Talk:Shell (computing)

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The content of Operating system shell was merged into Shell (computing) on May 31, 2014. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists. For the discussion at that location, see its talk page.

Etymology

What would be really cool would be if someone found out why a Shell is called "shell". Does it have sth. to do with real ocean shells? I found nothing about that in the net yet.--Darkstar

Because it's a "shell" over the operating system. Dysprosia 20:40, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Its a nut annalogy. The shell of a nut is the bit you see. Inside is the kernel which is also the inside of a nut, the bit you eat. thomashauk 19:45, 18 Jun 2007 (UTC)

Design and goals claims

The claims that "The design of a shell is guided by cognitive ergonomics and the goal is to achieve the best workflow" were introduced in 2014 but without citations to support them. As I remarked in my comment to my requests for citations, I don't think Thompson, Ritchie, Bourne or Joy were thinking about cognitive ergonomics and best workflow when they invented their shells. I think they were simply trying to create the thinnest possible layers between the user and operating system. Msnicki (talk) 12:10, 4 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

That text now appears to be absent, which is as it should be - perhaps the design of a shell (or any other user interface) should be guided by cognitive ergonomics and the goal should be to achieve the best workflow, but "should be" does not imply "is". Guy Harris (talk) 21:57, 9 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Nothing on subshell ?

Or child process or Spawn (computing) ? —Jerome Potts (talk) 10:28, 11 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

No, because those are internal details of some command-line shells. Guy Harris (talk) 21:45, 9 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Some things called "shells" aren't wrapped around operating systems

SQLite calls its command-line interface a "command-line shell", and the Apereo Central Authentication Service (CAS) also has a "command-line shell". Perhaps a command-line interface is a "shell" if it's a front end to a system with other lower-level interfaces, with the commands using those interfaces to manipulate the system; SQLite is a database, and I'm guessing that CAS is also a system with innards that can be manipulated by means ther than its shell. Guy Harris (talk) 21:44, 9 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]