Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!mks!wheels From: wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: MKS Toolkit questions Keywords: MKS Message-ID: <989@mks.UUCP> Date: 30 May 89 15:32:16 GMT References: <1283@esunix.UUCP> Reply-To: wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) Distribution: na Organization: Mortice Kern Systems, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Lines: 47 In article <1283@esunix.UUCP> krogers@esunix.UUCP (Keith Rogers) writes: >From what I've read, the MKS Toolkit is what I want... >1) I believe that command.com is replaced by some other shell. How big > is it? The code of our Korn shell is 64K, and the data will about 16K, depending on what aliases, functions, etc., you have defined. This is larger than command.com, and may cause problems for very large programs. However, use of the kshell is optional, and you can easily change from kshell to command.com whenever you want (or need). >2) Does something need to be done to run canned dos programs; i.e. does > command.com need to be reinstalled or something? I guess I'm very > fuzzy on how MKS Toolkit relates to BIOS, etc. The Toolkit is a collection of standard DOS programs that emulate Unix utilities. For example, it includes vi.exe, diff.exe, sort.exe, and so on. The shell, which may be used as a replacement for command.com, is also just a DOS executable called sh.exe. (Keep in mind that command.com is just a normal DOS program too. It is the default program the DOS kernel loads, but that can be overridden with the SHELL= command in config.sys.) So, you can pretty well mix and match. You can use command.com to run our programs, or you can use our Korn shell to run your usual DOS programs. >3) will it run at an 'acceptable' speed on my AT&T PC6300? Yes, I don't think you'll see much difference. We have noted that some commands (rm, for example) are a little slower than the DOS equivalents (such as del or erase). This seems to be because the DOS commands use the very old DOS calls which are more efficient than the newer calls with file handles. In normal use this is not noticeable. > I'm posting this article so that I don't get a sales pitch to this > question. That's understandable. I've seen other responses already posted, so I hope you feel you're getting all sides of the story. That's what the net is all about. I just wanted to let you know some of the details that others may not have available. -- Gerry Wheeler Phone: (519)884-2251 Mortice Kern Systems Inc. UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels 35 King St. North BIX: join mks Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9 CompuServe: 73260,1043