Editing Shell script (section)

==Shell scripting on other operating systems==
Interoperability software such as [[Cygwin]], the [[MKS Toolkit]], [[Interix]] (which is available in the Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX), [[Hamilton C shell]], [[UWIN]] (AT&T Unix for Windows) and others allow Unix shell programs to be run on machines running Windows NT and its successors, with some loss of functionality on the [[MS-DOS]]-[[Windows 95]] branch, as well as earlier MKS Toolkit versions for OS/2. At least three DCL implementations for Windows type operating systems—in addition to [[XLNT]], a multiple-use scripting language package which is used with the command shell, [[Windows Script Host]] and [[Common Gateway Interface|CGI]] programming—are available for these systems as well. Mac OS X and subsequent are Unix-like as well.<ref>MSDN{{nonspecific|date=May 2017}}</ref>

In addition to the aforementioned tools, some [[POSIX]] and OS/2 functionality can be used with the corresponding environmental subsystems of the Windows NT operating system series up to Windows 2000 as well. A third, [[16-bit computing|16-bit]] subsystem often called the MS-DOS subsystem uses the Command.com provided with these operating systems to run the aforementioned MS-DOS batch files.<ref>Windows NT 4 Workstation Resource Kit</ref>

The console alternatives [[4DOS]], [[4OS2]], [[FreeDOS]], [[Peter Norton]]'s [[NDOS]] and [[Take Command Console)|4NT / Take Command]] which add functionality to the Windows NT-style cmd.exe, MS-DOS/Windows 95 batch files (run by Command.com), OS/2's cmd.exe, and 4NT respectively are similar to the shells that they enhance and are more integrated with the Windows Script Host, which comes with three pre-installed engines, VBScript, [[JScript]], and [[Visual Basic for Applications|VBA]] and to which numerous third-party engines can be added, with Rexx, Perl, Python, Ruby, and Tcl having pre-defined functions in 4NT and related programs. [[PC DOS]] is quite similar to MS-DOS, whilst [[DR DOS]] is more different. Earlier versions of Windows NT are able to run contemporary versions of 4OS2 by the OS/2 subsystem.

Scripting languages are, by definition, able to be extended; for example, a MS-DOS/Windows 95/98 and Windows NT type systems allows for shell/batch programs to call tools like [[KiXtart]], [[QBasic]], various [[BASIC]], [[Rexx]], [[Perl]], and [[Python (programming language)|Python]] implementations, the [[Windows Script Host]] and its installed engines. On Unix and other [[POSIX]]-compliant systems, [[awk]] and [[sed]] are used to extend the string and numeric processing ability of shell scripts. [[Tcl]], Perl, Rexx, and Python have graphics toolkits and can be used to code functions and procedures for shell scripts which pose a speed bottleneck (C, Fortran, assembly language &c are much faster still) and to add functionality not available in the shell language such as sockets and other connectivity functions, heavy-duty text processing, working with numbers if the calling script does not have those abilities, self-writing and self-modifying code, techniques like [[recursion]], direct memory access, various types of [[sorting]] and more, which are difficult or impossible in the main script, and so on. [[Visual Basic for Applications]] and [[VBScript]] can be used to control and communicate with such things as spreadsheets, databases, scriptable programs of all types, telecommunications software, development tools, graphics tools and other software which can be accessed through the [[Component Object Model]].