. _______________________________________ .
 /                                       \
|  New Technology Shell                   |
|  by Martin Waitz                        |
|                                         |
|  ALPHA TEST VERSION                     |
.\_______________________________________/.


      |o-                       -o|
      >  PLEASE READ THIS FIRST!  <
      |o-                       -o|


 ______________________________________
(o About New Technology Shell

The New Technology Shell (ntsh) is a commandline based shell for Windows.
It offers much features common to Unix users  which haven't ever
been seen in the Windows world before.
It is a very nice shell for users who want to get the most out of their
system, but don't want to give up the convenience of Windows.

New Technology Shell is a multithreaded Win32 Console app with GUI support...
(oh yep, that's possible. I've thrown everything into it... ;)
It WON'T work with Win31 or plain DOS. It is designed to run under Windows NT,
but should be able to run under Win95, too.


PLEASE NOTE:
this is an alpha version.
many things haven't even been implemented and many things will change
in future versions. However, it is already quite stable and can be used
in daily work.
PLEASE REPORT ALL BUGS YOU FIND TO "mnwaitz@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de"
(I'm sure you'll find some...).

Note: this program is designed to work under WinNT and has not been tested
      with Windows 95. Especially Scrollback may not work under Win95.



 ______________________________________
(o Features


Features include:

  *  Unix-like commands

  *  use of normal slash (/) as a directory seperator,
     instead of the backslash (\)
	 (like in all non-MS operating systems...)
  
  *  powerful commandline with history, aliases and more...

  *  AutoComplete
     (look for completion of the current word and apply it
      when TAB is pressed)

  *  Ansi color support in internal commands

  *  and many more...


Things to do:

  *  more scripting support

  *  "mounting" drives in the directory tree

  *  support for Ansi color output

  *  right-click context-menu to allow dialog-based access to 
     aliases, environment, running jobs,...

  *  better documentation
     (thinking of html files and a real man-cmd displaying them)

  *  and many more...


there are always some more features not wanted... <eg>
again... please report them to me, thanx.



 ______________________________________
(o Installation


well, not too complicated...
Simply unzip all the files to a directory of your choice.
If you don't already have msvcrt40.dll, mfc40.dll & ShellLink.ocx,
you have to get 'ntsh-alpha2-runtime.zip' and unzip it to your 
windows system directory.

You should have these files:

  -  ntsh.exe        // the executable shell
  -  setup.cmd       // setup script
  -  ntshrc.cfg      // main configuration file, will be executed at startup
  -  aliases.cfg     // file containing the standard aliases
  -  readme.txt      // this readme

When you first start ntsh.exe, it will automatically invoke setup.cmd
and set all the defaults needed to run ntsh in the future.

If you are working in an multi-user environment, each user can
have an additional config and alias file in his home directory.
(the '~/.aliases.cfg' & '~/.ntshrc.cfg' files, note the dots at the beginning)
These names can be changed in ntshrc.cfg.

Yep, that's it!


Uninstall, if ever wanted:
remove the directory you copied ntsh to.
Note: configuration data will still remain in registry.

simple enough???


 ______________________________________
(o first steps


First of all, most commands known from DOS also work in ntsh.
Some have been changed, in order to find a compromisse between
DOS and Unix-style.

These internal commands are supported:
  *  alias      - set an alias to another command
  *  builtins   - show them all
  *  cd         - change the working directory
  *  cat        - print the contents of a file
  *  cp         - copy a file
  *  echo       - display some text
  *  exit       - exit the shell
  *  errorlevel - test for errorlevel
  *  exist      - test for existence of a file
  *  if         - execute command only if a condition is true
  *  ls         - list contents of directory
  *  md         - make new directory
  *  mv         - move/rename a file
  *  not        - inverts a condition
  *  pwd        - prints working directory
  *  rm         - remove a file
  *  setenv     - set environment variable
  *  scrollback - set scrollback buffer
  *  source     - execute commands in a file
  *  title      - sets/get the window title

Most Dos commands are implemented with aliases.
To get information about a command, use 'man <command>' or '<command> -h'.
Don't forget that aliases and internal commands are case sensitiv in ntsh.

If you have a scrollback buffer (as enabled by default), you can scroll
up/down with the PgUp/PgDown keys.
Use ArrowUp/ArrowDown to cycle through your previosly typed commands.
You can complete filenames/commands/directories/environment vars by hitting TAB

Note for Alpha versions:
to start .com or .bat files, you have to specify the extension
only .exe files don't need the extension


 ______________________________________
(o some notes on cmdline parsing

quoted text ("") is treated as one word, i.e. blanks are ignored
text in '' is not parsed at all
backslash (\) escapes the next character
subsitutions:
   ~, ~user       -> (user's) home directory
   %var% , $(var) -> environment variable
   $(config)      -> configuration setting
   $x             -> special:
    _: new line; ?: last errorlevel; d,D: date; e: escape char (0x1b); 
    n: cmd count; p,P: path; t,T: time; v.V: version;

   cmd1 ; cmd2    -> execute both cmd1 and cmd2
   cmd1 && cmd2   -> execute cmd2 if cmd1 returned succesful (errorlevel 0)
   cmd1 || cmd2   -> execute cmd2 if cmd1 failed (errorlevel >0)



 ______________________________________
(o legal stuff

(absolutely capital-free... ;)
new technology shell is copyright (c) 1997 by martin waitz
this ntsh prerelease is freeware. (future versions will be, too)
this means that you can download/use/give away it free of charge.
this also means, that i can't give any support and
won't be liable for anything.
however, you can always contact me via e-mail (see below).

I think, that's enough.
Go use and enjoy it, don't hassle with legal stuff!


 ______________________________________
(o the Author

well, yes, that's me... Martin Waitz

I'm currently studying computer science in Erlangen, Germany.
(when not coding on ntsh...)

Please don't miss to visit my web-page:
http://wwwcip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/user/mnwaitz (in German)

If you have any questions not answered here, comments or suggestions,
feel free to write an e-mail to me
(mnwaitz@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de)


 ______________________________________
(o where to get it


World Wide Web (WWW):
 
  *  at the New Technology Shell homepage   (http://ntsh.home.pages.de)
  *  at my private homepage (in German):    (http://taliesin.home.pages.de)
  *  there are also links to these download places in some shareware sites
     (www.windows95.com, www.32bit.com, www.freeware.com...)

Bulletin Boards (BBS):

  *  Zagy's Mehlbox (Christian Zagrodnick)
     V34,X75 +49-9561-20996 , fido 2:2490/3245
	 http://zagy.home.pages.de
     Coburg, Germany
  
  *  I'll Try That Once! (Mark Taylor)
     V34+ +44-1453-765378, fido 2:253/35
     Stroud, UK

if you want your Site to become an official ntsh dist.site, (http, ftp or bbs)
please mailto:mnwaitz@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de



so, that's it...

nothing more here for now...


                                                        ____________________
                                                           by Martin Waitz o)