!Dos is a small command-line shell for the Apple Macintosh™ running system 7.
It is only intended as an argument in the ongoing "there’s no shell for the mac" debate; it’s not intended to be used heavy-duty. It can’t for instance launch applications. However, it can list, copy, move and delete files matching wildcards. It does all operations in a process manager friendly way; copies and moves even use asynchronous I/O and adaptive block sizes to ensure smoot execution in the background no matter if you use floppy, remote access or RAM disk.
There are no known bugs, but probably several lurking. Note that the program is SUPPOSED to crash under system 6; after all, most CLI computers don’t let software check system versions (or they are overly cautious and REQUIRE a specific version)
A few notes on file and path naming:
The disk "Foo" is addressed as Foo:
The file "Foo" in the current directory is addressed as :Foo (or Foo)
The folder "Foo" in the current directory is addressed as :Foo:
The file "Foo" in the folder above the current directory is addressed as ::Foo
To copy all files containing an f in the name from the folder Bar on the floppy Foo to an existing folder named Dest in the same folder as the current folder becomes:
copy Foo:Bar:*f* ::Dest:
Try the commands cd and list until you get the knack of it. There are also aliases for various commands for you DOS or UNIX freaks. Just don’t expect the commands to work the same way as on those platforms, and don’t come running to me when your mac is eaten by space aliens or something; you use !Dos ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK !
