19th October 2000

I command you to read this tip, but only if you're running on Windows 2000 and love sitting on a CLI. Pointing and clicking is perfectly legit, but there's something to be said about entering commands on a textual level. We use alphanumeric characters regularly in a command shell, but did you ever consider tapping the function keys? F1 cycles through the characters of the previously entered command; F2 asks you to "Enter char to copy up to" (from the previously entered command); F3 Repeats the previously entered command; F4 asks you to "Enter char to delete up to" (from the previously entered command); F5 cycles back through the previously entered commands and stops at the first one; F6 inserts the '^Z' string; F7 pops up an interactive command history menu; F8 cycles back through the previously entered commands and loops infinitely; F9 asks for a previous command number (starting with 0, with up to 50 in the buffer). Now how's that for nifty?