I was thinking on the plane back from the PowerShell summit about the CRUD activities. They are a concept we have inherited from the database world:

C = Create

R = Read

U = Update

D= Delete

Create, Update and Delete correspond directly to the PowerShell verbs – New,Set and Remove respectively.

The Read action corresponds to the Get verb.

Well sort of.

Get-* is used in two distinct scenarios.  Firstly we know of an object and we we want to read its properties – for example:

Get-Process -Name powershell

We are reading the information about the PowerShell process. That corresponds directly to the Read action in the CRUD paradigm.

However, we also use Get* when we want to Discover the processes that are running:

Get-Process

In which case we are Discovering the processes that are running.

I think its time to update the CRUD concept and make it DCRUD where D stands for discovery.