Take Command v9 New $20 off, Upgrade $10 off,TC/LE $10 off

[myarmor]

Just thought you'd want to know..

Quote from the newsletter:

**********************************************************************
Get Special Summer Savings Now!
**********************************************************************
If you've been thinking about buying Take Command v9 or Take
Command/LE v9, now is the time.  We are offering special savings on
all of our products through the end of the month. 

Save $20 on new copies of TCv9 (use coupon "Summer20"). 

Save $10 on upgrade copies of TCv9 (use coupon "Summer10").

Save $10 on new copies of TC/LEv9 (use coupon "Summer10").

These special savings will be gone at the end of the month, so act
now.

http://store.jpsoft.com

[Darwin]

Two points to be made here, first the second: a new version will no doubt be rolled out in about three to four months (I took advantage of the same deal on an upgrade from TC/4NT bundle v.7 to 8 this time last year. Version 9 came out in the fall). The other point is that I've run the trial of this twice now and cannot believe how long it takes to load - over 10 seconds with 2 GB RAM under XP Pro. PowerCMD loads pretty much instantly and PromptPal feels quite sluggish in comparison at around 3 seconds... Add a third point to the mix and note that even with the $10 discount an UPGRADE to TCC 9 is $39.95 while licences for the other two mentioned consoles run about $20 and there are frequent updates to PowerCMD, less frequent updates to PromptPal, and upgrades are much less frequent that TCC... I no longer even have TCC 8 installed.

[myarmor]

Two points to be made here, first the second: a new version will no doubt be rolled out in about three to four months (I took advantage of the same deal on an upgrade from TC/4NT bundle v.7 to 8 this time last year. Version 9 came out in the fall).
The other point is that I've run the trial of this twice now and cannot believe how long it takes to load - over 10 seconds with 2 GB RAM under XP Pro. PowerCMD loads pretty much instantly and PromptPal feels quite sluggish in comparison at around 3 seconds... Add a third point to the mix and note that even with the $10 discount an UPGRADE to TCC 9 is $39.95 while licences for the other two mentioned consoles run about $20 and there are frequent updates to PowerCMD, less frequent updates to PromptPal, and upgrades are much less frequent that TCC... I no longer even have TCC 8 installed.

June->February is way longer than 3-4 months, even if you expect v10 to be released next february.
I upgraded in february, when it came up for sale, but before the final was yet available.

If it really do take that kind of time on your computer, then I'd assume you most likely have a very slow computer,
or it is a downside of the trial itself..
On my computer it starts immediately (The pure commandline, i.e same interface as 4NT 8 ), and the gui (Take command)
uses about a second more.

I've never seen TCC 8, but I know TC8 and 4NT8 existed, and the latter was just as fast as this one.
With v9 you get all items you used to get in the JPSuite rolled into one, so 4NT (now TCC)/Take Command/Tabbed Command Interface
are all there.
TCMD and TCI are rolled into the TCMD executable, and TCC is standalone (and used by tcmd).

Slow updates (not upgrades) is usually a bad thing..

Powercmd seems to be the same old cmd with a new suit (no extensions compared to cmd, otherwise you'd expect
it to be listed among the features), although it seems to have other advantages.

Version 9 release is only about 4 months old (I got it when v9 became available for purchase, but before the final was released).

However, I just mentioned if anybody was interested, those that aren't...well..

[Darwin]

Heh, heh... TC is upgraded once a year - you can count on it. It's a VERY fine application and I like it. However, the price is steep and unless you are a professional using it constantly, overpriced (but then, the value of anything lies in its value to the person using it). I have no complaint about the functionality of TCC9 or TC8 (thanks for the correction - that was a typo). I was simply trying to warn people that saving $10 on the upgrade today will likely leave you "jonesing" for the next version in a few months, in which case you may very well be out even more money, as AFAICT upgrade pricing is usually in effect for holders of licences for the previous two or three versions.

FWIW, I bought TC6, upgraded to the bundle (TC and 4NT) of version 7 and then again for version 8.

To clarify, the system I had the trial running on is a first generation Centrino running at 1.4Ghz with 2GB RAM on a 5400 rpm 2.5" harddrive. Not a speed demon but not exactly obsolete, either. It's possible that I was overstating the length of time it took TCC9 to load straight out of the box (ie default installation, which loads the GUI and TC) as PromptPal takes 3 seconds as stated (just timed it) and TCC9 was slightly longer, so say 5 seconds to load (I didn't time it when I had it installed and am not interested in installing it again to time it now). I just timed PowerCMD as well and it opened in under a second.

I really *should* have ended my previous post with:

YMMV

Sounds like a good way to end this one...

[myarmor]

Heh, heh... TC is upgraded once a year - you can count on it.

The pricing and the most likely target of that app I can agree with you on

To be fair, most likely v10 will be around in feb/march, which is way longer than 3-4 months,
but that is to be expected.

You haven't turned off the Task Scheduler service? or changed the prefetch registry settings?
Your speed sounds like did the first couple of runs of tcc after install, which then gets down to <=1 sec after
the prefetching does it's magic.

Btw, the last couple of upgrades users of v1-8 has been eligible for it if I remember correctly.

[Darwin]

You're likely right about the upgrade schedule - it seems to me that I bought TC 6 in about June/July of 2005 and v.7 came out in September of that year. TC 8 came out in the fall of 2007 (I think) and version 9 was a bit off the one year pace. Anyway, I've gone back and looked at my e-mails from the developer and you're right about v.9 coming out quite recently, 2-3 months ago.

I haven't touched prefetch and the Task Scheduler is running as I type this. Now you've got me interested... I'll probably re-load the trial and actually time it this time.

[myarmor]

I haven't touched prefetch and the Task Scheduler is running as I type this. Now you've got me interested... I'll probably re-load the trial and actually time it this time.

No doubt it is a good program, but it's you who dictate whether the price is right or not.

The commandline (it is sort of the engine itself, as 4NT was) version doesn't get it's own icon when you install, but it's easily created..
Look for tcc.exe in the program files\jpsoft\tcmd9 folder.

The gui version is a bit slower, but not much.
Both of them have their advantages.

[rjbull]

the price is steep

That's one of the reasons I never got it.  I had a long-ago copy of 4DOS that was lost when the computer was replaced, but instead of updating 4DOS I used a copy of Eric Taucke's Toddy (freeware, but Web site gone now) which gave me all the functionality of 4DOS I really wanted.  Being a DOS program, it doesn't understand LFNs, though...  Pity.  And now that Microsoft has "helpfully" include DOSKEY with every command prompt, it's not very usable anyway because DOSKEY - which apparently can't be unloaded - seizes control.

To clarify, the system I had the trial running on is a first generation Centrino running at 1.4Ghz with 2GB RAM on a 5400 rpm 2.5" harddrive. Not a speed demon but not exactly obsolete, either.

Out of the blue, I just sort of wondered, how many other applications did you have running? 

PromptPal takes 3 seconds as stated (just timed it) and TCC9 was slightly longer, so say 5 seconds to load (I didn't time it when I had it installed and am not interested in installing it again to time it now). I just timed PowerCMD as well and it opened in under a second.

I'd really like to see a comparison of the features of these three, along with Console.

[Josh]

I would love to see DC obtain a 50% discount on this one I've submitted my request to the company but perhaps Carl can do the same

[myarmor]

the price is steep

That's one of the reasons I never got it.

PromptPal takes 3 seconds as stated (just timed it) and TCC9 was slightly longer, so say 5 seconds to load (I didn't time it when I had it installed and am not interested in installing it again to time it now). I just timed PowerCMD as well and it opened in under a second.

I'd really like to see a comparison of the features of these three, along with Console.

No doubt the price is rather steep, that's one of the reason I posted the news of the sale,
although it's still a bit steep.

A comparison between Console, PromptPal and Take Command?

I havent tested the two former programs, but from their websites it doesn't sound to be a fair compare at all as both
PromptPal and Console seems to add only look and a bit of ease to the commandline, but underneath it apparently still are using the same old Windows XP command processor.

Take Command has a small bit of ease too, but it's a commandline replacement in its true word, i.e just about everything
about the commandprocessor itself has been extended significantly compared to the normal command processor.

Comparison between the different JPSoft TC products here.
More detail of exactly what commands,functions and variables, can be found by clicking the link "look here" on that page.

[Darwin]

Well... just installed the trial again, shutdown all running applications, and clicked on the default icon that I allowed the installer to place in my Quick Start area (labeled Take Command 9). I did this three times and found that it takes about a second for the nag screen to appear. Once that counts down and gives me the option of continuing the trial, it takes 8 to 11 seconds from clicking "Continue" to having the GUI opening up with a TC tab available. Quickest load time was the second one and the slowest the third! I hadn't started any programmes in the interim. Just did it again with this window (Maxthon 2 with five tabs open) and a Dopus 9 window open and TCC 9 took 9 seconds to load after the "continue" trial button was clicked.

Running 4NT.exe from within the JPSOFT/TCC9 folder under Program Files opens 4NT instantly (no nag screen, either, whereas TCC pops up that nag screen each and every time)... Crap, I'd forgotten how much I like 4NT! (Note that 4NT opens instantly every time, including just now with Dopus, Maxthon AND TCC9 open).

A nice touch: I right clicked to see the context menu and, in 4NT, it automatically pasted the content of my clipboard, which happened to be a web address (XYplorer forum for those who must know). I hit enter and my browser opened to the page. Neither PromptPal nor PowerCMD do this (I'd never tested it before, though I know earlier versions of TC and 4NT will do this as well). Interesting that going through the same steps with TCC9 varies in that I have to select "Paste" from the context menu, but otherwise the behaviour is the same. Disabling "Quick Edit" and "Insert" in 4NT's Properties dialogue (Options tab) reverts 4NT to presenting a context menu when right clicking within the window. With the Quick Edit feature enabled right clicking within the window pastes content and right clicking on the programme's title bar presents the context menu.

For my needs, all I've ever really looked for in a command line tool is the ability to do things like paste the contents of my clipboard at the cmd prompt (I can't believe MS didn't allow this in Windows command line through XP - no idea about Vista. At least it's available in PowerShell), so I've not really used the underlying power of TC/4NT... Not sure I want to spend the money to upgrade to version 9, but I think I'll reinstall 4NT 8! I'd been seduced by the availability of the tabbed interface when I upgraded to the bundle for version 8 and for some reason hadn't linked the slowdown in opening it to that...  Thinking back I probably used the tabs a total of two or three times, so no pressing need for it.

Hmm... the dialogues and context menus presented in 4NT 9 are the same as in Powershell. Interesting. I'll have play around with the two side by side...

[mwb1100]

For my needs, all I've ever really looked for in a command line tool is the ability to do things like paste the contents of my clipboard at the cmd prompt (I can't believe MS didn't allow this in Windows command line through XP - no idea about Vista. At least it's available in PowerShell)

A mouse right-click will paste in cmd.exe, but you have to have the "QuickEdit Mode" option selected in the Command Prompt Properties (it's on the Options tab) selected.  That option has been available since at least Win2K, but was off by default then.  I thought that the option was on by default in WinXP, but I could be wrong.

What you get with QuickEdit mode:

• left mouse click lets you select text by dragging
• right mouse click copies to the clipboard if there's a selection, otherwise it pastes what's in the clipboard

[myarmor]

Darwin, try to run a command with several parameters, then try to use Ctrl+0-9..
It's somewhat nice in that it inserts the parameters from the previous commands..

Shift + arrows to select, Ctrl+Y copies the commandline, Ctrl+v pastes, these can be redefined,
and lots of other shortcuts.

It seems you did the same as me, I went ahead a somewhat long time ago and got DOpus and 4NT myself.  
Btw, the newest versions of DOpus9 will use TCC/4NT for Ms-dos batch functions if you set comspec environment variable to
the full filepath of tcc.exe or 4nt.exe.

Oh, and regular expressions in dir,copy etc is a nice touch.. , not to mention the batch extensions,
in addition to supporting active scripting etc.

and something like this (download ftp rfc's from ftp.sunet.se if and only if all exists) in a batch file:
@echo off
iftp /P ftp://ftp.sunet.se
cd ftp:/pub/Internet-documents/rfc
iff exist ftp:rfc959.txt .and. exist ftp:rfc1579.txt .and. exist ftp:rfc2151.txt then
echo Filesize of rfc959.txt is %@filesize[ftp:rfc959.txt]
copy ftp:rfc959.txt;rfc1579.txt;rfc2151.txt c:\tmp\
else
echo Some of the files to copy were missing.. skipping.
endiff
iftp /c

you can also do this:
copy http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=13646.0#quickreply c:\tmp\qrep.htm

everything above is internal commands. the ftp functions is only available in non-LE version.
-- hrmf, the forum truncates the display of urls..

[Darwin]

Just an update: on my new Vista notebook with 3GB RAM, Take Command Console 9 opens INSTANTLY. There's obviously something wrong with my XP machine (on which it takes upwards of 10 seconds to open). Strange...

[Darwin]

BTW... I did wind up upgrading to TCC9. As documented throughout this forum, I have a severe case of upgrade-itis  PromptPal and PowerCMD have both been banished to my digital junk collection (for now)!

[mwb1100]

Just an update: on my new Vista notebook with 3GB RAM, Take Command Console 9 opens INSTANTLY. There's obviously something wrong with my XP machine (on which it takes upwards of 10 seconds to open). Strange...

The slow load of TCMD seems to be related to it populating the folders windows (whether you have it displayed or not).  It can get bogged down on network shares and/or accessing floppy drives:

http://jpsoft.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1587&mode=linear#post1587

I'm seeing the long startup as well, but I haven't tried the workarounds suggested yet (changing the startup folder or disabling floppy drives).  The problem doesn't bother me too much as I start it up once then use that instance for all (or most) of my console windows.

But I do hope they take the suggestion of one forum post and make the folder window initialization a background task.

[Darwin]

Thanks for the link MWB1100! This doesn't bother me that much, either, as I tend to just run 4NT, which does open instantaneously 

PS What happened to the jpsoft newsgroup? I used to read it in my newsreader and then it just disappeared about a month ago?

[mwb1100]

PS What happened to the jpsoft newsgroup? I used to read it in my newsreader and then it just disappeared about a month ago?

Apparently they switched to using a web forum.  I'm surprised they wouldn't have made some sort of announcement post to the newsgroup then left the server up in a read-only mode (can that be done with NNTP?).  I don't follow the newsgroup/forum regularly, so for me this is a major improvement - the web interface to the newsgroup was awful.  However, I can understand that  using NNTP for regulars would be far better than having to track a website (RSS might help - I think I'd use something like WebsiteWatcher).

[Darwin]

AFAICT there is no RSS feed for the new web forum. Not really a big deal, but still... Anyway, I'll just bookmark it and visit when I have a question. Thanks!

[myarmor]

@Darwin, if you are like me you'll not regret upgrading

I tend to prefer the TCC (4nt .exe is the same, present only for compatibility) myself..
I've never understood the reason for the folder/file display in tcmd as I don't see how they can be used properly (I use DO for file management).

They did move to web forums, which I prefer, but apparently left the newsgroup available for reference..

I always worry about mailaddress harvesting when it comes to newsgroups (maybe due to experiences in the old days).

[Cloq]

Any idea in how to set TCC as the default command line interpreter (without replacing cmd.exe)?

[myarmor]

@Cloq, this is the closest thing you can get:

Rightclick My Computer, click Properties, Advanced, Environment Variables.
Depending on whether you want it for only yourself or the entire computer,
either add a new user variable named COMSPEC or edit the system variable named
COMSPEC.

The comspec variable should consist of the path and executable, i.e:
C:\Program Files\JPSoft\TCMD9\tcc.exe

It won't modify any shortcuts etc refering to cmd.exe, but it will for everything that
"asks" what program to use to run the commandline (i.e queries COMSPEC).

[Darwin]

Anyone upgraded to v.10 yet 

[mwb1100]

I haven't - $50 for an upgrade is more than I'd like to spend.  I'll either wait for a discount or for the next major release maybe (I think they're on a  more or less once a year major release schedule).

However, one of the bullet items on the 'new in v10' list is "Loads and runs faster than v9".  I'm not sure if this means they've fixed the problem of long load times when there are  slow or disconnected network shares, but it might be worth checking if that's something that's been a bother for you.

FWIW, the coupon code "Partner1000" seems to be a long-standing code for 10% off - so you'll save $5 on the upgrade of you decide to go for it.  I'd like to see a better discount...

[KenR]

Anyone upgraded to v.10 yet 

I've not Darwin. I looked it over and didn't see that the upgrade would make a lot of difference for me. So, although I respect JPSoft and like to support shareware development, I don't think I'm going to given the price and perceived cost/benefit ratio.

What are your thoughts on the upgrade?

Ken