F# vs MS PowerShell
When comparing F# vs MS PowerShell, the Slant community recommends F# for most people. In the question“What is the best programming language to learn first?” F# is ranked 30th while MS PowerShell is ranked 64th. The most important reason people chose F# is:
F#'s syntax tends to be terse while remaining very readable and easy to understand without being a chore to write.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Concise syntax
F#'s syntax tends to be terse while remaining very readable and easy to understand without being a chore to write.
Pro Easier transition from other paradigms
Since F# is not a purely functional language, it lends itself to being more easily picked up by programmers that have experience with other paradigms.
Pro .NET Interoperability
Since F# runs on the Common Language Runtime or CLR, it has access to the entire .NET Framework, as well as libraries written in other .NET languages such as C#, VB.NET, and C++/CLI.
Pro Multiplatform, it runs on .Net Core
Forget Xamarin and Mono. F# now runs on the multiplatform .Net Core!
Pro You can run F# in the browser
Thanks to a project like Fable, you can write and run your client app in F# and run it over JavaScript. It allows you to share code between your server and client.
Pro Natively supported by Visual Studio
This is a .Net language natively supported by Visual Studio. Though it is not as tooled up as C# the support is still substantial. In particular, C# deployment scenarios can be enabled for it with small C# wrapper projects. Integration with Visual Studio provides: IntelliSense, debugging, projects an other features.
Pro Fall into the pit of success
F# directs you into a workflow where the right way is the path of least resistance.
Coming from a C# background, its restrictions might feel arbitrary at first (e.g., what do you mean my code has to be in dependency order!? Arbitrary alphabetical or bust!), but you'll soon realize that your code is cohesive, concise and consistent in a way that it never was before - and you can compile and run with confidence!
Pro F# is supported by Xamarin
Thanks to Xamarin, F# is a functional language that you can use to build for iOS, Android and Windows.
Pro Helpful Help
The help system is designed to evolve over time; running update-help
downloads the latest content.
When searching for help on items, you can simply type help commandname
to get information about a command.
If you're not sure what you're looking for, but have a rough idea, you can search on partial command names, or even specify specific verbs to get a list of commands potentially of interest; e.g. help -verb write
.
The information in help gives a good overview of the commands you're looking at, along with code examples, so you can see real-world usage without resorting to the web.
Pro Splatting
When calling a method with multiple parameters, rather than passing one variable per parameter you're able to "splat" one variable to the method, with the parameters taking their values from its properties.
Pro Pipeline
Commands can be chained via the pipeline, allowing output from one to be cleanly fed as input to the next.
Pro Chocolatey Package
PowerShell is installable through Chocolatey.
Pro Extensible
The language can wrap and interact with code written in other language's, making it highly extensible.
Pro Multi-Platform (ish)
Though Windows Powershell only works on Windows, the open source implementation Pash (http://pash.sourceforge.net/) allows the same language to be run on other OSes.
Cons
Con Has no ad-hoc polymorphism (á la Type Classes)
You have generics, you have interfaces, you have inheritance, you have a lot of things at your disposal but you don't have Type Clases. They can be emulated using some clever constructs but there's nothing like having the real thing.
Con Infested with OOP
Still relying on .NET OOP libraries.
Con Very verbose
The commands themselves, as well as the output and error messages, are VERY verbose
