Re: QSHELL commands (was: Stmf copy with add)

[James Rich <james@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I promise to shut up soon about this topic :)

On Tue, 16 Oct 2001, Brendan Bispham wrote:

> There's no reason why "we" cant go out there and change Linux's BASH shell
> for an iseries QCL interactive shell (iQISH) that aliased predictable
> commands to the Unix equivalents.... DSPPFM=CAT, WRKACTJOB=TOP, WRKUSRJOB=ps

Eeeeek!!  You hadn't better wreck all those good unix commands with the
as/400 dull-as-can-be-do-it-the-business-way-or-no-way commands!! :)

Seriously, if you want to do this it's easy - and you don't have to go
around duplicating one command just to call it something else.  In your
shell startup scripts (.cshrc for tcsh, .profile for bash) just put:

alias WRKACTJOB 'top'
alias WRKUSRJOB 'ps'
alias DSPPFM 'cat'

> etc. F4 prompting could be indexed or extrapolated from the man pages so CP
> could be entered as CPYF FROMFILES(file1 file2) TOLIB(/home/data) or CPYF F4
> with F1 help for the parameters, F9/10 for 'advanced parameters'....

Prompting might be interesting to see for in a shell, but only if it stuck
with the sytax of that shell and of the commands the shell runs.  I
suppose you could write a shell that has its own set of commands that it
interprets before running the real system commands.  Most shells probably
do this to some degree already.  Just don't expect me to install it on my
computers :)

> Most Unix folks would shudder at the idea, but I think Linux is crying out
> for a uniform CL interface... and who better to design it than those who
> appreciate OS400 :)

Unix (and other platforms) already has one, in fact several: perl, bash,
tcsh, tcl, etc.  There are already a number of scripting languages and
shells to match nearly every taste (unless you happen to like the taste
of os/400).

Of course if someone really does want to design such a shell/scripting
language/interface I don't discourage it.  Quite the opposite - the
machine exists for you to do with as you please.  The machines serve us,
we do not serve the machines.

Finally (and I realize that business-types may have no room to entertain
such thoughts - my boss certainly doesn't) think of the "character" or
personality of the system.  One reason I like unix is because it has
quirks.  My favorite is the 'less' command.  'less' is a play on the
'more' command, a screen paginator (DOS has the 'more' command).  'less'
is an improvement on the 'more' command and, well, less is more!

James Rich
james@eaerich.com