zsh_on_dos

zsh_on_dos

[jherbert]

Greetings: Pardon my question if you are not the proper agency to answer it.
  Is there a program which I may buy or download to allow my practicing
 zshell scripting in DOS to save $ on my ISP link ? I realize there would be
 many limitations.
   Thanks for your interest - John Herbert

Re: zsh_on_dos

[Zefram]

jherbert@wizvax.net wrote:
>  Is there a program which I may buy or download to allow my practicing
> zshell scripting in DOS to save $ on my ISP link ? I realize there would be
> many limitations.

There is a Windows port of zsh.  From section 1.6 of the zsh FAQ:

#  The Windows port mentioned above is maintained separately by Amol
#  Deshpande <amold@microsoft.com>; please mail Amol directly about any
#  Windows-specific problems.  This is quite new, so don't expect it to
#  be perfect.  You can get it from:
#
#            ftp://ftp.blarg.net/users/amol/zsh  

What this doesn't tell you is that you'll also need a port of ls, and
all the other Unix utilities.  (ls is a particular problem because the
DOS equivalent is built in to COMMAND.COM, and is therefore unavailable
to zsh.)  Have a look at the GNU utilities, as I believe the FSF maintains
DOS ports.

-zefram

Re: zsh_on_dos

[Bart Schaefer]

On Sep 10, 11:01am, Zefram wrote:
} Subject: Re: zsh_on_dos
}
} What this doesn't tell you is that you'll also need a port of ls, and
} all the other Unix utilities.

Check out http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32/.  I took a stab at building
3.0.5 using the Cygwin32 compatibility library, and had no serious problems.
The only difficulty is that gnu-win32 does NOT come with curses, termcap or
terminfo libraries, so you have to obtain and build one on your own before
compiling zsh.  It does come with an /etc/termcap, but the entry in there
for the console apparently has some problems.

I vaguely recall that it used to be possible to build zsh without reference
to termcap by leaving out zle.  That doesn't seem to be possible anymore;
termcap references have crept into several parts of the code.

Anyway, besides the above, there's also a collection of unix utilities for
NT called the NT Resource Kit, which I believe (not certain) you get from
Microsoft; and at least one other free or shareware set of tools that I've
seen, but I've forgotten the reference.

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

Re: zsh_on_dos

[Eric De Mund]

Bart, Andrew, John,

Andrew Main <zefram@tao.co.uk>:
] What this doesn't tell you is that you'll also need a port of ls,
] and all the other Unix utilities.

Under Windows 95 and Windows NT, both, I use Amol Deshpande's
<amol@blarg.net> (already built) port of Zsh 3.0.5:

    ftp://ftp.blarg.net/users/amol/zsh/zsh.exe.gz

in conjunction with the (already built) Unix tools from both the
GNU-Win32 Project and the Reed Kotler Toolset:

    http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32/
    http://www.reedkotler.com/toolset.htm

Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com>:
] Check out http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32/. I took a stab at
] building 3.0.5 using the Cygwin32 compatibility library, and had
] no serious problems. The only difficulty is that gnu-win32 does
] NOT come with curses, termcap or terminfo libraries, so you have
] to obtain and build one on your own before compiling zsh. It does
] come with an /etc/termcap, but the entry in there for the console
] apparently has some problems.

Regarding curses, termcap, and terminfo, I have no problems with Amol's
Zsh 3.0.5 port. I use vi(1), less(1), emacs(1), perform emacs-style Zsh
command-line editing, etc. in Command Prompt windows under both Windows
95 and Windows NT without any problems. Setting the TERM environment
variable to vt100, such as with the autoexec.bat line of:

    set TERM=vt100

, appears sufficient to enable this.

<plug>
To see how I've largely retained my sanity, if not reduced my shouted
profanities, being a Unix person in the Windows world, visit:

    http://www.ixian.com/ead/hotlist.shtml#Windows_95_Apps_Utils
    http://www.ixian.com/ead/hotlist.shtml#Windows_95_Sites
    http://www.ixian.com/ead/hotlist.shtml#Windows_NT_Apps_Utils
    http://www.ixian.com/ead/hotlist.shtml#Windows_NT_Sites

There, I've placed links to the various tools I've found that allow me
to operate in a largely Unix-like manner under Windows 95/NT.
</plug>

Regards,
Eric

"We can debug relationships, but it's always good policy to consider the
people themselves to be features. People get annoyed when you try to debug
them." --Larry Wall
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