zoroaster@oak.circa.ufl.edu (03/22/91)
Could someone e-mail me where to get 4DOS? Also, does anyone know if the shareware program Anarkey is at an FTP site? Thanx in advance... Zorro
glenn@welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason) (05/21/91)
In recent unrelated postings, I have seen reference to a command interpreter called 4dos. Could anyone give me a brief description of it, enhancements over command.com, where it comes from,. etc. Thanks, Glenn glenn@welch.jhu.edu
ee5391aa@triton.unm.edu (Duke McMullan n5gax) (05/22/91)
In article <1991May20.212703.8135@welch.jhu.edu> glenn@welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason) writes: >In recent unrelated postings, I have seen reference to a command >interpreter called 4dos. Could anyone give me a brief description >of it, enhancements over command.com, where it comes from,. etc. Sure. 4dos, by J.P.Software, is a replacement for the command.com command processor. 4dos will do the things that many of us use a pile of TSRs to effect, to wit: ---> flexible command line editing ---> command history and recall (including a _smart_ his- tory mechanism...just type the first few letters of the command you want to recall, and start hitting the up-arrow; all the matching commands will be displayed ---> multiple commands on a line ---> conditional command execution (&& and || connectives) ---> 255 characters on the command line ---> a _good_ aliasing mechanism ---> a superior, more UNIX-like wildcard expansion *uy.txt != *.txt ---> use messdos anytime (just enter "command" to use command.com) ---> single-key filename completion ---> semi-built-in help system...a GOOD one, with hyper- text characteristics ---> fast batch files (filename.btm loads the .btm file _into_memory_, and executes it from there) ---> much reduced memory usage, if you can do swapping to disk, EMS or XMS ---> 40-character file descriptions built into DIR ---> expanded and readily editable environment ---> environment variables ---> redirection includes stderr, and the ability to block automatic file overwrites ---> TEE and Y "pipe fittings" are provided ---> most standard messdos commands are enhanced ---> ALMOST 100% messdos compatible ---> push and pop directory changes; examine dir stack ---> built-in timer, will do split times ---> rename files and directories ---> a _greatly_ enhanced batch processor ---> other stuff too, but that's the best of it 4dos is MS-DOS, the way it _should_ have been written. Why MicroSoft doesn't just licence 4dos from JP, or buy them out, is beyond me. Perhaps it's the NIH syndrome. It has failings: It's not quite 100% messdos compatible, although the ONLY noticable problem I've had is a PD Pacman clone called eatit, or something like that, that insists on running at an unplayably high speed under 4dos. It's perfectly happy under messdos, but simply trying to do it under an ex- plicitly called command.com doesn't work -- the machine must be booted under messdos for this program to work at reasonable speeds. It still uses that awkward \ as a pathname separator. There _is_ a built-in provision for using /, etc., but it's not terribly effective, as too many pro- grams _demand_ \. Ah, well.... 4dos has the same damned 640k barrier. That's not the authors' fault, though. That's deeply buried in both the hard- and software designs. Probably the only real cure for that is OS/2...or UNIX. ;^) 4dos is widely available as shareware. It is _not_ crippled in any way; the only difference is that it beeps a couple of times during the boot phase, and flashes a "register me" sort of notice on the screen. A complete manual is included as an ASCII file. If you register, there's a nicely printed, spiral bound manual available. Also, an editor which allows you to edit the HELP files is available to registered users. The earlier versions had a flat ASCII file for the help, but in version 3 they started compressing it, so your favorite text editor will no longer do the job. You should be able to find 4dos on almost any messdos BBS (I hear that there are a few of those around ;^) or ftp messdos site. SIMTEL-20 carries it, and even has an entire directory dedicated to it. Both wuarchive and umich archives have it; I'm sure Timo Salmi has it on his site, since it's a SIMTEL mirror also. If you can't ftp, or find it locally (and you almost certainly can), let me know. I'll get a copy from an ftp site, and mail it to you uuencoded. Having used 4dos for over a year now, the thought of going back to unenhanced messdos is reprehensible, ugly, unpleasant and bad. d
frank@cs.yorku.ca (Frank Pikelner) (05/22/91)
In article <1991May20.212703.8135@welch.jhu.edu>, glenn@welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason) writes: |> In recent unrelated postings, I have seen reference to a command |> interpreter called 4dos. Could anyone give me a brief description |> of it, enhancements over command.com, where it comes from,. etc. |> |> Thanks, |> Glenn |> glenn@welch.jhu.edu Hi Glen, I am also just looking into the merits of 4DOS. Some good documentation as well as the shareware copy is available from <wuarchive.wustl.edu / 128.252.135.4> in the /mirror/msdos/4dos directory (the path may be inaccurate, but very close). Hope this helps, Frank Pikelner Technical Assistant York University, Toronto, Cnd frank@cs.yorku.ca