CompuServe Thread

#help with shell/dos

4 messages in this thread
#105696From: Steve JonesMay 21, 1990 4:24 PM
I still have AmigaDos 1.2. I've added occasional commands from various sources and just included the arp 1.3. I was hoping I could get a little information about shells. All I know is that they're an alternate OS and, from what I understand, they act kind of like batch files. After that I get fuzzy. Are there any text files that deal with shell basics? What about CShell, any recommendations? Thnx Steve
#105726From: Ray LewisMay 21, 1990 8:46 PM
Steve: If you still have AmigaDOS 1.2, you might want to check out CONMAN. It makes your cli very similar to the Amiga 1.3 shell. ?|^] Ray Lewis
#105794From: John DraperMay 22, 1990 2:03 AM
Steve, A shell isn't really an OS, but rather is an interface between the user and the OS. The CLI, for example, is a form of shell. People don't call it that, since it has always been called a CLI (Command Line Interface) on the Amiga, and to avoid confusing it with the other shells out there, each having more features than the CLI. Any of the third party shells (or even CBM's Shell), will generally do a number of things for you that the CLI won't. Some commands, for example, are built-in to shells. This avoids having to have them load in off disk. Some allow you to run a more powerful script language (scripts are another name for batch files). Shells can do things with wildcards, expanding them to full filenames before the program you are calling sees the command line. They can offer a history of the commands you have typed, previous command editing, and so on. csh, the C-shell, is a good one, but so is the CBM Shell that comes with 1.3 -larry
#106067From: Wayne ColeMay 24, 1990 12:45 AM
Steve, To amplify Ray's remarks, I still use Conman on 1.3 as well since the Amiga shell doesn't supply the F1/F2 key window resizing or the F9/F10 window front/back stuff. I also recently got a little thing called CB out of the tech forum libraries. It stands for Console Buffer and gives a scrollable CLI window (scroll bar on right of CLI console window and a buffer to store scrolled CON output in). I added the call to CB to the Shell-startup and it works real fine with Conman and 1.3 shell. wmc