Version 3.1 Release Notes

This document is organized into seven parts:

1. What is Zoom Shell?

2. New Features

3. Upgrade Notes for users of previous versions (a must read for people who are upgrading!)

4. Limitations

5. Bugs

6. Important information for Internet Explorer 3.0 users.

7. "Hidden" INI file settings.

What is Zoom Shell?

Zoom Shell is a command line tool with several features and commands built in which make it easy to take control of your computer. The basic idea of Zoom Shell is that you can type in commands to run them. However, Zoom Shell takes that idea much further, allowing you to create aliases for commands; "run" files or web sites just by typing in their names; and auto-completing file names as you type. As a command launcher, Zoom Shell is robust. It allows you to track and kill processes, and it logs your activities so that you can tell what you did when. It has command history and optional encryption of aliases.

When you first open Zoom Shell, you will get a window similar to this:

The command line, where you type your commands, is on top. Underneath is one or two status lines. The bottom part of the window shows the contents of the current directory. You can open a file just by double-clicking on it. The setting for whether to show file dates and sizes can be found by clicking on "Options|Options" and then clicking on the "Display" tab. This is Zoom Shell's "Explorer Look."

If this window takes up too much room on your screen, click on "Options|Options", click on the "Display" tab, and choose the "Classic Look." After you close and re-open Zoom Shell, you will get a window that looks like the following:

Now the listing of files is gone, and you are left with the command line and one or two status lines. When you run a command to list files, such as ls or dir, the output will appear in another window in plain text. You can open a file in that window just by double-clicking on it (as long as the file name does not have spaces or special characters, and is in the current directory).

You can also make directory listings appear in the same window as everything else. Then Zoom Shell will look like a telnet or xterm client:

For those of you with Internet Explorer version 4 or above and who want a little pizzaz, you can display Zoom Shell like a web browser. Click on "Tools|Display" and choose the "Web Look." You will get the command line seen above, plus an output window showing the contents of the current directory:

When you run a command to list files, such as ls or dir, the output will appear as hyperlinks. Double-clicking on one of the hyperlinks will open the file.

What's New?

New to this release is:

1. The ability to display output in the command line window.
2. Commands to manipulate ini files and the registry.
3. The ps command now filters out invisible windows.
4. Scripting now has a shift command.
5. A command line mail program.
6. Many Zoom Shell commands can read or write directly to the clipboard.

Upgrade Notes

If you are upgrading from a previous version of Zoom Shell, you will find several changes:

1. Most of the commands will now take a list of files, rather than just one file name.
2. The variable syntax has been changed to substitute in the value of a variable or nothing if the variable has not been set, rather than leaving the variable in place.
3. The variable syntax has been changed to support the better Posix method (${variable}); the simple Posix method ($variable); and the Windows method (%variable%).
4. Variables parse recursively now, so you can set the path as follows: path=%path%;....
5. tail does not work as it used to. Now it only operates on the last 32k of a file by default.
6. If you had an alias for "ls" of "find -.sa", that alias has been removed by the setup program and now "ls" is aliased to '"ls -X"', so that ls displays its output in two columns unless it has been directed to a file. You can use ll to obtain a listing that includes file dates and sizes.
7. Variables are no longer persistent from session to session.
8. Variables are not read until you re-start Zoom Shell.
9. Zoom Shell now supports "pipes" in the command line.
10. To support scripting, positional parameters are not fully supported within the context of a command line anymore.

New users are prompted as to whether they want cp and mv to prompt before overwriting files, and have rm send files to the recycle bin by default. If you wish to do this, please add the following aliases:

cp "cp -i"
mv "mv -i"
rm "rm -b"

Limitations

The following is a list of some of the limitations of Zoom Shell:

1. Long filename support on Windows 95 servers
2. Windows95: Zoom Shell does not pass environment variables on to DOS apps
3. Limited UNC pathname support

Long filename support on non-NT servers

If your computer attaches to a server which is not a Windows NT server, the Windows API may not be able to resolve long filenames. To see if this applies to you, open Windows Explorer and try to copy a file with a long name to the server. If Windows Explorer reports that the destination does not support long filenames, then this applies to you.

The problem here lies with a Windows API function call which fails when a Windows tries to resolve the short and long forms of filenames on a different operating system. Zoom Shell sometimes actually handles this better than Windows Explorer does because it copies the file correctly and without complaint. Where Zoom Shell runs into problems is with filenames which contain spaces. Consider the following scenario:

cd j:\program files
cd c:\new directory
cp readme.txt j:

When Zoom Shell is dealing with a local drive, it substitues the short form of such directory names for the long one; "C:\Program Files" becomes "C:\PROGRA~1." However, that does not work sometimes when the target is running a different operating system, and Zoom Shell has to either enclose the filename with quotes, or ask you to enclose the name with quotes. In the example above, Zoom Shell will try the following possibilities:

cp readme.txt "j:\Program" Files\readme.txt
cp readme.txt "j:\Program Files\readme.txt"

If Zoom Shell is unable to make a good guess, it will ask you for confirmation. In the example above, the second is the only reasonable possibility, but what about:

cp "read me.txt" j:

If the destination "C:\Program Files\read me.txt" already exists, there will be no problem. Otherwise, Zoom Shell will try:

cp "read me.txt" "j:\Program" Files\read me.txt
cp "read me.txt" "j:\Program Files\read" me.txt

Then it will give up and ask you to insert the quotes in the right place.

Here is a table showing client/server long filename compatibility:

Server
Client		Windows NT	Windows 95	Novell	Unix
	Windows NT	No problems.	Long filenames work, but the short/long name resolution does not.	Long filenames do not work.	Long filenames work, but there is no short version of the name.
	Windows 95	No problems.	No problems.	Long filenames do not work.	Long filenames work, but there is no short version of the name.

Environment Variables in Windows 95

Environment variables defined in the .profile file or by the setenv command are passed on to Windows applications which are run from Zoom Shell. cmd.exe, the Windows NT console, is also able to use those environment variables. However, the Windows 95 console uses command.com, which cannot inherit its environment from a Windows application. Therefore, the dir command and any other command which is run in a "DOS" shell in Windows 95 will not inherit any of the Zoom Shell environment.

Limited UNC pathname support

You can cd to a UNC path and use some of the Zoom Shell commands, such as cp, find, ls, and grep. You cannot use any of the "DOS" commands, such as dir or copy.

Bugs

1. The Browser window (Internet Explorer interface) option sometimes gives GPF's. The user may choose whether the increased functionality is worth it.
2. Files sent to the recycle bin with rm -b have spaces appended to their names, so the icons do not appear properly (i.e., no "w" icon for "Word" documents). However, the files are restored properly with their original names.
3. Windows NT machines report a maximum size of 2GB for drives on a Windows 95 machine. This is a Windows API problem.
4. "Zoom Shell" is now one of the options when you right click on a folder in Explorer. If you choose that option, Zoom Shell will open and switch to that directory. If you right click on the Recycle Bin, "Zoom Shell" is one of the options, since the Recycle Bin is a folder. However, Zoom Shell is unable to switch to that directory, so it opens in some other directory.
5. If one quickly types ahead after entering a "cd" command, the program can get confused.
6. The uninstall does not always remove Zoom Shell from the path.

Internet Explorer 3.0 Issues

Zoom Shell uses your default browser to open its help files. In order to jump to a section in the help file, it opens the browser with the following syntax:

iexplore.exe file:///c:\program files\zshell\help\files.html#cp

This syntax works (with slight modifications) for Internet Explorer 2.0 and 4.0; Netscape Navigator 3.0 and 4.0; Lynx and Mosaic, but apparently not for Internet Explorer 3.0.

Therefore, if you use IE 3.0, try the help. If your browser gives an error message of the form, "cannot find 'blah.html#cp'", then you are affected by this bug. The following are the work-arounds:

Prefered:

Choose another browser under "Options|Options". You may have another already on your computer.

Next line of Defense:

1. You can still get into help and navigate from there by pressing <F1> or choosing "Help" from the menu.
2. You can still use the HTML search feature, but uncheck the box offering to make a temporary copy and jump to the right spot.
3. You can use some of the man topics, but not others.
4. In almost every case, the Help button in the Wizard screen will not work.

Lynx and Mosaic Users:

These browsers work well, (and very fast) with Zoom Shell's help. However, in the case of Mosaic and older versions of Lynx, none of the links work. The reason for this is that the links are relative, and these browsers do not understand relative links when it comes to local files. To use these sucessfully, switch to the help directory first.

"Hidden" INI file settings.

There are a few settings in the INI file which cannot be manipulated by the option screens, because they might cause confusion if they were there.

1. The first setting is "WebBrowserOK", which can take a value of "y" or "n". It is set by Zoom Shell after it tests for the presence of Internet Explorer version 4 on your machine. If you install IE version 4 after installing Zoom Shell, you may change the value to "y". This setting is in the [OutputWindow] section of the file.
2. The next is "SystrayOK", which can be "y" or "n". It is set to "n" if your machine cannot use the Yocontray OCX, which uses several DLL's. You can set "SystrayOK" to "y" if the system tray feature is greyed out. This setting is in the [WindowPositions] section of the file.
3. The third is "BrowseInPlace", which is a semi-colon delimited list of all the file extensions which you wish to be able to display in the Web Browser view of the Output Window. Setting this to ";txt;doc;htm;" would cause those documents to display in the window if you click on a link generated by the dir command. This setting is in the [OutputWindow] section of the file.
4. Another is "MaxLogLength". Zoom Shell keeps a log file of all the commands you run, the process id associated with that command, and the directory from which it was run. This log file sometimes comes in very handy when you want to see if a certain command had been run. By default the log file is trimmed back to 4096 bytes when the first Zoom Shell window opens up. However, you can set that to some other size if you want more information stored. This setting is in the [OutputWindow] section of the file.
5. The size of the buffer used by the tail command is set by 'TailBuffer" in the [Command List] section. The default is 32k, so that tail will only read the last 32k of a file.
6. The prompt in the command window (console or terminal view) can be set in the [OutputWindow] section with the prompt parameter. The following will set the prompt to the machine name:

   Prompt=regget(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName\ComputerName,ComputerName)%