Conference 7.286::atarist

I use gulam, which is a very UNIX-like command line interface on my 1040.
It has history, aliasing, etc.  The price is right, too (it's PD).

Dave

    	Gulam sounds good, but does it come back after a reset.
    
    	I had a thought, is there any way of getting a cmdline system
    	on a cartridge, rather than disk?
    
    	Will gulam run GEM apps (eg Firstword +)
    
    	Les
    

I find the Mark Williams shell to be nice and frustratingly :-)
Unix-like. It's expensive for a shell, but it comes with a pretty good
C compiler, machine-level debugger, resource editor, and great
documentation.  (Well, you either hate the manual, or your love it.  I
love it.)

The common shell utilities are all built in (ls, cd, setenv, cat) and
the rest come from PATH (egrep, make, em, cc. ld, od), which you can
direct through a RAM disk that survives reset, and can be your boot
device.

If you don't want to run any GEM programs, you can start MWC in your
AUTO folder.  You get a lot of extra memory this way also, since GEM
uses something over 100K or RAM.  The AUTO folder runs before GEM is
started.

It's pretty easy to set up a Mark Williams environment that boots up
running the shell with all the utilities in a PATH search list that
includes a pre-loaded RAM disk.  Their RAM disk generator let's you
save an image of the RAM disk with the files already loaded on it, so
it comes up quick.

In the old ST Notes file their was a note by someone who said he was developing
a DCL-like commmand line interface for the ST. Does anyone know anything about
this?

    There are two programs here in Germany called
    
                               ST - DCL       and
                               ST - EDT         .
    
    ST-DCL is some sort of commandline-interpreter emulating VMS-DCL.
    The emulation however is >>not<< complete.
    You can start gem-applications from ST-DCL .
    
    ST-EDT  >> is <<  EDT . I love it, because i'm so aquainted with
    good old EDT. Some features are missing, but i'm really happy with
    it.
    
    If there is some interest in it, i'll put the address into this
    topic. I don't have it at hand in the moment.
    
    The programs are sold by a german "IngenieurBuero", the price is
    approx. DM 300,-   .
    
    
    Helmut   [ great_atari_fan_&_also_edt_fan ] 

    
    	Ah,
    
    	Can I clear up a little thing here, the last thing I want is
    	to emulate DCL or EDT or EVE or anything else VMS. Being a
    	*real* ULTRIX person. 
    
    	Even if they are good, it means learning yet another new system
    	and quite honestly I don't want to!
    
    	Any more ideas ??? Particularly the perpetual ramdisk/ reboot
    	and run without disk !
    
    	Les
    

>    	Any more ideas ??? Particularly the perpetual ramdisk/ reboot
>    	and run without disk !

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear.  The Mark Williams RAM disk can be
pre-loaded with files, as in, you create a .PRG file that is the RAM
disk including all the files.  When the .PRG is executed, this disk
then becomes the BOOT DISK for the system, so that when you hit reset,
it boots directly from the RAM disk without accessing either the floppy
or the hard disk drive, and load all \AUTO files and .ACC files from it.

If you pre-load the RAM disk auto folder with the Mark Williams Shell,
which is nearly indistinguishable from Unix, the shell will come up
automatically when you hit reset.

At power-up, you will have to have a disk loaded that contains the RAM
disk .PRG file in the auto folder, but that's the only concession you
have to make to physical media.

    Ah!
    
    	Sorry I didn't understand your reply correctly, that sounds
    	ideal, must inquire at "my friendly local atari dealer!"
    
    	Les
    

If you have troubel setting this up, let me know and I'll write up the
procedure.