Tab completion isn’t really what I’m talking about here. Powershell’s intuitiveness comes from the ease of finding the command you need. For instance if you type “copy” into bash and hit tab you’re not going to get anything. That’s because the command for copying a file in bash is “cp”. Now, how do you find that out using only the shell? You can use apropos, but who’s going to be able to figure that out without a web search? I had to try several variations of “find commands in bash” just now to get Google to mention it. Most things in bash are like this, there’s no real naming convention and most of the time the names are pretty meaningless by themselves. It’s a big barrier for people who are new to it or only use it sporadically.
Conversely, typing “copy” into powershell and hitting tab you will get a number of options which shouldn’t take much for a beginner to locate copy-item from there or you can find it via the previous methods I mentioned.
I genuinely think you may just be more familiar with PS. I use “Get-Printer” all the time, but it’s not like I was able to discover that command or syntax without web searches. Same with “cp” in bash. I had to learn it and use it, but I’m never going to forget it now. Something that seems inconsistent/unintuitive to me in PS, is some commands specify an object with:
-Name ="the name"
Other times it’s like:
Name "the name"
I keep a notebook handy for things that I use as frequently as several times a week.
In bash if you type the verb, then hit tab it will list the possible options, right? Is that not the same kind of thing?
Tab completion isn’t really what I’m talking about here. Powershell’s intuitiveness comes from the ease of finding the command you need. For instance if you type “copy” into bash and hit tab you’re not going to get anything. That’s because the command for copying a file in bash is “cp”. Now, how do you find that out using only the shell? You can use apropos, but who’s going to be able to figure that out without a web search? I had to try several variations of “find commands in bash” just now to get Google to mention it. Most things in bash are like this, there’s no real naming convention and most of the time the names are pretty meaningless by themselves. It’s a big barrier for people who are new to it or only use it sporadically.
Conversely, typing “copy” into powershell and hitting tab you will get a number of options which shouldn’t take much for a beginner to locate copy-item from there or you can find it via the previous methods I mentioned.
I genuinely think you may just be more familiar with PS. I use “Get-Printer” all the time, but it’s not like I was able to discover that command or syntax without web searches. Same with “cp” in bash. I had to learn it and use it, but I’m never going to forget it now. Something that seems inconsistent/unintuitive to me in PS, is some commands specify an object with:
-Name ="the name"Other times it’s like:
Name "the name"I keep a notebook handy for things that I use as frequently as several times a week.