Slashdot Mirror

command.com = sh

4DOS/4NT = zsh

Big difference folks. All operating systems can have more than one commandline interpreter. Just go to JPSoft.com. I do most of my tasks by scripting. I even launch mp3s and such at the command line. It's not hard.

Tab filename completion, aliases, etc.. Hell I like it better than zsh.

please try cygwin. Cygwin isn't the name of the shell, it's the name of the compatibily thingie that lets you use some GNU apps and other Free Unix apps on Windows. It mostly consists of some .dlls that act as a compatiability layer. You have your choice of shells to choose from on a Unix system. The one that's used on almost all Linux systems is bash, which is a feature-enhanced version of the classic Unix shell. That shell was called "The Bourne Shell" and was named "sh" (or should it be the other way round?). Therefore, it's only natural that the name bash stands for "The Bourne Again Shell".

The catch: In my experience, Cygwin runs much better on NT-based Windozes (NT 4.0, 2000, XP) than on DOS based Windozes (95, 98, Me). But, if you've got lots of processor power, Cygwin should still run quite nicely, even on crufty Win9x. The other catch: all of this sort of assumes that you're already somewhat familiar with the Unix Way. If you're not, it could be quite frustrating. But there are many, many help texts and HOWTos available (Google for HOWTO) and if you're adventurous and you want to know what a command line should be like, then it's out there waiting for you.

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. Another alternative is 4Dos or 4NT. It's available from these people. It's pretty good, except that's it's shareware and therefore commercial and I've had problems with certain versions crashing frequently. Also, there's a couple points where they could've gone for compatibility with Unix but chose to ignore it. (E.g. to not match the characters a,b, or c in a filename, they use [!abc] whereas the proper Unix Way is [^abc].)

Is 4NT.EXE a virus, or is it a trojan of some sort? It seems to be from JP Software, which looks legit.

I've been using DOS since 2.x and the best shell replacement for DOS/Windows out there by far is 4DOS (for W9x) and 4NT (for NT) by JP Software. It has very intelligent command line completion, pop up command and dir histories, an extended batch language that actually has some power to it (nothing like perl or *nix shell scripts, but not bad), allows commands to be redefined or aliased and also allows multiple commands to be run from one command line, *nix style.

Cygwin's bash runs passably well. However, I can't really recommend cygwin due to the basic conflicts between Unix and Windows conventions. Most Unixes have case-sensitive filenames, for instance, but Windows doesn't. And there's no clean mapping of Unix permissions to NTFS ACLs. Cygwin's nice, and I keep it around for a few things, but personally I get frustrated when I run up against things that are almost but not quite like they should be.

On the other hand, if you're just looking for a decent command shell for Windows, you can't do much better than 4NT from JP Software. 4NT is compatible with 'cmd.exe', yet adds a whole bunch of features reminiscent of a good Unix shell. I've been a big fan of 4DOS/4NT for quite a few years.

Oh, and don't forget to download Perl, Python and/or Tcl from ActiveState.

• 3.10 Windows NT: Win16 hacked onto OS/2 1.3. Some 32-bit support.
• 3.50 Windows NT: Support for Win95 style 32-bit code
• 3.51 Windows NT: Win95 style shell.
• 4.00 Windows NT: Rewrite of lower levels. Mostly supports NT 3.51 stuff. HPFS still works, but not supplied. Some utilities from this work under Win95 and 98.
• 5.00 Windows 2000: Win98 style shell, with IE integration. OS/2 subsystem still works, HPFS does not work. Bitmaps are the same as v4
• 5.01 Windows XP: New shell, better DOS support, but no OS/2 subsystem. This might work if copied from Win2k. Bitmaps are same as v4. Version Nr according to JPSoftware.

Definitely check out cygwin. It comes with an implementation of bash which works pretty well. I haven't really checked as to whether it has other shells, or whether they will compile with cygwin, but I wouldn't be suprised. The installation is pretty flexible and painless, it it gives you a whole slew of useful unix (including perl, grep, awk, etc.) utils pretty seamlessly under windows. A lot of stuff that doesn't come with it is available separately.

Also, if you want a dos-style CLI with a lot of the more useful features of unix ones, check out 4NT (and related) from jpsoft. I've been using it on and off for years, and I love it. It hurts to use the built-in MS CLI now.

-Puk

Have you ever actually used the command line in Win2K? It's horrible.

Brother, it's time for you to see the light that is 4NT. Everybody say 'AMEN!'

There is still the problem of having to wait for each stage of the pipe to finish before the next can begin, but there is definately life in the old DOS yet and I'll be using JP's shells long after COMMAND/CMD has gone the way of the dodo.

Oh, come now. No real console-dweller would be without 4DOS or its big brother, 4NT. It almost completely removes the pain from the DOS command line.

I use the command line too. Actually 4Dos & 4NT. www.jpsoft.com

I created this handy alias for when I need to use the explorer shell:

alias explore=`explorer /e,.`

The /E is the command to have the left pane show the directory tree, and the ,. has the current directory selected. The single quotes are the back quotes.

Windows-E is also another handy keyboard shortcut.

4dos

Actually Only tcsh and zsh bypass 4dos in the power and ease of use. And you need to config them a lot to catch 4dos.