Re: Xy-OS/2 Shell: What is it? (For OS/2 XyWriters only)

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

> Robert:
>
> Do you think this new great shell of yours will work for users who run 4DOS
> and/or 4/OS2?
>
> This does mean I will never see my lovely PM desktop ever again? 
>
>
> - Andy
>
>

I haven't a clue. You can tell me. If those are replacements for CMD.EXE,
i.e. if they replace CMD.EXE in the statements SET OS2_SHELL=CMD.EXE or SET
COMSPEC=CMD.EXE, then I assume that you can swap a few references to CMD.EXE in
XYOS2SHL files and it will work. I can't think why it wouldn't work. You're
asking a very complicated question, actually. I'm not sure that using one of
the replacement shells as your default text mode shell necessarily means that
CMD.EXE ceases to function! But I have zero experience with these
replacements. We'll figure it out...

As for your Desktop, you'll see it as much as ever. Xy-OS/2 Shell does not
unduly favor text mode! Considering that XyWrite is a DOS "text mode" app, I
don't think you're going to find even an OS/2 text mode program that offers
anything close to this sort of _direct access_ to objects, including graphical
objects. For example, to open the Telnet object in the IAK, you would simply
command (on the XyWrite CMline): "o2 "; if you wanted to return to
XyWrite when Telnet terminated, you'd add one switch, "o2 /L:telnet
". (How did you find out that the name of the Telnet object is
? We give you an OS/2 tool that lists the names of all the
objects...) Since you Telnet several times a day (right?), you establish the
full command above as an alias, e.g. "o2 tnt". Or you pre-load the command in
the Stack, via STARTUP.INT. We're talking simplicity|options here. In fact,
you Telnet so much that you assign "o2 tnt" to a key, so it's just a keystroke. 
Or, alternatively, suppose that Telnet is already open, on the Desktop, and you
want to SWitch focus from XyWrite to Telnet; command "sw tel" and you're there.

In short, XYOS2SHL enlarges the customary channels of interaction with OS/2.

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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