Free Hamilton C shell 2003 Demo Version

The Demo is Fully Functional

The demo version of Hamilton C shell is fully functional but crippled so that you may type only ten commands at the command line before it’ll force you to exit and restart the demo.  But each of the ten commands can be anything you like, including commands to run multi-thousand-line scripts, read or write multi-gigabyte TAR tapes, etc.  Also, you’ll see some nagware messages at startup that, obviously, are not present in the full product.  All the utilities are included and all of them are fully functional but crippled so they’ll run only when invoked from the demo version of the C shell.  (In the product, they can be started from any other process.)

Our intent, with the demo version, is to provide you a means to fully test out the functionality and performance before you buy.  If we say the product is fast, you should be able to test that claim.  If we say the TAR utility can read or write tapes on your DAT drive, you should be able see it work.  And so on.

The demo version may be copied and distributed world-wide, but please read our rules first.

Downloading and Installing This Demo

The files you’ll download here have been compressed with WinZip32.

File	Size	Download this version if ...
Csh2003DemoMsi.zip	2.0MB	You’re running Windows XP or later.  Your system came with the Microsoft Installer and all you need is just the .msi (Microsoft Installer) file for Hamilton C shell.
Csh2003Demo.zip	5.5MB	You’re running an older version of Windows.  You’ll need the Microsoft Installer run-time, same as would appear on a CD.

Extract the contents with WinZip and either run setup (if you’ve downloaded Csh2003Demo.zip) or open the .msi file.  That will start the Microsoft Installer, fully automating the installation procedure, extracting the individual files that make up Hamilton C shell, creating shortcuts in your Start Programs menu and on your desktop and setting up the necessary entries in your registry to allow the demo to be cleanly removed, if desired, using the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel.

What’s new in Hamilton C shell 2003

For the first time, all the documentation is hypertext and it is very, very fast.  You can get a feel for the content here on-line, but on your own hard disk, it’s instantaneous from page to page.

Also for the first time, the C shell uses the Microsoft Installer to automate installation and uninstallation, including setting up shortcuts in the Start menu and one on the desktop.  When you open a window, it’s now an attractive color and size; you don’t need to do a lot of tweaking by hand.  Installation is down to a minute from 15 or 20 in the past.

This is also a less intrusive install.  Nothing gets added to the environment variables (as seen via the Control Panel’s System applet) nor is anything added to the registry (other than just the one that the Microsoft Installer uses.) When you remove the C shell (via the Add or Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel), all trace of it’s removed; there’s no trash left behind in some file or some registry key.

Additional detail can be found in the release notes or the summary of recent changes.