geoShell Review 

Randy Winchester

After reading a few messages here, I thought that this echo could use a little focus - how about a message actually about GEOS software? Here goes: 

I just picked up a copy of geoSHELL from someone who was getting away from his C128. I guess I was just expecting a simple CLI that you could pop up to run commands. geoSHELL is far more than that. geoSHELL looks like a complete operating system in its own right, except that it runs over GEOS and takes advantage of GEOS routines. 

Some of the nice features that geoSHELL offers are customizable Startup and batch (exec) files, definable function keys, 128 two character hot keys, a command history buffer which you can use to easily recall the last 10 command lines, and the ability to use four drives. 

The Startup and batch files make use of geoSHELL commands such as "getkey" and "echo" that allow you to write your own scripts to produce menus or execute multiple GEOS programs. Startup and batch files are written with geoWrite. When geoSHELL first starts up, you can select which page of Startup to execute by holding down a 1 - 9 key, or 0 to skip Startup completely. Imagine being able to boot up into 10 different configurations using the same boot disk! 

You can define all eight function keys to run multiple geoSHELL or GEOS programs. You can even insert a command before a file name from a directory listing, just like KeyDOS on the C128.
 
One of the nicest features of geoSHELL is that you can get a directory listing from the active drive, then position the mouse pointer and just double click on an application or data file name to execute it. geoSHELL is a very fast and simple way to get around in GEOS and offers many more features than just being an alternative deskTop. 

I'm posting this review here because I can't recall seeing a review of geoSHELL anywhere, and I feel it could use some more exposure. It's an excellent product. 