From:	bpmurray*STUFFER*@socrates.cgl.ucsf.EDU (Bernard P. Murray, PhD)
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: Weekly Mini-FAQ post for DJGPP
Date:	Wed, 03 Mar 1999 20:46:14 -0700
Organization:	University of California, San Francisco
Lines:	91
Message-ID:	<bpmurray*STUFFER*-0303992046140001@macmac-2.ucsf.edu>
References:	<3 DOT 0 DOT 6 DOT 32 DOT 19990303125609 DOT 0093d100 AT pop DOT globalserve DOT net>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	macmac-2.ucsf.edu
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Reply-To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com

In article <3 DOT 0 DOT 6 DOT 32 DOT 19990303125609 DOT 0093d100 AT pop DOT globalserve DOT net>,
djgpp AT delorie DOT com wrote:

> What, exactly, are these:
> 
> diff-2.7.1 gawk-3.0.3 groff-1.10 idutils-3.2 ispell-3.1.20 less-332
> m4-1.4 perl-5.005_02 sh-utils-1.12 textutils-1.22

I assume that this is a serious question.
I'll comment on the ones I know and use
- please pardon the simple nature of the descriptions.

diff = diff utilities
A rough equivalent to DOS's FC although much more
sophisticated.  FC tends to give up when it has
exceeded a certain number of differences whereas diff
will give you a complete report on the differences
between two files.  You can also use diff output to
patch files.

gawk = GNU AWK
A powerful scripting language targeted mainly at
linewise text file manipulation on the fly.  AWK can
grab and manipulate individual columns and has a full
search and replace ability.  The scripts can be quite
short and are fairly intelligible.  Quite quick to
learn the basics.  I use it when a C program would
be complete overkill.
     I started with non-DJGPP DOS GAWK some time ago
but this tends to lag behind "the real thing".  There
is a wide variety of AWK variants, many of which have
been ported to DOS.
     You can find the AWK FAQ at
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-lang/awk/faq/

ispell = spell checker for text files
Fast and flexible.

less = GNU's version of the MORE pager
A rough equivalent of a combination of DOS MORE
and one of those README.COM utilities software
packages often include for viewing text files.
Unlike MORE you can skip backwards as well as
forwards and can search within the file.
Very flexible in configuration.

perl = PERL
...now come on, you must have heard of PERL...!
This is a very powerful scripting language which
is currently predominantly associated with web
page CGI scripts (as is Python) but is actually
quite general purpose.  Ported to just about
everything.
     http://www.perl.org

sh-utils = shell utilities
Mainly programs that are required for shell script
compatibility.  Some of them don't have the same
functionality in DOS as the OS lacks the facilities
to handle multitasking, groups and user id's etc.
I am glad that it includes tee as this makes
DOS shell scripts much easier.

text-utils = text utilities (doh!)
Probably *the* reason I rejoice at having installed
DJGPP.  This has all the text manipulation utilities
I just cannot live without.  The ones that mean I
don't have to write something in C or load each file
into a word processor to play with.
Some have less powerful DOS equivalents (eg. cat = TYPE
and/or COPY, sort = SORT) but some like head/tail,
cut/paste, fold, join, split, uniq, wc etc. only appear
to otherwise exist in the world of UNIX.  These are
the things that make a command line interface so
powerful.  A few minutes spent learning these and your
mouse will gather dust.  Don't forget to include sed.

I'm happy to be corrected on anything I described
incorrectly (I'm primarily a biochemist not a programmer
- but you can use the text utilities to analyse whole
genomes!).

I will leave m4, groff and the ID utilities to someone
who is more familiar with them.

     Bernard

...and thanks once again DJ Delorie and GNU...
-- 
Bernard P. Murray, PhD
Dept. Cell. Mol. Pharmacol., UCSF, San Francisco, USA

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