[pjmlp]

For me a next generation UNIX shell needs to catch up with what REPL environment in Lisp Machines, Interlisp-D, Mesa/Cedar, Smalltalk, Oberon(-2), AOS features and capabilities.

For the young HNers, think having something like Swift Playgrounds or IPython as your shell, while having full access to the OS API without relying on external programming languages.

Otherwise the next generation prefix isn't worth mentioning.

[cm3]

And arguably you'd have to call it last-generation as well, if you recall how long ago those innovations happened but never made it into mainstream. That would label current shells as dark age of tty :). I still cannot accept the fact that we use tty emulators.

[pjmlp]

For me PowerShell feels a bit more closer to that model, but it is still text based, no inline graphics or data structures output, and the syntax could surely be improved.

[zbjornson]

PowerShell actually does have data structures, and that's my favorite part of it. Pipe a directory listing as an object instead of text so you can access properties directly instead of parsing text!

[pjmlp]

No,I mean displaying them inline in the REPL and allowing you to interact with them.

[snuxoll]

Well, that's an issue with the REPL, not the design of PowerShell. No reason you couldn't make one that does this.

[pjmlp]

Sure, I do like it much more than any UNIX alternative and it is the only widespread shell that is closer to the experiences I was referring to.

But that REPL could be improved, that is what I mean.

[mturmon]

Smart comment.

The UNIX shell and core-util model of "everything is text", and line-by-line output and tools for line-by-line data manipulation, goes very far, much farther than you'd think, but is limited. Everyone has internalized those limitations.

It reminds me of MATLAB: everything is a matrix (another standard, versatile, tabular data structure), and many language constructs exist to manipulate this common data structure.

[jordigh]

Something like TempleOS, written in Holy C?

[gravypod]

Terry really did something cool there with his JIT Holy C (or C+ before the TempleOS thing). I'd definitely like to see something like that ported to other platforms.

[StreakyCobra]

As you said, something like IPython: https://ipython.org/ipython-doc/3/interactive/shell.html