[comp.sys.amiga] Summary of Various Amiga Shells

ehoogerbeets@rose.waterloo.edu (Edwin Hoogerbeets) (02/01/90)

[Ian Farquhar: I am having severe problems mailing you the intro topics
-- please send me some mail to get a valid path between us]

Here is an update to the summary of features posted last decade ;-). 
Updates include info about TShell, listing of new features and corrections
about shells listed before. 

Please email me if you can add a feature that is not listed or you know
the features of another Amiga shell. [Numbers] in square brackets indicate
footnotes.  (see below)

                        Summary of Shell Features
                        =========================

                    Amiga Shells-------------------------    Unix Shells
                    Dillon  Hawes   CBM/ARP Koren  Ts
                    shell   WShell  Shell   Sksh   TShell    csh    sh
                    ------- ------- ------- ------ ------    ----------
scripting           yes     yes     yes     yes    yes       yes    yes
                    [3]     [1]     [2]     [2,3]

file name           yes     yes     no      yes    no        yes    no
completion          [4]     [5]

aliases             yes     yes     yes     yes    yes       yes    no

functions           no      no      no      yes    yes       no     yes

history             real    conman  newcon  yes    yes       yes    no
                    or
                    conman

multiple-command    yes     yes     no      yes    yes       yes    yes
lines                       [13]

auto directory      no      yes     no      no     no        no     no
change (input 
directory name
to cd to it)

builtin versions    yes     yes     yes     yes    yes       yes    yes
of external                         [12]    [6]
commands

resident list       no      yes     yes     soon   yes       n/a    n/a

shared text         no      yes     yes     yes    ??        done by OS
(ie. residentable)

own path            yes     yes     no      yes    ??        yes    no
                            [7]

`backtick` type     no      no      yes     yes    yes       yes    yes
mechanism                           [12]    [8]

pipes               faked   conman  conman  faked  faked     yes    yes
                                    [12]

line editing        yes     conman  newcon  yes    yes       no     no

redirection         yes     yes     yes     yes    yes       yes    yes
< and >                             [9]

append >>           yes     yes     yes     yes    yes       yes    yes

take from <<        no      no      no      no     yes       yes    yes

wildcarding         yes     no      no      yes    yes       yes    yes

shell variables     yes     no      no      yes    yes       yes    yes

setable prompt      ascii   yes     yes     yes    yes       yes    ascii
                            [10,11] [10]    [10,11]          [10]

setable titlebar    no      yes     no      yes    no        n/a    n/a
                            [10,11]         [10,11]

ARexx support       no      yes     no      no     yes       n/a    n/a

Unix or AmigaDOS    no      no      no      yes    yes       n/a    n/a
file naming 
conventions

auto-startup       .cshrc  Startup-WShell  .skshrc yes      .cshrc .profile
script                           Shell-Startup


Footnotes:

1.  Recognizes ARexx (ADOS 1.4) or Execute scripts
2.  Includes #! mechanism for scripts of other shells
3.  Executable ascii text (sometimes needs script bit set)
4.  Only some custom versions have file name completion, however
5.  In separate executable Fcomp - requires conman
6.  Large version does have builtins and small version doesn't
7.  special bonus -- comes with PathMan
8.  Backtick mechanism handled by $(command) replacement to be able to
    nest commands
9.  Somewhat restrictive in the placement, however
10. Setable with special restricted symbols (which expand to specific things)
11. May insert a command into string which outputs new prompt
12. Only the ARP version
13. If ARexx is installed, a double quote " at the beginning of a line
    will allow ARexx to parse multiple commands on a line separated by
		semicolons

Edwin