[comp.unix.i386] Shells

garyb@crpmks.UUCP (Gary Blumenstein) (12/06/89)

In article <324@ubbs-nh.MV.COM> gmd@ubbs-nh.MV.COM (George MacDonald) writes:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>One reason for the lack of enthusiasm for csh is that the ksh has existed for
>over 6 years inside AT&T. FYI the ksh provides all of the csh features in
>a slightly different way, plus it is smaller, faster and upwards compatible
>with the bourne shell. 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

For those of you who are interested, Mortice Kern Systems, the makers of
the MKS Toolkit for DOS has a Korn Shell available for both SCO and 
ISC *NIX.  The software is called Trilogy and contains ksh, awk, and crypt.
I don't know what advantages you get with their version of awk although 
it's advertised as compatable with Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan's 
1987 awk specification.  The package is cheap too, $119 buys you non-copy 
protected 386 binaries.

I ordered a copy for SCO XENIX and will buy the ISC version if it works out
for my applications.  The salesman told me that you don't see a copyright
banner when ksh is invoked.  I like this because it means our carefully 
designed user interface won't get blasted by some confounded foreign invasion 
of characters (as some other ksh implementations do)!

                           MKS is located at
                           35 King St. North
                           Ontario, Canada N2J 2W9
                           Orders: (800) 265-2797
                           Info:   (519) 884-2251
                           Fax:    (519) 884-8861

* * Disclaimer * *  These are only my opinions. We're not pushing MKS products.

--
Gary M. Blumenstein, UNIX Network Administrator // CIBA-GEIGY Corporation USA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phone (914) 347-4700                    7 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne, NY  10532
FAX   (914) 347-5687                    UUCP  ...uunet!philabs!crpmks!garyb

rfarris@serene.UUCP (Rick Farris) (12/08/89)

In article <1097@crpmks.UUCP> garyb@crpmks.UUCP (Gary Blumenstein) writes:

> I don't know what advantages you get with their version of awk
> although it's advertised as compatable with Aho, Weinberger, and
> Kernighan's 1987 awk specification.  The package is cheap too, $119
> buys you non-copy protected 386 binaries.

Absolutely nothing.  After a year, and four sets of disks, I still
don't have a working awk from MKS.

Although I wouldn't part with my MKS Toolkit (for DOS), that's
because I haven't needed support.  Be advised that their technical
support is essentially non-existent; at least to end users.

Oh yes, they will talk to you on the phone, and they are very polite,
but there is no followup.

I think things went seriously downhill when Gerry Wheeler (Mr. MKS)
got kicked upstairs or left or something.


Rick Farris   RF Engineering  POB M  Del Mar, CA  92014   voice (619) 259-6793
rfarris@serene.uu.net      ...!uunet!serene!rfarris       serene.UUCP 259-7757

pim@cti-software.nl (Pim Zandbergen) (12/09/89)

garyb@crpmks.UUCP (Gary Blumenstein) writes:


>For those of you who are interested, Mortice Kern Systems, the makers of
>the MKS Toolkit for DOS has a Korn Shell available for both SCO and 
>ISC *NIX.

I have worked with both MKS's ksh and the Aspen Korn Shell.
I prefer the latter. the MKS korn shell is their own implementation
of the Korn Shell ; the Aspen is based on AT&T sources.

The MKS ksh is full of bugs. Lots of shell scripts in /bin and /usr/bin
fail with this product. MKS ksh cannot handle filenames of exactly
14 characters long, it thinks all filenames in directories are
null-terminated. I suspect they ported their DOS ksh to *nix
instead of the other way round.

I did not even bother to look for other bugs.

The Aspen Korn Shell works just fine for me.
It only displays a copyright message if it is invoked with -ksh
(ie login shell).

Note that you still need ksh source for job control, 
because currently these ksh's are not compiled with 
job control enabled.

Disclaimer: this is just my opinion.
-- 
Pim Zandbergen                           domain : pim@cti-software.nl
CTI Software BV                          uucp   : uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ctisbv!pim
Laan Copes van Cattenburch 70            phone  : +31 70 3542302
2585 GD The Hague, The Netherlands       fax    : +31 70 3512837

wek@point.UUCP (Bill Kuykendall) (12/11/89)

>I have worked with both MKS's ksh and the Aspen Korn Shell.
>I prefer the latter. the MKS korn shell is their own implementation
>of the Korn Shell ; the Aspen is based on AT&T sources.

Anybody know how to contact the Aspen folks?

------
Bill K

pim@cti-software.nl (Pim Zandbergen) (12/18/89)

wek@point.UUCP (Bill Kuykendall) writes:

>Anybody know how to contact the Aspen folks?

Aspen Technologies, Inc.
P.O. Box 5727
Parsippany, NJ 07054

phone: (201) 316-0866
fax  : (201) 316-5781
-- 
Pim Zandbergen                           domain : pim@cti-software.nl
CTI Software BV                          uucp   : uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ctisbv!pim
Laan Copes van Cattenburch 70            phone  : +31 70 3542302
2585 GD The Hague, The Netherlands       fax    : +31 70 3512837