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Author Topic: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application  (Read 22073 times)

urlwolf

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console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« on: February 01, 2007, 06:57 AM »
http://sourceforge.net/projects/console

it's like the command prompt, with better keyboard shortcuts, tabs, and resizable. A must for any shell work on windows.

You may know about poderosa already, but I find console to be even better in a sense:
no cygwin dependency (it can be put in a usb stick), easy to add a context menu, etc

it has a pretty active forum:
http://sourceforge.n....php?forum_id=143117

f0dder

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2007, 07:10 AM »
Interesting idea - but it doesn't seem to be able to fullscreen, one of my favourite hex editors, hexit looks pretty weird, and the console does feel a bit laggy.

But it might be nice when I just need a shell and no "interactive" apps in it, especially tab support sounds nice. Will test more :)
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app103

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2007, 11:55 AM »
I tested this one out a few months ago and it was MAJORLY buggy.

I don't know if it has improved much since September. Just be warned.

I was planning on doing a review on this one at some point and this is from my notes I made for the review. All of these issues could be fixed in the current version, I don't know.

At that time, this was my observations:

  • There was no help file. Nothing to explain what any feature or setting was and how to use it. You were on your own and were meant to guess. Since this is a beta, that can be subject to change, and a help file may be included in a future release, or this one. At least I hope so.
  • It needed more work on the GUI. There was still some bugs in it. Text would sometimes not show unless you resized the window slightly.
  • Transparency was weird...not really transparent at all. It used the desktop as the background which can be kind of weird if there is another window under it. That will not show at all.
  • Renaming tabs wasn't quite ready...it reverted back to original name.



To be fair, I'll post the good stuff too:

  • Having tabs is a great idea...less clutter on your desktop, more organization.
  • The idea that you can set it to 'pinned to desktop' is nice, too. That allows you to let the console window have focus while another window is on top of it. Handy for referring to data while you type into the console window.
  • You can also highlight text like you would in any normal sort of Windows program by just dragging your mouse over it...no need to right click and select 'mark' first. Also if you set the hotkeys, Ctrl+C can be used to copy, just like in Windows. (anybody that has tried that hotkey combo in a normal console window knows it won't copy text there  :P)
  • Hotkeys - You can assign hotkey combinations to various tasks such as copy, paste, new tab, rename tab, next & previous tab, switching to specific tabs, and close tab.
  • Colors - You can decide what colors you feel like looking at. Not limited to the standard white text on a black background.
  • Font options - You can select the font, size, and style most comfortable for you.
  • Docking - pick any one of the 4 corners, or none at all.
  • Z-order - You can choose from always on top, always on bottom, pinned to desktop, or regular.
  • Transparency -  You don't have to have it solid, like in a traditional console window.
  • Tray Icon - the full menu is available from an optional tray icon.

Combining settings, it is possible to get the illusion of typing directly onto your desktop, or the output of a console application right on your desktop.

This is a screenshot I did to demonstrate what I mean by that:
console2-02.jpgconsole: a great CMD.exe replacement application
(the output you are looking at is from my silly madlibs game)

TucknDar

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2007, 03:31 PM »
seems fine to me. Especially with the aid of lsh shell utility.

can't find lsh (for windows, that is) online, though unfortunately....

mwb1100

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2007, 05:22 PM »
I have also found Console2 to be very interesting but a bit too unstable for everyday use.

A couple of similar (non-free - each is $30) offerings that I have been meaning to look into, but haven't yet:

TCI (Tabbed Console Interface):  http://www.jpsoft.com/tcides.htm

TCI is from JPSoft, the people who produce the 4NT command processor/shell.  I used 4DOS/4NT a long while ago, but have drifted away, mostly because I have found that I can get by well enough with cmd.exe.

PromptPal: http://www.promptpal.com/

All I know about PromptPal is that it was on sale a couple weeks ago on BitsDuJour.

Darwin

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2007, 05:59 PM »
AFAIK TCI is simply an app that allows you to run your command line of chioce - cmd.exe, 4NT, TC, bash, etc within a tabbed interface (ie it doesn't have any built in command line). I have TC and PromptPal on my systems and like them both. I *think* TC is more powerful as it doesn't make use of any MS components and has 100's of additional native commands. PromptPal is a magnificent update on the GUI for cmd.exe (it runs on top of it) allowing for tabbed command prompts, editing (cutting, copying and pasting - the single most important feature in my opinion) and features a context sensitive dropdown menu of dos commands, which I have found very helpful.

Anyway, I'll give console a look. Thanks urlwolf!

app103

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2007, 07:22 PM »
Keep in mind that reviewing software that is still in beta is like critiquing art while the artist is still actively painting it.

The reason I didn't do the review on it back in September was because I felt funny about doing one on something that was still in beta....I didn't feel like it was fair.

I still don't feel it is fair, but because someone brought up the subject of this application, I felt that your right to know my findings outweighed my feelings about sharing them.

If anybody tries this and finds anything different than my initial observations from September, please let us know...especially if there are fixes to the negative things I stated.

I think once most of the bugs are out of this one, it will be a great tool.

damax

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2008, 09:27 AM »
Well... today the latest release (2.00 devel) is still dating back to May 3rd, 2006. Seems like there is not much devel going on anymore  :huh: what a pity.

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Josh

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2008, 09:33 AM »
Actually, the latest build is # Console 2.00 Beta, build 138    2008-01-11. Fairly recent.

Renegade

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2008, 09:36 PM »
I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with Powershell, but it might be something to look at for some people. Also see Wikipedia here.

If you want massive amounts of power, that can do it for you.
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tinjaw

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #10 on: March 23, 2008, 06:00 AM »
I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with Powershell, but it might be something to look at for some people. Also see Wikipedia here.

If you want massive amounts of power, that can do it for you.

PowerShell (once known as Monad) is not in the same category as a console window enhancement/replacement. It is a complete replacement for any of Microsoft's DOS or Windows command line interpreters. It is a full fledged object oriented system administration scripting language.

I have been telling every junior Windows system administrator I like that they should be learning PowerShell as fast as they can if they want to move up to a senior Windows sysadmin position. With PowerShell knowledge you would run circles around any sysadmin that works predominantly from through the GUI, as well as be able to get Windows to do things that you just can't do through a GUI alone.

Eóin

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #11 on: March 23, 2008, 10:11 AM »
For the interested, PowerShell runs fine inside Console as best I can tell :)

PowerShell.PNGconsole: a great CMD.exe replacement application

damax

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #12 on: March 28, 2008, 02:54 AM »
@Josh: you're right. I made the "mistake" to click on the download-link (http://sourceforge.n...s.php?group_id=43764) instead of looking at the project page (http://sourceforge.net/projects/console:-\ sorry about that.

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justice

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #13 on: March 28, 2008, 04:39 AM »
I couldn't get tab completion to work anyone else had more luck? This is essential for me being a keybaord junkie

f0dder

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #14 on: March 28, 2008, 06:12 AM »
I couldn't get tab completion to work anyone else had more luck? This is essential for me being a keybaord junkie
Works fine for me, but it's really a cmd.exe setting, not a console2 setting afaik... iirc on XP it's on by default, while on 2k (and vista?) you need to fix a registry setting. If tab completion works for you in vanilla cmd.exe but not console2, I dunno :)
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justice

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Re: console: a great CMD.exe replacement application
« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2008, 06:16 AM »
yes it works in vanilla cmd.exe but not in console2 but I'l have another look because regularly i'm opening more than one cmd prompt.
hmm it works now, must have been user error  :huh:

Small tip: go into the preferences and change New Tab 1 to use Ctrl-T instead of CTRL-F1 to open tabs consistent with any other tab based program i know.
« Last Edit: March 28, 2008, 06:19 AM by justice »