and documentation, here is the start
     of the printout on an up-to-date MacOS of the command

     man ls | less






*NAME       ls – list directory contents     SYNOPSIS       ls
[- at ABCFGHILOPRSTUWabcdefghiklmnopqrstuvwxy1%,] [--color=when]          [-D
format] [file ...]*

     and the same question about "ls" on Windows 11 powershell:

       help ls | less    # typed in PS

[image: image.png]


How did we let this happen?

On Sun, Jun 9, 2024 at 6:59 AM A. P. Garcia <a.phillip.garcia at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, Jun 9, 2024, 7:35 AM Douglas McIlroy <
> douglas.mcilroy at dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
>> Eloquently put. Amen!
>>
>> doug
>>
>> > Unix brought automation to the forefront of possibilities. Using Unix,
>> > anyone could do it - even that kid in Jurassic Park. Today, everything
>> > is GUI and nothing can be automated easily or, most of the time,
>> > not at all.
>>
>> > Unix is an ever shrinking oasis in a desert of non-automation and
>> complexity.
>>
>> > It is the loss of automation possibilities that frustrates me the most
>>
>
>
> Do I have to be that guy? I hate windows. I love Unix. But the above isn't
> really true. MS has actually done a good job of catching up in that
> department. All major apps have Powershell libraries. I envy some features
> of Powershell, but I still won't use it unless I have to.
>
> One example is PowerCLI, which is very useful for vSphere automation.
> Easier to use than their other language APIs, in my opinion. I could go on
> with other examples (Active Directory, MSSQL, Exchange), but I think the
> point is made...
>
>>

-- 
Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
  Cicero
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