[Info-vax] Command Line Versus Command Line

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 5/23/2024 6:19 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Lawrence D'Oliveiro  <ldo at nz.invalid> wrote:
>> And just to add to the fun, CP/M, MS-DOS and then Windows NT all copied
>> the basic DEC-style command line architecture, while neglecting the
>> crucial part of a built-in command parser to handle more sophisticated
>> syntax. So Microsoft’s recent rediscovery that “the command line is cool”
>> remains hampered by this brain-dead underlying architecture.
> 
> To give them credit, Microsoft finally realized that command.com was
> hopeless and started from first principles with Powershell.  Powershell
> is easily as good as anything DEC had in 1974 and as such is a huge
> advance for the desktop.

Just so that everyone know the history:

command.com - 1980
cmd.exe - 1987 (backwards compatible with command.com, but significantly 
extended functionality, often via obscure syntax though)
Windows Script Host / VBScript - 1995 (not interactive, scripts only, 
but very powerful via WMI)
PowerShell - 2006

Not super new.

:-)

Arne