🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <140@grot.ca41.csd.mot.com> brian@grot.ca41.csd.mot.com (Brian Smithson) writes:
>How does [Thompson Toolkit] compare with MKS in terms of price, "completeness",
>and faithfulness to UNIX (to the extent possible in MSDOS-land)?
>And which UNIX?  System V or BSD?  Which shell(s) does it have?

MKS Utilities attempt a total and perfect emulation of UNIX, to the maximum
extent possible, even if it interferes with usability.  This is both a good
and bad thing.  IMHO, MKS is unusable because they insist on treating
"c:foo" as identical to "c:/foo"; they claim this is more UNIX compatible
and therefore desirable.  I say that if I had meant "c:/" I would have
typed "c:/" instead of "c:" and it is a pain to use MKS when you work with
networks and can have long paths on a half dozen drives or more.

Thompson Toolkit attempts to blend the best of the UNIX and PC environments,
and IMHO it succeeds well.  It allows you to type pathnames with either
forward slashes or backward slashes, or any combination, but it still lets
you use backslashes as escape characters (like UNIX does).  It allows you
to use the arrow keys to recall old commands and edit them, or use the C
Shell '!' syntax ("!v" for the last command starting with 'v') or even a
combination of both.  I especially like the way Thompson Toolkit allows you
to type forward slashes in paths being passed to other programs: it can fix
up the command line before it spawns the other program, converting forward
slashes to backslashes and dashes to forward slashes.  This is better than
globally altering the SWITCHAR setting under DOS, since it works with all
programs and not just the ones that call DOS to parse their command lines.
(It does not work *inside* programs.  This limitation doesn't bother me.)

Thompson Toolkit costs less than MKS, and much less than the Hamilton C
Shell.  MKS and Hamilton have features missing from Thompson Toolkit, such
as shell functions.  MKS and Thompson Toolkit are both available under both
DOS and OS/2; Hamilton C Shell is OS/2 only.  I like being able to write
shell scripts that run equally well under DOS or OS/2, so I am not
interested in Hamilton C Shell at this time.

The Thompson Toolkit is a hacked version of a Bourne Shell.  It has many
extensions from C Shell and some from the Korn Shell.  It is compatible
enough that I have used it to unpack shar archives.  It has C Shell style
aliases, and a future version will have shell functions.

The AWK product, available at extra cost, is an outstanding version of AWK.
The AWK Development Kit includes an AWK compiler that makes standalone .EXE
files that run under either DOS or OS/2.  Compiled AWK programs can handle
up to 4 megabytes of data at a time, doing their own virtual memory
(swapping data onto your hard disk) as necessary.

Technical support from Thompson Automation has been outstanding.  The
author of the software, Pat Thompson, often answers questions.


Prices:

Thompson Toolkit for DOS		$149
Thompson Toolkit for DOS and OS/2	$179

add $50 to get AWK
add $150 to get the AWK Development Kit (including compiler)


You can order it from:

Thompson Automation
5616 SW Jefferson
Portland, OR  97221
503/224-1639


I have no connection with Thompson Automation, except that I am a satisfied
customer who has used the Toolkit for years.
-- 
Steve "I don't speak for Microsoft" Hastings    ===^=== :::::
uunet!microsoft!steveha  steveha@microsoft.uucp    ` \\==|