Chapter 9. The 10 PowerShell scripting commandments

James O’Neill

In my view, PowerShell succeeds because it provides a kit of small, general-purpose commands to be linked together to make larger, specific commands. Extending the toolkit is a good thing, and my approach to extending the toolkit can be summarized as “10 commandments” (which I jokingly call cmdments):

1.  Create functions for reuse, scripts for a single task.

2.  Choose names for commands and parameters wisely.

3.  One task, one function: the “DoStuffWith” verb doesn’t exist for a reason.

4.  Build flexibility into parameters.

5.  Ask whether constants are better as defaults for parameters.

6.  Ask “What could I receive?” and “What could I pass on?”

7.  Use ...

Get PowerShell Deep Dives now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.