Actually DEL does take multiple arguments since the last 10 years or so:

[17:31:36.94] P:\test\tmp>dir /b
bill
fred
joe.1
joe.2

[17:31:39.70] P:\test\tmp>del fred bill joe.*

[17:31:53.30] P:\test\tmp>dir /b
[download]

but there is no direct equivalent of the cp command you showed. Tt can easily be done as "one line".

subst x: projects/foowebapp/ & copy *.pl x: & copy *.pm x: & copy *.ht
+ml x: & subst x: /d

# Or
 
for %i in (*.pl *.pm *.html) do @copy %i projects/fooweebapp/
[download]

Not as nice I agree, but neither will ever break if the number of files that match, grows above some arbitrary number.

Basically, you win some and you lose some.

As for 4DOS, I find that it has even more special cases, and caveats than most unix shells.

Don't get me wrong!. When I stand behind a bash or even a c-shell expert and watch them do things, I am amazed at the engenuity with which they can do things right there, without reaching for a script.

That said, it often takes them several attempts to get the commands right, and often requires them to look up the paramaters to one or more of the commands along the way.

And that's kind of where I sit with shell scripting--it is usually easier (for me) to reach for a scripting tool, like Perl or REXX, than to piece together all the bits I need from the shell language and syntax. It also has the advantage of retaining the code developed for next time.

I have a similar attitude about editors. You can do just about anything you like from with emacs. The problem comes when you don't have (or are not allowed to use) your own, highly configured version of that editor.

I have tried, and become dependant upon several, very sophisticated editors down the years--teco, VMS edit, e3 and a few others I've forgotten the names of--but each of them became unavailable to me as I moved from one environment to another. I arrived at conclusion that a fairly simple editor is prefereable. (That doesn't mean notepad though :)

And I could not live without my set of unix-tools.

But as strange as it may seem, the main reason I choose not to use linux, is because I *really* don't like the shells. I prefer cmd.exe to all of those I have tried. I hear great things about zsh, but I have never used it--and I doubt that it would respond "properly" to the cursor keys-insert/delete/home/end/pgup/pgdn etc. and that is the biggest single bugbear for me of the unix shells.

Maybe I should write a cmd.exe clone for linux--do you think I would get many takers? :)