Re: [tlug] shell

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Kenneth Burling writes:
 > On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 10:37 PM, Pier Fumagalli
 > <pier@example.com> wrote:
 > > On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 12:39, Lewske Wada <ryu@example.com> wrote:
 > >> [...] Operating system shells generally fall into one of two
 > >> categories: command-line and graphical. Command-line shells
 > >> provide a command-line interface (CLI) to the operating system,
 > >> while graphical shells provide a graphical user interface (GUI).
 > >
 > 
 > Basically, the Shell covers the innards so you don't have to see
 > it.  :P Kind of like a turtle or a snail.

Except for two facts.  First, shells are scriptable.  It is very easy
to make a CLI scriptable: just read command input from stdin.  It's
much harder to make a GUI scriptable at present, and either way
Explorer doesn't qualify AFAICS.  Second, the standard shell as
defined by POSIX is a CLI.

So you can call Explorer a "shell" if you like, but in a Unix context
that will just get you odd looks from anybody with a clue.  I bet that
in a Windows context it will get you odd looks from the clued and the
clueless alike. :-)