Hi ! I'm a beginner.


From where I stand on the learning curve, I particularly crave introspection and discoverability.

This is why I think that it would be very useful is there were another buit-in provider ...

PowerShell scripts having the ability to use the dotNET types, this new provider would allow to navigate the .NET typesystem the same way one moves in an unknown files' tree.

This means that it would take, say, a mere 15 seconds to find such a think as [System.Collections.Stack] for example.

The members and methods would of course be only a familiar "dir" away, and the speed so much faster than online searches in the fancy manual.

I know that such feats are already nearly possible in PowerShell and I've good hopes that some combinations of .GetType(), Get-Member and Out-GridView can give good results, but they require some decent PoSh-fu, and some beforehand knowledge of a given datatype.

I would say that they shine when one already knows a good chunk of what there is to know but that the provider way would help immensely the little grasshopers so to speak :)

In some sense, this would be like using a sonar instead of a sounding line.


(Please note that this place is the most appropriate I've found where to post this suggestion, because it's neither a bug report nor some request for help.

Having said that, and should you know better, feel free to make this reach whoever has the ability to make it happen.)


Thanks for your attention.

Interesting idea. I passed it on to a few people. Maybe it'll be interesting to someone who can actually program. :)

Check out http://powertab.codeplex.com/

Perhaps Hal's message could be interpreted in different ways. I really don't think Microsoft would be interested in developing this, we would much rather see them work on the core engine than develop this "nice to have" feature...

The official place for logging bugs and suggestions is: https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell.

That's a strange interpretation, Marco. :) I never implied that Microsoft would be looking into this. On the contrary, I would expect that something like this would come from the community first.

Interesting idea. 

So would you expect to be able to navigate only those types that are currently loaded in your appdomain, or would you expect to be able to navigate all types defined in the BCL?  I see value in both, just wondering what your expectations are.