Learning Curve
Despite some experts' reservations about PowerShell's complexity, readers seem eager for the challenge: "It will make the command line management easier, but it will require learning a new paradigm. It will be worth the learning curve."
Jeffrey insists, "Most people feel it's pretty easy to get up and running in half an hour. We've produced alias files for the DOS community and the UNIX community to facilitate the transition from existing environments. That greatly eases the adoption. You learn the key concepts, and then you'll just teach yourself the system. That was my experience with VMS. I struggled and thought 'Oh, this isn't UNIX!' I didn't like it. Once I relaxed and tried to understand, it didn't take long. In about 20 minutes, you realize everything in PowerShell has the same syntax. In another 10 minutes, you realize all the commands share a consistent set of parameters and each command supports a subset of those parameters. Then you can manage anything. The key is to get the naming. Our goal was to manage 80 percent of the system with fewer than 50 verbs. It was very hard to do. So learn those verbs. Guess those verbs and you're going to be right."
Samples and Examples
You can find a plethora of CLI and Visual Basic (VB) scripts today, which means you don't have to reinvent the wheel to solve common problems. How will PowerShell address the need for scripts that users can easily adapt for their environment?
Jeffrey replied, "All that previous stuff continues to work. You can invoke a VB script from PowerShell. You don't have to convert that script. And just running a batch script or a VB script from PowerShell makes it two to 10 times more powerful because you can now do traditional UNIX-style scripting: Take its output, parse its output, connect it with other things."
What about native PowerShell sample scripts? "The TechNet Script Center now has a PowerShell scripting environment," Jeffrey pointed out. "Lots of that material is being generated. Our role is encouraging people, making sure they have the information to succeed. That means both having good base documentation, as well as providing in our blog the details of what's really going on."
The Village People
Jeffrey sees community as key to Power-Shell's success. He said, "One joke is that 'it takes a village' to manage a system."
It also takes a village to hone a new tool. "We worked with customers and partners to find the most important things to deliver in version 1. But I learn far more from what you don't like than things you do. A concrete example: Before [the Microsoft Management Summit last April], I contacted Greg Ramsey, who was doing a session on scripting for SMS using VBScript. He didn't know about PowerShell, so I asked him to try it. He loved it and incorporated it into his talk and labs. People asked Greg if they should use VBScript or PowerShell. Greg said, 'If you're doing a certain type of activity, definitely use PowerShell. It's much more powerful. But if you're doing another type of activity, use VBScript, because PowerShell's WMI support isn't as good as VBScript's.' Whoa! That's great information. So today we'll be [adding to PowerShell] all the necessary [WMI] support. We had closed the release down, but we opened it back up [to address the PowerShell shortcomings Greg identified]."
The appeal of PowerShell seems obvious. What's not obvious is whether its complexity will allow wide success, especially for administrators who don't do much scripting. Let me know what you think.
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