[coldtea]

>Ugly syntax, cryptic error messages and random idiosyncrasies

Yeah, nothing like the elegance, straightforward messages, and "no surprises" of POSIX shells...

[Kurtz79]

It might be me succumbing to stereotypes, but POSIX shell syntax feels something that grew organically, out of use and necessity, with basic guiding principles but no set guidelines or rules.

Powershell feels like something designed by committee, it has an internal consistency and logic, but feels bloated and overcomplicated.

[x0]

>POSIX shell syntax feels something that grew organically, out of use and necessity

Isn't that what everyone hates about PHP?

[bluesign]

Consistency and logic comes with a price. But i guess both approches have cons and pros.

[coldtea]

The best way I think is: start with either, and prune what has been shown not to work in a version n+1 every few years iteratively.

Provide a good migration path (e.g. for a language that could be a n to n+1 transpiler), and you're set.