Windows Console Replacements, Part 6 – Take Command and ConEmu

Today we’re looking at ConEmu (aka ConEmu-Maximus5), the last of the Windows console replacements that I’ve been able to find).  ConEmu is an open source (BSD license)  Windows console emulator with tabbed windows, which features integration with FAR Manager, a console-based file manager that is a clone of the old Norton Commander.  You can download ConEmu from http://code.google.com/p/conemu-maximus5/.

ConEmu is similar to Console2, albeit with a bit less “eye candy”.  It’s apparently still a work in progress — there are a number of options for dumping debug info on ConEmu and/or the Windows console.  The ConEmu window is definitely minimalistic — there is no menu or status bar.  You select options by clicking on the system menu (icon in the left corner of the title bar).

Note that like the rest of the console replacements we’ve seen so far (Mintty,  Console2, PromptPal, PowerCmd, and ColorConsole), ConEmu is not a replacement for the Windows CMD command prompt; it is a wrapper for CMD (or other command line applications) and new tabs default to starting CMD.

ConEmu adds a few features not available in the standard Windows console:

1. Tabbed windows
2. Configurable colors
3. Optional background image and transparency
4. Line-based or block-based text selection (instead of the column selection in the windows console)
5. Resize the window, both horizontally & vertically by dragging the corner
6. Integration with FAR Manager

#6 is the only thing in ConEmu that is not already in Take Command.  Since Take Command has its own GUI (Explorer-like) file manager, there doesn’t seem much point (and thus far no demand) to try to integrate FAR Manager as well.  (You can run FAR Manager in a Take Command tab window.)  I’m not aware of any other significant feature in ConEmu that’s lacking in Take Command, but if anybody knows of something that they would like to see added to Take Command, please let me know.

By way of comparison, let’s take another look at the Take Command window. (The Take Command Explorer-style Folder and List View windows, and the common Command Input window are set to Autohide in order to show a more straightforward comparison with the ConEmu window.)

Let’s plug ConEmu into our comparison table:

Features	Take Command	ConEmu
Price (single new copy)	$99.95	Free
Tabbed Windows UI
Multiple tabbed windows for console applications Run simple GUI apps in tabs Customize menu accelerator keys Customize tabs location (top/bottom/left/right) Multiple display themes Horizontal / vertical tab groups Attach and detach console windows Optional command input window Cut and paste block and/or line selection Continuously variable transparency option Integrated GUI file explorer User-defined startup tabs Programmable tabbed toolbar Configurable status bar Full text search in tabbed console windows Context-sensitive help for all commands and variables 32-bit and 64-bit versions		FAR Manager
Display Speed	Take Command	ConEmu
dir /s c:\windows (in seconds) – Windows console: 38.5	19.5	21.3
Command Prompt	Take Command	ConEmu*
GUI IDE w/ batch file debugger Aliases (command and directory) Regular Expressions in filenames Wildcards in pathnames and/or filenames Enhanced command line editor Enhanced filename completion Directory navigation ANSI X3.64 text output Built in batch file editor Direct FTP / HTTP file access (including SSL & SSH) Network file system access (OpenAFS) Active Scripting (Ruby, Perl, Python, VBscript, Javascript)
Scripting Language	Take Command	ConEmu*
Internal Commands	182	0 *
Internal Variables	177	0 *
Internal Functions	291	0 *

*ConEmu doesn’t include a command interpreter.

Summary: If you’re a FAR Manager user and are looking for a free Windows console replacement, ConEmu is worth a look.  Otherwise, it is comparable to Console2 (also an open source console replacement), and falls considerably short of Take Command.

Next time: We’ll start with the Linux console replacements.

Windows Console Replacements, Part 5 – Take Command and ColorConsole

After the last post, I found two more Windows console replacements: ColorConsole and ConEmu.  So before I go on to the Linux consoles, let’s see if ColorConsole and ConEmu have anything to teach us.

Today we’re looking at ColorConsole, from http://www.softwareok.com.  ColorConsole is a minimalist console replacement; it has a limited set of features and no help included (there is some limited help on the website).  ColorConsole is very small and portable, but not very full-featured or fast (see below).

ColorConsole appears to work like PromptPal and Mintty, by redirecting the console program output and displaying the contents in tabs in a GUI window.  Like Mintty and PromptPal, ColorConsole won’t display colors set by console applications or support console apps that change the cursor position.  You can set the default foreground and background colors that ColorConsole will use in the display window.

Note that like the rest of the console replacements we’ve seen so far (Mintty,  Console2, PromptPal, and PowerCmd), ColorConsole is not a replacement for the Windows CMD command prompt; it is a wrapper for CMD and new tabs always start CMD.  ColorConsole can then run other command line applications from CMD, provided they don’t set the screen colors or reposition the cursor.

ColorConsole adds a few features not available in the standard Windows console:

1. Tabbed windows
2. Configurable colors
3. Line-based text selection (instead of the column selection in the windows console)
4. Save the buffer to HTML or RTF
5. Resize the window, both horizontally & vertically by dragging the corner

Unlike Mintty, ColorConsole’s display output speed is far slower than the Windows console, and more than 50 times (!) slower than Take Command.  (See the table below.)

Except possibly for #4 (saving the buffer to HTML or RTF), there’s not much here of interest for incorporating into Take Command:

1. Take Command has many more options for displaying the tabbed windows (tab locations, icons, size, themes, etc.)
2. Take Command can use its own colors, or display the colors used by the console applications
3. Take Command includes both line-based and column-based selection options
4. Not included in Take Command (though there is an example of how to do this in the Take Command tutorials using the TCC scripting language)
5. Similar functionality

I’m not aware of any other significant feature in ColorConsole that’s lacking in Take Command, but if anybody knows of something that they would like to see added to Take Command, please let me know.

By way of comparison, let’s take another look at the Take Command window. (The Take Command Explorer-style Folder and List View windows, and the common Command Input window are set to Autohide in order to show a more straightforward comparison with the ColorConsole window.)

Let’s plug ColorConsole into our comparison table:

Features	Take Command	ColorConsole
Price (single new copy)	$99.95	Free (donation requested)
Tabbed Windows UI
Multiple tabbed windows for console applications Run simple GUI apps in tabs Customize menu accelerator keys Customize tabs location (top/bottom/left/right) Multiple display themes Horizontal / vertical tab groups Attach and detach console windows Optional command input window Cut and paste block and/or line selection Continuously variable transparency option Integrated GUI file explorer User-defined startup tabs Programmable tabbed toolbar Configurable status bar Full text search in tabbed console windows Context-sensitive help for all commands and variables 32-bit and 64-bit versions
Display Speed	Take Command	ColorConsole
dir /s c:\windows (in seconds) – Windows console: 38.5	19.5	1062.0
Command Prompt	Take Command	ColorConsole*
GUI IDE w/ batch file debugger Aliases (command and directory) Regular Expressions in filenames Wildcards in pathnames and/or filenames Enhanced command line editor Enhanced filename completion Directory navigation ANSI X3.64 text output Built in batch file editor Direct FTP / HTTP file access (including SSL & SSH) Network file system access (OpenAFS) Active Scripting (Ruby, Perl, Python, VBscript, Javascript)
Scripting Language	Take Command	ColorConsole*
Internal Commands	182	0 *
Internal Variables	177	0 *
Internal Functions	291	0 *

*ColorConsole doesn’t include a command interpreter.

Summary: ColorConsole is an improvement on the standard Windows console, but it currently is the weakest (and slowest) of the Windows console replacement alternatives.

Next time: Comparing Take Command and ConEmu.

Window Console Replacements Part 4- Take Command and PowerCmd

Today we’re looking at PowerCmd, another Windows console replacement.  It is available at http://www.powercmd.com.  The most recent version is from May 2011.

Note that like Mintty, Console2, and PromptPal, PowerCmd is not a replacement for the Windows CMD command prompt.  PowerCmd will start (only) CMD in a new tab window, though you can then load some other command shells (like PowerShell, Bash, etc.).  It does not work with TCC or some other command line apps — the TCC output appears, but PowerCmd doesn’t respond to any keyboard input.  (Perhaps because TCC reads input a character at a time using a different Windows API than the line-at-a-time API used by CMD?)

PowerCmd adds some features not available in the standard Windows console:

1. Tabbed windows
2. Horizontal and vertical tab groups
3. Configurable fonts and colors
4. Line-based or column-based text selection
5. Bookmarks
6. Line folding (collapsing every n lines into a single line)
7. Command history
8. Automatically save history logs
9. Customizable quick launch toolbar
10. Optional transparency
11. Popup window for filename completion (current directory only)
12. Optional line numbers in the tab windows
13. Optional window to display environment variables
14. Drag and drop text within PowerCmd
15. Resize the window, both horizontally & vertically by dragging the corner

PowerCmd’s display output speed is substantially slower than the stock Windows console, and more than 4 times slower than Take Command.  (See the table below.)  The line folding and history log options were not enabled for this test; enabling them slows the display output significantly.  PowerCmd also didn’t scroll the display smoothly; there were long pauses before it displayed the next page (sometimes several thousand lines further along).  The wait cursor would also appear periodically, as well as a “(Not Responding)” message in the PowerCmd title bar.

So how does this compare to Take Command?

1. Take Command has more options for displaying the tabbed windows (tab locations, icons, size, themes, etc.)
2. Similar functionality in Take Command and PowerCmd
3. Similar functionality
4. Similar functionality
5. Take Command does not have a bookmark option in the tab windows (though bookmarks are supported in the batch debugger)
6. Take Command does not have a line folding option (code folding is supported in the batch debugger)
7. Command history in Take Command includes many more options
8. Similar functionality (Take Command has additional logs, including commands and errors)
9. The configurable tabbed toolbar in Take Command includes more options
10. Take Command allows you to set different transparencies for active and inactive windows
11. The filename completion in Take Command includes many more options, including completing files in other directories and drives, PATH completion, etc.
12. Take Command does not have line numbers in tab windows (it does in the batch debugger)
13. The Take Command batch debugger has an environment variable window (as well as aliases, functions, batch parameters, and a customizable watch window)
14. Take Command also supports drag and drop between the TC windows and other applications; PowerCmd does not.
15. Similar functionality (but Take Command also resizes the underlying hidden console window to match the new tab window size)

I’m not aware of any other significant feature in PowerCmd that’s lacking in Take Command.  If anybody knows of something in PowerCmd that they would like to see added to Take Command, please let me know.

Let’s take another look at the Take Command window. (The Take Command Explorer-style Folder and List View windows, and the common Command Input window are set to Autohide in order to show a more straightforward comparison with the PowerCmd window.)

And we’ll plug PowerCmd into our comparison table:

Features	Take Command	PowerCmd
Price (single new copy)	$99.95	$29.99
Tabbed Windows UI
Multiple tabbed windows for console applications Run simple GUI apps in tabs Customize menu accelerator keys Customize tabs location (top/bottom/left/right) Multiple display themes Horizontal / vertical tab groups Attach and detach console windows Optional command input window Cut and paste block and/or line selection Continuously variable transparency option Integrated GUI file explorer User-defined startup tabs Programmable tabbed toolbar Configurable status bar Full text search in tabbed console windows Context-sensitive help for all commands and variables 32-bit and 64-bit versions
Display Speed	Take Command	PowerCmd
dir /s c:\windows (in seconds) – Windows console: 38.5	19.5	94.2
Command Prompt	Take Command	PowerCmd*
GUI IDE w/ batch file debugger Aliases (command and directory) Regular Expressions in filenames Wildcards in pathnames and/or filenames Enhanced command line editor Enhanced filename completion Directory navigation ANSI X3.64 text output Built in batch file editor Direct FTP / HTTP file access (including SSL & SSH) Network file system access (OpenAFS) Active Scripting (Ruby, Perl, Python, VBscript, Javascript)
Scripting Language	Take Command	PowerCmd*
Internal Commands	182	0 *
Internal Variables	177	0 *
Internal Functions	291	0 *

*PowerCmd doesn’t include a command interpreter.  It always loads CMD when starting tab windows.

I think we’ve exhausted what’s currently available for Windows console replacements (or tabbed windows for console applications).  If anybody knows of other alternatives, let me know so I can add them to the comparisons. Barring that, I’ll start with a look at some similar apps on Linux – the Gnome Terminal, KDE Konsole, and iTerm2 for OS X.

Next time: Comparing Take Command and the Linux Gnome Terminal.

Windows Console Replacements Part 3 – Take Command and PromptPal

Today we’re looking at PromptPal, another Windows console replacement. PromptPal is from Technology Lighthouse, and though PromptPal is still for sale at their website, it is apparently not in active development.  The most recent version is more than two years old (February 2010).

PromptPal appears to work like Mintty, by redirecting the console program output and displaying the contents in tabs in a GUI window.  Like Mintty, PromptPal won’t display colors set by console applications or support console apps that change the cursor position.  You can set the default foreground and background colors that PromptPal will use in the display window.

PromptPal also adds some new features not available in the standard Windows console:

1. Tabbed windows
2. Configurable fonts and colors
3. Line-based text selection (instead of the column selection in the windows console)
4. Customize menu shortcuts
5. Command usage display (the “Info Bar”) for predefined commands
6. Command completion for predefined commands
7. Drag and drop text within PromptPal and between PromptPal and other apps
8. Insert paths into the command line using Windows file and folder dialogs, and by dragging files onto the PromptPal window
9. Command history
10. Resize the window, both horizontally & vertically by dragging the corner
11. Configurable startup tabs
12. Single or dual pane display option (command input in one window, output in the other)
13. Taskbar band (like a Run dialog on the taskbar)  (I could not get this to work with Windows 7 x64)

Unlike Mintty, PromptPal’s display output speed is substantially slower than the stock Windows console, and more than 8 times slower than Take Command.  (See the table below.)

With the possible exception of #13 (the taskbar band), there’s nothing here that isn’t already in Take Command (usually in a more powerful form):

1. Take Command has more options for displaying the tabbed windows (tab locations, icons, size, themes, etc.)
2. Take Command can use its own colors, or display the colors used by the console applications
3. Take Command includes both line-based and column-based selection options
4. Similar functionality in both Take Command and PromptPal
5. Take Command displays the usage in the status bar (and pops up the detailed syntax if you hover the mouse over the status bar)
6. Take Command has external command completion (unlike PromptPal), but I don’t think that completing internal commands is useful (given the extra keystrokes necessary to select the desired command)
7. Take Command doesn’t support drag & drop between different locations in the same tab window, but you can get the same result with a simple copy & paste
8. The path and filename completion in TCC is much more complete (including extended wildcards and regular expressions)
9. Command history in TCC  includes many more options, include matching partial statements
10. Similar functionality (but Take Command also resizes the underlying hidden console window to match the new tab window size)
11. Similar functionality
12. Take Command does this with the optional Command Input window
13. But no taskbar band — it wouldn’t be hard to implement if anyone wanted it (nobody has thus far)

I’m not aware of any other significant feature in PromptPal that’s lacking in Take Command; if anybody knows of something in PromptPal that they would like to see added to Take Command, please let me know.

Note that like Mintty and Console2, PromptPal is not a replacement for the Windows CMD command prompt; it is a wrapper for command line programs (like CMD, TCC, Bash, etc.).

Let’s take another look at the Take Command window. (The Take Command Explorer-style Folder and List View windows, and the common Command Input window are set to Autohide in order to show a more straightforward comparison with the PromptPal window.)

Let’s plug PromptPal  into our comparison table:

Features	Take Command	PromptPal
Price (single new copy)	$99.95	$29.99
Tabbed Windows UI
Multiple tabbed windows for console applications Run simple GUI apps in tabs Customize menu accelerator keys Customize tabs location (top/bottom/left/right) Multiple display themes Horizontal / vertical tab groups Attach and detach console windows Optional command input window Cut and paste block and/or line selection Continuously variable transparency option Integrated GUI file explorer User-defined startup tabs Programmable tabbed toolbar Configurable status bar Full text search in tabbed console windows Context-sensitive help for all commands and variables 32-bit and 64-bit versions
Display Speed	Take Command	PromptPal
dir /s c:\windows (in seconds) – Windows console: 38.5	19.5	162.9
Command Prompt	Take Command	PromptPal*
GUI IDE w/ batch file debugger Aliases (command and directory) Regular Expressions in filenames Wildcards in pathnames and/or filenames Enhanced command line editor Enhanced filename completion Directory navigation ANSI X3.64 text output Built in batch file editor Direct FTP / HTTP file access (including SSL & SSH) Network file system access (OpenAFS) Active Scripting (Ruby, Perl, Python, VBscript, Javascript)
Scripting Language	Take Command	PromptPal*
Internal Commands	182	0 *
Internal Variables	177	0 *
Internal Functions	291	0 *

*PromptPal doesn’t include a command interpreter.  It defaults to using CMD, though it will also work with others like TCC, Bash, etc.

Next time: Comparing Take Command and PowerCmd.

Windows Console Replacements Part 2 – Take Command and Console (aka Console2)

Today we’re looking at Console (sometimes called Console2), a Windows console replacement.  Console is written by Marko Bozikovic, and the latest version (2.0) has been in beta for several years.  The development pace seems to have slowed recently — 2.00.147 beta was released in November 2010, and 2.00.148 beta was released in October 2011.  Console is available on SourceForge.

Console works by hiding the console windows and then reading & displaying their contents in tabs in a GUI window.  (The overall concept is similar to what Take Command does, though the underlying architecture is very different.)

Console adds some new features not available in the standard Windows console:

• Tabbed windows
• Configurable fonts
• Line-based text selection (instead of the column selection in the windows console)
• Transparency
• Different window styles
• Resize the window, both  horizontally & vertically by dragging the corner
• Configurable startup tabs
• Hotkeys

Note that like Mintty, Console2 is not a replacement for the Windows CMD command prompt; it is a wrapper for command line programs (like CMD, TCC, Bash, etc.).

Let’s take a look at the Take Command window.  (The Take Command Explorer-style Folder and List View windows, and the common Command Input window are set to Autohide in order to show a more straightforward comparison with the Console window.)

Take Command includes all of the Console2 features listed above.  I’m not aware of any significant feature in Console that’s lacking in Take Command; if anybody knows of something in Console that they would like to see added to Take Command, please let me know.

Let’s plug Console / Console2 into our comparison table:

Features	Take Command	Console
Price (single new copy)	$99.95	Free (GPL)
Tabbed Windows UI
Multiple tabbed windows for console applications Run simple GUI apps in tabs Customize menu accelerator keys Customize tabs location (top/bottom/left/right) Multiple display themes Horizontal / vertical tab groups Attach and detach console windows Optional command input window Cut and paste block and/or line selection Continuously variable transparency option Integrated GUI file explorer User-defined startup tabs Programmable tabbed toolbar Configurable status bar Full text search in tabbed console windows Context-sensitive help for all commands and variables 32-bit and 64-bit versions
Display Speed	Take Command	Console
dir /s c:\windows (in seconds) – Windows console: 38.5	19.5	36.8
Command Prompt	Take Command	Console *
GUI IDE w/ batch file debugger Aliases (command and directory) Regular Expressions in filenames Wildcards in pathnames and/or filenames Enhanced command line editor Enhanced filename completion Directory navigation ANSI X3.64 text output Built in batch file editor Direct FTP / HTTP file access (including SSL & SSH) Network file system access (OpenAFS) Active Scripting (Ruby, Perl, Python, VBscript, Javascript)
Scripting Language	Take Command	Console *
Internal Commands	182	0 *
Internal Variables	177	0 *
Internal Functions	291	0 *

*Console doesn’t include a command interpreter.

Console is a bit faster than the stock Windows console, but substantially slower than Take Command.

Next time: Comparing Take Command and PromptPal.

Windows Console Replacements Part 0 – Take Command and the Windows Console

(I’ve received several emails over the past week pointing out that I neglected to start this console replacement series by comparing Take Command with the standard Windows console.  So here’s Part Zero!)

Command line apps are executed by the Windows console manager, which runs them in a bare-bones window. The console manager and CMD (the default Windows command processor) were introduced in Windows NT 3.1 in 1993.  While there have been some underlying architectural changes, the UI hasn’t changed significantly since then. The Windows console manager numerous shortcomings include:

• Slow
• No tabbed windows option
• No toolbars
• No status bar
• No help
• No save or print features
• Clumsy and limited cut and paste options
• Ditto for the search options
• Bad-to-nonexistent drag & drop capabilities (this is marginally better in Windows 7)
• Awkward resizing
• Not very configurable
• No themes
• Slooooooowwwww (did I mention that already?)

Rewriting the Windows console manager itself was out of the question (for one thing, Microsoft has neglected to document it or any of its APIs). But there have been several third-party attempts to wrap up the Windows console and hide it away, to improve the user interface and/or functionality (including our own Take Command and TCC).

First look at the standard Windows console:

It’s a bit … stark.  After 19 years, you’d think that Microsoft could have come up with something a bit more appealing!  There are a handful of configuration options available by clicking on the icon on the title bar and selecting “Properties”, but nothing to solve the fundamental limitations I listed above.

Now let’s take a look at the Take Command window. (The Take Command Explorer-style Folder and List View windows, and the common Command Input window are set to Autohide in order to show a more straightforward comparison with the Windows console window.)

Take Command solves all of the Windows console limitations listed above, and a few thousand others we don’t have room to detail here.  (For full details, see our online help.)

Let’s look at a few of the Take Command features that aren’t available in the standard Windows console (or the standard Windows command interpreter CMD).  And note the speed comparison — Take Command displays output from Windows command line applications twice as fast as the standard Windows console.

Features	Take Command	Windows
Price (single new copy)	$99.95	Included
Tabbed Windows UI
Multiple tabbed windows for console applications Run simple GUI apps in tabs Customize menu accelerator keys Customize tabs location (top/bottom/left/right) Multiple display themes Horizontal / vertical tab groups Attach and detach console windows Optional command input window Cut and paste block and/or line selection Continuously variable transparency option Integrated GUI file explorer User-defined startup tabs Programmable tabbed toolbar Configurable status bar Full text search in tabbed console windows Context-sensitive help for all commands and variables
Display Speed	Take Command	Windows
dir /s c:\windows (in seconds)	19.5	38.5
Command Prompt	Take Command	Windows (CMD)
GUI IDE w/ batch file debugger Aliases (command and directory) Regular Expressions in filenames Wildcards in pathnames and/or filenames Enhanced command line editor Enhanced filename completion Directory navigation ANSI X3.64 text output Built in batch file editor Direct FTP / HTTP file access (including SSL & SSH) Network file system access (OpenAFS) Active Scripting (Ruby, Perl, Python, VBscript, Javascript)
Scripting Language	Take Command	Windows (CMD)
Internal Commands	182	34 *
Internal Variables	177	6 *
Internal Functions	291	0 *

*Windows includes CMD, a (very) minimal command interpreter.

Next time: Comparing Take Command and Console (sometimes called Console2).

Windows Console Replacements Part 1 – Take Command and Mintty

Windows runs command line applications (such as CMD, PowerShell, and TCC) in a character-mode window called the Windows Console. Unfortunately, the Windows console has always been seriously lacking in even the most basic features compared to what is available in GUI apps. And the Windows console UI hasn’t changed significantly since its first appearance in Windows NT 3.1 (way back in 1993).

This is the first in a series of posts that will compare and contrast JP Software’s Take Command with Windows (and Linux) console replacements.  Hopefully we’ll also find some inspiration for new features in the next version of Take Command!

Over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at:

• Mintty
• Console
• PromptPal
• PowerCMD
• Gnome Terminal
• KDE Konsole

and any others that we can find (or that you suggest!).

Today we’ll take a look at Mintty, a console replacement and terminal emulator for Cygwin and MSYS.  Mintty takes a minimalist approach to replacing the Windows console — the first impression is that nothing has changed:

 Despite appearances, Mintty is actually a GUI app, based on the PuTTY 0.60 code.  Mintty is not a replacement for the Windows command prompt; it is only a wrapper for command line programs (like CMD, TCC, Bash, etc.).  Mintty uses pipes to handle the console application’s input and output, which results in fast output and scrolling.  The disadvantage is that console programs that have interactive input, colorized output, or use screen positioning (i.e., anything other than vanilla tty output) will not work with Mintty.

Mintty adds some features beyond what is available in the standard Windows console:

• An easier copy & paste (which is also line oriented rather than column oriented as in the Windows console)
• Drag & drop
• Xterm-compatible terminal emulation
• Transparent window option
• Faster output
• Open files and URLs with Ctrl+left click

Let’s take a look at the Take Command window.  (The Take Command Explorer-style Folder and List View windows, and the common Command Input window are set to Autohide in order to show a more straightforward comparison with the Mintty window.)

Take Command includes all of the Mintty features listed above (with the partial exception of the Xterm terminal output — see below).

Now let’s look at a few of the Take Command features that aren’t available in Mintty.  (The full Take Command feature list runs into the tens of thousands; far too many to try to list here).

Features	Take Command	Mintty
Price (single new copy)	$99.95	Free (GPL)
Tabbed Windows UI
Multiple tabbed windows for console applications Run simple GUI apps in tabs Customize menu accelerator keys Customize tabs location (top/bottom/left/right) Multiple display themes Horizontal / vertical tab groups Attach and detach console windows Optional command input window Cut and paste block and/or line selection Continuously variable transparency option Integrated GUI file explorer User-defined startup tabs Programmable tabbed toolbar Configurable status bar Full text search in tabbed console windows Context-sensitive help for all commands and variables 32-bit and 64-bit versions
Display Speed	Take Command	Mintty
dir /s c:\windows (in seconds) – Windows console: 38.5	19.5	17.8
Command Prompt	Take Command	Mintty
GUI IDE w/ batch file debugger Aliases (command and directory) Regular Expressions in filenames Wildcards in pathnames and/or filenames Enhanced command line editor Enhanced filename completion Directory navigation ANSI X3.64 text output Built in batch file editor Direct FTP / HTTP file access (including SSL & SSH) Network file system access (OpenAFS) Active Scripting (Ruby, Perl, Python, VBscript, Javascript)
Scripting Language	Take Command	Mintty
Internal Commands	182	0 *
Internal Variables	177	0 *
Internal Functions	291	0 *

*Mintty doesn’t include a command interpreter.

Take Command is slightly slower than Mintty in displaying text output (though it is still twice as fast as the standard Windows console).  But unlike Mintty, Take Command supports all console applications, including those that write directly to the screen, use colors, or which have interactive input.

The only area where Take Command doesn’t match or exceed Mintty’s features is in the Xterm terminal emulation.  Take Command does have internal ANSI (VT100) support, but Mintty adds Xterm and vt220 support.  (This wouldn’t be too difficult to add to Take Command, though thus far nobody has ever asked for anything beyond the existing ANSI output.)

Next time: Comparing Take Command and Console.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview, CMD, and Take Command

I downloaded and have been experimenting with the Windows 8 consumer preview for the last couple of days, and I’m glad (relieved?) to say I haven’t found any problems with Windows 8 and Take Command v13.

I spent some time digging into CMD.EXE, and I compiled a list of all of the new features in CMD for Windows 8.  I then implemented all of them in Take Command 13.03.50. The implementation process was brutal — it took me nearly two minutes (not including the compile time).  On the one hand, that’s a bit disappointing — but then if Microsoft really took an interest in the command line they might put JP Software out of business!

First, the Windows 8 console.  Ahhhh — never mind, the console appears to be identical to that in Windows 7.

OK, on to CMD.  The new features in Windows 8 CMD include:

ATTRIB – added the X and V attributes. Unless you’re running Windows 8 Server and ReFS, that’s already more than you need to know. (If you are running Windows 8 Server & ReFS, let me know how it works!)

And … ummm … well, that’s it. Except that for TCC, I also added the X and V attribute support to the /A: attribute selection option (which is not supported in CMD).

If you’re running Windows 8 and you find any compatibility issues with Take Command, let me know.

Take Command x64 (Don’t run 32-bit command processors in Windows x64!)

Take Command has been available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions since Take Command v11.0.  But we’ve noticed that a lot of you are still using the 32-bit version of Take Command with your 64-bit version of Windows.  There seems to be two prevailing beliefs for this:

1. 32-bit applications use less memory (true, but irrelevant given the relatively small size of Take Command and the amount of available memory on most Windows x64 systems.
2. 32-bit applications are faster (false – Take Command 32-bit will always be slower on an x64 version of Windows than the equivalent Take Command x64).

There are several significant drawbacks in running a 32-bit command processor in Windows x64:

1. WOW64 (Windows 32-bit On Windows 64-bit) is an emulation layer for running 32-bit apps on x64 Windows.  This means that the Windows API calls in 32-bit apps have two or more extra dll layers to pass through before calling the native ntdll.dll, so 32-bit apps will be slower.
2. WOW64 registry redirection only allows a 32-bit process to see the 32-bit registry view, so if you are using registry variable functions in TCC, you cannot read or write to the 64-bit part of the registry.
3. WOW64 file redirection prevents 32-bit processes from seeing (or running) the 64-bit Windows applications and dll’s.  For example, if you try to “dir c:\windows\system32″, you’ll be (silently) redirected to the c:\windows\sysWOW64 directory instead (where Windows keeps the 32-bit versions of some of the system utilities).  But not all of the system applications have 32-bit versions, so to run the 64-bit-only versions, you’ll need to start a 64-bit app (like CMD.EXE — or preferably, Take Command x64).
4. Some system variables will only work if the process is 64-bit, or return different values if the process is 32-bit.  This can be particularly problematic if you have registry values that use environment variables (REG_EXPAND_SZ).

We strongly recommend that everyone running a 64-bit version of Windows (XP, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, or Windows 7) should also be using Take Command x64.

New jpsoft.com website

If you have visited http://jpsoft.com in the last few days, you’ve probably noticed we’ve redone our web site.

The previous version was all html+css, and it was getting progressively more difficult to manage as we added new pages or edited the existing ones.  After some deliberation and testing of alternatives, we settled on the latest version (2.5) of the Joomla CMS.  Joomla is fairly easy to learn and to configure, and it has a very large and active user community and a vast array of add-ons (both free and commercial).

We selected a template not too dissimilar to the previous web site’s look and feel, made a few customizations, and proceeded to transfer the 1200+ pages from the old site to the new.  We’ve very happy with the new site, and it’s certainly far easier to maintain and update.  The new site is slightly slower than the old one — we are still working on tweaking the performance, so that should improve over time.

If you notice anything missing or not working correctly on the new site, or if you have any comments on the looks or functionality, please let us know.

• Recent Posts

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