Tab Completion in AmigaDOS

[robotriot]

When I'm booting without startup-sequence on my OS 3.9 Amiga, I'm executing a small custom startup sequence to set a couple of things I always need. What's missing is the tab completion feature of the regular shell... is there a way to access this feature somehow? Or do I have to launch the shell from within AmigaDOS somehow to access this?

Thanks!

[daxb]

If the feature isn't in the ROM then of course need to be loaded from somewhere. To access it when booting without S-S it can be loaded as a resident module. So, after a soft reset it is still available.

[Daedalus]

The default Shell from OS 3.9 is ViNCEd, which is is normally mounted as VNC:. The standard AmigaDOS prompt is normally mounted as CON:, which lacks the extra features of ViNCEd, such as tab completion. I believe it's possible to replace the 3.9 ROM's CON: handler with the VNC: handler so that it's available without a startup-sequence, but as standard a Shell window has to be launched explicitly requiring VNC:. I haven't tried it without a startup-sequence, but you could try something like:

newcli window="VNC:0/50/640/200/AmigaShell/SHELL/CLOSE"

which should open a new Shell window with VNC: as the handler, thus providing tab completion.

[robotriot]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

The default Shell from OS 3.9 is ViNCEd, which is is normally mounted as VNC:. The standard AmigaDOS prompt is normally mounted as CON:, which lacks the extra features of ViNCEd, such as tab completion. I believe it's possible to replace the 3.9 ROM's CON: handler with the VNC: handler so that it's available without a startup-sequence, but as standard a Shell window has to be launched explicitly requiring VNC:. I haven't tried it without a startup-sequence, but you could try something like:

newcli window="VNC:0/50/640/200/AmigaShell/SHELL/CLOSE"

which should open a new Shell window with VNC: as the handler, thus providing tab completion.

Thanks for the tip and explanation! To be honest, I've got no idea what the command means that you suggested, but I typed it in anyway. However, I'm getting the error "Please insert volume VNC in any drive" when doing so. Is there anything else I need to set up to be able to use ViNCEd?

[daxb]

I would say you should have a look into the documentation of ViNCEd. If it is installed you just need to start it.

[Daedalus]

Ugh... Yes, of course, my mistake. VNC: needs to be mounted first. That line I posted basically tells the OS to open a new Shell window, but instead of the default built-in window, it should use VNC: as a window. The rest of the parameters just set some settings of the window (size, position, behaviour etc.).

You could try typing

Mount DEVS:DOSDrivers/VNC

before the newcli line and see if that works...