PowerShell objects are uniform too then. They're just a blob of binary.
> Another argument is about how much information you want printed
That's the thing, though, when I'm passing it to another program for further processing that is entirely different than formatting the output. PowerShell has commandlets you tack on the end of a pipeline for formatting the output. In between commands they have standardized objects.
> Can you explain this?
> Working with hierarchies of objects is a lot more complicated.
Hierarchies exist in textural output too! And they are indeed a pain in the ass to deal with. In fact, much more so since they aren't adhering to a standardized structure and use in-band signaling.
> The operating system and the programs it runs have to understand structured input and produce structured output.
Same with text, it's just that the "structure" is completely ad-hoc with no standardization and using in-band signaling that often requires a lot of error-prone manipulation to adapt between commands.
No, PowerShell objects have different types. They are not uniform in the way immutable strings are uniform. You can have type errors in PowerShell because of that, but you cannot have type errors in Shell, because, well, everything is the same type.
> Hierarchies exist in textural output too!
Dealing with immutable strings instead of hierarchies allows you to ignore the fact that there's a hierarchy encoded in text. Maybe it's there, maybe not. I don't care. My tools allow me not to care. Your's don't. That's the point.
PowerShell objects are uniform too then. They're just a blob of binary.
> Another argument is about how much information you want printed
That's the thing, though, when I'm passing it to another program for further processing that is entirely different than formatting the output. PowerShell has commandlets you tack on the end of a pipeline for formatting the output. In between commands they have standardized objects.
> Can you explain this?
> Working with hierarchies of objects is a lot more complicated.
Hierarchies exist in textural output too! And they are indeed a pain in the ass to deal with. In fact, much more so since they aren't adhering to a standardized structure and use in-band signaling.
> The operating system and the programs it runs have to understand structured input and produce structured output.
Same with text, it's just that the "structure" is completely ad-hoc with no standardization and using in-band signaling that often requires a lot of error-prone manipulation to adapt between commands.