Tcsh vs. Csh -- Advantages List
Steven D. Conniff
Most of the people here at work use csh. [puke]. I have started to
make a list showing all the advantages that tcsh.6.03.00 has over the old
csh but I know that I'm missing a ton of stuff. My main goal is to get
people to switch and stop complaining.
Anyways, does anyone have a complete list of advantages that tcsh has
over csh (or any other shells)?
Email or a post here is fine.
TIA,
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Steve Conniff || || con...@ann-arbor.applicon.slb.com
Applicon Inc __|| __|| con...@aaaca1.sinet.slb.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA) (____(____)
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Steve Conniff || || con...@ann-arbor.applicon.slb.com
Applicon Inc __|| __|| con...@aaaca1.sinet.slb.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA) (____(____)
Howard Huang
Anyways, does anyone have a complete list of advantages that tcsh has
over csh (or any other shells)?
The man page is (usually) a good start:
[...]
DESCRIPTION
Tcsh is an enhanced version of the Berkeley UNIX C shell csh(1). It
behaves exactly like the C shell, except for the added utilities of:
1) Command line editing using Emacs-style commands.
2) Visual step up/down through the history list.
3) Terminal mode sanity checking and resetting.
4) Interactive command, file name and user name completion.
5) File/directory/user list in the middle of a typed command.
6) Spelling correction of command, file, and user names.
7) Lookup of command documentation in the middle of a typed command.
8) Enhanced history mechanism.
9) Automatic logout after long periods of idle time.
10) Automatic execution of a single command prior to printing each
prompt.
11) Automatic periodic command execution.
12) A new syntax for the prompt, and the ability to set the prompt for
"while" and "for" loops.
13) Time stamps in the history list.
14) An addition to the syntax of filenames to access entries in the
directory stack, and the ability treat symbolic links in a sane
way when changing directories.
15) The ability to watch for logins and logouts by user or terminal on
the machine.
16) A scheduled event list, which specifies commands which are to be
executed at given times.
17) A new builtin that does a subset of ls(1).
18) An addition to the file expression syntax for a character not in a
set of characters and the ability to negate a globbing pattern.
19) New automatically initialized environment variables HOST and HOST-
TYPE.
20) Commands for debugging terminal capabilities.
21) Searching for the visual history mechanism.
22) A new builtin for the which(1) command.
23) Restarting a stopped editor with two keystrokes.
24) Status line support
25) Automatic execution of a command when the current working direc-
tory is changed.
26) Native Language System support.
27) Automatic process time reporting.
28) OS Dependent Builtin Support
29) Automatic window size adjustment
30) Input files
31) Additional/Undocumented Options
32) Enhanced history/variable modifier expansion
For a description of standard C-shell features, see the csh manual page.
[...]
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Howard C. Huang hu...@husc.harvard.edu
Bill Riemers
How about the following additional advantages:
"tcsh" advantages
- The ability to use multiline aliases and exec statements in
a reliable and consistent way. (Hense "sh" scripts can be
re-written as tcsh scripts with aliases instead of functions.)
- "tcsh" is the same on all machines. For "csh" I typically
have to modify scripts for different machines. [example: HP-UX
"set nonomatch" needs to be replaced by "set nonomatch = ()"]
- source code is freely available
- PWD and other common environmental variables are always defined.
With "csh" this depends on the machine.
- "which" is alway built in. i.e. "which" is missing from csh526.
Bugs:
Pipes do not work correctly within an exec command.
--
"Yeti! Saw them in the London Underground twenty years ago. Ghosts!
A headless woman used to walk through my bedroom at midnight. Mermaids?
Grandpa was rescued from the Marie Celeste by one. Vampires? I always
wondered where my dad went to at night. Telepathy? Right now you're
thinking that I'm talking crap. So what can you tell me that I won't
believe in?" - Andrew Hunt, "CAT'S CRADLE: WITCH MARK"