Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bu.edu!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!edison.cho.ge.com!rja From: rja@edison.cho.ge.com (rja) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer Subject: Re: unix utils for dos - SUMMARY Message-ID: <9007091948.AA15079@edison.CHO.GE.COM> Date: 9 Jul 90 19:48:16 GMT References: <1101@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: rja Organization: GE-Fanuc North America Lines: 40 It is unreasonable to claim that PolyShell is "better" than the MKS Toolkit (which includes the MKS Korn Shell). MKS has more utilities and has gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that its utilities conform to the System V definitions or the draft POSIX.2 Shell and Utilities interface as appropriate. (Note that the SVID covers A Lot that isn't mentioned at all in POSIX.2 or POSIX.2a) PolyShell hasn't really made much effort to follow the POSIX.2 effort. Folks who prefer Berkeley-flavoured things like the C Shell and who aren't very POSIX-oriented might well prefer PolyShell. Folks who are POSIX or System V oriented will be much happier with the MKS Toolkit. Both are fine products but a direct comparison along the lines of "is rumoured to be better than" is uncalled for since they really are targeting different customers (BSD people and SVID/POSIX people) and have different goals, capabilities, and limitations. The other consideration in comparing them is the matter of support and MKS has a quite solid reputation for supporting its customers while Polytron is dropping its support. On the other hand, a colleague here has been quite happy with the shell described in "On Command" and with its accompanying utilities from "/util" that M&T Publishing sells. It doesn't do as much as either PolyShell or the MKS Toolkit, but if it meets your needs then it is a reasonable way to save money. I believe that there is also a product called the "Hamilton C Shell" from yet another vendor. I don't have much information since I'm a Korn Shell user and csh just doesn't interest me.