Get-WhatsNew should return a single string instead of an array of strings

[daxian-dbw]

Prerequisites

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Steps to reproduce

Get-WhatsNew should return a single string instead of an array of strings.

There seems now point to return an array of strings from it. Also, returning an array of strings prevents Get-WhatsNew | Show-Markdown from working.

Error details

No response

Environment data

PS:17> Get-Module Microsoft.PowerShell.WhatsNew

ModuleType Version    PreRelease Name                                ExportedCommands
---------- -------    ---------- ----                                ----------------
Script     0.4.0                 Microsoft.PowerShell.WhatsNew       Get-WhatsNew

### Version

0.4.0

### Visuals

_No response_

[pwahlmueller]

The first thing I wanted to do, is to find out, what are the new things in the last month.

But it was a string and no Object, so I could not.

So I would love to see some addintioal information like the realease date. Also a reference to the issue would be nice, I think.

[mklement0]

Dongbo Wang (@daxian-dbw), line-by-line output can be useful with Select-String operations, e.g.:

Get-WhatsNew | Select-String 'PSFeedback' -Context 0, 10

Wouldn't it be better to amend Show-Markdown to simply collect all input strings first, analogous to what ConvertFrom-Json does, for instance, which is the implied suggestion in #20951?

This would also support scenarios such as Get-Content ... | Show-Markdown (even though use of -Path / -LiteralPath is better).

[mklement0]

Patrick Wahlmueller (@pwahlmueller), providing metadata for filtering is also possible with [string] output, using instance ETS properties (which is what Get-Content does, for instance).

As for your desire to filter by date range - that doesn't really apply, given that Get-WhatsNew is focused on releases.

However, knowing when a given version was released would be helpful, not least as part of the text.

If you'd like to see metadata attached to the output strings, I suggest opening a feature request in which you can flesh out the specifics.

[ArmaanMcleod]

Maybe we could introduce an -AsString parameter so the user can opt in to return output as single string.

E.g.

> Get-WhatsNew -AsString | Show-Markdown

Would just do the same as:

> Get-WhatsNew | Out-String | Show-Markdown

[mklement0]

Armaan Mcleod (@ArmaanMcleod), but if Show-Markdown collected all its input first, there'd be no need for such a switch.

Do you anticipate any problems with the suggested Show-Markdown change?

[ArmaanMcleod]

Michael Klement (@mklement0) Yeah I think it's preferable to fix this in Show-Markdown to collect strings from -InputObject.

I was just suggesting the -AsString parameter here if we couldn't change the output type for Get-WhatsNew and the fix needed to be with this cmdlet instead of fixing Show-Command. The extra parameter would be similar to Get-Content -Raw 😂.

Many options I think though. Probably needs input and final say from PowerShell team on what solution we should do.