Shell of an Idea
Shell of an Idea
The untold history of PowerShell
About the Book
"In many ways, this is The Phoenix Project for the PowerShell world."
Introduced in 2006, Microsoft's PowerShell made an immediate, positive impact on its server products and in the lives of the people who administer them. The world's first object-oriented shell, the first designed-from-scratch shell for the Windows operating system, and now a cross-platform management shell, PowerShell's technical achievement is significant. It's easy to look at where PowerShell is today, and not realize or remember the long and sometimes-difficult road it took to get there.
What if Microsoft's "next-gen" shell had been nothing more than a port of the Unix KornShell to Windows? What if PowerShell had never become a default, built-in component of the Windows operating system? What if PowerShell had simply been called, "Microsoft Shell?" Yeah, all of those things almost happened.
In the end, the story of PowerShell is less about the technology, and more about the people who brought it to life, and the people who use it every day. It's about how one small band of passionate, crazy people with a vision can bring something wonderful into the world, in small, incremental, deliberate steps. It's about how the right people came together at the right time and did the right thing, and about the enormous community that rallied around them to make the whole thing an incredible success.
Author Don Jones was with PowerShell from the beginning, and through a series of core team interviews, community discussions, and background research, he brings you this: the untold story of PowerShell, a Shell of an Idea.
Table of Contents
-
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Cast of Characters
-
HISTORY
- A Shell of a Problem
- Illustrating the Problem
- Let’s Just Copy Unix
- Kermit
- A Manifesto
- Culture
- The .NET Framework Connection
- Windows
- Exchange
- Windows, Again
- v2
-
DESIGN
-
Design Decisions and Coding Stories
- Decision-Making Principles
- Usability Testing
- Being Verbose
- Providers
- Ctrl+C
- Extensible Type System
- How Parameters Became Cmdlets
- Parameters: - vs. /
- WHERE: The Elevation of the ScriptBlock
- -WhatIf, -Confirm, and -Verbose
- Punctuation Decisions
- Snap-ins vs. Modules
- Namespaces
- Verbs
- COM
- What’s in a Name?
- Remoting and Buffering
- Updatable Help
- The Directed Graph
- White on Blue
- Creating a Language
- The Security Story
-
Greatest Misses
- MiniShells and AdminShells
- Transactions
- Workflow
- Data Streams
- Tainted Data
-
Design Decisions and Coding Stories
-
COMMUNITY
-
The MVPs
- Meet the MVPs
- Adopting PowerShell
- The Role of the MVP Community
- Where are We Now?
- What Does the Community Look Like?
- Changing MVPs’ Careers
- Shout-Outs
- The MVP-Microsoft Relationship
- My PowerShell Story
- Impact
-
The MVPs
-
CONCLUSION
- Acknowledgements
-
APPENDICES
- “PowerShell Makes Us All Better at Our Games”
- “We Can Leapfrog Linux!”
- Hula Monkey
- Personalities
- Notes
Other books by this author
Authors have earned$10,052,337writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
The Leanpub 45-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 45 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers), EPUB (for phones and tablets) and MOBI (for Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
C++ Best Practices
Jason TurnerLevel up your C++, get the tools working for you, eliminate common problems, and move on to more exciting things!
Digital-First Events
Joep Piscaer and Jana BorutaThe only resource you will ever need to launch your digital events program.
Algebra-Driven Design
Sandy MaguireA how-to field guide on building leak-free abstractions and algebraically designing real-world applications.
Ansible for DevOps
Jeff GeerlingAnsible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool. Learn to use Ansible effectively, whether you manage one server—or thousands.
R Programming for Data Science
Roger D. PengThis book brings the fundamentals of R programming to you, using the same material developed as part of the industry-leading Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization. The skills taught in this book will lay the foundation for you to begin your journey learning data science. Printed copies of this book are available through Lulu.
Continuous Delivery Pipelines
Dave FarleyThis practical handbook provides a step-by-step guide for you to get the best continuous delivery pipeline for your software.
Cloud Strategy
Gregor Hohpe“Strategy is the difference between making a wish and making it come true.” A successful migration to the cloud can transform your organization, but it shouldn’t be driven by wishes. This book tells you how to develop a sound strategy guided by frameworks and decision models without being overly abstract nor getting lost in product details.
node-opcua by example
Etienne RossignonGet the best out of node-opcua through a set of documented examples by the author himself that will allow you to create stunning OPCUA Servers or Clients.
Technical leadership and the balance with agility
Simon BrownA developer-friendly, practical and pragmatic guide to lightweight software architecture, technical leadership and the balance with agility.
Everyday Rails - RSpecによるRailsテスト入門
Junichi Ito (伊藤淳一), AKIMOTO Toshiharu, 魚振江, and Aaron SumnerRSpecを使ってRailsアプリケーションに信頼性の高いテストを書く実践的なアドバイスを提供します。詳細で丁寧な説明は本書のオリジナルコンテンツです。また、説明には実際に動かせるサンプルアプリケーションも使用します。本書は2017年版にアップデートされ、RSpec 3.6やRails 5.1といった新しい環境に対応しています!さあ、自信をもってテストできるようになりましょう!
Top Bundles
- #1
Software Architecture for Developers: Volumes 1 & 2 - Technical leadership and communication
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #2
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #3
Modern C++ by Nicolai Josuttis
2 Books
- #4
Django for Beginners/APIs/Professionals
3 Books
- #5
Modern Management Made Easy
3 Books
Read all three Modern Management Made Easy books. Learn to manage yourself, lead and serve others, and lead the organization. - #6
Cisco CCNA 200-301 Complet
4 Books
Ce lot comprend les quatre volumes du guide préparation à l'examen de certification Cisco CCNA 200-301. - #7
Mastering Containers
2 Books
Docker and Kubernetes are taking the world by storm! These books will get you up-to-speed fast! Docker Deep Dive is over 400 pages long, and covers all objectives on the Docker Certified Associate exam.The Kubernetes Book includes everything you need to get up and running with Kubernetes! - #8
The Python Craftsman
3 Books
The Python Craftsman series comprises The Python Apprentice, The Python Journeyman, and The Python Master. The first book is primarily suitable for for programmers with some experience of programming in another language. If you don't have any experience with programming this book may be a bit daunting. You'll be learning not just a programming... - #9
CCDE Practical Studies (All labs)
3 Books
CCDE lab - #10
Linux Administration Complet
4 Books
Ce lot comprend les quatre volumes du Guide Linux Administration :Linux Administration, Volume 1, Administration fondamentale : Guide pratique de préparation aux examens de certification LPIC 1, Linux Essentials, RHCSA et LFCS. Administration fondamentale. Introduction à Linux. Le Shell. Traitement du texte. Arborescence de fichiers. Sécurité...