New, non UNIX-like shell

[Jiri Svoboda]

HelenOS getting a UNIX-like shell was kind of a historical accident (and I had planned for a non-UNIX shell from the beginning). It gives off the wrong first impression and generally sends people down the wrong route - trying to copy more and more UNIX features. Bdsh was, from the start, written as a dual Linux/HelenOS shell.

We need a new shell that is clearly non-UNIX, follows human-centric design principles (such as printing numbers in human-readable numbers by default, requiring confirmation of destructive actions by default, etc.)

I plan to make this change once a file manager is available and the shell is not the first interface of choice for the first time user.

In an OS that provides 'better' user interfaces in the form of a graphical and text-based file manager, what is the role of an (interactive) command line interface? To please the traditionalist mind/power user? To function on a dumb terminal/teletype(sic! ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter) where pseudo-graphics is unavailable/impractical? To lend itself to scripting as well?