The World of Computer Software/The World of Computer Software.iso/msh21.zip/README.1ST

Text File | 1992-08-19 | 8KB | 152 lines

The MSH package comprises 3 zip files:
  mshfiles.zip
  goodies.zip
  toolkit.zip
And the files readme.1st and readme.2nd

to use, read at least point 2- below before doing anything else.

For BBS Sysops: you can distribute the 3 files separately to make
                smaller .ZIPs, but always then put them in the same directory
        with the readme files.

1- Why should you give a look at MSH, and what is it?

  It's rather fun and easy to try. It is a shell designed to make DOS easy for
  you (if you are a programmer or developer your instinct is probably to stop
  reading at this point and junk the package -- a bit too early I think).

    Compared to other shells, it has a rather peculiar flavor, due to its
  design goals. I designed it to use it myself, rather than to make a
  commercial product for `dumb' users -- I actually use it now all day long.
  Its inspiration was twofold: first, I was regretting the facilities of a
  good shell (like the Bourne or C-shell under UNIX). Second, I was rather
  favorably impressed with the design of Norton commander, and considered it
  almost usable for day-to-day work but for its lack of configurability
  and extendibility.

    So it was at first an exercise in designing a completely configurable
  and programmable Norton commander-like shell. I soon embedded a complete
  programming language inside so it is a bit more than that now. You can
  make it do whatever you want with a script written in the MSH language.
  You can even link your own new primitives written in C to it, so it is really
  malleable to whatever you want to make it.

    At this point it is if you are not a programmer that you might want to stop
  reading. Wrong again: the purpose was to make for me a simple environment
  to work in. This environment defined by the default set of script files
  that is distributed with MSH, is quite simple and has on-line help;
  actually, it looks a lot like Norton Commander (but does not feel like
  it, feels better I think). You can change everything in this environment:
  the contents of menus, the default editor for files, to do what for
  which extension, etc... with minimal intervention on the script files
  and no programming skills.

    A last word for you if you are a programmer: you may think that a shell
  like this will use too much system resources (including memory) or clutter
  too much your screen to be tolerable all day long. This does not take in
  account the possibilities of good design: although MSH with all its
  configuration files has a rather large memory footprint (180K), it swaps
  itself out of memory when executing any command so its footprint is reduced
  to 5K (the swapping is by default to extended memory; you can set it so
  if you have no XMS it swaps to a directory you specify which may be a
  virtual disk in EMS); you can enable or disable the swapping selectively
  for selected programs, to take in account any particular requirements.
  Also, by hitting just one touch (Ctrl+O) you can hide all MSH menus and
  panels and have a screen just like bare DOS, and still be under MSH and
  have all its facilities available.


2-  How to start?

  Just unzip all files in MSHFILES.ZIP some place and type `MSH'
  (you can start MSH from any place as long as all the files are in the same
  directory as the executable MSH.EXE). You are set.

   However, there are things that you may want to change in the script file
  which deals with system configuration, CONFIG.MSH: the color scheme
  (the default one is not nice on a monochrome screen), the number of floppy
  and hard drives you have, etc... This file is well commented so it is easy
  to make changes without reading anything about the MSH language.

   Once you are under MSH, just type F1 as indicated on the menu to get help.
  You may start by doing the tutorials which are on the help menu.

   The files xxx.HLP are used by on-line help; also on-line help allows
  you to consult the files xxx.DOC; for this reason you should keep
  the .HLP and .DOC files in the same directory as MSH.EXE, although you
  can make a smaller installation by deleting them if you don't need on-line
  help.

   Although not logically part of MSH, the executables contained in the
  zip file GOODIES are used in the given configuration (to not use them,
  set berk to false); so we recommend that you copy contents of GOODIES
  in the same directory as MSH.EXE and put that directory in your path.

   The file TOOLKIT.ZIP contains a technical package that you may unzip later.
  It contains what you need to add your own primitives written in C to MSH.

3-  What do I get if I register?

  You get a nicely printed version of the manuals (done with Xerox Ventura
  and TeX), a version of MSH.EXE  and of MSH.LIB in the toolkit without
  the 'nagware' screen when you leave, and a registered version of the
  utilities ls and grep in GOODIES. Of course, you also make it
  financially possible for us to continue upgrading and distributing MSH.

4-  This product was until recently a commercial product -- why do you put
  it up as shareware?

  Hmmm... Well, it might go commercial again. There are several reasons why
  we decided (we is I and OPENetwork, the distributor)  to put it as
  shareware. There are the usual ones: OPENetwork is a small company, it costs
  a lot to advertise, etc.. (read below about OPENetwork). There is another
  one: I feel that MSH is a quite innovative product with a lot of potential.
  I would like a lot of feedback from a lot of users to help improve it. Once
  it is really terrific, it might go commercial again (anybody who helps me
  with suggestions will be offer free registration and years of upgrades so
  don't worry). I hope for all kind of suggestions, including in the form
  of tutorials, MSH scripts or C code that I may incorporate into MSH with
  the permission of the authors. I would love design discussions...(see the
  file design.doc for an explanation of my design). Bug reports are also
  welcome. Anyboding who gives me a suggestion I like will be offered free
  registration (or reimbursed his registration) and free upgrades. It is
  very easy to design 'add-ons' so you might instead sell your contribution
  separately to users in that form if it is what you prefer (and if you
  believe in the future of MSH, as I do).

   You can contact me:
     by E-mail:        [e-mail]
     by postal mail:
                       Jean MICHEL
               22 rue de Wattignies
               75012 PARIS FRANCE

   Or you can contact me through OPENetwork.

   You should address to me ONLY technical questions. ANY commercial question
  should be addressed to OPENetwork only and I will ignore them (or at best
  transfer them infrequently back to OPENetwork).

                     Jean MICHEL,  18th August 1992
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5-  What is OPENetwork and what products does it have?

  OPENetwork is a software company which specializes in DOS tools
  for programmers. Its main products are

     DELTA, an interactive tool for comparing source code versions
       and editing them while viewing the comparison. $ 100.

     The Berkeley Utilities, a set of 39 Unix commands for DOS:
       awk, basename, cal, cat, cb, comm, cmp, cp, cut, df, diff,
       dtree, ech, ed, expand, find, grep, head, join, ls, make,
       more, mv, od, paste, rederr, rm, sed, sort, split, tail,
       tee, touch, tr, unexpand, uniq, wc, which and xstr. $ 200.

     OPENetwork 215 Berkeley Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217
     [phone]  voice
     [phone]  fax
     [phone]  BBS (1200/2400 N 8 1) free, 24 hours/day