The new shell (aka: command or DOS prompt) built for Windows Vista is available from Microsoft downloads for Windows XP: Monad XP download. Assuming everyone hasn’t already been scared off by Microsoft and picked Perl, this is the first time Microsoft is pulling together its motley spread of scripting languages and adding modern features (like XML support) instead of deeper, and more dangerous, OS control. Monad may be well worthwhile if it pulls off the marketing-speak:

“Monad adapts WMI, XML, ASDI, ADO, COM objects to provide a common syntax to access their properties and methods.”
An example:
$g = Get-WmiObject Win32_Process
$g[0].Name # instead of $g[0].Properties[“Name”]”

Make sure to grab the Monad documentation pack to get a head start on Vista scripting. Of course, the added XML support and regular expressions do not appear to be documented at all - who knows what else has been left out.

Article tagged: windows, vista, monad, shell, programming, scripting, syntax, commands

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