Vista - Colored ls output & zsh-like autocompletion

Hello!

I have two question about PowerShell standard console host.

First question, is it possible to produce colored output like ls under
Linux does _ONLY_ using Format.ps1xml files? Specifically, is it
possible to output one specific View /TableControl /TableRowEntries/
TableRowEntry /TableColumnItems /TableColumnItem in some specific color?

Second, is it possible to achieve autocompletion similar to zsh
autocompletion (or bash at worst). I mean that nifty colored list which
is popped up on TAB keypress and popped down on subsequent typing, and
all that "There is 10000000 files. Do you want me to show them all?"
stuff

Thanks in advance.

--
WBR, Andrey Balaguta <andrey.balaguta (@) gmail.com>

first question:
not really, color support is not provided in the formatting tools. It is possible to spoof, but it's because the script sets the foreground color back. Take the following example (note that it uses my custom convert-hashtoobject cmdlet):

$props = "symbol","Last","date","time","change","Open","high","low","volume"
$SYMS = "MSFT","SCO","^DJI","INFY","SUNW"
if ( $args ) { $SYMS += $args }
$fg = $host.ui.rawui.foregroundcolor
foreach ( $SYM in $SYMS )
{
$yahoo = "http://finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s="
$url = "${yahoo}${SYM}&f=sl1d1t1c1ohgv&e=.csv"
[string]$string = $(get-uri $url )
if ( $string )
{
$stock = $string.replace("`"","").Trim().split(",")
$h = @{ Symbol = [string]$stock[0]
Last = [double]$stock[1]
Date = [datetime]$stock[2]
Time = [datetime]$stock[3]
Change = [double]$stock[4]
Open = [double]$stock[5]
High = [double]$stock[6]
Low = [double]$stock[7]
Volume = [int]$stock[8] }
convert-hashtoobject -hash $h -names JWT.Stock
}
}
$host.ui.rawui.foregroundcolor = $fg

when combined with this table view:
<View>
<Name>JWT.Stock</Name>
<ViewSelectedBy>
<TypeName>JWT.Stock</TypeName>
</ViewSelectedBy>
<TableControl>
<HideTableHeaders/>
<TableHeaders>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Width>8</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Width>8</Width>
<Alignment>Right</Alignment>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Width>8</Width>
<Label>Change</Label>
<Alignment>Right</Alignment>
</TableColumnHeader>
</TableHeaders>
<TableRowEntries>
<TableRowEntry>
<TableColumnItems>
<TableColumnItem>
<PropertyName>Symbol</PropertyName>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<PropertyName>Last</PropertyName>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<ScriptBlock>
if ( $_.change -lt 0 ) { $host.ui.rawui.foregroundcolor = "red" }
elseif ( $_.change -gt 0 ) { $host.ui.rawui.foregroundcolor = "darkgreen" }
else { $host.ui.rawui.foregroundcolor = "black" }
$_.Change
</ScriptBlock>
</TableColumnItem>
</TableColumnItems>
</TableRowEntry>
</TableRowEntries>
</TableControl>
</View>

you get output that looks like this:

PS> Stock
MSFT 25.95 0.1
SCO 2.46 -0.01
^DJI 11352.01 67.96
INFY 43.82 0.71
SUNW 4.92 0.07

(you'll see colors if you're looking at HTML rather than plaintext)

However, without the script, the font color will be left in whatever was the last color - not good. The formatter really wasn't designed to support color.

--
James Truher[MSFT]
Program Manager - Windows PowerShell
Microsoft Corporation
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"Andrey Balaguta" <andrey.balaguta@gmail.com> wrote in message news:uwENoo7wGHA.324@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Hello!
>
> I have two question about PowerShell standard console host.
>
> First question, is it possible to produce colored output like ls under
> Linux does _ONLY_ using Format.ps1xml files? Specifically, is it
> possible to output one specific View /TableControl /TableRowEntries/
> TableRowEntry /TableColumnItems /TableColumnItem in some specific color?
>
> Second, is it possible to achieve autocompletion similar to zsh
> autocompletion (or bash at worst). I mean that nifty colored list which
> is popped up on TAB keypress and popped down on subsequent typing, and
> all that "There is 10000000 files. Do you want me to show them all?"
> stuff
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> --
> WBR, Andrey Balaguta <andrey.balaguta (@) gmail.com>