rosen@siemens.UUCP (12/07/84)
[ --- ] Why is a 'shell' called a 'shell'? What is it covering or protecting? siemens!gypsy!rosen
quiroz@rochester.UUCP (Cesar Quiroz) (12/08/84)
> > Why is a 'shell' called a 'shell'? What is it covering or protecting? > If you cannot guess, it obviously succeeds in hiding *whatever* was intended to remain hidden ... More seriously, any software interface can be seen as protecting somebody from having to deal with unnecessary details. You may take the shell as built around the kernel, so it either protects 1.- The user, from the low level weirdnesses of the kernel ... or 2.- The kernel, from the weirdness of its users :-) Now, how the metaphor of a shell *around* a kernel appeared (I guess most people think of the command interpreter as built *on top*, not *around* the kernel) will certainly be a nice story to know, so let's encourage the First Born of UnixLand to speak and enlighten the Net People. Cesar
sean@ukma.UUCP (Sean Casey) (12/14/84)
A shell is your easy interface to the operating system. It is a 'layer' below which are a bunch of system calls. It doesn't protect you from anything except complexity. Sean