alt@ihlpf.UUCP (Todesco) (10/15/86)
I have read of two UNIX-like shells for the PC. They are:
1. Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools
501 Galveston Dr. - Redwood City, CA 94063
Shell=$29.95; /util=$29.95; Both=$50.
2. Kent William - 722 Rundell St. - Iowa City, IA 52240
Donation=$25. - will send compiled version & "C" source
I don't know anything about either of these two, other than what I read in
an ad. Anyone have any experience? p40001@mcomp.UUCP (10/18/86)
> I have read of two UNIX-like shells for the PC. They are: > 1. Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools > 501 Galveston Dr. - Redwood City, CA 94063 > Shell=$29.95; /util=$29.95; Both=$50. > 2. Kent William - 722 Rundell St. - Iowa City, IA 52240 > Donation=$25. - will send compiled version & "C" source > I don't know anything about either of these two, other than what I read in > an ad. Anyone have any experience? I have not used the Holub-Shell ( #1 above); Kent William's PC-shell is quite nice but introduces a number of deviations from C-Shell syntax which I find annoying. Also, both PC-Shell, as well as the shell listed as #3 below have slight troubles with programs which have the '/' hard-wired into them as the switch character (i.e. DOS LINK, and a few other programs.). Also, PC-Shell will not run well apart from COMMAND.COM - it has to be started on top of COMMAND.COM, not instead of it. I would like to list two other shells currently available and mention one about to be released: 3. Micro C-Shell, by David Beckemeyer. He advertises in Dr. Dobb's, and his shell runs well as a replacement for COMMAND.COM. It is fairly close to the UNIX C-Shell, and sells for ca. $40. 4. Percent Shell, from Thompson Automation. This seems (from literature I have received) one of the most complete and thought-through products of this type, with solutions even for the switch character problem mentioned above. It sells for ca. $100, from Thompson Automation, 5. MKS Korn Shell -- due for beta testing in November. This is part of version 2.1 of the MKS Toolkit. The entire toolkit, which includes such goodies as sed, awk, vi/ex, etc., sells for $139 from MKS, 43 Bridgeport Rd. East, Waterloo, Ont. N2J 2J4, Canada; phone 519-884-2251; uucp ihnp4!watmath!mks!toolkit. One of the nice things about the MKS toolkit is that they attempt to provide extremely complete implementations, based on SVR2; I expect their KORN shell to fit that pattern, supporting every feature that can possibly be implemented under MS-DOS. Note that my only connection with both David Beckemeyer and MKS is as a very satisfied customer, and I have no connection with Thompson Automation. ----------------------------------------------------- Wolf N. Paul, 290 Dogwood, Plano, Tx. 75075 UUCP: ihnp4!convex!mcomp!doulos!wnp or ihnp4!convex!mcomp!p40001 Phone: (214) 578-8023 W.U.ESL: 6283-2882
paula@bcsaic.UUCP (paul allen) (10/18/86)
>I have read of two UNIX-like shells for the PC. They are: > 1. Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools > 501 Galveston Dr. - Redwood City, CA 94063 > Shell=$29.95; /util=$29.95; Both=$50. > 2. Kent William - 722 Rundell St. - Iowa City, IA 52240 > Donation=$25. - will send compiled version & "C" source >I don't know anything about either of these two, other than what I read in >an ad. Anyone have any experience? I recently got version 2.9 (I think) of Kent Williams' PC-SHELL off the net. I have a Zenith Z-100 computer, which runs MS-DOS, but is not IBM-compatible (thank the local deity!). In particular, I don't have the IBM ROM BIOS interrupts. Kent's documentation says that he has re-written the screen-handling portions of his code to not use the IBM screen interrupt. Sure enough, PC-SHELL has no trouble talking to my screen. It didn't take long, however, to discover several problems that have caused me to stop using PC-SHELL. The shell script stuff does not work. It appears to get stuck in a loop putting garbage on the screen. I had to reboot to recover. Maybe this works on a PC with PC-DOS. PC-SHELL cannot cooexist with the PRINT spooler. In his (very helpful) documentation, Kent notes that it gets "all hosed up". Again, I had to reboot when I tested this out. When I invoke my favorite editor, (BSE, from Zenith) it cannot find the file I asked it to edit. (??!?!) I didn't take time to try to figure this one out. If it weren't for these problems, I would love to run Kent's shell. The alias and history stuff is really nice. I don't know anything about the Dr. Dobbs shell. Please post your results. Thanks. Paul Allen -- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Paul L. Allen Boeing Computer Services Artificial Intelligence Center ...!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!paula