About the Shell

You can communicate directly with AmigaDOS through a Shell console window, a text-only interface that accepts input entered from the keyboard. The Shell window looks and acts like a Workbench window with these exceptions:

• Icons cannot be dragged into the Shell window.
• The mouse can only be used for copy and paste operations, except within the ED and MEmacs text editors.
• Scroll gadgets do not appear.
• The AmigaDOS Shell window uses only a non-proportional font, normally the System Default Text font (Topaz or Courier) specified by the Font Preferences editor.
• Any Workbench background patterns set in WBPattern do not appear in Shell windows.

Figure 2-1 illustrates a Shell window opened on the Workbench screen.

Figure 2-1. Shell Window

Like Workbench, several independent Shell windows can be open at the same time. While commands entered in one Shell are being executed, you can enter and execute different commands in another Shell window.