Use F# to Write PowerShell Snapin & Cmdlet

When I was in Minneapolis, I was thinking to use the F# to write PowerShell snapin and cmdlet. I got the feeling that this can speed our development speed.

Because I use Visual Studio 2012 and it generates the .NET 4 binary. So I need to install PowerShell 3.0 in order to use .NET 4.0. You can use $psversiontable to check the CLR runtime version, make sure it is a number equal or greater than 4.

 namespace Log4NetPsSnapIn  
 open System  
 open System.Management.Automation  
 open System.ComponentModel  
 [<RunInstaller(true)>]  
 type Log4NetSnapIn() =  
   inherit PSSnapIn()  
   override this.Name with get() = "aa"  
   override this.Vendor with get() = "bb"  
   override this.Description with get() = "dd"  
 [<Cmdlet(VerbsCommunications.Write, "Hi")>]  
 type WriteHelp() =   
   inherit Cmdlet()  
   override this.ProcessRecord() =   
     base.WriteObject("help");  

After compiling the above code, a DLL is generated. You have to use installutil.exe to add the snapin. The PowerShell snapin has Name = "aa", so you can use Add-PsSnapIn aa to load the DLL. You can also use installutil.exe /u to uninstall the snapin from your system. Make sure you open the cmd window or powershell window with administrator privilege.

• If you are running 64-bit version machine, make sure you use installUtil.exe under C:\Windows\Microsoft.net\Framework64\. 
• if your OS is 32-bit, you can use installUtil.exe under C:\Windows\Microsoft.net\Framework\

I like the way F# write PowerShell snapin. The code is concise and easier to understand.

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