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SymShell 2.0 beta [SymbOS command line interface] released

Started by Prodatron, 14:04, 23 March 15

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Prodatron

SymShell 2.0beta is now available for download:
http://www.symbos.de/preview.htm

Here is the current changelog of SymShell 2.0beta:
- TAB auto-complete: while typing in the command line use the tab key in the way you know it from modern shells; this also works with more complex path statements and for the command parameters
- "search path" functionality for starting COM-files: if a COM file can't be found in the current directory/device, SymShell will try to start it from the SymbOS system directory; as an example you can copy AHEAD.COM into the system directory (e.g. C:\SYMBOS\ ), and can always start it even if you are on a floppy disc, which only contains the files you want to edit
- HELP command updated (full list, %P switch for pause) and enhanced with detailed information for each command by typing HELP <commandname>. The "appshell.man" file has to be placed in the same directory like "appshell.exe".
- new commands: DATE, TIME; these behave like the MS-DOS versions
- new command: ATTRIB for displaying and changing file attributes
- wildcard support for COPY, REN, MOVE, TYPE, ATTRIB; all these can process multiple files now
- %H (process hidden files) and %S (process system files) flags for DIR, COPY, REN, MOVE, TYPE, ATTRIB
- proper path handling for all commands; source (and destination) can be a full absolute or relative path; pathes, which end with an directory instead of a file(mask) always have a "/" (or "\") at the end, otherwise it will be handled like a file (this should be autodetected in the future)
- COPY command supports an increased copy buffer and is able to copy multiple source files into one single destination file, if specified

There is currently one known bug: The TYPE command may hang in special situations, when the shell is running in Window mode. It can be reproduced and will be fixed for the final 2.0.
Because of the platform-specific fullscreen-mode-code there are now individual versions for each platform available to decrease the size of the application. The PCW version is currently not available.
The included AHEAD.COM requires SymShell 2.0 and won't run properly with older versions.

Thanks to CraigsBar for testing it on the CPC!

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

TFM

That's good news. Looks like it gets mature now. Great work. Will have a look at it later.  :)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Edoz(MSX)

Thanks!! it runs so smooth and fast !! I do not own a CPC but my MSX is very happy with it!!  I like the shell a lot !! It rocks to use the copy *.t* and to have a good help function!!!
And on the MSX the speed is amazing!!

XyphoesRe

That is really cool! Do you plan to implement your network also? so we will have ping and telnet and so on?
It's absolutely amazing to see how SymbOS grew over the years. The DoX-Format for Richt-Text-Documents, the ports to three other systems. That's incredible for a one-man-project/show! My deepest respect and a free beer for you at revision party in Saarbrucken this year!

Prodatron

Thanks a lot, I am looking forward to the beer!  :P

Quote from: XyphoesRe on 17:16, 25 March 15so we will have ping and telnet and so on?

SymTEL is lounging around since 2007, it was working with the SF3 with the exception that some VT52/VT100/ANSI/VTNT control codes still have to be converted into the internal SymShell terminal control codes.
PING is a must for the command line together with stuff like WGET etc. The first step is to resurrect the SymbOS network software from 2007, and I want to have DOX loading in SymZilla from the internet, too :)

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

Singaja

That's one small step for an Amstrad, one giant leap for mankind ;-)

XyphoesRe

to be honest, there where fantastic operating systems around for the amstrad like amsdos itself, CP/M (great and on the C128 as well), Stream2 with its great window technique, even ParaDOS and CEUS Desktop should be mentioned - but SymbOS nails them all!


Prost!  ;D

Singaja

It keeps amazing me what Internet brought in terms of sharing invaluable knowledge about our beloved legacy hardware. I actually never heard of Stream2 before. And now the networking capabilities on the horizon bring a new technology era.

Edoz(MSX)

Agree on that!!

Quote from: XyphoesRe on 20:41, 25 March 15
to be honest, there where fantastic operating systems around for the amstrad like amsdos itself, CP/M (great and on the C128 as well), Stream2 with its great window technique, even ParaDOS and CEUS Desktop should be mentioned - but SymbOS nails them all!


Prost!  ;D

Devilmarkus

Agree: there are many fine pieces of software for the CPC... Even OS'ses and other fantastic GUI based systems...
When you put your ear on a hot stove, you can smell how stupid you are ...

Amstrad CPC games in your webbrowser

JavaCPC Desktop Full Release

Prodatron

Quote from: Munchausen on 14:03, 13 April 15
BTW prodatron, I was thinking last night that it would be so nice if there was a bash like shell for symbos... as well as utilities like sed, grep etc. Then I started thinking about how great it would be if there was a native assembler, C compiler, flex, bison etc etc, I got a little carried away! But still a unix shell would be cool.

(I'd also like to see the source of the "SymbosMake" utility from the symbos C bindings so that C bindings can be used on linux. The same author has an assembler and basic for symbos that are unreleased).

I think SymShell is already a bash like shell including Unix-like aliases for the commands (like LS, CP, MKDIR, CAT etc.). There are still some things missing like commands for process handling, piping (I would like to have real "multitasking" piping without using temporary files) etc., but compared to the 1.x the actual 2.0beta already contains several improvements, and now I wonder, what are the most important things, which are missing for a final 2.0? (beside piping and bug fixes)
Didn't know that Nerlaska was working on a Basic for SymbOS, but I remember there was an assembler. Zilogmonkey started his E-Basic for SymShell:
[attach=2]
I will try to contact Nerlaska regarding the C compiler :)

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

TFM

You can get some serious inspiration from the Shells of the Z3Plus system which provides a really great set of commands.  :)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

arnoldemu

Quote from: TFM on 17:17, 13 April 15
You can get some serious inspiration from the Shells of the Z3Plus system which provides a really great set of commands.  :)
I always wondered what this Z3Plus system was like.

Is there a disk image with a z3Plus setup for CPC?

Does one exist?

My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

TFM

Quote from: arnoldemu on 17:36, 13 April 15
I always wondered what this Z3Plus system was like.

Is there a disk image with a z3Plus setup for CPC?

Does one exist?

Well, since I have Z3Plus on my hard-disc I don't have a DSK, but you can get most you need there:

Gaby's Homepage for CP/M and Computer History

Index of /ftp/pub/cpm

http://gaby.de/ftp/pub/cpm/z3plus.pdf


Just dig and enjoy. I sadly don't have to time to help more at the moment.


Ok, this one too:
Index of /cpmarchives/cpm/Miscellany/ZCPRZSys/NZCOM & Z3PLUS
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

arnoldemu

I asked because it's so hard to actually find what is needed for a cpc.

I already looked on there and gave up.
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

Munchausen

Quote from: Prodatron on 14:30, 13 April 15
I think SymShell is already a bash like shell including Unix-like aliases for the commands (like LS, CP, MKDIR, CAT etc.). There are still some things missing like commands for process handling, piping (I would like to have real "multitasking" piping without using temporary files) etc., but compared to the 1.x the actual 2.0beta already contains several improvements, and now I wonder, what are the most important things, which are missing for a final 2.0? (beside piping and bug fixes)

That's amazing! Clearly I need to have a play and see how it looks now...

Quote from: Prodatron on 14:30, 13 April 15
Didn't know that Nerlaska was working on a Basic for SymbOS, but I remember there was an assembler. Zilogmonkey started his E-Basic for SymShell:
[attach=2]
I will try to contact Nerlaska regarding the C compiler :)

Yeah the basic is here: http://www.nerlaska.com/msx/symbasic.html

I have mailed him before about the compiler, but didn't hear back. It would be good if you could see what he says.

I was looking for some simple C implementation of flex/bison that might work on a Z80 yesterday, so it could be used to write a self hosting compiler for symbos (without having to do all the parsing in C itself which is no fun, and not useful for implementing other languages). I couldn't find any, but there are a number of low overhead regex parsers which is a good first step (for tokenizing). I've spent a lot of time fiddling with compiler design at work recently and think you could probably come up with something that optimises fairly well even compiling on a Z80 (especially given the boost in RAM that we can get with an X-MEM these days).

HAL6128

Quote from: arnoldemu on 18:10, 13 April 15
I asked because it's so hard to actually find what is needed for a cpc.

I already looked on there and gave up.
Here are two of my discs what I created today. You just have to start CP/M then insert z3_plus_system.dsk and start "z3plus.com". Thats all. The same principle like "SaramuX". But I didn't go deeper into detail, so the handbook or help-files on second disc could help.
...proudly supported Schnapps Demo, Pentomino and NQ-Music-Disc with GFX

TFM

Quote from: arnoldemu on 18:10, 13 April 15
I asked because it's so hard to actually find what is needed for a cpc.

I already looked on there and gave up.
Good work HAL6128!  :)

Also it's very important to have a well terminal descriptor.
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Prodatron

Quote from: HAL 6128 on 20:11, 13 April 15
Here are two of my discs what I created today. You just have to start CP/M then insert z3_plus_system.dsk and start "z3plus.com". Thats all. The same principle like "SaramuX". But I didn't go deeper into detail, so the handbook or help-files on second disc could help.

Thanks for the DSKs! It's funny how slow and old-school this was in the 80ies :D SamaruX feels much more modern - and I never really liked this 70ies-based original CP/M stuff. Unix was always the reference for such command line stuff, and even MS(X)-DOS was a big improvement.

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

TFM

Quote from: Prodatron on 21:10, 13 April 15
Thanks for the DSKs! It's funny how slow and old-school this was in the 80ies :D SamaruX feels much more modern - and I never really liked this 70ies-based original CP/M stuff. Unix was always the reference for such command line stuff, and even MS(X)-DOS was a big improvement.


Yes, the Z system is really very different to the old stuff. Of course it contains the functions of SamaruX, which is nice especially if you don't want to move to half a new OS. Z3Plus is very close to Unix, can even do some things which Unix can (no question that's true vice versa of course too). Worth to be checked out.

TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

FloppySoftware

floppysoftware.es < NEW URL!!!
cpm-connections.blogspot.com.es

arnoldemu

Quote from: HAL 6128 on 20:11, 13 April 15
Here are two of my discs what I created today. You just have to start CP/M then insert z3_plus_system.dsk and start "z3plus.com". Thats all. The same principle like "SaramuX". But I didn't go deeper into detail, so the handbook or help-files on second disc could help.
great thanks.


@Prodatron: Sorry to hijack the thread. We can go back to SymShell now ;)

My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

TFM

TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

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