Zshell for win32

Zshell for win32

[vipin aravind]

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 hi all,
          I know this is  not the place to put up something on win32.
It becomes necessary for me to get the suggestions on it before I embark
on the port.
Find enclosed a pre-mature  features  list for the shell I name  Zshell32.
thank you
vipin

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Zshell32:-  This is going to be a port of unix open source shell(Zshell)
The idea of the port is to evolve an open source shell for native win32.
It will be based heavily on Zshell(3.1.9 or 4.0.1). Future versions of
Zshell32 will be based on the Zshell port of 3.1.9 or 4.0.1 and not on future 
versions of zshell.This is important for Zshell32 to evolve in win32.

Feature List for Zshell32:-
  Iam not optimistic  in getting an exact port of zshell  for native win32.
  Ofcourse zshell can be compiled and run in the cygwin environment.
  But the goal here isto provide a shell based on Zshell for native win32
  similar to existing cmd.exe  and other commercial shells like 4nt,4dos.
  Certain factors like NO  forking in win32 puts a severe limit on the 
  port.


  Features that won't be supported:-
  1)  No ksh and Bourne shell emulation.
      Instead provide cmd emulation  and provide the necessary entry points
      to emulate any other shells for win32.
  2)    First release will support no extra modules and multilanguage support.
  Features that will be supported:-
  1)    All the current Zshell programming syntax.
  2)    similar startup scripts as in unix.

Iam yet to draw up a TODO list.
I will be needing lot of help from all of you after I come up with the TODO list

Re: Zshell for win32

[Bart Schaefer]

On Mar 20,  2:31pm, vipin aravind wrote:
} Subject: Zshell for win32
}
} Zshell32:-  This is going to be a port of unix open source shell(Zshell)
} The idea of the port is to evolve an open source shell for native win32.
} It will be based heavily on Zshell(3.1.9 or 4.0.1). Future versions of
} Zshell32 will be based on the Zshell port of 3.1.9 or 4.0.1 and not on future 
} versions of zshell.This is important for Zshell32 to evolve in win32.

If what you're creating is not going to be zsh, then it should not have
a name resembling zsh or zshell.  I'm willing to give you all the help
I can to produce a win32 port of zsh that will at least track, and ideally
could be folded into, the regular zsh sources -- but I'm not pleased at
the idea of wading through questions from confused windows users who don't
know that the shell they have is not really zsh.

}   Certain factors like NO  forking in win32 puts a severe limit on the 
}   port.

I thought Amol's code had a pretty good fork emulation built into it; in
fact unless I'm very much mistaken I've had some success using that fork
emulation in porting other (smaller) unix programs to win32.

}   Features that won't be supported:-
}   1)  No ksh and Bourne shell emulation.
}       Instead provide cmd emulation  and provide the necessary entry points
}       to emulate any other shells for win32.

It's going to be a lot more work to remove the sh/ksh emulation than to
leave it alone.  Why would you want to take it out?

}   2)    First release will support no extra modules and multilanguage
} 	  support.

Not surprising, though the cygwin build should provide some hints on how
to construct DLLs for the modules.

}   Features that will be supported:-
}   1)    All the current Zshell programming syntax.
}   2)    similar startup scripts as in unix.

A reasonable start.

-- 
Bart Schaefer                                 Brass Lantern Enterprises
http://www.well.com/user/barts              http://www.brasslantern.com

Zsh: http://www.zsh.org | PHPerl Project: http://phperl.sourceforge.net   

Re: Zshell for win32

[Andrej Borsenkow]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Bart Schaefer wrote:

> On Mar 20,  2:31pm, vipin aravind wrote:
> } Subject: Zshell for win32
> }
> } Zshell32:-  This is going to be a port of unix open source shell(Zshell)
> } The idea of the port is to evolve an open source shell for native win32.
> } It will be based heavily on Zshell(3.1.9 or 4.0.1). Future versions of
> } Zshell32 will be based on the Zshell port of 3.1.9 or 4.0.1 and not on future
> } versions of zshell.This is important for Zshell32 to evolve in win32.
>
> If what you're creating is not going to be zsh, then it should not have
> a name resembling zsh or zshell.  I'm willing to give you all the help
> I can to produce a win32 port of zsh that will at least track, and ideally
> could be folded into, the regular zsh sources -- but I'm not pleased at
> the idea of wading through questions from confused windows users who don't
> know that the shell they have is not really zsh.
>

Fair enough.

> }   Certain factors like NO  forking in win32 puts a severe limit on the
> }   port.
>
> I thought Amol's code had a pretty good fork emulation built into it; in
> fact unless I'm very much mistaken I've had some success using that fork
> emulation in porting other (smaller) unix programs to win32.
>

I wonder, what are the benefits of Win32 version against Cygwin
 one? Zsh relies heavily on Unix semantic; to implement something that can
be called Zsh(-clone) on Win32 you need an emulation layer - and that is
exactly what Cygwin does. Creating Yet Another Unix Emulation on Win32
does not look very promising. And you need just a single DLL to run Cygwin
program (you do not need to install the whole Cygwin).

Or quite a number of Zsh features have to be omitted. But then it is not
Zsh anymore.


>
> }   2)    First release will support no extra modules and multilanguage
> } 	  support.
>
> Not surprising, though the cygwin build should provide some hints on how
> to construct DLLs for the modules.
>

What do you mean under "multilanguage support"? We do not have any as of
now.



-andrej

Re: Zshell for win32

[vipin aravind]

hello again,
          I guess Bart is optimistic of a pure port. I will revise the
features.
I haven't yet got the source code of amols. Seems like can't connect  to the
location. Is there any other site I could  look into.
Thanks for all the comments.
vipin

> On Mar 20,  2:31pm, vipin aravind wrote:
> } Subject: Zshell for win32
> }
> } Zshell32:-  This is going to be a port of unix open source shell(Zshell)
> } The idea of the port is to evolve an open source shell for native win32.
> } It will be based heavily on Zshell(3.1.9 or 4.0.1). Future versions of
> } Zshell32 will be based on the Zshell port of 3.1.9 or 4.0.1 and not on
future
> } versions of zshell.This is important for Zshell32 to evolve in win32.
>
> If what you're creating is not going to be zsh, then it should not have
> a name resembling zsh or zshell.  I'm willing to give you all the help
> I can to produce a win32 port of zsh that will at least track, and ideally
> could be folded into, the regular zsh sources -- but I'm not pleased at
> the idea of wading through questions from confused windows users who don't
> know that the shell they have is not really zsh.
>
> }   Certain factors like NO  forking in win32 puts a severe limit on the
> }   port.
>
> I thought Amol's code had a pretty good fork emulation built into it; in
> fact unless I'm very much mistaken I've had some success using that fork
> emulation in porting other (smaller) unix programs to win32.
>
> }   Features that won't be supported:-
> }   1)  No ksh and Bourne shell emulation.
> }       Instead provide cmd emulation  and provide the necessary entry
points
> }       to emulate any other shells for win32.
>
> It's going to be a lot more work to remove the sh/ksh emulation than to
> leave it alone.  Why would you want to take it out?
>
> }   2)    First release will support no extra modules and multilanguage
> }   support.
>
> Not surprising, though the cygwin build should provide some hints on how
> to construct DLLs for the modules.
>
> }   Features that will be supported:-
> }   1)    All the current Zshell programming syntax.
> }   2)    similar startup scripts as in unix.
>
> A reasonable start.
>
> --
> Bart Schaefer                                 Brass Lantern Enterprises
> http://www.well.com/user/barts              http://www.brasslantern.com
>
> Zsh: http://www.zsh.org | PHPerl Project: http://phperl.sourceforge.net

Re: Zshell for win32

[Peter Stephenson]

Andrej write
> On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Bart Schaefer wrote:
> > On Mar 20,  2:31pm, vipin aravind wrote:
> > }   Certain factors like NO  forking in win32 puts a severe limit on the
> > }   port.
> >
> > I thought Amol's code had a pretty good fork emulation built into it; in
> > fact unless I'm very much mistaken I've had some success using that fork
> > emulation in porting other (smaller) unix programs to win32.
> >
> 
> I wonder, what are the benefits of Win32 version against Cygwin
>  one? Zsh relies heavily on Unix semantic; to implement something that can
> be called Zsh(-clone) on Win32 you need an emulation layer - and that is
> exactly what Cygwin does. Creating Yet Another Unix Emulation on Win32
> does not look very promising. And you need just a single DLL to run Cygwin
> program (you do not need to install the whole Cygwin).

There's a lot in this.  It might be worth considering having COMMAND.COM
builtin support (which I presume is going to be essential in this case)
via a module.

However, that still leaves some basic syntactic incompatilibilty if the
intention is a drop-in replacement for the DOS shell (which it still pretty
much what that object is, unfortunately).  That's a tough nut to crack in
any case.  The problems are how to interpret backslashes on the command
line, and so on.  The more like the original you need to be, the less this
is going to be like the real zsh under Cygwin, and the more necessary it is
to rewrite the internals.  That doesn't have to stop it running under
Cygwin, however, though as Bart says calling it anything like zshell is a
bit confusing.  (How about zcommand, or zcom or zwin if that's too long?)

> What do you mean under "multilanguage support"? We do not have any as of
> now.

I interpret that as locale support.

-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@csr.com>                  Software Engineer
CSR Ltd., Unit 300, Science Park, Milton Road,
Cambridge, CB4 0XL, UK                          Tel: +44 (0)1223 392070