Vista - Are we 'programmers' or 'scripters'?

Was looking through something recently, and it refered to "PowerShell
programming" as doing 'regular stuff' with PowerShell like writing .ps1
*scripts*... Now, I would associate programming with one writing extensions
to PSH using something like C# or VB.NET. As for someone just doing 'plain
old script', I'd think we'd still call them scripters?

Marco
RedHat Certified *Engineer*
;-)

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:02:46 -0400, Marco Shaw wrote:

> Was looking through something recently, and it refered to "PowerShell
> programming" as doing 'regular stuff' with PowerShell like writing .ps1
> *scripts*... Now, I would associate programming with one writing extensions
> to PSH using something like C# or VB.NET. As for someone just doing 'plain
> old script', I'd think we'd still call them scripters?
>
> Marco
> RedHat Certified *Engineer*
> ;-)

I think I would agree with this interpretion. If you are using cmdlets,
aliases and user defined functions to carry out administrative tasks, I
think it's safe to assume you are doing administrative scripting. To my
mind, it becomes more of a gray area once you start invoking .NET code and
stuff from within PowerShell. Then I feel you need an understanding of
..NET and have moved from script type automation, to more programming.

--
Jeffery Hicks
SAPIEN Technologies - Scripting, Simplified. www.SAPIEN.com
VBScript & Windows PowerShell Training -
www.ScriptingTraining.com/classes.asp
Windows PowerShell? - www.SAPIENPress.com/powershell.asp

blog: http://blog.SAPIEN.com
blog: http://jdhitsolutions.blogspot.com

If you are creating cmdlets or providers - definitely programming.

If you are using cmdlets & PowerShell language - definitely scripting

If you are accessing .Net - I would tend to say scripting if you are looking
to perform administrative tasks because (a) you've probably copied the script
from somewhere else and (b) its not that difficult. If you start getting to
the point on accessing SQL databases or web services then I would say
programming

--
Richard Siddaway
Please note that all scripts are supplied "as is" and with no warranty
Blog: http://richardsiddaway.spaces.live.com/
PowerShell User Group: http://www.get-psuguk.org.uk


"Marco Shaw" wrote:

> Was looking through something recently, and it refered to "PowerShell
> programming" as doing 'regular stuff' with PowerShell like writing .ps1
> *scripts*... Now, I would associate programming with one writing extensions
> to PSH using something like C# or VB.NET. As for someone just doing 'plain
> old script', I'd think we'd still call them scripters?
>
> Marco
> RedHat Certified *Engineer*
> ;-)
>
>
>

To Compile or not to compile.

If you Compile (dll,exe,snapin)= Programming
If you do not Compile (.ps1,.vbs,.cmd...) = Scripting

IMO.

--
Brandon Shell
---------------
Stop by my blog some time
Blog: http://www.bsonposh.com/
PSH Scripts Project: www.codeplex.com/psobject
--------------------------------------

"Marco Shaw" <marcoDOTshaw_@_gmailDOTcom> wrote in message
news:O81tBAtTHHA.4756@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Was looking through something recently, and it refered to "PowerShell
> programming" as doing 'regular stuff' with PowerShell like writing .ps1
> *scripts*... Now, I would associate programming with one writing
> extensions to PSH using something like C# or VB.NET. As for someone just
> doing 'plain old script', I'd think we'd still call them scripters?
>
> Marco
> RedHat Certified *Engineer*
> ;-)
>

I know this isn't exactly what you were wanting to discuss, but it may be
analogous - in writing about test automation I usually end up
differentiating the role 'test scripter' from 'test developer' depending on
who best knows the business domain (the test scripter) and who best knows the
automation API of the system under test (the test developer).

Both roles require/depend on scripting knowledge, but from different
perspectives. The test scripter translates business scenarios into test
scripts and the test developer writes test cmdlets/functions that bridge the
business scenarios to the system under test.

FWIW

"Marco Shaw" wrote:

> Was looking through something recently, and it refered to "PowerShell
> programming" as doing 'regular stuff' with PowerShell like writing .ps1
> *scripts*... Now, I would associate programming with one writing extensions
> to PSH using something like C# or VB.NET. As for someone just doing 'plain
> old script', I'd think we'd still call them scripters?
>
> Marco
> RedHat Certified *Engineer*
> ;-)
>
>
>

Marco Shaw wrote:
> Was looking through something recently, and it refered to "PowerShell
> programming" as doing 'regular stuff' with PowerShell like writing .ps1
> *scripts*... Now, I would associate programming with one writing extensions
> to PSH using something like C# or VB.NET. As for someone just doing 'plain
> old script', I'd think we'd still call them scripters?

I'm just going to toss my two cents in here... If I'm just doing simple
stuff like moving files, calling cmdlets, conditional looping, counting,
reformatting, automating, etc., that's scripting to me. Unfortunately,
I find that most of the "power" in Powershell is buried in the
Get-WmiObject cmdlet. As soon I go digging around with Get-WmiObject
and have to start figuring out methods and properties, I consider myself
deep in programmer territory without a DotNET helmet.

--Jonathan "smthng" Kalmes
http://smthng.info

IMO, it is all programming. The syntax and tools are different may be
different, but at the end of day - code runs.

--
William Stacey [C# MVP]
PCR concurrency library: www.codeplex.com/pcr
PSH Scripts Project www.codeplex.com/psobject


"Marco Shaw" <marcoDOTshaw_@_gmailDOTcom> wrote in message
news:O81tBAtTHHA.4756@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
| Was looking through something recently, and it refered to "PowerShell
| programming" as doing 'regular stuff' with PowerShell like writing .ps1
| *scripts*... Now, I would associate programming with one writing
extensions
| to PSH using something like C# or VB.NET. As for someone just doing
'plain
| old script', I'd think we'd still call them scripters?
|
| Marco
| RedHat Certified *Engineer*
| ;-)
|
|

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:40:12 -0500, "William Stacey [C# MVP]"
<william.stacey@gmail.com> wrote:

>IMO, it is all programming. The syntax and tools are different may be
>different,

....
> but at the end of day - code runs.

If you're lucky!

Or maybe you could say "...at the end of the day - code runs (but not
usually until 23:59 :-))"

| If you're lucky!

Right. I glanced over that (being optimistic) :-)

I've got a couple more comments on this one:

I think programmers work at programming as their full time occupation
whereas for scripters writing scripts tends to be only part of the job

Programming usually has all the versioning & project life cycle stuff
wrapped round it - how many scripters use source control?

--
Richard Siddaway
Please note that all scripts are supplied "as is" and with no warranty
Blog: http://richardsiddaway.spaces.live.com/
PowerShell User Group: http://www.get-psuguk.org.uk


"Marco Shaw" wrote:

> Was looking through something recently, and it refered to "PowerShell
> programming" as doing 'regular stuff' with PowerShell like writing .ps1
> *scripts*... Now, I would associate programming with one writing extensions
> to PSH using something like C# or VB.NET. As for someone just doing 'plain
> old script', I'd think we'd still call them scripters?
>
> Marco
> RedHat Certified *Engineer*
> ;-)
>
>
>