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From: paula@bcsaic.UUCP (paul allen)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: UNIX-type PC Shell
Message-ID: <736@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Oct-86 21:45:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.736
Posted: Fri Oct 17 21:45:19 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Oct-86 21:13:54 EDT
References: <797@ihlpf.UUCP>
Reply-To: paula@bcsaic.UUCP (paul allen)
Distribution: net
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 45


>I have read of two UNIX-like shells for the PC.  They are:
>  1. Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools
>     501 Galveston Dr. - Redwood City, CA 94063 
>     Shell=$29.95; /util=$29.95; Both=$50.
>  2. Kent William - 722 Rundell St. - Iowa City, IA 52240
>     Donation=$25. - will send compiled version & "C" source
>I don't know anything about either of these two, other than what I read in
>an ad. Anyone have any experience? 

I recently got version 2.9 (I think) of Kent Williams' PC-SHELL off the
net.  I have a Zenith Z-100 computer, which runs MS-DOS, but is not
IBM-compatible (thank the local deity!).  In particular, I don't have
the IBM ROM BIOS interrupts.  Kent's documentation says that he has
re-written the screen-handling portions of his code to not use the IBM
screen interrupt.  Sure enough, PC-SHELL has no trouble talking to my
screen.  It didn't take long, however, to discover several problems that
have caused me to stop using PC-SHELL.

	The shell script stuff does not work.  It appears to get stuck
in a loop putting garbage on the screen.  I had to reboot to recover.
Maybe this works on a PC with PC-DOS.

	PC-SHELL cannot cooexist with the PRINT spooler.  In his (very
helpful) documentation, Kent notes that it gets "all hosed up".  Again,
I had to reboot when I tested this out.

	When I invoke my favorite editor, (BSE, from Zenith) it cannot
find the file I asked it to edit.  (??!?!)  I didn't take time to try to
figure this one out.

If it weren't for these problems, I would love to run Kent's shell.  The
alias and history stuff is really nice.

I don't know anything about the Dr. Dobbs shell.  Please post your
results.  Thanks.

Paul Allen

-- 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Paul L. Allen
Boeing Computer Services Artificial Intelligence Center
...!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!paula