Components of the command interpreter

The 32-bit Command Interpreter package comprises several components:

• a command interpreter engine, that implements the command interpreter processing, contains built-in commands, and that supplies the command interpreter API
• a suite of front ends that incorporate that engine and provide various user interfaces, graphical and textual
• a suite of external commands
• miscellaneous support files, such as help message files and (this) documentation

The command interpreter engine itself is a suite of DLLs that export the command interpreter API. The interpreter engine can also be used by other, third-party, applications, allowing them to execute command lines and command scripts directly.

This has several advantages, including:

• Applications may be made scriptable using the same CMD language that is used in command scripts. The SET command, for example, will operate on the application's own environment, allowing users to modify application environment variables within scripts.

• Interactive command line applications no longer need to roll their own command interpreter — a design that all too frequently results in applications that are deficient in several areas, most notably redirection, multiple commands on one line, conditional execution, and environment variable expansion — but can instead link to the command interpreter API and let it do all of the grunt work of interpreting command lines.