In Feburary 2011, I finally got tired of using MSBuild as a scripting language. There are great frameworks out there that make it bearable, but trying to use a build language to script and program is a recipe for disaster and bloated scripts.

I don’t know what finally motivated me to learn PowerShell. I ordered every PowerShell book from the library, but returned them as soon as I started Lee Holmes' PowerShell Cookbook. Within a few days, I was writing scripts. A year later, I have a hard time writing MSBuild.

I’m still kicking myself for waiting as long as I did. I had heard lots of respectable developers extol PowerShell, but I never set aside the time to learn it. What a waste.

If you’re a .NET developer, and still using cmd as your command prompt, or even worse cygwin (shudder), shame on you! Take a deep breath, two days off, and read Lee Holmes' book. You’ll never look back.