PowerShell Core Web Cmdlets in Depth (Part 1)

Intro

I recently spoke at the North Texas PC Users Group's PowerShell Special Interest Group on the topic of the Web Cmdlets in PowerShell Core. I spoke for full hour because there is just so much new and different about Invoke-RestMethod and Invoke-WebRequest between Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell Core 6.0.0. In fact, because I was limited to an hour, I couldn't go as in depth or cover as many things as I would have liked. This blog series will cover what I covered in that presentation and more. At this time I plan to have 3 parts with a possible 4th as an addendum should anything change between now and GA.

PowerSMells: PowerShell Code Smells (Part 1.5)

Intro

I am writing this next blog post in this series much sooner than I had anticipated. I wanted to do so in order to clarify a few things about PowerSMells and to address some of the negative feedback I have received. I will still include a PowerSMell, but this is mostly to address shortcomings in the Part 1 of the series.

Table of Contents for this series

PowerSMells: PowerShell Code Smells (Part 1)

Intro

A few weeks ago, someone in the slack channel asked what some of the Code Smells are in PowerShell. If you are not familiar with the term Code Smell, a simple definition is code that when you see it you know there will be issues just like when you smell something rotten know you will find something unpleasant. After some joking around the term PowerSMell was coined to describe a Code Smell particular to PowerShell.

This is the first in an ongoing series of Code Smells in PowerShell. Rather than make a massive single entry, I will try to cover only a few at a time and spread them out. Unlike my other series, this one wont be dumped all at once and I will work on this series between other blog posts. I may never truly be done with this series and I have no clue how many parts it will be. There are many Code Smells in PowerShell and it seems like I'm finding more each week.

One possible plan for the future is to begin a community PowerSMell project with PSScriptAnalyzer rules for linting these PowerSMells. I know there are several projects out there that already have some of these, but it would be nice to get them all together. If you are interested in working together on this let me know and we can begin coordinating.

Each PowerSMell will include a "The Smell" and a "The Source" section. The "The Smell" section will have a code example of the PowerSMell. The "The Source" section will have information about the problems that the smell hints to. Some PowerSMells are not always PowerSMells. When a certain PowerSMell has a non-smelly usage, it will include a "The Pleasant Aroma" section providing an example of the non-smelly usage.

Table of Contents for this series