glenn@zeus.ocs.com (Glenn Ford) (06/07/91)
Is anyone running RC shell? I am currently running Korn shell and RC shell was commented on having syntax more "look and feel" of 'C'. Is this true? And if so. Do people find it as powerful as CSH or KSH? glenn
haahr@adobe.com (Paul Haahr) (06/12/91)
in article <1233@ocsmd.com> glenn@zeus.ocs.com (Glenn Ford) writes: > Is anyone running RC shell? I am currently running Korn shell and > RC shell was commented on having syntax more "look and feel" of > 'C'. Is this true? And if so. Do people find it as powerful > as CSH or KSH? i've been using using the implementation of rc by Byron Rakitzis for about half a year, and would never go back to using any other shell. the big win of rc's syntax is not its superficial resemblence to c, but its simplicity and predicatability. unlike most other shells, everything is parsed once, in one pass. this simplifies the language enough that there is only one form of quoting (using single quotes). the notation for backquoted commands allows easier nesting than the multiple levels of backslashes required by sh or csh. (i have used `{} nested three deep in commands i've typed in off the top of my head, with no syntax errors; i don't want to think about matching all the necessary \\\` sequences needed for sh's rules.) all of rc's variables are lists of strings, and this turns out to be a very convenient data structure for a shell to use---it matches the argc/argv interface for exec'd programs very naturally. the strangeness in sh that comes from using spaces or colons to separate elements of lists disappears, and you don't have to quote variables to prevent interpretation of metacharacters in their contents. on the other hand, i don't use job control, command line editing, or command completion, so it doesn't bother me that rc doesn't support them. (actually, if you would miss command line editing, rc can be used with gnu readline().) unlike csh and ksh, there are no built in math operations, but (imho) awk, bc, and perl tend to be more appropriate than a shell for doing math. i'd recommend giving rc a try: just ftp it and it should compile right out of the box. if you do much shell programming at all, i think you'll find it a pleasant change. it's a small shell that does what it does extremely well. paul haahr, adobe systems incorporated haahr@adobe.com ...!decwrl!adobe!haahr paul haahr haahr@adobe.com ...!decwrl!adobe!haahr +1 415 962 6056