Define common terminology and styling #12632

sdwheeler · 2026-01-05T16:14:55Z

PR Summary

Define common terminology and styling

Fixes AB#543257

PR Checklist

Descriptive Title: This PR's title is a synopsis of the changes it proposes.
Summary: This PR's summary describes the scope and intent of the change.
Contributor's Guide: I have read the contributor's guide.
Style: This PR adheres to the style guide.

sdwheeler · 2026-01-05T16:16:22Z

@surfingoldelephant Please review and comment. We can build on this document.

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Pull request overview

This PR introduces a new terminology guidelines document for PowerShell documentation to ensure consistency across documentation. The document covers common terminology, styling conventions, and formatting rules that will eventually be incorporated into the PowerShell-Docs Style Guide.

Establishes terminology standards for null values, boolean values, hash tables, and PowerShell language constructs
Defines hyphenation, capitalization, and spacing conventions for PowerShell-specific terms
Provides guidance on distinguishing between similar concepts (declare vs. initialize, native vs. external commands, scalar vs. single vs. singleton)

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terminology.md

learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-05T16:19:08Z

Learn Build status updates of commit 2d052a0:

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-05T18:58:38Z

PoliCheck Scan Report

The following report lists PoliCheck issues in PR files. Before you merge the PR, you must fix all severity-1 and severity-2 issues. The AI Review Details column lists suggestions for either removing or replacing the terms. If you find a false positive result, mention it in a PR comment and include this text: #policheck-false-positive. This feedback helps reduce false positives in future scans.

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-05T19:02:46Z

Learn Build status updates of commit 5be5a08:

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-05T21:56:20Z

PoliCheck Scan Report

The following report lists PoliCheck issues in PR files. Before you merge the PR, you must fix all severity-1 and severity-2 issues. The AI Review Details column lists suggestions for either removing or replacing the terms. If you find a false positive result, mention it in a PR comment and include this text: #policheck-false-positive. This feedback helps reduce false positives in future scans.

✅ No issues found

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-05T22:00:13Z

Learn Build status updates of commit d8fea64:

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terminology.md

surfingoldelephant · 2026-01-06T12:54:04Z

terminology.md

+PowerShell has no concept of declaring variables, unless you count using `New-Variable` as a
+declaration. Even then, the new variable is given a default value. Essentially, variables are
+declared on first use. If the variable was not assigned a value, it is initialized to a default
+value depending on its type.


New-Variable -Name Foo creates a new variable $foo with a value of $null. Are we considering $null as a "default value" in this case?

Fair point. After looking at it more closely, New-Variable doesn't allow you to specify a type. So, basically, this is the only way to declare a variable without initialization. I will reword this.

terminology.md

learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T15:05:13Z

PoliCheck Scan Report

The following report lists PoliCheck issues in PR files. Before you merge the PR, you must fix all severity-1 and severity-2 issues. The AI Review Details column lists suggestions for either removing or replacing the terms. If you find a false positive result, mention it in a PR comment and include this text: #policheck-false-positive. This feedback helps reduce false positives in future scans.

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T15:06:17Z

PoliCheck Scan Report

The following report lists PoliCheck issues in PR files. Before you merge the PR, you must fix all severity-1 and severity-2 issues. The AI Review Details column lists suggestions for either removing or replacing the terms. If you find a false positive result, mention it in a PR comment and include this text: #policheck-false-positive. This feedback helps reduce false positives in future scans.

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T15:08:39Z

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T15:13:01Z

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T15:15:51Z

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The following report lists PoliCheck issues in PR files. Before you merge the PR, you must fix all severity-1 and severity-2 issues. The AI Review Details column lists suggestions for either removing or replacing the terms. If you find a false positive result, mention it in a PR comment and include this text: #policheck-false-positive. This feedback helps reduce false positives in future scans.

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T15:20:14Z

Learn Build status updates of commit 49495f5:

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T15:58:10Z

PoliCheck Scan Report

The following report lists PoliCheck issues in PR files. Before you merge the PR, you must fix all severity-1 and severity-2 issues. The AI Review Details column lists suggestions for either removing or replacing the terms. If you find a false positive result, mention it in a PR comment and include this text: #policheck-false-positive. This feedback helps reduce false positives in future scans.

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T16:01:03Z

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T16:20:42Z

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The following report lists PoliCheck issues in PR files. Before you merge the PR, you must fix all severity-1 and severity-2 issues. The AI Review Details column lists suggestions for either removing or replacing the terms. If you find a false positive result, mention it in a PR comment and include this text: #policheck-false-positive. This feedback helps reduce false positives in future scans.

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-06T16:23:45Z

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Co-authored-by: Copilot <[email protected]>

Co-authored-by: surfingoldelephant <[email protected]>

learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-12T13:45:12Z

PoliCheck Scan Report

The following report lists PoliCheck issues in PR files. Before you merge the PR, you must fix all severity-1 and severity-2 issues. The AI Review Details column lists suggestions for either removing or replacing the terms. If you find a false positive result, mention it in a PR comment and include this text: #policheck-false-positive. This feedback helps reduce false positives in future scans.

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learn-build-service-prod · 2026-01-12T13:48:08Z

Learn Build status updates of commit ff24440:

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sdwheeler requested a review from michaeltlombardi as a code owner January 5, 2026 16:14

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings January 5, 2026 16:14

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sdwheeler force-pushed the sdw-w543257-terms branch from 88ee6cb to 5be5a08 Compare January 5, 2026 18:57

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