steveha@microsoft.UUCP (Steve HASTINGS) (02/16/91)
The _Thompson Toolkit_, version 1.5, is now available for DOS and OS/2 from Thompson Automation in Portland, Oregon. This is an attempt to blend the best features of UNIX with the best features of DOS and OS/2. IMHO, it works. I like it much better than the MKS utilities. The shell itself is a hybrid, based on Bourne but with some csh and ksh extensions. It has csh-style history, *and* command-line editing with arrow keys like DOSEDIT, *and* all the DOS and OS/2 keys (e.g. F3 for last command, F5 for stash current command in history without executing) all work. It has aliases like csh, but does not have functions like ksh. I have used the DOS version of this shell to unpack SHAR archives, and I use the manual to the shell as my UNIX reference for writing Bourne shell scripts, so I rate its compatibility quite good. Unlike the MKS utilities, this shell does not treat "c:" and "c:/" identically; in other words, this shell does not force you to type complete paths, but instead honors default drives just as DOS and OS/2 do. This is important when you use many network drives with long paths! The shell also has outstanding online help: you press F10 to access it. If you just press F10, you get a tree of help sorted by subjects; if you type a command and then press F10, you instantly get help on that specific command. It comes with a full set of UNIX-style utilities: find, grep, sort, uniq, more, cat, etc. Some of these have minor extensions I have not seen elsewhere, like the -r options to mv and cp. This product was written by Pat Thompson. He also wrote PolyAWK, an excellent version of AWK sold by Sage Software. If you buy _Thompson Toolkit_ from Thompson Automation, you can get a package deal that includes PolyAWK for a good price. PolyAWK includes the PolyAWK interpreter; the PolyAWK Development Kit includes both the interpreter and a compiler. The compiler makes standalone bound .EXE files that can be distributed without royalties. Here is pricing information that I believe to be accurate: Thompson Toolkit for DOS $99 Thompson Toolkit for DOS and OS/2 $149 PolyAWK bought with Thompson Toolkit add $50 PolyAWK Development Kit bought with Thompson Toolkit add $150 Thompson Automation can be reached at: 5616 SW Jefferson Portland, OR 97221 503/224-1639 Unfortunately, they have no email. I have no connection with Thompson Automation, except for being a happy customer. I have used the DOS version of the Toolkit (formerly called PolyShell) for years, with great happiness. -- Steve "I don't speak for Microsoft" Hastings ===^=== ::::: uunet!microsoft!steveha steveha@microsoft.uucp ` \\==|