Back to Software Information

geoSHELL

Your Fastest Way Around GEOS!

A Brief Look At geoSHELL

Whether you use the Desktop, gateWay, or any of the other alternative desktops, geoSHELL is a program that add the additional functionality that you're missing. And it will still be a useful product when the new Desktop is released with the all-new Project G. New commands are being created to take advantage of the new features that are available in the new operating system.

"Ok, I still don't understand, what exactly is this geoSHELL?"

geoSHELL is a command line interface, or in other words, it's a program that let's you perform most of the same functions that the Desktop can do but in a different way, but it can also do more. When you are using geoSHELL, instead of pointing and clicking on an icon, you are typing in a command followed by a filename to perform an action with that file. For instance...

run GEOWRITE

...will load and run geoWrite for you.

"So, why is that any better? It takes me longer to type that out than it does to double click an icon."

Well, first you have to locate that icon. In the above example, if GeoWrite isn't on the current drive, geoSHELL will search your other drives for it and run it from wherever it finds it.

"That's pretty nice, but it's still not good enough for me."

Ok, you can omit the 'run' part of the command and just type the name of the file you wish to run. But in this case, geoSHELL first assumes that the filename is a command and searches for a geoSHELL command with that name. If not found, then it will look for the file to run. It takes a little longer due to the drive search, but it still gets done.

Now, a much better way to load GeoWrite is to use geoSHELL's hotkey commands. There are a number of these already defined for you, and you can change them or add to them at anytime. These are two-character commands that are assigned to various files. To run GeoWrite, all you have to do is type the two keys 'wr' and hit return. geoSHELL will perform the same action as if you typed in 'run GEOWRITE'. If you want to run GeoPaint, you use 'pa' instead. Again, you don't have to go flipping through pages of icons looking for GeoPaint, geoSHELL finds it for you.

"That sounds like a pretty good feature, but I still prefer pointing and clicking."

Don't worry, if that's what you prefer, you can do that with geoSHELL too. Just hit F1 and you will see a directory start to scroll in the geoSHELL window. Hold the CONTROL key to pause the display and use the STOP key to stop it when you see the filename you're looking for. Then grab your mouse and double-click on the file you want. geoSHELL will then load and run that file for you, just like clicking on the icon in the Desktop.

geoSHELL is very flexible, you can use it in very simple ways until you get more familiar with it. You don't have to be a geoSHELL expert right off the bat.

"Wow, it's starting to sound better to me now."

Sure, and you can be selective with how your directories are displayed. The default setting for the F1 key is to display the whole directory. You can change this setting if you want. Or you can just type in the command 'dir' and hit return instead of using the function key. But if you want to only display certain files, you can add a parameter to the dir command. GEOS has different filetypes that it uses, and they all have a number assigned to them. All the applications are filetype 6. Want to display just the applications? Use the following command...

dir 6

Or if you want to display all the files that begin with 'GEO' just use...

dir GEO*

There are many more commands supplied with geoSHELL. Some commands are built right into geoSHELL, while others are stored in separate files on disk. That's the part that makes geoSHELL so expandable. New commands can be created and added to your system while existing commands can be upgraded.

geoSHELL can be used all by itself without the Desktop, or you can use both. From the Desktop, just double-click on the geoSHELL icon when you want to use it. And likewise, from geoSHELL, either type the 'exit' command or click on the close button at the upper right of the geoSHELL window. If you want to exit to a different desktop, you can do something like...

exit GATEWAY

"What?? I always thought that I had to use one or the other, Desktop or gateWay."

Nope, with geoSHELL, you can switch between the two with ease. This also works with any of the other desktop replacements too. The only thing you will be limited on is if you're using a native partition in gateWay. The old Desktop won't know how to deal with it.

But geoSHELL has no problems whatsoever with native partitions. You can even use geoSHELL to switch to another partition or subdirectory. Just use geoSHELL's built-in disk wedge and send the command to the drive...

@cp3

...that would switch you to partition number 3 on your CMD device just like you do from BASIC.

"You know, I'm starting to catch on here. When I'm in BASIC, I'm more or less typing in commands to do stuff. Like the load command and run command. But at least, from BASIC, if I want to do something that requires several commands, I can whip out a small BASIC program to do it."

And you can from geoSHELL too. Just load up GeoWrite and create a document with whatever series of commands you want and then use geoSHELL's 'exec' command to execute the file. The commands in the file will be executed in order. There are also some special commands designed just for these exec files. You can do a lot of automation with this feature. You can create your own menus or copy groups of files to your ramdisk, or backup your work from your ramdisk to a real drive. You can automate a printing task. The possibilities are endless.

"I like it! But you said geoSHELL can replace the Desktop, yet you need the Desktop to load and run geoSHELL."

Not if you put geoSHELL on your boot disk. geoSHELL is an auto-exec file and will be automatically loaded during your initial bootup. When geoSHELL runs at bootup, it installs itself as the default desktop. You can still exit geoSHELL to get back to the Desktop at any time.

"Only one more problem. I've already got the Desktop scattered all over the place, on various disks and partitions on my hard drive. Now I've got to put copies of geoSHELL in those places too. That just eats up more disk space."

Not so. You can make it so that geoSHELL only takes up 2K of space on each disk and partition. There is a handy little file that comes with geoSHELL called 'getshell'. This is also an auto-exec and should be placed ahead of geoSHELL on your boot disk. This program's job is to find geoSHELL and load it for you. It will even grab geoSHELL from your boot partition on your CMD device even if you're working in another partition. And if you want, you can even free up more space by deleting all those copies of the Desktop and just keep one copy on your system. When you want to use the Desktop, go to that disk or partition and exit geoSHELL. geoSHELL can even search your boot partition or any other partition that you define as your path partition for its own commands whenever you use them. All you need is one copy of everything geoSHELL related except for those little 'getshell' files.

"Sounds like I'm missing out on a lot here. I'm going to order geoSHELL right now."

geoSHELL is a very efficient system to have and should be in every serious GEOS user's collection.

geoSHELL's resident commands (page not ready yet)
geoSHELL's internal commands (page not ready yet)
geoSHELL's external commands (page not ready yet)
geoSHELL Programmer's Development Package (page not ready yet) br>