News
Microsoft Opens Up PowerShell Language Spec
The company's move clears the way for software developers to adapt PowerShell for use on operating systems such as Apple's Mac or various Linux OSes.
Microsoft announced on Friday that it is licensing the Windows PowerShell 2.0 language under the Microsoft Community Promise agreement.
The text-based PowerShell language is typically used by IT pros for server management tasks, and it sometimes provides access to features unavailable through Microsoft's graphical user interfaces. Microsoft describes PowerShell as an "object-based distributed automation engine, scripting language, and command line shell."
The licensing change is designed to make it easier for developers to create their own implementations of the PowerShell for use on platforms other than Windows. Microsoft's move clears the way for software developers to adapt PowerShell for use on operating systems such as Apple's Mac or various Linux OSes. A Linux implementation called PASH already exists.
Jeffrey Snover, the inventor of Windows PowerShell and lead architect at the Windows Server Division, made the announcement, which was captured in a YouTube snippet, as noted by Microsoft MVP Don Jones in his WindowsITPro blog post. Snover said that while people have toyed with moving PowerShell to other platforms, Microsoft hadn't yet provided all of the tools in the past to get that done.
Jones noted that Microsoft won't be the one creating PowerShell for the Mac, but it has opened the door for others to make such an implementation happen. Still, he suggested that the prospects of seeing PowerShell for the Mac were "doubtful."
Microsoft has now provided the specification and related documentation to help make PowerShell implementations possible. The language is described in the "Windows PowerShell Language Specification Version 2.0" document, which Microsoft made available on Monday at its Download Center page.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is online news editor, Enterprise Group, at 1105 Media Inc.