SmilerShell 1.0 Introduction and Installation



Introduction

SmilerShell is a handy Windows utility that puts a command
line on your Windows desktop, letting you run DOS or Windows
commands from within Windows.  Unlike Program Manager's Run
command, you can run anything: DOS programs, Windows
programs, or DOS internal commands.

There's a built-in command line editor, which  saves all
submitted commands in a command stack. This allows you to
get back a previously-submitted command, change it, and re-
submit it.  You can have SmilerShell  search for a previous
command of interest; no need to scan them all yourself to
find the one you want.  You can load a command stack from a
file automatically when you start SmilerShell, or at any
other time.  You can save the current command stack to a
file, suitable for loading later or editing as needed.

You can set up aliases with SmilerShell, short commands that
are replaced with longer commands of your choosing.  Aliases
can be like regular commands, just type them in.  Or they
can be attached to function keys, hit the F-key and it
happens, no need to press Enter.

SmilerShell has a fast directory-change utility built in,
called DC.  Just type DC and the first few characters of the
endpoint directory you want to be in, and SmilerShell takes
you right there.  If your command is ambiguous, a list
window pops up, letting you choose which directory you want.
This works across as many multiple drives as you tell it to
be aware of.

SmilerShell is clipboard-aware.  It has menu choices to keep
it always on top of all other windows, to show the current
directory in its title bar, to display a clock in its title
bar, or to display Windows free memory and resources in its
menu bar.  It can directly manipulate the inactive windows
that remain when you run DOS commands from Windows, or toggle
the systemwide setting so that such windows never appear in
the first place.  SmilerShell takes up very little space on
your screen, but to save more space you can even remove the
menu entirely.



The Shareware Concept: If You Like It, Pay For It

SmilerShell is shareware.  It is not free, or in the public
domain.  You are welcome to try SmilerShell for a week or
two.  If you find it useful and you continue to use it, send
in the $10 registration fee.  You'll get a registration number
that will turn off the signon screen.  Registration will
also entitle you to a printed manual, support, update notices,
all the usual whatnot.  An additional $5 gets you a disk with
the most recent version.



Why Is This A Shell?

The word shell is sometimes used for a wrapper that
surrounds another application and hides it.  SmilerShell is
the opposite of that.  It makes all the power of the command
line available from an environment in which that power is
not otherwise accessible.  But since it makes things more
visible, rather than less visible, why is it called a shell?

It's a shell in another sense.  Maybe you've seen programs
that let you "shell out" to DOS, for example WordPerfect's
Ctrl+F1 command, Shell.  When you "shell out" it's like
having a window into another environment, a pathway to a
different level of functionality.  That's what SmilerShell
is, and that's why it's a shell.



Installing SmilerShell

SmilerShell comes as a self-extracting archive that will expand
into these files:

  smishell.exe    the program
  smishell.wri    the documentation, in Windows Write format
  smishell.hlp    the help file
  smishell.ini    sample initialization file
  smishell.stk    sample command stack file

  readme.txt      this doc: overview and installation
  descrip.bbs     45 x 10 text description, for BBS uploads
  invoice.wri     invoice for companies that need one to disburse
  vendor.txt      gives distribution permission

To install SmilerShell:

1) Copy these files to a convenient directory on your hard
disk.

2) Put the SmilerShell icon into a program group.  To do
this, bring up File Manager and set it to the convenient
directory you chose in the previous step.  Then drag-and-
drop smishell.exe into your favorite Program Manager group.
The SmilerShell icon should appear there.

3) Optionally, set up an initialization file and copy it to
your Windows directory.  But if you start SmilerShell without
an initialization file, you'll be asked if you'd like SmilerShell
to create one and fill it with reasonable values, then let you
edit it in Notepad before proceeding.  See the section The
Initialization File in the documentation.

4) Optionally, set up the command line.  See the section
Command Line Parameters in the documentation.

5) Optionally, create a command stack file, having a list of
commands that you want loaded into SmilerShell.  See the section
Command Stack Files in the documentation.



System Requirements

Complete functionality under Microsoft Windows 3.1 or better.
Partial functionality under earlier versions of Windows.
