Re: [tlug] Speaking of computer usage ....

["SL Baur" <steve@example.com>]

On 2/28/08, Simon Cozens <simon@example.com> wrote:
> SL Baur wrote:
>  > I'll offer respect to any web browser that does something sensible when
>  > it is used as a login shell.
>
>
> Congratulations, you just legitimized explorer.exe. ;)

$ which explorer.exe
explorer.exe not found

It's not a login `shell' if it's tied to the kernel.  DCL wasn't really a shell,
even though DEC went jumped through hoops to pretend it was.
The DEC/Shell and later (egad) Eunice proved they were only lying.

Part of the magic of Unix is that the user shell is only an ordinary,
regular program.  No operating system ever did that before - that was
true innovation.

Later magic, pioneered at UCB made it possible for shell *scripts* to
be user login shells.  The adventure shell (script) that I hacked on so
long ago was possible to use a user login shell with kernels that
grokked the #! magic.

Microsoft spent many millions of dollars in court in the attempt to
prove that Internet Explorer was an integral part of the O/S and so
it must go into the DCL category of computer software - failed ideas.

-sb

DISCLAIMER:  I do not claim credit for the Adventure shell.  Someone
wrote one for the Bourne shell and posted it to Usenet, I made some
ksh-specific enhancements and posted it back.