5 ms·

cmd is parked for pretty much everything except for major issues. It's a scary codebase that has a LOT of code that's dependent on it, and we can't really add a

by zadjii 8y ago

cmd is parked for pretty much everything except for major issues. It's a scary codebase that has a LOT of code that's dependent on it, and we can't really add any new features there without the possibility of breaking someone. This feature is mostly focused on the other end of the communication, on being able to create new Terminal windows to run shells inside of them.

paulie_a 8y ago
Is there a chance this will be connected to a functional shell interface. I get your point that cmd cannot be upgraded because of legacy issues and that is understandable and unfortunate, but windows needs a proper shell. This is obviously a great start for one side of the equation. But until there is a decent terminal app, windows will continue to be a nonstarter.
- zadjii 8y ago
  It sounds like you're asking for two different things here: cmd.exe is a shell, and that's the guy that's parked. conhost.exe is a terminal, and that's under active development, though it's slower than something like VsCode, because we can't just go adding features as we see fit, we have a LOT of back compat we still need to support. Fortunately, conpty will allow for the creation of new terminal applications on Windows. If you're looking for a better shell experience on windows, I can point you to powershell or even [yori](http://www.malsmith.net/yori/ http://www.malsmith.net/yori/), which looks pretty cool
  - cryptonector 8y ago
    I think u/paulie_a is just asking for a better shell. If cmd can't be made better, then make a new one.
    - paulie_a 8y ago
      Exactly, I understand there are different underlying concepts and systems to the front end and what it interacts with. It just seem incredible that windows is basically stuck with a windows 95 interface for a shell.
      - nailer 8y ago
        Powershell is open source, the 6.1 preview 4 is nice and fast, and you get real objects with keys rather than scraping for regexs all the time like bash.
    - cwyers 8y ago
      That's Powershell.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
  Windows has a proper shell, it's called PowerShell and it is by far the most discoverable and consistent shell that exists.
  - wtallis 8y ago
    It's also the most absurdly verbose shell that exists, which means it sucks as a shell even if it's a half-decent scripting language.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
      What is with all you people who used PowerShell for a grand total of 10 seconds, gave up because it wasn't bash, then go on to complain about completely false things? PowerShell has aliases. It has shortened aliases for all the common commandlets. You can create your own aliases if you want. PowerShell has tab completion on commandlets, arguments, flags, and variable names. FFS... Every time I run into another one of you it gets increasingly harder to be polite about telling you how wrong you are.
      - wtallis 8y ago
        Powershell doesn't get any credit for the tab completion when the default behavior for it just makes the verbosity even more of a nuisance. Having tab completion scroll through all the possible completions one at a time doesn't save keystrokes in most cases, especially when there are dozens or hundreds of options that are really long so when you give up on tab completion and decide to type it out manually in full, you have to erase 10-20 characters. The bash-style completion behavior of completing any unambiguous characters then giving you a list of the possibilities would be even more useful for powershell than it is for bash. But Microsoft once again had to throw in gratuitous differences at the cost of usability.
        AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
        That's subjective opinion. I much prefer the Windows way because I can either specify additional characters or keep hitting tab to until what I want comes up. "Display all 1026 possibilities? (y or n)" certainly isn't an improvement. Not to mention of course that it tab completes things bash can't and doesn't, and all the other reasons your initial comment was wrong.
elFarto 8y ago
Any chance that you could just fork it? Create cmd2.exe, hell you could even open-source it.
- llampx 8y ago
  Isn't that basically Powershell?
- oblio 8y ago
  Is the pay-off big enough? Who knows what garbage code they might want to hide in there, for both technical reasons (including security) or even legal ones.

by zadjii 8y ago

paulie_a 8y ago

Is there a chance this will be connected to a functional shell interface. I get your point that cmd cannot be upgraded because of legacy issues and that is understandable and unfortunate, but windows needs a proper shell. This is obviously a great start for one side of the equation. But until there is a decent terminal app, windows will continue to be a nonstarter.

zadjii 8y ago
It sounds like you're asking for two different things here: cmd.exe is a shell, and that's the guy that's parked. conhost.exe is a terminal, and that's under active development, though it's slower than something like VsCode, because we can't just go adding features as we see fit, we have a LOT of back compat we still need to support. Fortunately, conpty will allow for the creation of new terminal applications on Windows. If you're looking for a better shell experience on windows, I can point you to powershell or even [yori](http://www.malsmith.net/yori/ http://www.malsmith.net/yori/), which looks pretty cool
- cryptonector 8y ago
  I think u/paulie_a is just asking for a better shell. If cmd can't be made better, then make a new one.
  - paulie_a 8y ago
    Exactly, I understand there are different underlying concepts and systems to the front end and what it interacts with. It just seem incredible that windows is basically stuck with a windows 95 interface for a shell.
    - nailer 8y ago
      Powershell is open source, the 6.1 preview 4 is nice and fast, and you get real objects with keys rather than scraping for regexs all the time like bash.
  - cwyers 8y ago
    That's Powershell.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
Windows has a proper shell, it's called PowerShell and it is by far the most discoverable and consistent shell that exists.
- wtallis 8y ago
  It's also the most absurdly verbose shell that exists, which means it sucks as a shell even if it's a half-decent scripting language.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
    What is with all you people who used PowerShell for a grand total of 10 seconds, gave up because it wasn't bash, then go on to complain about completely false things? PowerShell has aliases. It has shortened aliases for all the common commandlets. You can create your own aliases if you want. PowerShell has tab completion on commandlets, arguments, flags, and variable names. FFS... Every time I run into another one of you it gets increasingly harder to be polite about telling you how wrong you are.
    - wtallis 8y ago
      Powershell doesn't get any credit for the tab completion when the default behavior for it just makes the verbosity even more of a nuisance. Having tab completion scroll through all the possible completions one at a time doesn't save keystrokes in most cases, especially when there are dozens or hundreds of options that are really long so when you give up on tab completion and decide to type it out manually in full, you have to erase 10-20 characters. The bash-style completion behavior of completing any unambiguous characters then giving you a list of the possibilities would be even more useful for powershell than it is for bash. But Microsoft once again had to throw in gratuitous differences at the cost of usability.
      - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
        That's subjective opinion. I much prefer the Windows way because I can either specify additional characters or keep hitting tab to until what I want comes up. "Display all 1026 possibilities? (y or n)" certainly isn't an improvement. Not to mention of course that it tab completes things bash can't and doesn't, and all the other reasons your initial comment was wrong.

elFarto 8y ago

Any chance that you could just fork it? Create cmd2.exe, hell you could even open-source it.

llampx 8y ago
Isn't that basically Powershell?
oblio 8y ago
Is the pay-off big enough? Who knows what garbage code they might want to hide in there, for both technical reasons (including security) or even legal ones.